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Strategies & Market Trends : Your Worst Trading Enemy.. You -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (8)	1/15/2001 3:56:45 PM
From: Bald Man from Mars	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 223

dude, may be it is time to look for a job again <ggg> 10 straight losing months, wow, that is mindblowing ...

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (8)	1/15/2001 4:29:27 PM
From: stomper	Respond to of 223

but small trades bore me and I end up being undisciplined. I'm really not trying to be flippant here, but are you looking for excitement or to make a steady dollar so as not to have to return to the cubicle? -dave

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (8)	1/15/2001 4:41:02 PM
From: shawnwolff	Respond to of 223

RE: Canuck Dave's Losing Streak First of all, I hope I am not leaving the impression that I think I am qualified or capable of solving all trading problems. It is my hope that I can share my own experiences, and you can share yours, and together we can try to make sense of it and help each other. Your losing streak is not as unusual as you may think. I know a lot of people who have gone through similarly long losing streaks. Let me just throw some ideas out and ask you some questions. 1. How organized is your trading ? Do you have a solid plan that is written out, with your strategy and goals. Do you keep an accurate journal so that you can look objectively back at your trades and see which ones are working for you, and which aren't ? Its really helpful to analyze the common denominators of good trades and bad ones. 2. If you need 5 pounds of fish a day, does it matter to you whether you catch 10 little 1/2 pound fish, or do you feel you need to catch one big five pounder ? I would rather be bored than broke. 3. I find that the most important characteristic of my trading system is whether or not it changes with the market. If you are going to have the faith you need in your system, you need to know that it will hold up in all circumstances. If it stops working, that is the time to stop and re-evaluate. 4. I know a man who spent an entire year slowly losing, until he finally had to get a job. It was a frustrating situation, because he was actually a very methodical trader. The pressure though of "having" to make money to support his family was so great that he made stupid mistakes, against his own better judgement. After he got a job, he kept trading for the first two hours of each trading day before going to work. Within two months he was making more trading, than his salary at his job. PRESSURE KILLS. If you keep doing what you are doing, it won't get better on its own. If you are losing, you need to stop and figure out why. This has been a very tough year. It was the type of year that separates the professionals from the amateurs. Don't be too hard on yourself, but you are in a serious situation. I would certainly step back, re-evaluate, and take small steps to re-building your portfolio and confidence. - Shawn

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (8)	1/15/2001 5:04:30 PM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 223

Go back to the point where things changed from good to not good and find out exactly what changed. Something changed. It's probably something that you did and stopped doing, or something that you were not doing that you started doing. It might have something to do with trading, it might not, but whatever it was, go back and find it. You can find it. Recognize what it was and do whatever is required to change it back to the way it was before things went sour. Then, start paying more attention to what happens when you change things. Continue to do things that work, and avoid continuing to do things that don't work. Change things you do that don't work, don't change things you do that do work.

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (8)	1/16/2001 12:06:20 PM
From: Rashid Garuba	Respond to of 223

Nice thread!, Canuck, this should help.. Whenever you are entering a position make sure: 1. If things go wrong, there will be others to support you close by. (that's why they are called "support" areas). Buy near supports, short near resistance. Support takes several forms.. oscillators, price levels, moving averages. These three are all you need.. helps keep things simple. ALso make sure you always have a lot of supporters.. i.e. VOLUME. 2. You are always trading in the direction of a "group" move. i.e. techs typically follow Nasdaq. Have a list of all pertinent sectors up all the time. Your stock MUST be following it's sector. If it doesn't, find stocks that do, typically higher volume stocks. Also use a 2 to 5% loss rule. ALWAYS!! Better 2% for you. You will have losses, we all do, you decide how large they should be. You may say, "The stocks that move enough to excite me move so much I can't use stops". Well, reduce your position till a 3% stop is possible given the average range of the stock in question. If you buy properly, this 2% loss area should be below where your "supporters" will come to your rescue. Finally.. I could go on forever... Cut your list down to maybe 10 stocks, and get to know them. Make sure the list is representative of each sector. You could even use spiders.. DIA, QQQ.. etc. If they are volatile enough, you need no others. While you re-assess things read a few books... Good Luck Rashid