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Got out of SOL at 40580 - profit of R176 - my biggest yet!

should close the screen now as i've seen it hit 40850....did i close another one too early? or should I just be happy and making a few bucks?? It's just human nature to want more, and more isn't it? greedy buggers...

Figured I would amend the OML order to only sell half - something I should maybe think about doing more often, lock in some profits but keep part of the trade open. makes it very viable when there is no minimum - thx GT247. That said, the order executed while I was changing it, so am out.

Account says I am on R4070 - but might drop a bit come morning.

hardest thing now is going to be not to place another trade for the rest of the day.....

Time to have a bit of a clean up in the workshop, and have a lot of marrows and beans in the garden - need to make something with them. Probably best i do not look at SOl or OML graphs during the day - but will check what they end up on.

That said -- shutting down OML and seen it broke through 4000 - $%#@#$

MrD, if I may ask. Have you considered running trades over a longer period seeing that you can set stop loss &  stop profits? For instance, if you got CML @ 5000, set the profit to 5500 & give it some time to see if it can get there?

To me that sounds like something I could do as well, set &  "forget". Just a thought.

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Johnny - I am going to have to do something. I have lost way more money on cashing out early, than I have on entering bad trades. Just in the last couple of days, and of the top of my head, could have doubled or more my takings on CML, OML, SOL, AWA and GND.

I seem to what to take the money and run when I actually see they money - even though I have EVERY intention of leaving it to hit it's target. There is a fear having that stock reverse, and instead of having a profit, I having a loss which I know would REALLY p me off. It's the lesser of the two evils.

It's still early days though, and still finding my groove. Found a nice site that I was reading last night - just started reading the beginner section - lot's of interesting stuff. http://www.trade2win.com/boards/first-steps/30625-i-m-new-trading-where-do-i-start.html

I still need to find out if I am heading to be a day trader or swing trader - I think, on paper, I would prefer/am suited more to the former as profit are locked in earlier and your trades are less exposed to fundamentals/ outside news. That said, I can still use the the whole day - yesterday I was in and out of SOL in under an hour.

I might try part selling trades, lock in some profit, and let the rest run - this might work. At the same time, have to really decide if this is a serious problem. Should I not just make my target, as quickly as possible, and walk away? It seems many daytraders try do exactly that and try get in and out in the first hour and a half of the opening bell, usually the most volatile time of the market. The problem is more me feeling I left some on the table (being a greedy b#@#$d) - and if get over that, there is no problem.

Yesterday I did manage to NOT place any trades for the rest of the day - it wasn't easy. In a lovely bull markets, money was being made all over the place - standing by and watching is not really my thing - the "you got to be in it to win it" force is strong with me.

Early days - will see where I develop and what my preferences are. As said, the idea of getting in and out within the first couple of hours does appeal to me - but having something to keep the juices flowing through out the day would also be nice.

BTW, if any one decides to have a play with CFD's, try run it of two monitors and use one just for graphs. I have no clue if it will work, but ordered an HDMI - serial to see if I could get three monitors running of my laptop. It really is a case of the more the better.

Day 4: R243.46 - total R4071.65

R71 bucks after just 4 days of work?? They GIVING money away.....

Bit unsure where the market will move today - will guys be taking profits? Closing longs?

I think all those sectors that got hammered could still have legs - so financials/property and retail.

The only order I have in at the moment is to short Northam - that said, as with goldfields the other day, once the market opened a little symbol comes up and you need to phone in your order. But you cannot see the symbol when the market is closed, guess i will learn which ones are telephone trades only.

New Order :
Sell 200 Northam Platinum Ltd
The margin change will be in the region of 1,330.00
The required margin will be in the region of 1,330.00
Order will execute when the offer price >= 2,660.00

Am learning about ATR - setting buy orders on both sides at 2xATR/up and 4 x ATR down from the 5 min chart using 10 periods - so at 2820 to stop and 2460 to take profit. Wow, that sounds like I might know what i am doing - do not be fooled 

Just want to get a feel for the direction before maybe going long - otherwise might be a couple of shorts in the offering

Quote from: Mr_Dividend on December 24, 2015, 04:19:53 am

Yesterday I did manage to NOT place any trades for the rest of the day - it wasn't easy. In a lovely bull markets, money was being made all over the place - standing by and watching is not really my thing - the "you got to be in it to win it" force is strong with me.

I guess you can at least take solace in the fact that your main portfolio, where most of your money is, must be recovering nicely in the bull market. Keep your eye on the ball and stay disciplined. Set your targets and stick to them. Don't pay attention to whatever you lost out on. That's just all white noise distracting you. Giving into the 'what if I stayed in longer' will end up costing you more money than you will make. Don't get greedy. Get in. Make you what you wanted to make. Get out.

Or that's what the smart people say. I say f*ck it. Follow your gut.

P.S. That last part is just a joke. Please don't listen to me.

Eventually - I hope - I will have sorted out some sort of system. the nice thing is, it doesn't need to work all the time - in fact, it could probably work even being correct 40% of the time, as long as the winners where bigger than the losers - which can, of course be set with stop losses.

At the moment

Long OML, CLS and CML
short NHM

In the red at the moment - and must keep in mind it's a short trading day - do not want to carry anything over.

So had quite a bit of time to read up on trading and found a fantastic site with the rather cheesy name of trade2win.com. Mainly a forum, but they have organised it very well (lot's of stickies with organised links) plus there is a large article section, one with trader profiles/interviews. Must have spent over 20 hours trawling though tons of information.

Couple of common themes. Many had a bit of early success - but then "blew up" (ie, lost everything!) their accounts. Often more than once. Mainly due to not setting stop losses and risking too much. ie poor money management. So I did think quite seriously about it. Not having a job, and never wanting to go back to work, I am going to have to be more careful than most. Now, at the very worst, if a share loose all value, I could loose 7x's the value of my account. Extremely unlikely - but I always plan for extreme's. So the amount I had wanted to have in the account (R100K) now seems way too much - because R700K vs my net worth is just too high a ratio. But that is an extreme (and highly unlikely) - I might be a bit more comfortable down the track. But will not be shuffling lot's of money into the account for quite some time. I will keep the account and trades small for quite a while - TBF, I should really be using a demo account during this learning phase.

A lot of the experienced guys are ditching indicators and just using "price action" for entering and exiting trades. I would love to be able to tell you what this PA actually means - but cannot unfortunately - will be researching it this week - but it sounds like it's all about reading the candle sticks using that to predict the future. The feeling is that RSI's, bollinger bands, MACD's ect just create noise.

gotcha - will move this diary off line.

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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo, keep it right here...why move...