Ready, Set, Cancel,

[Ready, Set, Cancel,]

Hi,

 

MightMouse: you are absolutely right, i do have a problem with my entries, i switched to a pure mechanical system so i can practice it and i can test it and above all check if it was emotional trade or not, this leaves me out of trades and this in turn leaves me frustrated most of the time, i am still looking for the middle ground between pure mechanic and discretionary trades, i will check if i am just too afraid to except loss might be , thanks

 

Pennybags: this is what i am trying to do in my mechanical system to do without thinking, the problem in trading that you can't shut down your brain while you still wait for a new trade so I do think and emotions rise, thanks

[Ready, Set, Cancel,]

Hi

 

Did you ever prepared a trade everything was ready and then a minute or so before you place your order something happen and you cancel the trade, how did you feel? Did you ever notice any pattern that rise afterwards?

 

Today I had a trade ready , I got the setup and I was ready to pull the trigger but then the stock paused and didn’t went lower, so I couldn’t take the trade (according to my system) and stayed watching the stock and now what?

 

So I took the trade anyway even though it didn’t fit my plan and I got stop and I am always grateful to be stopped when I divert from my plan, this is the safest way to remember to stick to one plan,

 

I am reading now days “The power of Habit: why we do what we do in life and business” the main idea there is that habits have a very specific routine you may say, First you get a cue something that rise the urge of the habit , then you will perform the habit, and last the rewards you get from the habit, today with the light of this understanding I saw in a new way this repeating problem of canceling a trade, you need to understand even if most of the time I won’t take a trade against my system most chances latter on I will take a trade that I shouldn’t,

 

So what really happen? Well I got ready for a trade the body the mind was full of tension, like an animal getting ready to attack it's prey but hey Houston we got a problem and we need to cancel but the habit of a trade give an adrenaline rush you got excited by the trade, you are in a position you feel it so the Reward is pure emotional and you didn't get!!!

 

So like any junkie without being aware of it you are seeking your reward you doing everything you can to get your adrenaline fix, so you run into B- or worse trades, you don’t respect yours system or worse you get so frustrated with yourself or with the trading system for all day long, just because you didn't get your reward, now if you are competitive person, most chance you are if you are in this field, you can’t just accept it.

 

What to do? I have a rule that if I placed orders and the stock left without me I will close the system for 5 minutes and will ask was it my fault or normal play, what I can take to the next trade, but I never understood that my mind was preparing for excitement and he will still look for it,

 

In the book the way he teach how to break a habit is by creating a different action where the unwanted action was, what kind of action I need to place in order to break the chain of bad decisions and search for thrill instead of solid work, I am still without an answer, I will look for one but for start I will rise it so I will be fully aware of the search and I will take 5 minutes to see a part of a standup show , I believe smiling and relaxing might just do the work,

 

Wish you all the best,

 

Make the odds in your favor DayTrad.

 

Eldad Nahmany

[Introduce Yourself Here - Don't Be Shy!!]

Hi Everybody,

 

Long time, been traveling from Bogota DC (Colombia) to Lima (Peru) 4500km of amazing time with myself and my Motorcycle getting to know new places and new friends on the way,

I am back now with new forces to new times in the market a very noisy one, I was very happy to know I am on the road while the big market noise move went on, I am a trend follower and this was real high tide for Volatility surfers (once again I live next to the beach so Surfing analogs are here),

 

Today I would like to talk with you about Holy Grail, The Holy grail, many people think you can find a system where you will never lose or lose very little, well my idea is to find a system that won’t give you any Emotional pain, a system where you are out of the emotional risks and you are fully prepared to face them,

 

Let say you know that if you are shake out of the trade, you placed a hard stop got stopped and the stock move back exactly as you thought, what will you do? What your trading plan guid you to do? If you have nothing and you know you are good with this action no problem, but what if this is the trigger for 5 revenge trades that worth nothing but bigger loss?

 

You must learn from your past, when did you lost control? What happen? What where the cues? After you have them build an emotional system that will live you out of this pitfalls, here you can reach a holy grail because this time it is all up to you,

 

Hope you trading the way you choose and not dragging into trades for action,

 

Wish you all the best,

 

Make the odds in your favor

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

ToBeComeADayTrader

[How to Trade This?]

Thanks a lot,

I am day trader any recommendation how to play it in the intraday move? it went quite nice till the end of day,

when you talk about the failure can you please explain a bit more where and when?

Eldad

[How to Trade This?]

Hi,

 

On Monday I had on my list 2 stocks HNT and CNC both went lower in an amazing move to the down side, from the open till the close, but I couldn’t find an entry point,

 

When I say an entry point I speak about a place I would get short and I will place a stop that will means an end to the down trend for me while at the same time want be too big so i could reach profit targets,

 

This type of movement is the worse for me even though it should be the best because this is the place to learn but all I can think is here I have a stock that do exactly what I though, it get lower, a clean down trend, but I have no entry place I can feel certain with, no place to draw the line,

 

This is why I bring this question to the public to all of you there to see if you can give me any help here, any idea will be more than welcome you can see the attached graphs,

 

Thanks a lot for any type of comment idea

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade,

 

Eldad Nahmany

[Lost Control]

Hi,

 

Yesterday I lost control, I did,

 

I was in short trade in $JUNO after bit crazy open we got a very nice downplay erased 3$ and went lower, I wanted to get at 52.1$ with stop at 52.53 but the stock brook to new lows and I got in the break out, this was the first pain, instead of getting with 43 cents stop I had to get in at 51.85 with stop at 52.35 50 cents ain’t that bad but 25 cents lower,

 

Now part of my system is to trade this breakouts and check before what is the maximum stop lose I am willing to pay, according to past move (at the same day) and I decided that 51.85 is good entry,

 

What kicked in me was the fact that I was the Ask but I didn’t get it, happen before will happen again many times, don’t have any control over it, should ask myself if the price was above an obvious resistance, or I was too afraid to place the order otherwise it is part of the business, if you have a restaurant a client can came in and then decide to go away without any explanation, part of the business,

 

Then we started to work our way down, but we found some nice support while the market did made new lows, and we got a strong retracement till 52.27$, and we couldn’t take the 51.75$ level, I could see it I knew it, but still, my stop is 52.35 and we are just next to it, and I done the worst thing I could do, average down,

 

Average down is the perfect way to kill an account, because you don't accept the loss, you keep fighting the market, and hope that it will all end till the pain will take you out, be sure you will feel physical pain once the loss is just too big,

 

And I done it, I didn’t moved my stop, it stay with the same and I used the great conviction of selling the same amount of stocks I already sold at 51.85 but now at 51.25 , 10 cents 20% risk extra and I promised I will add the added quantiles to the original profit targets,

 

I wanted to be correct, I wanted to revenge the market, I want to feel pain, this is what I wanted, to feel pain, to throw away all the good work I done till now: working according to my trading system, taking trades that fits all my criterion and if nothing comes o.k. “No pasa Nada”

 

One market wizard said: we all get from the market what we really look for whether we know it or not and this is true, I looked for emotions, I looked for excitement, I looked for pain, and I got it, am I happy now? Well I can’t always get what I want, I wanted excitement but with money, just got the thrill, junkie as I,

 

One thing I learned from past experience is to cancel the next trading day and to study the reasons that lead to this loss of control, this is where I am now,

 

So why did I wanted to feel pain? I am sure it is connected with the lack of faith in myself my system, my, my, my, but how? Is it self-sabotage mechanism that comes back each time to end things, do I look to blow away my account so I will give up without giving up?

I will have the perfect excuse: well I lost it all, same like the Market Wizards or better Jesse Livermore,

 

I still don’t know the real answer and maybe I am too afraid to touch this wound I don’t know, but this is a perfect example how one become the worst enemy of one system.

 

Wish you all the best,

 

Make the odds in your favor DayTrade

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

p.s see attached trade photo, my entries and exits are the triangles (red- sell, blue-buy)

[A Trading System]

Hi,

 

Last week I was talking about believing in myself as my biggest problem and setback to my own success, this is still true and I am still looking for ways to improve,

 

I got the following comment: “Unless you have a thoroughly-tested and consistently-profitable trading plan AND the discipline to follow it, faith won't get you very far” and this is true, faith in oneself is not enough to become a profitable trader, it is a profitable system first of all,

 

But what is the problem with consistently-profitable system?

There is no holy grail never mind what you will do, there is no system that will show 0 loses, you will need to face loses, one way or another, because we are working with statics and like casino trying to get the odds on our favor we must take into consideration the loses, a real problem is the streak of loses, in a system that have 60% win rate, in the long run you will, for sure, have a 10 loses streak nothing to do about it, pure probability, a very common way to know if a chain of 0/1 is randomly distribute or human made is to check the long consecutive 0 or 1 , humans can’t really make random chains ,

 

So you must test your system, if it is a technical system you can do it quite easily, if you are a discretionary trader it is bit harder but still you can find a way, but then comes the fact that market do change and an edge you had might be changing how can you tell that a streak of a losing trades come from normal losing distribution or from a real change in the market?

 

To get an answer to this question you must know your system, you need to know why your system work, this means you need to understand how market works, I for example trade trend, I look for an intraday trend, and try to exploit it, so I look for the reasons why the trend exist? What can affect the trend? Are we in a choppy market or trendy? How did the yesterday stocks worked? Could we find a trend? And by checking it on a daily base what happen today how stocks played out today I try to forecast the trend tomorrow ,

 

When it comes to the trading system, For me, I must understand it on an intellectual level I must understand why stock rise/fall trend/chopped, this is not a blind faith in a statistic system, it is the same as casino he knows the dice are not preset, he know that each side had an equal chance, and because of it he is willing to risk his money,

 

I did tested my system, I still need to learn more about markets and learn to get bigger in winning trades, this is where the art start where you get the killer instinct as sharp as it get,

 

Wish you all the best,

 

Make the odds in your favor

 

Eldad Nahmany.

 

#tobecomeadaytrader

[Excuses]

Hi,

 

Do I look for excuses why things don’t work as I would like? Or do I look for the reasons why it doesn’t work as I want and see what I can do to fix it, to make it work, to complete my quest,

 

If I need to be honest, I do look for excuses and I done it many time in the past, something in looking to whom send/throw the blame is very welcoming, it is not my fault ,

I done all as I could/should, it is above me,

 

To look for the real reason why things doesn't work, ask you to admit you're wrong, in order to look for better solution, but it isn't an easy job, I am wrong? No!! But I Am, and we all are wrong here and there,

 

Many times we hear: “Winners never make excuses”, and this is because they didn’t quite, they stay in the game and look for a way to get better, what do I do wrong? What I am not doing that I should?

 

Insanity according to Einstein is “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”,

 

So where is my mistake? Where do I repeat myself and my action each time again? Why do I find myself not practicing trading? Why I don’t look for new trades, new form of work, what are my excuses? Most of the time they are repeating ones, from different experiences in life,

 

My biggest excuse now days is lack of faith, I don’t believe in myself, I don’t know yet why, once I read that successful people focused more on things they did accomplish than things they still going for, I did accomplish some things in my life till now, and I am more than aware of it that some of them did ask for real hard work and I done it, but still I have very little if any faith,

 

Dr Brett Steenbarger once wrote: “The belief in one’s own capacity to succeed is the single most important personality factor associated with athletic success” and this is what I lack,

 

So what to do? How can I start believe in myself? Do I need to chant mantras? See my photo and say you are the Man!! No, No, I need to practice I need to work harder I need to see and understand why I can do it, maybe to repeat it, same like a mantra, till I get it, won’t let any stop loss kill my faith, this is another thing I need understand what kills my faith and then fight this causes, I shouldn't let things affect me that way,

 

Unless I will truly work on believing I can do it, I will never take over the plateau I am facing now in trading, I will look for some professional help, something, anything, to solve it and move to the next step of my trading,

 

Make the odds in your favor DayTrade,

 

Eldad Nahmany.

#tobecomeadaytrading

[Discipline]

Hi,

 

Today I would like to about Discipline but not the one that first pop to mind when we talk about stock market, respecting stops, trading just your setups and etc. no not this type of Discipline,

 

The type of discipline I would like to talk about is the one that will keep you working hard every day, keep you doing watching graphs, looking to learn new setups and keep on learning your craft,

 

We all know that success is 1% talent and 99% hard work, now to do this hard work you need discipline, you need to fight the urge to do nothing, to go and rest, to watch TV , to talk with a friend anything just not to the work,

 

The last week I saw the enlighten fact that my main problem now days in trading is the lack of discipline, I find it hard to do the work, to keep concentrated on my tasks, I am getting bored or impatient, the moment I sit I automatically start to think about anything else beside the task I need to do,

 

I don’t know if I am tired from the market or from some losing streak that I had, and this finds his way in my bad discipline, it might be the fact that I also have a second job, I don’t know I didn’t stop yet to do this task, and I need to ,

 

To become a better trader there is no short cuts, I need to practice I need to see graphs, I need to look for new entry triggers, I need to study and learn from my mistakes and success, and it is work, is not just open the system, trade during the day and bye, No

 

In more than a way the fact that it is an endless work have some depressive effect on me, I thought it is something I will need to learn and then I have it like riding a bike, but NO, in any field if you really want to get better you can never stop learning and developing once you stop, you are out,

 

For this reason I will need to fight myself once again, I will build a new daily routine and some new daily laws to check my work, so I will know I am doing what I need to do, mainly my first thought is to make a weekly plan so each day I know what I need to do, at each time, it doesn’t need to be a Spartan one where you have no fun, but it need to be detailed and with clear tasks,

 

So back on the hard work, and next week to give it a first push I will be doing a 10 days Vipassana course, so no new posts till June 18,

 

Wish you all the best

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade.

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

#ToBecomeADayTrader

[External Changes]

Hi,

 

Last weeks I faced some problems in my trading and I remember I heard more than once to check if there was any change in my life, any external change that might affect my trading,

 

Some time as traders we forget that the external world affect us and our trading directly, mainly on the emotional level and this has its way to the decision making process, which will lead to bad trading decision,

 

The external change I found to be the main cause of my poor trading was the change to Daylight saving in the USA, here in Colombia we are very close to the equator so there is no real difference between seasons (actually there is no seasons over here) so in mid-march instead of working at the same time zone as NYC I am one hour ahead (9.30 ECT 8.30 My time)

 

The change came in the fact I need to wake up one hour earlier (I hate to wake up before the birds) at 6AM no thanks, I hate it, and it is a something that I hate since I am a child, I remember once going to the family DR asking for permission not to go to the first hour class (start at 7am) didn’t got it but did try, you wake up and the day is gray is not ready yet why should I,

 

I done some checking and in the last 4 years of trading April and May always suffer from a setback, this year at least I understood the reason and could look for changes, how to deal with my lack of love for the early hours wakeup (have no problem to go to sleep at this hours), I am still testing in looking for solution but at least I know the problem

 

As traders we can see very fast the influence of some external forces, you don’t trade as you should, you take too much trades or you are too afraid to trade, always stop and check your trades, give yourself a real feedback about them and if you see some real rise in bad trades, look for the cause, it can come from the market, a change in the rhythm, choppy times, or it can come from outside a change of apartment, girl/boy friend, many things can affect us look for them,

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade.

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

#ToBecomeADayTrader

[Am I Willing to Lose on This Trade?]

Well it is not an alternative as I still need to ask if I am willing to lose this R amount, and i do use this system,

thanks,

[Am I Willing to Lose on This Trade?]

Hi,

 

This week a very nice question pop into my mind while watching a stock on my list and thinking should I trade it or not, the stock was above my pivot price, it did had an uptrend but still it had some move that left me with strange feeling,

 

So I asked myself am I ready to lose money on this trade? Is this trade is a trade that if I will look in a week from now a year from now I will say yes I am willing to risk my money on it? The answer for this specific trade was no,

 

It didn’t end in this, it wasn’t just to say I am not willing to risk on this trade I said one more thing and I think it is a must when you choose to let go a trade, I am willing to accept the fact that this can be a winning trade, but I prefer to be outside,

 

In the past I did decide to pass on some trades but when I saw they reached the profits targets I thought, it ate me alive, “ahhh I just take losing trades and the winner I am too afraid to trade”, and to be sure the only ones I remember are the ones I didn’t took but made money, not the ones that saved me money or emotional costs,

 

If you are not preparing yourself to the possible outcomes you are illusioning yourself in more than a way, you must accept both possible outcomes you will give up on a winning trade or a losing trade, you should be o.k. with both options,

 

I do this to take just the best trades now days, so I will rebuild my confidence in my system and in me, I remember in “Reminiscences of stock operator” when Jessi Livermore after losing all in the third or fourth time had just one more options and he waits and says I will wait for my best idea not just any one, this is what I am trying now to do, to get back on the horse by riding the best ideas I can, not average ones, just the best.

 

So in order to eliminate the average ones I ask myself Am I willing to lose on this trade?

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade

 

Eldad Nahmany.

#tobecomeadaytrader

[Giving Up]

Hi,

 

Trading is a hard task, most of the people come we the thinking it is easy money and in no time they will become millionaires, just to find out they blown up their account in less than a year, now if you blown your account you were forced out of the game and the market told you Ciao,

 

What if you still in the game but it takes it’s time, as I like to say this is a marathon, in marathon they say (never ran a one) almost everyone face a wall a mental wall that don’t allow you to move on, you must conquer your own self, to think you are capable to keep on running, walking, whatever it takes to finish the race,

 

Many traders stops, I don’t judge them every week I have the same thought, after 4 years in the market and still for some trades when I get stopped, I feel like a failure I know I shouldn’t, I know it is just one trade and I took it as I should have, but I can’t help myself sometimes, the frustration is to strong, especially after a streak of losing trades, we are not wired to truly play with randomness but still we as traders try,

 

Last week was a hard one, I ended up April red, I checked my trades and all of them were according to my system, I did had some that I could pass but I didn’t and I also had a day that I didn’t took all I could from the market, but I couldn’t stop feeling that I was failure I done all but still I lost money, I worked, practiced, prepared myself to each new day, didn’t lost control even once and still ended up red,

 

So I got the wall or better saying the thought of giving up have arrived,

 

What to do? Hard question, I am still fighting the urge to give up and move on with my life to the next chapter, I still think I can do it, I have hard time to believe in myself but I do think I can do it, I am really lucky because my spouse do believe in me, more than I do this days, and it helps a lot, I try to remember things I did accomplish in my life till now, I am telling myself that even the best traders have a red month some even a year, it is part of the game, but you must be in the game to have the real green months that make it all,

 

I tried to watch a boxing fight to understand how to get beat up and still rise to get more and give some as well,

 

I am still in the game I am still running and new walls will come that’s for sure but I will fight them back each day as a new one, To become a trader was my choice and no one else, I will fight my way to become the best I can,

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade.

 

Eldad Nahmany.

[Waiting for a Trade,]

Hi,

 

The Day started, you sit and watch your stocks/indexes and wait for a trade to evolve, sometimes you need to wait for a while, do you have any plan what to do in this time?

 

In the past I used to sit in front of the screens all day long doing nothing waiting for the trade to evolve and watching price action most of the time getting frustrated as everything worked beside my stocks, everything look tradable to me and it won’t be a lie to say that I was drawn to many trades that I should never take,

 

Taking setups that are not yours or are not ready yet is a very common problem in the day trading world, to sit and do nothing ain’t easy I already talked about it more than once,

 

What I do? I like to check my stock list every 30 minutes I open the system at 10:00 checking what is working what not, I ask myself what I can trade and what not, what I would like to see before looking for a trigger, and then wait till 10:30, at this time I check again the list and see if I have anything I can trade build an entry trigger, if I do, I will build a trigger and wait for it, else will set specific points to each stocks, for example: XYZ should make new high before looking for entry trigger, I will place notification on the system for new high, and move on, after I done all the list I will hide system and will make some work,

 

What is work? I will check the graphs of y’day, I will read blogs, I will develop my trading ideas, work on algos, read a book, watch a recorded webinar, I will practice trading, there is a lot of things one can do while waiting, what will help: make the list of task the day before or at the weekend a list of task for the next week,

 

Don’t sit and watch, don’t be a passive trader fill your trading time with productive work so you won’t trade for the sake of trade NO, this will save you many bad trades, the ones that when you summarize your day/week/month you have no idea how you end up in them,

 

If you will fill your trading day with interesting productive work you will become a profitable and more professional trader.

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

#tobecomeadaytrader

[Execution/Time and Sales]

Hi,

What you see in the DOM or level 2 is not the whole picture,

some buyers/sellers sends there orders with the "Hide" options which means you don't see it in the books, it is there but you cant see, and they are in the line to get filled according to the submitting time (most chances before you did)

 

you might saw it yourself, the lv2 shows 100 shares and someone just hitting the bid/ask but still the 100 shares stay, and price don't move,

 

Also the DOM lv2 shows the best bid/ask for each market maker at the moment so if the Bid is 9.80 under 9.79 you want see all the bids because some market makers had bids in 80, check this for more info: Introduction To Level II Quotes

 

with that being said you still need to check with your broker because some times they do

have problems,

 

All the Best

 

Eldad

[Why I Use Hard Stops]

Hi,

 

This week JUNO was on my short watch list, it started a gap up but close it and went lower very nice, I watched it and looked for a short entry, but I was lucky before I got in some crazy candle of almost 4$ came in and blow the stock up, making new highs for the day (see attached pic),

 

This reminded me once again why I always place a hard stop,

 

I remember more than few webinars that I watched listening to some excellent traders/instructors saying they don’t place hard stop but have a mental one, if the price will reach their mental stop they will close the position, I know some traders are sure the market makers see their stops and are just driving them out, I don’t know if it is true now days, but most of the time the stops are according to some technical analysis that everybody can say where the stops are placed whether you place it or not,

 

I would like you all to think what a candle like this one will make to your account, think about the number of shares you have once it got up and very fast up, you are -2$ for XXX shares, can you close it ? Can you close it? Do you have the mental power to fight the urge to wait and see if it can get back lower? Just to see it was halted, will your emotional system will survive such a blow?

 

In the business of risk management you can’t take a risk that will kill your business, you can play Russian roulette and make a lot of money but just once is enough to be out for good, this is why you must ask yourself can you handle a loss that big, can you handle the emotional distress in a losing position that just get bigger and fast?

 

For most developing traders this specific trade without a hard stop would take them out, might be the money or it might be the pain of such a big loser, don’t go there, place a stop, accept the loss and move on, you are alive to trade for another day and this is the most important thing,

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade

 

Eldad Nahmany

 

#tobecomeadaytrader

[Risk]

Hi,

I would like to speak about Risk, and $$ value of your risk, in April I rise my risk levels and it took some days till I noticed that now I will gain more, this is something I am very proud to say happened, all the time I just thought what is the amount I am willing to risk, I didn’t started with what I wanted to gain, no, I choose what I am willing to risk in losing trades and according to this I moved on, this is a big difference in the way I see trading now days,

 

When I started to trade like many others I thought about one thing and one thing only, WIN, how much I can win, how fast I will win, how much I want to win per day, I had crazy numbers in my head, I am sure many of you out there have the same thing in your head,

 

This is one of the biggest problem for a trader: when you focus on winning you have a real problem to accept a loss, it is not part of the plan, you take high risks because you want this huge gains, buy 1000 shares so 1$ move will give you 1000$ profit, you don’t think about the other side, -1000$ and according to all studies the pain of lose is at least double then the happiness of a win,

 

If you will focus yourself just on wins you are not prepared mentally for the upcoming loss, and be sure they will come, because there is no “holy grail” in trading,

 

So what do I recommend? If you are a new trader start with a very small $$ value risk per trade (check the R system), start with 10$ a trade, this will allow you to lose many trades and still be in the game, to make many mistakes and you will make, you will find that you make revenge trades, you will lose control, and many other things that will be part of your formation as a trader, it is normal, again this is a marathon, it will take you at least a year or more (normally 2 and above) to really make money from trading,

 

With a low $$ value it is easy to accept a loss as part of the game (cost of doing business) and learn to focus yourself at what you are willing to risk in order to gain, you always have risk, have control over it, choose how much you are willing to risk in order to know if you are right or wrong, and if you are wrong no problem there is always new trades to make,

 

The best traders know to lose, they chose how much why they are willing to take a risk and lose, they don’t live it random movement they take control and responsibility over their actions, they might win but they are willing to lose,

 

Make the odds in your favor Day Trade.

 

Eldad Nahmany.

 

http://tobecomeadaytrader.blogspot.com