I've moved to everything to my new website www.madazmoney.com
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
DON'T BREAK THESE RULES!!!
Writing this post as a reminder to myself not to do these boneheaded things that usually leads to losses.
- DON'T long stocks that are below (and can't get back above) premarket highs.
- DON'T short stocks that are above (and can't get back below) premarket highs.
- DON'T be long-biased on a stock that is below (and can't get back above) VWAP.
- DON'T be short-biased on a stock that is above (and can't get back below) VWAP.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
2016 Highlights Part 2: A Big Loss, A Bigger Recovery and Looking Forward to 2017
The date was November 16, 2016. We were in the midst of one of the most epic
short squeezes in trading history. The
shipper stocks were a high powered momentum train with nothing seemingly able
to stop them. DCIX was on the verge of
an epic move to join in on the party and as DRYS was squeezing again premarket,
going over 100. I had determined that I
was most likely going to go long DCIX as my main play since it was relatively
new and had more room to run and most likely would have a ton of volume on
it. Then it happened. A series of anomalies that I apparently was
not prepared for. DRYS hits 120 and one
of the aforementioned never-ending momentum trains finally came to a halt, pun
intended. At this point, I decided to
switch my bias on DCIX from long to short as my rationale was since the shipper
stocks were all up on a pure squeeze and had no business being up there, we
just needed some event to cause widespread panic and everything would come
crashing down very quickly. This, of
course, turned out to be a very poor assumption and a critical error as I
failed to consider the fact that since everyone and their mother was thinking
short, that this could fuel another epic squeeze. The herd mentality, a basic concept that
everyone knows. I should have known
better but I got too excited about nailing that big short win I was blinded to
the other side of the trade.
I played this trade wrong in so many ways. Again, it was all due to getting way too
excited, thinking that I was going to get the big gimme win after DRYS
halted. I started off shorted the first
pop on DCIX 10K starter. After a few
topping wicks on the 3 minute chart I added to about 30K shares with a low-to-mid 9 average, a big mistake
which I will discuss later how I remedied this problem moving forward. I also concurrently shorted ESEA another
sympathy shipper stock about 20K shares or so.
After lingering around in a tight range at the open, the
unthinkable happened. DCIX pops 2
dollars out of nowhere and halts prior to 9:45AM which requires a stock to move
more than 20% in a 5 minute rolling period to hit the circuit breaker,
something that I've never experienced before and as a result I didn't consider
that it could happen, another critical mistake.
At the same time ESEA squeezes as well and now I was holding two very
heavy bags and also dealing with the stress knowing I was pretty fucked on DCIX
holding 30K shares short on a stock that's now halted to the upside and pretty
much anything can happen. Life flashed
before my eyes. I was down 60K
unrealized on DCIX and 17K on ESEA which would be the biggest loss ever already
as it stood. I decided to immediately get
rid of ESEA to focus on DCIX. Like a
prisoner on death row waiting to be executed, I knew that this halt would be
the longest 5 minutes of my life. But I
had to remain composed and devise some
sort of plan to mitigate the losses and possibly prevent a complete
obliteration of my account. I knew the
stock was going to gap up and that the loss was going to be a lot worse than
60K, but I knew that stocks that gap up on halts tend to have a dip before
taking off so my plan was to wait for the dip after the gap and stop out
completely.
The stock gaps up over 12 and I was down close to 100K
unrealized now on DCIX but thankfully the stock did what I expected it to do,
it dipped below 12 and I stopped out of everything just below 12 realizing the
worst loss of my career -85K and a total of -101K on both DCIX and ESEA. The loss was so bad that my account was
frozen by my broker. As I was playing
with about 150K at this time, this loss wiped out 2/3s of my account.
The biggest red day of my trading career. |
I decided not to post this for a couple of reasons. Of course people are going to say that I was being a coward hiding behind my losses which is a fair assumption but the main reason why I did this was because I wanted to get over it fast and wanted to start the road to recovery right away, as in the very next day. I knew that posted the loss would result in the "I told you so" trolls having a field day with me and also the people with good intentions saying things like "keeping trying man" but to be frank neither would do much in helping my mindset in recovering as fast as I wanted to. So I thought the best way about it was to just ignore social media until I got my rhythm back, however long it took. I also decided to start again with just the 50K or so I had left in my account as a way to reprimand myself for making such poor decision and at the same time I had already proven that I could still make solid gains with a 50K account in the past so I knew I could do it.
I took the rest of the day off and did non-trading related activities. I meditated, worked out and did yoga which
helped me calm down and I made sure I ate well and got a good night's
sleep. Tomorrow was a new day, it was a
chance to start fresh and make things right.
I answered with back-to-back 5 figure days and recovered 25%
of my losses in just 2 days. A huge
boost in my confidence was badly needed and I got it. This led me to believe that it was very
feasible for me to regain my losses by the end of the year. By the end of November I had recovered $50K
or half of my losses in just 9 trading days.
Over the course of the next 2-3 weeks, I spent a lot of time
studying DCIX, ESEA and other charts in an effort to create a set of solid sets
prevent a similar loss in the future.
While lots of people told me that this was a "black swan"
event that wasn't likely to occur again anytime soon, I simply can't just take a big loss every single time there's
another one. That's not the way to approach things. After some hardcore studying I
came up with the following rules which I would use December to test their
validity.- · Do not add to starter position unless stock is clearly going in your direction (lower lows if short, higher highs if long)
- · If short, stop out immediately if stock goes over and holds premarket highs as new support. If long, stop out immediate if stock goes below premarket lows and gets rejected as new resistance.
- · Do not assume a sector run is over unless you literally see the lead stock in the sector actually tank (not just halt).
- · Always be cautious of halts, always be constantly be doing a running calculation in your head about where the circuit breaker would trigger. 20% before 9:45AM and after 3:35PM, 10% between 9:45AM and 3:35PM. (Reference for Circuit Breaker rules: Investopedia - http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/circuitbreaker.asp)
DCIX Chart 11/26/16 |
My old rules had already yielded a very high win rate but a
major issue was the few times I was wrong, the loss was very disastrous , so
concrete stop out rules were needed as well as rules pertaining to adding. The first rule prevents me from adding and sizing
up while the stock is still in limbo with regards to the direction it's going
to go. This basically allowed me to only
play the backside on shorts and frontside on longs. Had I had this rule I wouldn't have had 30K
of DCIX but rather just 10K and the loss, while still would have been bad, it
wouldn't have been near catastrophic, blow up sized.
The 2nd rule places a clear stop out point with no ifs or
buts. That's the problem that people
have, they have arbitrary stop out rules which leaves too much room for
emotion. I'm sure you've experienced
that situation where you thought about stopping out but decided to "wait
and see if it would come back".
That's not the way to go about things and I made this rule to address
that.
The 3rd rule prevents assumptions from being made about the
end of a sector squeeze which would blind me from seeing the other side of the
trade. If the lead stock is not crashing
and burning hard, the squeeze is NOT over.
Simple as that.
The 4th rule allows me to always be aware of the risk of
halts as being stuck in a halt on the wrong side of the trade is simply one of
the worst feelings ever and it's definitely not a healthy situation to be in
for you or your account so I want to avoid that at all costs.
These rules proved to be the saving grace of my trading
career so far as I went on to recover my entire -101K loss by December 16th, just 17 trading days after the major loss and went on to finish the year going
green 27 out of the 30 days since the loss recovering everything and making an
additional 80K on top of that, effectively turning that 50K that I had left to
over 200K, more than quadrupling my account in the 30 days.
While this was a pretty epic comeback. I shouldn't have put myself in this situation
to begin with. We always tend to shift
into a higher gear when our backs are against the wall but it shouldn't have to
be that way. We should always be going
full throttle regardless of the situation.
Since I tend to trade like a madman after a major loss I will try to
play with my psychology a little bit and attempt to trick my mind into thinking
I blew up by wiring out very aggressively (i.e. resetting my account to 100K or
even 50K). When I didn't wire out
enough, I just felt too complacent and comfortable because it felt like I had a
"cushion" but after a big loss the cushion was gone and as a result I
had to work very hard to get it back so I could regain that high level of
comfort again. It was a brutal cycle of getting my account to a certain level and then taking a big hit that occurred way too often and moving forward I will try to remedy this by
wiring out a lot more aggressively so I will always be pushing hard and trading
every day like it's my last.
Looking Forward to 2017
December was a final dress rehearsal for me to test out the
rules I had developed. I wanted to iron
out any kinks I had left. I finished
with over six figures in profits for the first time in over 2 years which
showed me that these rules were pushing me on the right track. If I can pull off a few month solid 80K-100K+
months, there's going to be some sort of realistic belief that I could hit my
first million dollar year next year. But
for now, I'm not going to jump the gun and make any assumptions, because who
knows, perhaps market conditions might not permit consistent 100K months. But definitely, this is promising and I feel
like I'm moving in the right direction.
I will work hard to refine these rules to prevent major
losses. I want to make them as concrete
and to a T as possible, leaving no room for ambiguous interpretations which
will eliminate any emotional decisions. I
see too many people with generic rules such as "don't short
frontside". Well, what exactly
does that mean? "Don't short
frontside"? What is
"frontside"? If you are one of
these people with very vague and arbitrary rules, consider refining your rules
to be more precise such as "don't short stocks that are making higher
highs and higher lows". If you have
a rule like "don't trade lull", you're going to have to define
lull. Make the rule more specific like
"don't trade between 11AM-2PM EST".
I will also be looking to add more tools to my arsenal. After learning this year that spending money
on tools was well worth it, I will continue to be open-minded into trying new
things to that will add value to my trading.
I will definitely be adding Vision clearing at Centerpoint in addition
to ETC this month (as a matter of fact I'm going to fill out the application
next week). Centerpoint is now offering
a 25% discount on locates at Vision and I noticed many instances that having
Vision for those additional HTB would have yielded me a few extra bucks on the
P/L, so it's definitely a nice addition to have especially if it helps me cover
all the bases with respect to borrows.
Seeing how I was already doing well with ETC and was on a $1.5M pace
($6,000 per day average) in December,
adding Vision as a clearing option for me will probably increase my
chances of hitting that seven-figure year greatly.
Alright guys, let's absorb the lessons from 2016 and apply
what we've learned in order to make 2017 the best year ever!
Madaz
Saturday, December 31, 2016
2016 Highlights Part 1: Making Big Changes
2016 was a big year for me in many ways. I stopped being cheap and spent money to add
several tools to my arsenal that have helped me immensely. I changed brokers after 3 good years at
SpeedTrader. I suffered the biggest loss
of my trading career and I responded with one of the best stretches of my
trading career immediately right after.
I will break up this blog into 2 parts (discussing the big loss and
recovery in Part 2) so it won't look like one huge blob of words.
Of course it's human nature to be hesitant to spend our
hard-earned money on certain things at times due to skepticism whether your
money would be going into something worthwhile, but we must understand that
trading, like any other business, has start up costs. Also like any other business, the more you
invest in it, the better position you'll put yourself in to succeed as you will
increase the advantage over the other people who lack the proper tools and
equipment. I see lots of people that set
themselves up for failure in trading before they even place a single
trade. They trade with a tiny 13"
laptop, or a slow, inconsistent internet connection, a really bad broker with a
poor platform, and so on. I would know,
I used to be one of these people even until this year. Now after making the leap and spending some
money to invest in my trading, I've seen my success substantially increase by
virtue of just upgrading my tools because they help put me in winning
situations more often.
After a discussion with @MarketOmega, I decided to make the
leap and spend money on a better scanner, Trade-Ideas, and a live streaming
news service with a squawk feature, Benzinga Pro. I had been already a profitable trader up to
this point so naturally I was stubborn and thought to myself, "why do I
need to spend more money, what I have is already good enough, isn't
it?" I had previously used
DASTopList as my gap scanner which worked well but they lacked a powerful
scanner that helped find the midday plays.
Ultimately, I decided to give it a shot upon realizing I would react
late to various alerts pretty consistently such as the Citron Resesarch short
at alerts at the time, which were a pretty lucrative plays. @MarketOmega told me that using these tools
allowed him to be a step ahead of everyone else so realizing that I was always
late and that Trade-Ideas and Benzinga Pro costed a combined $130 a month or so
(and also a tax write off), I'd figure it was worth a try.
The results were instantly felt and I was forced to eat the
proverbial humble pie for being so stubborn and cheap for not wanting to pay
the $130 a month for such essential tools.
The alerts from Benzinga Pro were extremely quick and they were also
good for alerted other things as well such as insider buys/sells, option
sweeps, filings, and just general news.
It took me awhile to configure Trade-Ideas perfectly but that's a
testament to how many features it has.
But I was able to develop a solid gap scanner and also a solid momentum
scanner which has immensely helped me pick out the best plays especially when there
are multiple possible plays, Trade-Ideas helps me pick the one that's getting
the most attention so I know what to trade (Trade-Ideas settings video will
released on YouTube soon). Within a few
weeks I easily was able to general profits that paid the subscription fee
several times over, reinforcing the idea that they were both definitely worth
the investment. But how ludicrous was my
thought process that I was so frugal to the point where I wouldn't spend $130
on something that would help me easily make a lot more than that? Yeah....
The other major change I made in 2016 was probably the
biggest change in my trading career. I
left SpeedTrader in August after 3 years for Centerpoint Securities as my new broker. I had mulled switching for over a year but
once again I was hesitant because I knew my fees would increase and again I let
my cheapness take over which led me to not make the switch and as a result I
missed out on so many opportunities that I deeply regret not switching a lot
earlier. I even had my good buddy, Rob
(@planeteyes), repeatedly try to convince me to switch and yet I was still too
stubborn and was afraid of fees (My bad, Rob, Big Macs on me when you visit LA).
Centerpoint Securities definitely took my game to the next level. If you guys follow me on twitter (@madazfootballr), you can see that my P/L increased greatly right after I made the switch and that is no coincidence. Before I would not have borrows at the most crucial times and it would mess up my mindset as I would get frustrated that I wasn't making the profits that other people that had the borrows were making and I would, at times, force longs to try to make it up. Of course, forcing longs on stocks that are obvious shorts are not the most ideal plays and subsequently, I paid the price for it, figuratively and literally. How ironic is that? I refused to switch to Centerpoint because I wanted to cheap out on the fees but instead I would take losses playing inferior setups due to lack of borrows. In hindsight, it was silly and I can laugh about it now, but I'm glad I made the switch and now I've set myself up in a more much commanding position to succeed.
Centerpoint Securities definitely took my game to the next level. If you guys follow me on twitter (@madazfootballr), you can see that my P/L increased greatly right after I made the switch and that is no coincidence. Before I would not have borrows at the most crucial times and it would mess up my mindset as I would get frustrated that I wasn't making the profits that other people that had the borrows were making and I would, at times, force longs to try to make it up. Of course, forcing longs on stocks that are obvious shorts are not the most ideal plays and subsequently, I paid the price for it, figuratively and literally. How ironic is that? I refused to switch to Centerpoint because I wanted to cheap out on the fees but instead I would take losses playing inferior setups due to lack of borrows. In hindsight, it was silly and I can laugh about it now, but I'm glad I made the switch and now I've set myself up in a more much commanding position to succeed.
Generally speaking with regards to these changes I
made, yes they cost money but to
reiterate my point, trading is a business.
It's no different than starting any company where you need to invest in
equipment, employees, resources, etc... If you're trading on a slow computer, make an investment to get a new faster one, if you're trading on one small 17" 720p screen, get 4 1080p screens (they're like 80 bucks now, I post deals occasionally on my twitter feed), if you're trading on a shitty internet connection, go get the fastest one! Spend a little now or lose a lot later. You get what I mean....
I was stupid to not see this despite being in my 5th year of trading. I limited my potential. Despite doing well already, so to speak, I could have done even better had I realized this sooner.
I was stupid to not see this despite being in my 5th year of trading. I limited my potential. Despite doing well already, so to speak, I could have done even better had I realized this sooner.
Moral of the story: don't be cheap, invest in your
trading, the results will speak for itself.
Part 2 to come....
Part 2 to come....
If you're interested in Trade-Ideas, click bit.ly/2dFvB7t and enter MADAZ15 as the Promo Code for 15% Off!
If you're interested in opening an account with Centerpoint, tweet at me on twitter @madaznfootballr or email me madaztrader@gmail.com
Friday, November 11, 2016
My Best Single Profit Day Off of Just Scalps in over 18 Months!
The stock gods have responded to my prayers! As you guys know, I've been going pretty crazy from the action, or rather INaction in the market and nearly had to check into a mental institution many times to check on my sanity. But today was a day that reminded me why I chose to trade for a living. Making loads of money in very little time while I'm sitting on my ass in the comfort of my home in my underwear. How many careers can you think of where you can do this? Hell even if you were a low-end athlete you still have to put in a lot more hours of work than this not to mention risk getting seriously injured. I feel truly blessed.
Unfortunately, since I was so focused on trading i wasn't
able to record any live footage so I'm just going to write this blog post
posting my game plan and thought process in making these trades so that way you
guys can extract something from this.
As you guys know I love longs. Why? Because...
- More volume, we have tons of traders speculating on both sides, buyers and sellers (compared to slow short days where it's basically mostly shorts) The dollar volume will be higher which means more liquidity which means you can fill more size.
- Bigger moves. Even if you're strictly a short seller, wouldn't you want to short these POS at higher prices?
- Action that lasts all day as opposed to just the first few minutes. When the stock stays in play for the entire day or even multiple days, we have opportunities all day. On the slow days where the only plays are the quick pop and drop shorts, you got only one shot at it and if you miss it you're eating big macs for dinner that day...
- NO NEED TO SPEND AN ARM AND A LEG ON BORROW FEES!!! Since the best plays are longs, you don't need to spend on shorts needlessly. Duh.
I was able to find PTCT off of the Trade-Ideas gap
scanner.
Based off the Premarket support and resistance I decided the
game plan was:
·
Go Long against 10
·
Go Short medium size against 11.3-11.5 and bigger
size against 12.5.
The stock washed to 10 so I decided to go long about 20,000
shares with a 10.4ish average. However I
missed my sell at 11 as I didn't get filled and ended up selling on the 2nd
candle on the way down minimizing my gains to just $2,500 as I didn't want to
take a chance that the top was in and the start of the dump was coming.
Upon seeing 2 nasty upside wicks in a row, I decided to
switch biases to short against the top of the wicks around 10.5-10.6 for a 10
washout. I shorted 20,000 shares with
about a 10.4 average and the stock did drop to 10.1 but eventually reversed and
I stopped out on the VWAP cross for a -$3,300 loss.
Then I decided to switch back to long once I saw that lower
highs were being made and VWAP was reclaimed with a hidden bid prop refusing to
go away. I went long with about a 10.5
average against 10.4 which was where the bottom of the wick of the lower high
candle was plus where the bid prop seemed to be, 20,000 shares again and this
time I made sure I got the sell in and sold around 11.1 for a massive win of
almost $12,000.
So just 24 minutes into the day, I was up about $11,000,
which was already considered an epic day.
But I wasn't done.
DRYS initially would have been my focus had PTCT not had the
most volume at the open as I'd figure it would get an SSR bounce if the MMs did
the textbook washout to trigger SSR and then rip it on the shorts. However, I didn't expect that they'd be able
to rip it all the way over yesterday's highs.
The shorts were clearly fucked here at this point, slap on the halt for good measure to
make them even more anxious and we have ourselves a play.
The plan for this was simple:
- Long any washout off the halt resume against 15 (previous HOD) for a massive squeeze towards 20
DRYS
opened and ripped to 17.32. Shorts were
in deep shit here, if the next dip held any price higher than 15. The stock had halted at 16.06 which I watched
for a possible stall area to load. I
decided to load up half size in the 16s with the thought that I'd load up full
size if it dropped to 15. I eventually
only filled 7,000 shares in the mid 16s and get a sick rip selling near top
tick after selling some stalls in the mid 18.7s. I filled most of it at 18.6 and slammed the
rest in the low to mid 18s, banking over $12,000 on this trade in just 5
minutes! Now we're at the 27 minute mark
into the day and I'm up nearly $23,000, which is already a personal best in
terms of a start to a day!
But NO...I STILL was NOT done.
Our
good, but not forgotten friend FNMA, a stock that has been so kind to me in the
past. A stock that helped provide the
funds for me to purchase my beloved whip, the 370Z. It wanted in on the action.
I
was watching FNMA as it ramped to new high after new high, but I couldn't chase
as that's against my rules. I needed a
dip to get in or I was simply just going to wait for the dump. At around 10:20AM EST, I started to lick my
chops. I haven't traded an OTC in awhile
and although I realized the volume wasn't as epic as the good ol' days, I knew
I could shake some money out of this piggy bank off the bounce.
If
you want to know what I mean by the Good Ol' Days, watch this video:
The
plan here was:
- Go Long medium size against 2.75-2.8 first support level from the intraday chart
- Go Long Bigger Size at 2.6 (previous day's HOD)
- Go Long even Bigger Size at 2.4 (major resistance level from previous day)
Unfortunately the stock didn't dump to 2.4 or 2.6, so I just
took a small trade 25,000 shares at 2.82 average and sold it at 2.96. Didn't want to overextend myself and risk
ruining my day so went for the small win.
Adding $3,600 or so more to my already crazy day.
What an epic day. Never had to hold any positions for more than a couple minutes either. Nail and bail, baby.
So there you have it guys.
How to make $26,000/hr in your underwear sitting on your ass at
home. If there's a better and more efficient way to make this much money in this little time, please let me know. ;)
#TradingIsEasy
#TradingIsEasy
Monday, June 6, 2016
Check Out My Guest Blog Post on the SpeedTrader Blog!
I want to thank the guys at SpeedTrader for inviting me to author a guest blog post on their website. It's my take on the idea that is frequently talked about by many traders: why 90% of traders fail and what I do to ensure that I'm in the 10% that succeed.
Check it out below!
http://speedtrader.com/how-to-become-part-of-the-10-that-succeed-at-trading/
Check it out below!
http://speedtrader.com/how-to-become-part-of-the-10-that-succeed-at-trading/
Monday, March 14, 2016
Madaz's 2016 Adjusted Trading Rules in These Current Market Conditions
Madaz's 2016 Adjusted Trading Rules in These Current Market Conditions
I can only speak for myself, but I wholeheartedly believe
that these current market conditions (from about mid-February of this year to
the present) have been one of the most difficult I've experienced. There are many reasons but to sum things up
it's because the broad markets are still indecisive due to several uncertainties
with macros. With the markets not having
a clear obvious trend, traders will often be confused resulting in more crowded
charts and some people will be cautious about playing the market. As a result, we've seen volume and liquidity
take a hit. Even on days that look
promising and volume is great at the open, it diminishes rather quickly (see my
blog post prior to this one).
As a momentum scalper, I need volatility and liquidity in
order to trade effectively. I don't like
trade stocks that float on air or grind because I feel that they are too hard
to read and too risky to hold since you are exposing yourself to lots of risk
to things like random news, random dumps due to a rug pull, or a random
squeeze. These types of things vastly
minimize the edge a retail trader has.
A problem I've had recently was failing to completely adapt
to these current market conditions. As a
result I would have too much size when the volume dramatically drops off in a
relatively short period of time. This
results in adverse effects such as slippage and also ECN fees that get incurred
if I have no choice but to take liquidity to exit a position. So in order to prevent myself from getting
into this tough predicament, I've developed some simple (and more conservative
given these market conditions) rules that basically allow me to figure out
proper and optimal sizing to trade with at each given moment so that way if I
have to stop out, I won't have to deal with issues such as slippage.
- Large size (I.e. 10K shares on a <$10 stock) only allowed at the open. This is when the volume is the highest of the day so probably this is the only reasonable time you should consider going in big, since in the event that you're wrong, you can get out with a fill at the price you want easily.
- Reduce size to 1/4 (i.e. 2500 shares on a <$10 stock) by 9:45AM. Having studied various charts from recent trading activity, I've noticed that a lot of stocks experience volume drop offs of about 75% within 15 minutes. Logically this means you should reduce your size to 1/4 of what you would have done at the open in order to ensure you can get in and out easily.
- Reduce size to 1/10 (i.e. 1000 shares on a <$10 stock) by 10:00AM. Same reason as above, by 10:00AM, I notice that many stocks that are in play at the open drop off in volume by 90% so that means you should reduce your size to 1/10 of what you would have done at the open.
- Reduce size to 1/20 (i.e. 500 shares on a <$10 stock) if needed, for the rest of the day should there be very low volume, 1/10 max. If the volume drops off even more, then reducing size to protect any gains from the morning is a must. Of course, if there is no price action, you should not trade at all, but sizing too big late in the day and losing your morning profits because of that is very frustrating and this serves to prevent that from happening.
So of course there are going to be exceptions but these are
just general guidelines that help me prevent those really frustrating losses
where you're stuck holding too many shares of an illiquid stock and you have to
take liquidity to get out and have to take a much larger loss than expected due
to slippage. The tradeoff of course is
that I may miss out on some trades, but the bigger idea here is to practice
discipline as I feel the losses that I will prevent from not going in too big at the wrong
moments will outweigh any potential profits from missed plays during irregular
hours.
Believe
me, if you've been following me for awhile, you know that I love to go in with
large size and nail that big $5,000 win in 30 seconds, so it's painful for me
to have to take this much more conservative approach, but like I always say, "you must adapt to the market as the
market will not adapt to you".
Other rules I've been following include:
- Not trading at all between 11AM-2PM, and many times not even trading beyond 10AM. The volume drop-off during this period results in no edge for the retail trader and algos start to control the action. I've already beaten the dead horse regarding algos and manipulation on my blog on my youtube channel so I won't go over it again.
- Any random news play that shows up with massive volume as tempting as it is to go big because of the volaitility, stick to the sizing rules and play small anyways. Lost big on WR last week with that FOMO mindset even though I was nailing several of these news plays in a row prior to that, which goes to show you that all it takes is one bad miscue and you will pay the price, figuratively and literally. Play small and manage your risk and don't undo the work you did in the morning, or if you're already red, don't amplify your losses.
I thought this might be too specific to me to help others (I don't think everyone will necessarily take 10K share positions at the open) but some people have asked me about it so that's why I did the write-up. I hope it helps people to a certain extent or
at the very least gives people a better understand of why I do things the way I
do.
Cheers,
Madaz
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