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During and After the Trade

1. What’s your game plan if it goes against you and threatens your survival?

2. Will you be able to get out? Did you take that into account in your workout?

3. More typically, what will you do if it goes way against you and then meanders back to give you a breakeven? Or if it immediately goes for you or aginst you?

4. Would you be willing to take a ½% profit if you get it in the first 10 minutes?

5. Did you test whether taking small opportunistic profits turns a winning system into a bad one?

6. How will unexpected cardinal events affect you like the “regrettably,” or the pre-annnouncement of something you expected for the next open? And what happens if you’re trading an individual stock and the market goes up or down a few percent during the day, or what’s the impact of a related move in oil or interest rates?

7. Are you sure that you have to monitor the trade during the day? If you’re using stops, then you probably don’t have to but then your position size would have to be reduced so much that your chances of a reasonable profit taking account of vig are close to zero. If you’re using 10% of your capital on a trade, they you’ll have to monitor it for survival. But, but, but. Are you sure you won’t be called away by phone calls, or the others?

8. Are you at equilibrium in your personal life? You’re not as talented as Tiger Woods, and you probably won’t be able to handle distressed calls for money or leaks on the home front. Are you sure that if you’re losing you won’t get hit on the head with a 7-iron, or berated until you have to give up at the worst possible time?

9. After the trade did you learn anything from the trade?

10. Are you organized sufficiently to have a record of all your trades for your accounting and learning?

11. Should you modify your existing systems based on it?

12. How does recency and frequency and value affect your future?

13. Did you fit your after activities to your mojo?

14. If you made a good profit, did you take some capital out of the fray for a rainy day?

15. Have you learned to say “fair” whenevever anyone asks you how you’re doing and are you sure that you don’t spend a fortune after a good trade, and dissipate your profits with non-economic activities?

16. Is there a better use for your time than monitoring the ticks or the market every minute of the day if you do, and if you don’t, do those who do so and have much faster and better equipment than you have an insurmountable advantage against you?

My Checklist :During and After the Trade

checklist-1. What’s your game plan if it goes against you and threatens your survival?

2. Will you be able to get out? Did you take that into account in your workout?

3. More typically, what will you do if it goes way against you and then meanders back to give you a breakeven? Or if it immediately goes for you or aginst you?

4. Would you be willing to take a ½% profit if you get it in the first 10 minutes?

5. Did you test whether taking small opportunistic profits turns a winning system into a bad one?

6. How will unexpected cardinal events affect you like the “regrettably,” or the pre-annnouncement of something you expected for the next open? And what happens if you’re trading an individual stock and the market goes up or down a few percent during the day, or what’s the impact of a related move in oil or interest rates?

7. Are you sure that you have to monitor the trade during the day? If you’re using stops, then you probably don’t have to but then your position size would have to be reduced so much that your chances of a reasonable profit taking account of vig are close to zero. If you’re using 10% of your capital on a trade, they you’ll have to monitor it for survival. But, but, but. Are you sure you won’t be called away by phone calls, or the others? (more…)

Govt. Opening New Front in the "War on Wall Street," WSJ Reports

 

Federal prosecutors are conducting a preliminary criminal probe into whether several Wall Street banks misled investors about their roles in mortgage-backed deals, The WSJ reports.

The banks in the early stages of scrutiny are: JPMorgan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and UBS. Under similar preliminary criminal scrutiny are Goldman and Morgan Stanley, as The WSJ reported yesterday. 

As our guest Todd Harrison, CEO of Minyanville.com, explains, these probe leaks are part of a larger, growing attack against Wall Street. (See: The War on Capitalism)

The focus of the inquiry are mortgage-backed collateralized debt obligations or CDOs and whether banks misled investors about these bets.

So why the focus on these specific derivatives?

“Presumably what’s closest to home, no pun intended, for a lot of people is their mortgages and foreclosures that we’re seeing,” Todd tells Aaron in the accompanying segment. “So those are the instruments that kicked Main Street in the groin pretty much. That’s where the line was drawn for a lot of the populace anger to really start to percolate.”

Harrison, who warns against the unintended consequences of Wall Street reform in an earlier segement, says policymakers risk going down a “slippery slope” by attacking financial instruments they don’t understand in an effort to score political points.  

DAY TRADING LESSONS

daytradinglessons-update

  • Trading is a continuous learning process

  • Don’t trade without a plan. Be as prepared as possible. Don’t try to be right
  • Emotion is a much bigger influence in stock prices than any other factor
  • The market reacts more to sentiment than facts. Herd mentality rules
  • Sell into strength and buy into weakness
  • Market always rewards minority, not the crowd. The trick to figure out if the mass perception is wrong and WHEN it will be proved to be wrong.
  • Technical setups and money management are more important than fundamental catalysts when trading
  • Always ask: What beliefs are you acting upon? What is the basis for those beliefs? Why do you have those beliefs now? Would those beliefs be different if your recent gain/loss record had been reversed? Can you clearly enumerate what could happen that would cause you to change your mind?”
  • Extreme emotions cause extreme pain. I’ve learned how not to get overly bullish or bearish
  • Be mindful of higher trading volume on down days prior to a future catalyst as bad news can and often does leaks out
  • Take responsibility for your own trading
  • Cut your losses, let your winners run, and this is more easily said than done
  • If you can’t focus, you can’t trade. Be in the zone or stay sidelined
  • Buy below value and well below value if possible
  • Being flexible can be fruitful
  • Let the market come to me and don’t force trades
  • It is never “different” this time
  • Just more……….very soon ,Till then just read these and learn something new.
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