My equity curve has been flat for the last few days. Not a major drawdown, but the successive losses still take their toll. The volatility has been brutally slow. The volume has been very thin too. I went back and looked at the intraday ranges for since August began. Remember that historically a $3 range is the median with the lower quartile starting around $2.

1-Aug 4.65
2-Aug 2.75
3-Aug 1.49
6-Aug 1.08
7-Aug 2.76
8-Aug 0.71
9-Aug 1.80
10-Aug 2.68
13-Aug 2.46
14-Aug 2.31
15-Aug 0.84

So, the 1st and 2nd were good days and I netted positive. The 7th, 10th, and 13th were great trend days (even if on the tighter side), but I played them poorly. The rest have been very tight days. Not sure if I can identify those ahead of time or not.

bijeremiad 

@dario1, which volume bars standout to you? I did react to volume at 10:39, but turned out that the spike in volume was 1 tick with 5000 shares.

@bijeremiad
Look for "Yao Ming" volume bar like the one on the right side of your chart.
Usually the "Yao Ming" bars are good indication that the trend will end and possibly reverse.

2 winners, 1 loser, net $270.

Trade 1 Price had been showing resistance at $149.60 from yesterday. After two failed pushes higher I went short, but felt as soon as I pulled the trigger, that I had made a mistake. Was stopped out in the next bar.

Trade 2 Without any lower lows I took one of the next bars as it closed higher. Price looked like it was starting to stall around $151.13. I already had $1 of profit locked for 200 shares and a 5R trade, but I didn't feel like the day could go much higher. I also had a meeting coming up, so I jammed my stop up for an exit. Although, even if I had held on, I would likely have been shaken out around 10:45 at the same level as where I did.

Trade 3 Realizing that I never really got good price action and the day could go higher, so I took the break above a resistance level during the day. Only made about 1R to offset the loser of the day.

1 winner, 1 loser, net $66.

Trade 1 was taken while vol was still high, so only 1 lot taken. As price broke out of its channel at 7:57am, I debated riding the stop tighter. But the peak bar was only $0.40 tall. However in the context, it was still relatively tall. Was stopped out at the 21 EMA.

Trade 2 was looking for the High of the day to serve as resistance. Ended up bailing at BE after a higher high.

When I was half way through this last "month" and was up 4.6%, i thought I would end the month better than the 5% I had seen the previous two months. But then I hit a losing streak and only ended up adding 50bps for the last two weeks.

Here are the summary statistics for the past three months:


Each month has averaged about 5%. Although my win% keeps slipping; although that is offset by a higher win/loss ratio. That leaves me up 15.15% for the last 3 months, but also dependent on the higher-winning days. The equity curve is also attached.

Hey,

I am not an expert in day trading, so just trying to lend a helping hand here. Have you heard of SMB Capital? They are a day trading prop shop, and have a lot of free info on their site (google it). They do "tape reading", which I believe gives them an edge, as well as charts. If you subscribe to them on twitter/facebook they also announce daily which stocks are "in play" That is the stocks they have picked to trade on that particular day (based on news/announcements etc) The owner of the firm, also has a book out which I am reading at the moment (a really enjoyable read!) Its called " One good trade"

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Felix

@223552 Thanks for the suggestion. I have heard of SMB, but was not aware of their in play list. I have also read sections of One Good Trade, but not the whole of it. I will put it on my to-read list. Right now I am focused on just 1 stock. Originally, I was looking at a list of about 300. Then I whittled it down to 6. And for now, just 1. The volatility helps. The diversity helps on slow days. I imagine there are similarities from different "plays". But they were other variables that were clouding my focus at the time. Once I get this phase "hammered out" I will go looking outside, but I have found the 1-stock focus helpful for now.

I took the last week off on vacation. No trades for 8/20-8/24. Doesn't look like I missed too much, maybe one interesting day. I need to develop a way to review days that I miss for one reason or another.

1 loser, net -$40.

I spent most of today watching the miserable liquidity and telling myself I should sit this next week out. Then I stepped away for lunch at 11:30 and missed the high volume rejection of $150.40 at 11:45. Seeing that volume was back a little towards the end of the day I took a short after what looked to be a lower high and failed push higher. I was late on entry and early on timing. Wouldn't have been a great trade 1R.

I wonder if there is a way to look at the trading in the first 15 minutes or 30 minutes to get a sense for liquidity later in the day?

It wasn't a great day to trade, only $1.20 of range - maybe get $0.60 out of it. I had a few hesitations during the day, but the big miss was when I was thinking of shorting around 7:27am. Should have been thinking long after the failure to put in lower lows and the closes above the 21EMA.

2 winners, 1 loser. Net $170.

Trade 1 was a countertrend scalp that I hesitated on a little too long. Was hoping to take it back to the EMA21. Made 1 push, then took some heat, made a second push, and bailed at BE.

Trade 2 was continuation of trend off a higher low. Felt patient in the channel. I wanted a target of $153. High of a few days ago was $153.50, but vol was light. Price stalled after $152.50 and broke throuhg the EMA21, so I bailed. After I jammed my stop, I felt it may have been premature.

Trade 3 was waiting to see if a complex correction would set up (price honoring the yellow dotted line, despite a lower high), which it did. Got in close to my exit from trade 2 and got very close to my original target of $153. After price failed to push through $153 on its second attempt and lots of volume at 11:33am, I bailed.