New Trader's Diary

#1
Hi friends,

I have started this hoping to share my experience.Hope this would help new traders.

I started trading from Jan 20th.As a newcomer to the world of trading i had lots of misconception- that trading would fetch me easy money.For me all that i had to do was buy shares n sell them n take money.Also i knew i had to be 'careful not to do lossing trades'.For tat i had though al i had to do was being"careful'.
I had assumed it to be as easy as it sounds.Later on i understood that it was the biggest mistake.It was no easy game.With no plan,money magmt,risk n time magmt i end up with vry vry lil gain n huge amount of loss.
By the end of 1 month i ended up with 30% loss of my intial capital.It soared my spirits but i din give up.
I tot il take a break, n do some research.Thatz when i came across traderji n te vast knowledge in it.It proved very very useful and i started this new month with a new hope.
First of all, did some market reserch and came up with few strategies and layed out a plan which i hope to follow strictly.
Also started implementing money management which as i understand is very important for successful trading.

My capital is 1Lakh

My Plan for Day Trading
-Strictly follow the plan,not to be greedy and protect my money
-Usage of Stop Loss.Keep S.L at 1% of capital.
-Always follow the market,look out for trends.
-Do one trade at a time.At the max 2 but never more than that.
-Go for only one recovery trade per day.Max amount afford to be risked per day is 2% of capital.
-Daily Target 2500rs-3000rs.Stop when target is achieved.

Trade Timings
9:15-9:30 watch te mkt
10:30-11:30 1st trade with target of 1000
12-1 2nd trade with traget 1000
1-2:30 3rd trade with target 500-1000

Intially myt target was achieved tday but due to my greed lost 2000 and i ended up with a net gain of 700rs.
Alteast happy that din lose any money...

Hope to follow plans strictly from thursday and with the hope of achieving targets.
Hope this information is useful.
Looking forward for suggestions and advice from seniors and friends...

Happy trading
 
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#2
My suggestions Dhanya. Dont have any targets like you ll take the first trade between this time and this. Rather identify the stocks you are going to trade and have a definite plan for it.

Like enter only if so and so conditions met.
Dnt enter if your conditions are not met even if it means waiting till eod. Similarly have plans for exit also. Like partial booking of profits when u reach a certain predetermined level. Be ready to move this level as per market behaviour. If your initial target is not being achieved in some time and you feel like market is starting to reverse, then book whatever profit you can on the trade. You can enter again if it starts going in the original direction again.
These are my views based on my observations and what some seniors like ST have told me. Hope it helps...
 

.Pride.

Well-Known Member
#3
Hi friends,

My capital is 1Lakh

My Plan for Day Trading
-Strictly follow the plan,not to be greedy and protect my money
-Usage of Stop Loss.Keep S.L at 1% of capital.
-Always follow the market,look out for trends.
-Do one trade at a time.At the max 2 but never more than that.
-Go for only one recovery trade per day.Max amount afford to be risked per day is 2% of capital.

^^everything is good till now...

-Daily Target 2500rs-3000rs.Stop when target is achieved.

Do not keep daily targets. It will force you into unnecessary trades. You can have weekly/monthly targets. This will give you some breathing space and keep the pressure low.

Trade Timings
9:15-9:30 watch te mkt
10:30-11:30 1st trade with target of 1000
12-1 2nd trade with traget 1000
1-2:30 3rd trade with target 500-1000

again, as I said, do NOT use such rules which will force you to trade even if there isn't any good opportunity.

Pls try to understand that you do not have to trade every hour, every day, even every week. Pick only the best setups and trade with conviction. Be a cherry picker.


Intially myt target was achieved tday but due to my greed lost 2000 and i ended up with a net gain of 700rs.
Alteast happy that din lose any money...

Hope to follow plans strictly from thursday and with the hope of achieving targets.
Hope this information is useful.
Looking forward for suggestions and advice from seniors and friends...

Happy trading
comments are in the quoted message.
 

anuragmunjal

Well-Known Member
#4
-Daily Target 2500rs-3000rs.Stop when target is achieved
dear friend
just my 2 cents here.. do not keep targets.. when u venture into anykind of trading.. u have 2 learn to embrace 'uncertainity'...what is important is that 'on balance' u be a winner...

regards
 
#5
Hi friends,

I thank all of you for ur valuable suggestion....
Well wen i kept a daily target i ws jus hopin for a daily goal to achive..
so cn anyone plz advice me wat my daily goal should be??
I have made few additions/corrections to my plan
-concentrating in doing good trades and protecting my money.
-Watch te market trend carefully n understanding te mkt...
(te daily target of 2500-3000 is out frm te plan nw)

Plz feel free to advice n correct me

Regards,
 

anuragmunjal

Well-Known Member
#6
so cn anyone plz advice me wat my daily goal should be??


hi Dhanya

ur daily goal should be to follow whatever 'rules' u have set fr urself with utmost discipline..and not to break those rules while trading.
If fr some reason u do not get the desired results even after following ur rules..then it would be time to revisit those rules after trading hours and never while trading..

regards
 

AW10

Well-Known Member
#7
my views on daily target - I differ from what others have mentioned here on the i.e. don't have daily targets. Personally, I belive that we human being deliver better performance where there is target. Hence having target/goal drives the performance. Yes you can be bit flexible on that, i.e. don't push unncessary trade to hit the target.
one shd have daily profit target and daily loss limit too. You can be flexible after hitting profit target.. but at early stage of trading, i would suggest to stop real trading after hitting the daily profit target. Once u have some experience under the belt than you can remove limit from profit target and let it run.

In early days, the focus shd be more on gaining consistency, following your rules, doing pre market and post market homework, identifying the right trading system that fits your trading behaviour, developing better understanding of YOU as a trader and developing relationship with market so that u can understand the market's possible reaction by reading the clues.

It is important to set goals to improve your performance on above points and hence u need to measure and track them. Profit in Rs. is just byproduct of your performace as a trader. So take step to be better trader first.. and Money will follow. Imo, earning money with wrong trading habits is faster route to blow your account (sooner or later it will come). This is what makes any tom/dick/harry a great trader in bull market just to give back months profit during sharp correction. And if they can survive the correction than give back that money in bear market.

IMO, what gets measured, gets done.

All the best and happy trading
 

anuragmunjal

Well-Known Member
#8
my views on daily target - I differ from what others have mentioned here on the i.e. don't have daily targets. Personally, I belive that we human being deliver better performance where there is target. Hence having target/goal drives the performance. Yes you can be bit flexible on that, i.e. don't push unncessary trade to hit the target.
one shd have daily profit target and daily loss limit too. You can be flexible after hitting profit target.. but at early stage of trading, i would suggest to stop real trading after hitting the daily profit target. Once u have some experience under the belt than you can remove limit from profit target and let it run.

In early days, the focus shd be more on gaining consistency, following your rules, doing pre market and post market homework, identifying the right trading system that fits your trading behaviour, developing better understanding of YOU as a trader and developing relationship with market so that u can understand the market's possible reaction by reading the clues.

It is important to set goals to improve your performance on above points and hence u need to measure and track them. Profit in Rs. is just byproduct of your performace as a trader. So take step to be better trader first.. and Money will follow. Imo, earning money with wrong trading habits is faster route to blow your account (sooner or later it will come). This is what makes any tom/dick/harry a great trader in bull market just to give back months profit during sharp correction. And if they can survive the correction than give back that money in bear market.

IMO, what gets measured, gets done.

All the best and happy trading
hi Aw
In my exp, having a loss limit fr the day is fine.. but if u have a profit target fr the day... even if someone has a system which has a 70% + success ratio,
there can be a day or consecutive days where majority of trades go into losses. having a profit target in such a scenario may put unnecessary pressure on a newbie and he may be tempted to change or fix his otherwise robust system.

regards
 

AW10

Well-Known Member
#9
Anurag, having profit target does not mean that it has to be hit everyday. It is reality that we may not be able to hit them on some or many days.. and that should be an acceptable outcome.

As I mentioned, we need to have other goals as well - like 1) follow my rules 100% of the time. 2) rate each trade for setup/entry/exit/trade mgmt (not for profit or loss) and try to get the 100% rating on all factors..
These are more process goals (to make one the best trader).. that will lead to the performance goal (P&L). Just having performance goal in isolation will result in the kind of behaviour that you are mentioning (and I agree with you on that front)..
Unfortunately, that is majority of people do (i.e set only performance goal and get into wrong habit of trading which makes them even worse trader).

I think in "Come into our Traders Den" thread, we had nice post from TNSN on this topic of goal setting.

I am coming from the field of sports performance, corporate performance etc, where whatever goal is given by boss or set by individual, it gets done.. Give a goal to sales person to increase the sales, he will get it by hook or crook (even at the cost of spoiling client relationship).. Hence smart sales head needs to think in broader persepctive and give a goal where client relationship is also measured along with sales goals.
Unfortunately, in corproate world that doesn't happen so often.

(eg - all bankers were told to increase business but nobody paid attention to amount of risk they were taking..Fine they increased the business till 2007, and finally when real picture came out, then there is no one responsible for the risk that they had generated for their own bank).

Hope you see my point.. I am trying to address bigger picture of trading performance.

happy trading.
 

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