Trading Diary of a Newbie

#1
hi folks,

i was into trading a few years back but it was more of a part time hobby on my leave periods. i have now decided to quit my career to start trading full time and have been getting back into the action since the last three months and i feel i am getting back into shape.

tomorrow i begin the real time trading.the start of a new full time career. i hope to learn a lot from the master traders out here.

the forum was a place i used to drop by back then and learn much - as i intend to do now as well. the difference being - then - i had money to burn and time to kill and now - trading is a full time profession on the horizon so the situation is poles apart. i never truly respected the markets although i made good money even back then. but, with the micro knowledge growing - i now realize i was a lucky gambler and not a trader.
now, i am a newbie trader and hope to progress on the right path. i hope to learn a lot on my path out here.

basically by nature i am a mix of a scalper/trend trader - in the sense that i cannot hold onto losing trades for too long. my stop losses are very small whereas i can hold profits for so long - that at times, its scary, lol. . off late i realized that scalping is too tiresome and after 4/5 trades i am mentally exhausted. whereas trend trading requires a bigger stop loss in place. so i have been working on a combination of trend trading and scalping. ill explain my set up in brief.

the chart set up is a daily chart where i look for the day trend and the hourly chart for confirmation. my trading chart though is the 5 min chart. a day before my trades i scan through the shortlisted high volume stock futures to select the ones with clear trends. similarly with commodities. once i have the trending stocks and commodities i wait for the market open to re-confirm the trend. once my set up is confirming the direction of the trend i go to the 5 min chart to wait for a pullback and enter in the direction of the trend. once the short term trend ends i may decide to exit or if the profit is decent wait for a pullback again and remain in the trend until i get a reversal signal. i chase using stop loss to safeguard profit and how much on where the stop loss depends on the conditions in the prevailing circumstances.

my base indicators are the 5/21/50 ema's on the main chart. in addition i use the cci for confirmation. it has been a good set-up that is working for me so far. the tough part was the discipline required to trade on signals which i am slowly getting at a stage where i am - not bad now. i tweak the cci settings as per the back-test so it has no fixed value as such. (eg - i use values of 14 to 40 of cci depending on scalping / short holding / stock / commodity etc). randomly once or twice a day i use the obv and a 50/200 ema to confirm short and mid term reversal.

no fixed target or stop loss and no fixed risk/reward ratio as this is something i decide on how strong the set up is. i am cautious around pivot and support/resistance levels. i usually avoid the consolidation area on trades and tend to trade only after the breakout for a few points. generally the risk reward as per my learning trade history has been falling in the 1:3 ratio although i do not trade with any profit ratio. all i try to do is to keep my win/loss ratio as close to 60/40. that is the most important criteria i aim for. i wait and wait for the best set up on the first trade as i have realized that it defines my day - so i usually go in for just 1:1 risk/reward ratio on the first trade. once i have winner i realize that i can wrap up for the day if need be and not force a trade for the rest of the day so it gives me a decent amount of patience to wait and wait for the trade signal and not rush into a sideways market.

if i have exited a stock or commodity in profit or loss - i do not re-enter it for that day at least. this is because the fact that i had traded with a clear mind on my first trade and exited for a good reason . whereas now -greed, revenge, or clouded thinking is not making me think straight. i take a break of at least 10 minutes after each trade to calm the mind - be it disappointment or excitement. i have gladly realized that winning or losing is not affecting my emotions like it used to before - the emotional curve tends to stay flat mostly off late. win or lose i take a screenshot after 10 minutes and analyse the trade to keep my mind off the knee jerk reaction to re-enter the trade or enter a new one. so i take a screenshot, close that particular stock or commodity for the day to analyse and to ensure i do not trade it again. the hard core traders may not agree but trust me, it works best for newbie traders like me.

i do not listen to, least of all follow news or tips as i feel tips are the best ways to turn yourself into a gambler and news - it may already have or it will automatically reflect on charts accordingly. i do not trade on big events - say results day, two hours before inventory in crude or natural gas etc

i use daily chart to study and analyze, as i am slow and takes me time to interpret the candles and chart patterns. i do a full post trade analysis when i do not intend to take a trade anymore or on weekends/ holidays usually.

so, let us see how things pan out for me and if i am doing something right i hope the newbie can learn as i intend to learn from the master traders out here.

happy trading guys and catch you soon...
 
#2
trade 001 - just one all day. may scan commodity for a trigger after a while.

i had scanned through my list last night and selected the following for today as per my 1 hour charts.
possible long trade trigger - ambuja cem / axis bank / bharti airtel / dabur / icici / itc / sail / southbank and tata power - andhra bank was the only possible short as per my charts . but eventually the opening today would finalize the trade call and i would wait for the chart to trigger the signal accordingly.

bharti airtel opened strong and so i began to scan the same for quite a while and missed the others. but then later - nifty was sideways, so i decided to wait for a breakout. patience pays and about 1500 my chart triggered a buy in bharti airtel. (1500 hrs the price tested the 20 ema and got rejected) .since i did not intend to carry over positions i hesitated and that cut my profit. lesson learnt - just doing the right thing is not important. doing the right thing at the time time is important. cci signalling uptrend, instant rejection of 20 ema, ema crossover clear. the chart was yelling out - enter you dumbo, lol. however - i was not sure if i wanted to enter minutes before square off but the trade trigger got strong and i halfheartedly gave in. i entered the trade late at 535.1 (should have entered at 532 had i been disciplined) and let it auto square off at 537.2 . there was no target and i was going to let her run free to auto square off and stop loss was 534.0.
profit = 537.2-535.1 = 2.1 x 1700 = 3400 gross.

ill learn to post the chart here as the chart would be clear for understanding.

takeaway from the trade for me was - patience pays. do not despair or force a trade and wait and wait. if i would have walked away i would have lost this trade. its not how big or small you win that matters - its the fact that you trusted and executed your strategy and it proved itself that does. like there is no perfect trader, there is no perfect chart set up. most traders have a good set up in place anyways. its the trust in the chart and discipline in themselves that sets the good ones apart from newbies like me. it was not a perfect trade but it was not bad either. next time i must not hesitate and decide beforehand my cut off trade entry time.

for tomorrow my chart set up shows thus: (the confirmation comes on opening)
possible long: axis bank / nhpc / sail / southbank /
possible short: hdil /

happy trading guys, trust you folks had a good day..
 

Subhadip

Well-Known Member
#3
hi folks,

i was into trading a few years back but it was more of a part time hobby on my leave periods. i have now decided to quit my career to start trading full time and have been getting back into the action since the last three months and i feel i am getting back into shape.

tomorrow i begin the real time trading.the start of a new full time career. i hope to learn a lot from the master traders out here.

the forum was a place i used to drop by back then and learn much - as i intend to do now as well. the difference being - then - i had money to burn and time to kill and now - trading is a full time profession on the horizon so the situation is poles apart. i never truly respected the markets although i made good money even back then. but, with the micro knowledge growing - i now realize i was a lucky gambler and not a trader.
now, i am a newbie trader and hope to progress on the right path. i hope to learn a lot on my path out here.

basically by nature i am a mix of a scalper/trend trader - in the sense that i cannot hold onto losing trades for too long. my stop losses are very small whereas i can hold profits for so long - that at times, its scary, lol. . off late i realized that scalping is too tiresome and after 4/5 trades i am mentally exhausted. whereas trend trading requires a bigger stop loss in place. so i have been working on a combination of trend trading and scalping. ill explain my set up in brief.

the chart set up is a daily chart where i look for the day trend and the hourly chart for confirmation. my trading chart though is the 5 min chart. a day before my trades i scan through the shortlisted high volume stock futures to select the ones with clear trends. similarly with commodities. once i have the trending stocks and commodities i wait for the market open to re-confirm the trend. once my set up is confirming the direction of the trend i go to the 5 min chart to wait for a pullback and enter in the direction of the trend. once the short term trend ends i may decide to exit or if the profit is decent wait for a pullback again and remain in the trend until i get a reversal signal. i chase using stop loss to safeguard profit and how much on where the stop loss depends on the conditions in the prevailing circumstances.

my base indicators are the 5/21/50 ema's on the main chart. in addition i use the cci for confirmation. it has been a good set-up that is working for me so far. the tough part was the discipline required to trade on signals which i am slowly getting at a stage where i am - not bad now. i tweak the cci settings as per the back-test so it has no fixed value as such. (eg - i use values of 14 to 40 of cci depending on scalping / short holding / stock / commodity etc). randomly once or twice a day i use the obv and a 50/200 ema to confirm short and mid term reversal.

no fixed target or stop loss and no fixed risk/reward ratio as this is something i decide on how strong the set up is. i am cautious around pivot and support/resistance levels. i usually avoid the consolidation area on trades and tend to trade only after the breakout for a few points. generally the risk reward as per my learning trade history has been falling in the 1:3 ratio although i do not trade with any profit ratio. all i try to do is to keep my win/loss ratio as close to 60/40. that is the most important criteria i aim for. i wait and wait for the best set up on the first trade as i have realized that it defines my day - so i usually go in for just 1:1 risk/reward ratio on the first trade. once i have winner i realize that i can wrap up for the day if need be and not force a trade for the rest of the day so it gives me a decent amount of patience to wait and wait for the trade signal and not rush into a sideways market.

if i have exited a stock or commodity in profit or loss - i do not re-enter it for that day at least. this is because the fact that i had traded with a clear mind on my first trade and exited for a good reason . whereas now -greed, revenge, or clouded thinking is not making me think straight. i take a break of at least 10 minutes after each trade to calm the mind - be it disappointment or excitement. i have gladly realized that winning or losing is not affecting my emotions like it used to before - the emotional curve tends to stay flat mostly off late. win or lose i take a screenshot after 10 minutes and analyse the trade to keep my mind off the knee jerk reaction to re-enter the trade or enter a new one. so i take a screenshot, close that particular stock or commodity for the day to analyse and to ensure i do not trade it again. the hard core traders may not agree but trust me, it works best for newbie traders like me.

i do not listen to, least of all follow news or tips as i feel tips are the best ways to turn yourself into a gambler and news - it may already have or it will automatically reflect on charts accordingly. i do not trade on big events - say results day, two hours before inventory in crude or natural gas etc

i use daily chart to study and analyze, as i am slow and takes me time to interpret the candles and chart patterns. i do a full post trade analysis when i do not intend to take a trade anymore or on weekends/ holidays usually.

so, let us see how things pan out for me and if i am doing something right i hope the newbie can learn as i intend to learn from the master traders out here.

happy trading guys and catch you soon...
Take your time.... best wishes...

Good luck.
 
#5
was sideways today so decided to scalp and was a good decision. had a few guests drop by around lunch so could not trade post 1300 hrs.
trade 002/003/004 - three trades , all scalping.
did not realize that hdil was in ban period until the order got rejected.
overall a good day though i never got to trade the latter half of the day.
traded with one lot in mis except for trade in itc where i took 2 lots. first two trades short and last was long. used 5 min chart.

12:02:16 SELL SBIN17DECFUT NFO 3000 / 3000 318.60 MIS COMPLETE
12:01:33 BUY SBIN17DECFUT NFO 3000 / 3000 317.95 MIS COMPLETE
11:46:23 SELL HDIL17DECFUT NFO 0 / 8000 55.80 NRML REJECTED
11:00:36 BUY ITC17DECFUT NFO 4800 / 4800 261.95 MIS COMPLETE
10:50:54 SELL ITC17DECFUT NFO 2400 / 2400 262.55 MIS COMPLETE
10:42:08 SELL ITC17DECFUT NFO 2400 / 2400 262.00 MIS COMPLETE
10:15:08 BUY ASHOKLEY17DECFUT NFO 7000 / 7000 116.60 MIS COMPLETE
10:05:57 SELL ASHOKLEY17DECFUT NFO 7000 / 7000 117.25 MIS COMPLETE

hope you guys had a good day as well.
 
#6
was out most of the day and missed out on a great day today. just managed to squeeze in time for one trade.

lesson learnt - treat trading as a profession with the utmost respect it deserves. give it your undivided attention, invest in improving your knowledge. so far shamefully i am treating it like a money well that i come to when to when i am dry. must stop treating it thus. i am planning to get a private space for trading to correct this mishap. whether you take a trade or not is of no consequence, what matters is that you sit there watching the charts - looking for patterns - that is the least a newbie must do, least i must do.

the token monetary takeaway today : just one trade all day, lol. (trade 005)

11:39:57 SELL TECHM17DECFUT NFO 1100 / 1100 509.15 NRML COMPLETE
11:36:03 BUY TECHM17DECFUT NFO 1100 / 1100 508.20 NRML COMPLETE

hope the scalpers out here had a great day.
 
#8
hello path.finder, can you tell us how u select stocks for intraday trading and if u dont mind the strategy also.
hi n10roxx,

best and simplest way is the below method i use for intra-day is asf: (purely for intraday )
- open a naked chart on 1 hour
- lay over 20/50/200 ema
- if clear crossover visible ie 20 over 50 over 200 and and all ema pointing as close to two clock hand on a clock (then bullish)
- if clear crossover visible ie 20 over 50 over 200 and and 20/50 ema pointing as close to two clock hand on a clock and 200 flat (still slight bullish)
- if reverse of above then bearish or slight bearish
- if no clear crossovers, ema's mergered or zig zaging over and under each other - stock is sideways.

stocks i selected are random and just from a high traded volume point of view, you may select any high traded volume stock futures you like.

say for eg: try this on the stocks i scan daily as below and see what the hourly chart says as per the above test: (as per day end today). but what happens is that the day opening may set in this or throw this out of the window as per gap up or down opening.

a trader friend of mine regularly picks the gainers and losers from the nse website and chases in the direction of the nifty trend. so each one has his own way of doing it. if nifty is trending bullish - he chases the gainers and vice-versa (these are dynamic and keep changing so be careful) - he does really well too. he loves the losers because his logic is this - the market punishes losers more severely than it rewards the winners, lol. he has a valid point. he makes thrice as much money from his short positions as proof. so take your pick. but back test on paper trading until you are dead sure - then test it - twice again, lol.

just to give you an idea of the stocks i trade in usually are below.

ADANI POWER - sideways, ema zig zag - as per day end today
AMBUJA CEMENT - sideways, ema zig zag - as per day end today
ANDHRA BANK - bearish - as per day end today

ASHOK LEYLAND
APOLLO TYRE
AXIS BANK
BANK BARODA
BANK NIFTY
BHARTI AIRTEL
BHEL
DABUR
DISH TV
GMR INFRA
HCC
HDFC
ICICI
IDBI
IDEA
IFCI
ITC
JP ASSOSIATES
NATIONALUM
NHPC
NIFTY
NMDC
PFC
POWERGRID
PTC
RELAINCE
SAIL
SBIN
TATAPOWER
TATASTEEL
TECHM

hope that helps you in a little way.
 
#9
lol, feel buoyant and good today. andhra bank and ashok leyland on scanner for scalping - that is the intention, lets see how the day goes.
 
#10
taking a break for a while, - was a good session.

trades 006/007/008:

10:38:03 BUY SAIL17DECFUT NFO 12000 / 12000 77.50 MIS COMPLETE
10:36:42 SELL SAIL17DECFUT NFO 12000 / 12000 77.85 MIS COMPLETE
10:27:13 BUY ANDHRABANK17DECFUT NFO 10000 / 10000 59.65 MIS COMPLETE
09:45:03 SELL ANDHRABANK17DECFUT NFO 10000 / 10000 59.70 MIS COMPLETE
09:41:08 BUY ANDHRABANK17DECFUT NFO 10000 / 10000 59.75 MIS COMPLETE
09:19:14 SELL ANDHRABANK17DECFUT NFO 10000 / 10000 59.80 MIS COMPLETE
 

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