Putting Your Time In!
By Cliff Clark
A question I am often asked is how long did it take you to become a profitable trader. When I give my response of two to three years the enthusiasm usually disappears from their demeanor. Nobody wants to think about the reality of this business.
But when I say it took me two to three years what does that really mean. The fact is I had been “trading” seven to eight years before I actually began to take this business seriously. During those early years I developed a lot of bad habits that I had to overcome in addition to learning how to trade properly. That probably added to my time line. My timeline actually started when I got serious about this business.
I often hear from traders who tell me that they have been trading for a year or more and still aren't making money. They then tell me they took PTS a few months ago. Guys you haven't been trading for a year or more. Your time line started when you started PTS. With hard work and persistence you can become profitable in one to two years after you begin your education, maybe longer if you have a lot of bad habits to overcome. Maybe less if you are one of the lucky few geniuses.
Don't rush things. Take your time, develop a plan and work on your patience. You won't develop a profitable trading plan in a week. You'll be trying different things until you find the right path for you. Put in your time. The profits will follow your hard work and patience.
2 trades for me today with +1.5R total
1st Trade QCOM +2R
148.39/149.97 exit 143.25
12% gap down under pivot support and 50ma after a strong daily double top rejection,. I took it on a congestion breakdown with a fairly wide stop, leaving my 2R target 50c over its ATR, slow but consistent move down with great RW, hit my target on the penny before it bounced.
2nd Trade AQB -0.5R
9.40/9.70 exit 9.56
I rarely trade stocks under $10 and even more rarely short them. I liked this daily chart as it broke its uptrend channel and stayed under a strong 9.50 support line enough room to its daily 50ma. I entered after a pullback with a fairly wide stop but only 1/3 of its ATR used at the time. It failed to break down with the strong market open and stayed in a narrow range.
I actually broke my plan with this trade as I lowered my stop to a pivot where price made a big bounce earlier at 11am with a large seller sitting there. My thought was that if it breaks that level again then it will likely...
1 trade for (-1R)
I took a BD on QCOM. I was worried about the target being close to the daily range, so I took a tighter stop on the 2 min chart. I am looking through PTS right now, most of the examples have 2 options for where to put your stop. It looks to me like one of the stops would be at the bottom of the main consolidation area, and the other at the bottom of where there has been a shakeout or turnaround bar (if there has been one). Due to the daily range I took the tighter one on this. In hindsight it seems obvious to take the wider stop, but in the moment it looked ok.
I was then looking at the 15 min 3BP on QCOM, but the reason I used a tighter stop in the first place was because of the range. The 15 min 3BP would have needed to have gone even further than the wider stop on the 2 min BD, so I didn't take it.
