By Cliff Clark
Many people come into trading thinking all they need to do is buy and sell stocks and they will make money, it's such and easy game. But is it really? No, not a chance. In order to succeed at this game much education is needed. That is the number one thing that is lacking in this game. The second thing that is lacking is accountability. You cannot be success and continue to improve without both.
So how do successful people in any field structure their improvements ? The answer is pretty clear. They have a boss, a mentor or some sort of accountability that keeps them on track as they build skills by studying, learning and practicing. Many top performers work with mentors at various points in their careers to help them learn and grow. If you think you can train on your own you'll need to define structures to keep you on track and accountable. Take a different step to keep yourself on track and to achieve your goals, think about getting an accountability partner or trading mentor. It's often too easy to get locked into your own head and your own ideas and before long you'll find your visions have narrowed.
Being a trader requires that you do most of your work alone. You have to be your own boss and employee at the same time. Knowing how to manage yourself and how to keep motivated and disciplined is a much underestimated skill, it's something you must develop. The more you analyze yourself the better.
That's why it's a good idea to have a trading buddy or mentor to provide some external accountability and perspective. There is a great book by Brett Steenbarger called “The Daily Trading Coach, 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist” that you might want to check out.
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.
