Another month is over, and I have traded for almost half a year - and I am basically back at zero. Counting pure profits I am still up, but the fees to the broker have now put me at negative balance from when I started. It's not big money - I wouldn't have had more money if I had never traded - but it's still annoying.

 

Going back to last month's post I can see that I've learned a few things - which is good - but the overall results tell me I need to be more careful and learn even more - my mistakes outweigh my successes. 

I started letting PDT's go - which was a good idea. However, this made me start to daytrade, since I was anyway going to risk closing the same day. This pushed me to up my sizes, and this made losses even bigger. 

I also started going long, and appreciating the benefits of this - more often I got bigger movements, and the safety factor of finite risk is a comfort. Also, now I know that longs can work for real. The strategy was going long in crowded names that might get short squeezed - and it worked most of the time. However, it also burned me when it wasn't working - my risk was way to big in relation to my account size.

 

For June I am hoping to get back to grinding - making a few hundred a week from size closer to my pain threshold - 100 shares of 5 dollar stocks, or 500 shares of 2 dollar stocks, not 2000 or 5000 shares. With daytrading I have opened possibilities to really make quick money and consistent money - IF I stay alert and follow the trend, not by pissing off when I am invested. I will also try to not enter with mentality "long" or "short" before trend is established - only follow the name and the movement. 

 

Another mistake I keep repeating is taking chances in pre-market. Sure, this could work some of the time, and I could get real homeruns - PBMD could have doubled my account size had I sized in pre-market. However, most of the time the trend doesn't establish itself until after market open, possibly 30-60 minutes in, sometimes less or more. My success with ONTY and PBMD came even without sizing in pre-market, so I don't need to do that at all.

 

I have treated my "house money" as leverage to make bigger trades faster, but this has lead to bigger risks and faster losses with higher stakes. I should learn that it is better not to risk $1000 to make $1000 - try risking $50 to make a $100 - better math and more comfortable life. So, I might end up making 150 a week for the first few months - but this is more consistent and more valuable than wasting 1000 a week. 10 weeks of maybe 400 bucks will earn me more than I have the last months anyway. Now remind me if I fuck this up!