Trading Diary - All about trading

The feeling of ending the week with small loss is not so good indeed. Though it does not make me nervous, it is enough to make me hold my breath and review stop loss strategy. Is it too far away or just too near?
After loss in corn trade 2 days ago, today I made another loss in HangSeng trading. Sell order was triggered after market dropped to a low just crossed my order. It was a signal generated by my system. But, too bad, it appears to be the low of the day. Stop loss order was placed.
10 minutes before market closed, i have decided to cover the short with small loss instead of taking the risk of gap up next week or gap down with potential profit. After all, i prefer to sleep well and accompany my girlfriend with peace of mind. I have yet to have a totally relaxed mind when having a open position across weekend.
It make sense to me to close the position earlier than stop loss point. (am i just consoling myself? i hope not) Why? From weekly chart, HangSeng is in strong uptrend. Advantage is with Long site. I expected a pull back and in conjuction of my system signal. I put a Short order. Yep, order got filled, but appeared to be a day low. HangSeng refused to dip further.

It hits me with a lesson. Only trade in the direction of major direction. Maybe I should just ignore Sell signal during strong uptrend. I might miss the chance of market turning point, but , guess what, most of the time, I would be able to avoid a situation like this.

Swin

Do you join trading forums? Do you read research reports from broking houses? or do you receive regular newsletters from self-claimed market gurus?
I guess this is no brainer. Most of traders do. I join forum. I read research reports and i read emails from market gurus.
How should you handle all these services? They are so fast, so much, and so dangerous.
Here is my way of using these.
First of all, it got to be FREE. I do not pay for any advisory service. Why should I? Please show me with proper documents that any great trader trades by using advice from some market gurus?(I really keen to know. If you know, please drop me a line). I doubt there is any.

Then why do I subscribe for these services?
For system development and for FUN. Interestingly, sometimes,you can find some new ideas for system development when reading newsletters. Twist market gurus words. Swallow it. Digest it with your understanding and then back test it. Well, most of times, you can throw away their words. Hey, but you just need one brilliant idea to built your robust system. Secondly, do you find that do something opposite to analyst’s words/views is profitable? *Oops*

For fun? Yup. Sometimes, life is just so boring. Log on to trading forums to meet traders is fun. Most of the time, forum is filled with advertisers and amateurs. I always get some entertainment from their market views. Really, interesting and fun. ‘Stars are moving, turn date is near,…3rd wave is finishing…top is coming….xxx trader must be losing hell of a lot because he kept calling a sell in bullish market, i think he is a crap…etc’ Absolutely nonsense. Absolutely entertaining.

So when should you and I read these information?
Simple. Read them only after you have finished your trading preparation. Never let other’s view affects your trading preparation. And also if your girlfriend allows you to sit in front of computer a little bit longer.

Have a profitable day,
Swin