Daily Recap and Status - May 7, 2008
Another rough day and once again it’s inexperience that causes me so much pain. Today additional funds were deposited into my account, finally giving me access to futures trading. My first NQ futures trade was successful, no matter how small the victory. Subsequent attempts at trading the NQs resulted in failure.
Trades taken: 5 x NQ
P/L: -$90
After becoming frustrated early in the day, I took the rest of the day off. Going back, I realized a few things about my first attempt at futures trading.
First, my stops were entirely too tight. I didn’t give my futures time to move and as a result I paid dearly for it with money left on the table. Trailing stops also don’t work well in a choppy market. This morning, the markets were extremely choppy. Of course hindsight’s 20/20, but it would have been best to sit out most of the morning. Around lunch time, futures across the board dropped but by then I was done for the day. This afternoon was probably the easiest time to have made a nice sum of money. C’est la vie.
Tomorrow’s another day although I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll see choppy action in the morning. Maybe taking the rest of the week off isn’t a bad idea.
By the way, crude just topped $124.
How are you daytrading w/ so little in your account??
Well futures are immune from the pattern day trader rule. And upon looking into the pattern day trader rule, you can day trade as long as it’s not the same underlying 4 times in a 5 trading day period. To be honest, it’s silly for me to day trade options since I don’t have the capital or experience for it but I have to learn sometime I think if I want this to be my future hah.
Nice. I actually thought the rule applied to everything, not sure how I’ve missed that, but great to know as I’m a newb as well.
It’s fun being a newb for a little while. Then it’s amazing when you’re actually able to answer the new person’s questions. At the very least I’ve learned something. Now I just need it to make money hah!