I've asked this question of thousands of traders, now let's buckle down and get some answers started.

Go ahead and sound off - what's the biggest problem You personally have in your day trading?

Many traders, for example, talk about:

- not letting winners run long enough, exiting too fast
- not being able to find the best stocks each morning
- discipline needed to stay out of trades or market days that aren't strong
- chart setup questions, not being able to read the tape
and more...

What's driving you nuts, when it comes to day trading?

-ken

If I miss the open, I try finding stock with normally wide ranges and wait until corresponding sectors start to move and act on it but the problem is also waiting for the right signals like stochs, candles,vol,MA's etc (confirming) and pivots to be in sync.Many times it works out ok but I still find myself buying at high stochs and selling at low stochs.

I don't know what position size is best to start with each morning. And how to take advantage of current market conditions by using beta volatility, daily TICK/TRIN/PREM.

Not adapting my trading to the market conditions. I traded in an eSignal demo account for over a year and the results were very favorable. I started trading live in November and couldn't figure out why I was losing. I know the execution speed at times will be an issue but even factoring that in there was something else that was impacting my success. This was right when the sub prime mess was constantly talked about on CNBC. Suddenly the market (for me) was too volatile. I would be getting the direction of the stock correct but due to the whipsaw action I was experiencing too much of the pain of a losing trade (so I would get out) only to watch the stock move in my favor with me on the sidelines nursing a $500 loss.... The solution: decrease the share size to be able to tolerate the pain of the trade going against me until it moved in my favor. Its a lot easier holding on to a trade that is down $200 than $500. It did help my psyche to hear on CNBC one of the commentators say that there were traders on the floor of the NYSE with 30 years experience that didn't know what was going on with this market and that they were confused... If somebody with 30 years of real floor experience can't tell what is going on how could I expect myself to... again trade smaller and less until the market becomes more predictable...

I would have to agree with ROB's post. With this volatile market...I've learned to take shorter "chops" at the the market. There is a different psychological undertone, when your stop loss has been reached and the pain levels are unbearable. This happened to me on Friday's -300pt drop in the DOW. It's not fun when one minute your in the money, and a few minutes later your stop loss has been reached. Looking back, the stock rebounded after finding SUPPORT....but I would have to ride through TWICE the amount of losses before reaching a break even point. Bottom line: Reduce the amount of Contracts or Shares in a volatile market.

My problem is knowing when to get off a stock. Like Rob said, once you drop the stock it changes direction and goes up. So you try to hold it for a little longer in hopes it will turn, and the next thing you are in so deep that it is becomes a real pocket emptier. The stop losses are OK, but how many time can you take the losses before your account runs dry? Cutting the amount of stock bought will give you a smaller loss, but in order over come the commission cost you have let the price of the stock raise higher. It is like a catch 22.

It's look like 0) the market makers are scalping the stop losses to earn something.
1) Other way: with big volatility, and a small account: know what to do, or get out!
2) Make the skills of money management work for you.
3)(take a good look at the fib's and take your stop loss a bit further...so at the first test of the fib's you will not be stopped out...)

4) what do they say: do not trade often, but trade well....:-)

My biggest problem is impatience and anxiety.

Impatience and anxiety. not finding the best stocks...

Patience, spending the day for 6 or so good trades. Not knowing if they will even come or when? Sitting on my hands the rest of the day. Always being tempted to break my rules. Waiting for the trade to come to me. Trying to be early entering and existing a trade w/ momentum. To recognize tension, in the market and stocks. Being able to walk away in a flat market. To conserve my mental energy. Being able to take a loss or win with little to no emotion. A loss or a win doesn't make me a good or bad trader, Relying on 1 or 2 types of moves and knowing them well. Knowing when to limit share size when entering a trade and when to back up the truck.

Hi -

Here's a thoughtful question from Scott, rec'd via email Nov 30, 2010:

------------------
Ken,

My single biggest problem is knowing how to read the signs correctly to pull the trigger on a profitable day trade and one that's heading south. This problem leads me to flip flop between strategies. e.g. day trading one of my favorite little stocks and not getting out of the position when it starts loosing, flipping strategy, going to a long position because on the 3 month charts it's on the rise. Wise, unwise?

Also, would you entertain doing a segment explaining cup patterns.

Bull cup/Bear cup patterns. Which side and at what point to enter and exit from both the long and shorting, day and swing trader points of view. Also which parts of the pattern to avoid and the reasons why.
------------------

Hi Scott,

Excellent questions; let's look at the first part. The main thing I do that stops me from 'flip flopping' from long to short again, is to use the TRIN and COMPQ 2-day pattern as the main basis for all trades.

There's 5 types of markets:
-strong long (COMPQ 2-day high breakout, TRIN < .3-.7)
-weak long (COMPQ minor uptrend, may be in-range, TRIN <.7)
-choppy (COMPQ narrow range inside prior day's high/low, TRIN between .7 and 1.5, very choppy if between .9-1.1).
-weak short (COMPQ minor downtrend, may be in-range of prior day's high/low, TRIN > 1.5)
-strong short (COMPQ 2-day low breakdown, TRIN >1.5-2.0

I look at which of those 5 configurations the broad market has first, that's my overall bias that then influences all my trading decisions.

While I may go long or short several times in the same stock/etf/whatever I'm trading, in the same session, I go larger size in-trend, especially in the strongest market conditions. That's more important overall than micro-chart patterns for the specific stock, for example.

And yes re cup patterns- more on the way, they're important to understand, especially the nuances.

__________________
Good trading,

Ken Calhoun, Pres.
http://www.TradeMastery.com (NEW for 2012)
http://www.BreakoutMastery.com
http://www.MomentumDoubler.com
http://www.TradeWebinars.com
http://www.ETFMastery.com
http://www.ADXMastery.com
http://www.ChartScans.com (daily alerts)
http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com
http://www.TradingTelevision.com
http://www.StockTradingSuccess.com (w/Steve Nison)

p.s. per sec/cftc/ftc regs, none of this is to be construed as trading recommendations, it's just for educational use only, so you can "peek over my shoulder" to see what I'm doing with some of my trades. See www.daytradingu.com/disclaim.htm for full disclaimer.
These pages contain excerpts of actual trades I've made; it's not a complete record of every single trade I make. Some days I'll take trading wins or losses that I do not take the time to screencap and post online; it's a partial record of some of my trades. Note that I am not making income nor profitability claims of any kind. Most traders lose regardless of what they do. The majority of my personal income comes from my training business. I try to capture the best highlights of successful days so you can see practical examples of what I'm trading. There are also days in which I incur losses (and wins) which are not shown. This is simply a partial record showing highlights of some of my successful trading days. No representation is being made that other traders, including customers, will be able to trade like I do. Generally expected (average/typical) trader results are that all traders incur trading losses and most do not become profitable, regardless of the training they get. Trading is a speculative, high-risk activity.

Trading challenge: how to use correct trade management and position sizing?

http://www.moneyshow.com/tradeshow/n...B&scode=021128

This is a topic I'll be speaking on at the Traders' Expo in NYC this February, 2011:



Here's the registration link to use; please be sure to use this one, so that the folks at MoneyShow know that you're one of my traders; thanks:

http://www.moneyshow.com/tradeshow/n...B&scode=021128

__________________
Good trading,

Ken Calhoun, Pres.
http://www.TradeMastery.com (NEW for 2012)
http://www.BreakoutMastery.com
http://www.MomentumDoubler.com
http://www.TradeWebinars.com
http://www.ETFMastery.com
http://www.ADXMastery.com
http://www.ChartScans.com (daily alerts)
http://www.DaytradingUniversity.com
http://www.TradingTelevision.com
http://www.StockTradingSuccess.com (w/Steve Nison)

p.s. per sec/cftc/ftc regs, none of this is to be construed as trading recommendations, it's just for educational use only, so you can "peek over my shoulder" to see what I'm doing with some of my trades. See www.daytradingu.com/disclaim.htm for full disclaimer.
These pages contain excerpts of actual trades I've made; it's not a complete record of every single trade I make. Some days I'll take trading wins or losses that I do not take the time to screencap and post online; it's a partial record of some of my trades. Note that I am not making income nor profitability claims of any kind. Most traders lose regardless of what they do. The majority of my personal income comes from my training business. I try to capture the best highlights of successful days so you can see practical examples of what I'm trading. There are also days in which I incur losses (and wins) which are not shown. This is simply a partial record showing highlights of some of my successful trading days. No representation is being made that other traders, including customers, will be able to trade like I do. Generally expected (average/typical) trader results are that all traders incur trading losses and most do not become profitable, regardless of the training they get. Trading is a speculative, high-risk activity.