Daily Schedule - January 2012

Daily structure is critical to keep you focused on your immediate and long-term goals.  Just like every trader should construct a detailed trading plan, traders should also construct a daily plan that makes the best use of their time and helps direct their energy and efforts.  Below is my current daily schedule that will be updated as necessary:

• 6:00am - Wake up
• 6:00-6:15am - Check futures, setup market replay for the morning session
• 6:15-6:30am - Read trading blogs
• 6:30-7:00am - Blog post morning thoughts 
• 7:00-7:30am -  Shower, dress, eat breakfast
• 7:30-7:45am - Check important news items
• 7:45-8:30am - Commute to work
• 8:30am - Begin work for the day and follow SPY and IWM activity
• 10:00am - End market replay recording of morning session
• 12:00-1:00pm - Lunch, read trading books, blog post intraday thoughts
• 3:30pm - Update market breadth indicators
• 4:30-5:15pm - Commute home
• 5:15-5:45pm - Document trading strategy results, post Market Breadth Report
• 5:45-7:00pm - Evening workout
• 7:00-8:00pm - Shower, dress, eat dinner
• 8:00-10:00pm - Sim trade the morning session with market replay, research new indicators, research new trading strategies, read trading books, blog post evening thoughts
• 10:15-10:45pm - Go to sleep

Throughout the day, I monitor the behavior of the market using FreeStockCharts.com.  I follow the intraday performance  of IWM and SPY, noting volume and technical patterns.  I have set up a watchlist to track the intraday performance of several markets including DIA, EFA, EUR/USD, GLD, IWM, OIL, QQQQ, SPY, TLT, VIX--X.  I monitor each of these for daily percent change, volume buzz, and their relationship to their 5, 10, 20, and 50 day moving average.  I will also monitor the number of stocks up or down 4% on the day as a gauge of market strength or weakness.

During lunch, I review any significant news items.  I also use my lunch time to read through any interesting trading blog posts and archive them if I believe the post can help me in the future.

In the evening, I create the Market Breadth Report to summarize the behavior of each industry and help me determine the overall health of the market.  I review and archive trading blog posts, then post a list of my daily trading thoughts on this blog.  I use the rest of the evening to research trading ideas or read trading books.

Welcome 2012 - The Year of Change

I cant believe it has been over a month since my last post.  I have taken some time to reflect on my trading and I have decided that changes will need to be made to make 2012 my most successful year yet.  I have lofty goals for the year:

• Reach my fundraising goal and finish the Fight for Air Presidential Tower Stair Climb race.
• Finish 5 half marathons = 3 Chicago, 1 Richmond, 1 Columbus
• Get married
• Get a new dog
• Leave job and trade full time

The last one is going to be the trickiest.  Parts of my trading plan have been coming together over the past month. I have determined my trading time frame, vehicle, style, and platform.  I will be day trading (scalping) the mini Russell 2000 futures contract (TF) using the NinjaTrader platform.  I have been paper trading over the past six weeks, and I believe I have an edge.  There is still plenty of research that needs to be done before going live.  Below is my schedule for achieving my goal of trading full time:

• January - program and automate strategy
• February/March - track strategy performance and research position sizing and money management
• April/May - begin trading live in the mornings before work (4am to 8am)
• June - wedding and honeymoon
• July - trade live in the mornings before work (4am to 8am)
• Post July - request 3 month leave of absence from work to trade full time

Currently, I am hording as much cash as I can to build up my equity.  I also will not request a leave of absence from work until I have been consistently profitable.  I need to average $100 a day to cover my expenses (rent, food, utilities, etc.).  It should be a challenging and rewarding year.  I am looking forward to it!

Bring it on 2012!

Daily Schedule - January 2011

Daily structure is critical to keep you focused on your immediate and long-term goals.  Just like every trader should construct a detailed trading plan, traders should also construct a daily plan that makes the best use of their time and helps direct their energy and efforts.  Below is my current daily schedule that will be updated as necessary:

• 6:00am - Wake up
• 6:00-6:30am - Morning workout
• 6:30-7:00am - Shower, dress, eat breakfast
• 7:00-7:30am - Read trading blogs, archive important posts, scan news headlines
• 7:30-7:45am - Prepare trading watchlists for the day, and setup backtest research models (if necessary)
• 7:45-8:15am - Commute to work
• 8:15am - Begin work for the day, run backtest models, follow SPY and IWM activity
• 9:30am - Run morning breakout scans
• 12:00-12:30pm - Lunch, read news items, read trading blogs, archive important posts, research stocks that are up more than 25% in the past 20 days, select momentum swing trade candidates
• 12:30pm - Continue work, run backtest models, follow SPY and IWM activity
• 2:45pm - Run trading strategy scans and simulate trade orders
• 5:00pm - Archive important news events, update market breadth indicators
• 5:15pm - Document results for trading strategies
• 5:30-6:15pm - Commute home
• 6:15-7:00pm - Evening workout (optional)
• 7:00-7:30pm - Shower, dress, eat dinner
• 7:30-8:00pm - Create Market Report and post daily accomplishments
• 8:00-10:00pm - Miscellaneous activities (work on blog, improve spreadsheets, read, martial arts, etc.)
• 10:30pm - Go to sleep

Daily News and Event Information:

• Earnings Whispers daily earnings guidance email update
• Briefing.com Stocks In Play at Yahoo Finance
• Briefing. com Story Stocks at Yahoo Finance
• Briefing.com Short Stories at Yahoo Finance
• Briefing.com Tech Stocks at Yahoo Finance
• Zack's Investment Research - Today's Earnings (EPS) and Earnings Surprises
• Beacon Equity Research stock and market news RSS feed
• Automated daily Google email alert for "beats revenues earnings EPS profit"

I archive any important news or event information.  This information is later used in my research to help identify what items cause a stock to move up or down, allowing me to focus more of my energy on the news items that have a more significant impact.

Throughout the day, I monitor the behavior of the market using FreeStockCharts.com.  I follow the intraday performance  of IWM and SPY, noting volume and technical patterns.  I have set up a watchlist to track the intraday performance of several markets including DIA, EFA, EUR/USD, GLD, IWM, OIL, QQQQ, SPY, TLT, VIX--X.  I monitor each of these for daily percent change, volume buzz, and their relationship to their 5, 10, 20, and 50 day moving average.  I will also monitor the number of stocks up or down 4% on the day as a gauge of market strength or weakness.

Several times a day, beginning at 9:30am,  I scan the market using TeleChart 2007 Gold.  I scan the market searching for momentum swing trade ideas that I can enter before the end of the day.  Often I find 1-5 good trading candidates that I can buy during lunch, then I can monitor their performance throughout the rest of the day. If applicable, I run backtests using StockFinder 5.0 to research trading strategies on my laptop throughout the day.

During lunch, I review any significant news items from the sources specified above.  I also use my lunch time to read through any interesting trading blog posts and archive them if I believe the post can help me in the future. I use TeleChart to review the performance of stocks that are up more than 25% in the past 20 days and identify any common characteristics that may help me identify such opportunities in the future.  Finally, I review my market scans and select good momentum swing trade candidates to monitor for the rest of the day, tracking their performance over the next couple of weeks.

Shortly before close, I run my final trading scans to determine good swing trading candidates to buy.  I also determine stocks to track for my daily short term trading strategy.  The strategy determines whether the short term behavior of the market is in a mean reversion or trending state, then it selects 20 stocks that are the best candidates to either buy or short on that day.  This is a paper traded black box strategy that holds stocks for only one day.

In the evening, I create the Market Report to summarize the behavior of each industry and help me determine the overall health of the market.  I review and archive trading blog posts, then post a list of my daily accomplishments on this blog.  I use the rest of the evening to research trading ideas or read trading books.