Hi guys, I have been trading for some time, and have been keen to trade a big account, as a result I have joined the Topstep Trader program to see if I have the right stuff. I thought I would document my journey through this process.
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I am a price action trader, however I do take note of chart technical indicators, on a trade by trade basis I am primarily interested in the order flow, the price footprint, and what the delta is doing. I have one outside subscription that I pay a monthly fee, and that is for the market commentary and support and resistance numbers from eMini Player.
I have three monitors that I use to trade the ES (see pictures attached). The middle monitor is my main monitor where I fine tune for timing for entries and exits. Left monitor is my footprint and volume profile chart. The right chart is the Jigsaw DOM to keep me in the right direction in relation to order flow.
I am currently on Combine03...which means I blew up the first 2 accounts...haha....it would seen like that is the case, however all it was that I violated the Combine rules of the game. If you notice on the last attachment, there are a list of rules for the 30K combine I am currently trying to successfully complete.
Ok, on with the trading.
Day (1) One - 110316
Fridays I have found are never really a great day to day-trade the ES. Today was no different, shaped up to be sort of a slow, choppy, range type day for me. However, I have found playing the Topstep Trader game has been a lot different than my normal trading style, especially in regards to trade management. The rules for keeping an active account are very specific, so you have to keep your stop losses tight, and know when to bail on trade. If you don't, the consequences are you will probably blow your account up...at least in the eyes of TopStep.
All in all not a bad day. I reached the profit target I usually try to get each day, which is 1% of the trading account. In this case +$310 before lunch. 13 winning trades, 1 losing trade which I bailed on account I did not like the price action, losing 4 ticks. In hindsight looking at post trade review, that trade was poor on account of poor timing on the entry.