A bit of my Trading history:
Started trading in '07, intially stocks and then futures. After a year or so of mediocrity, I was allowed entry into a private chat room of some other traders (not vendors), one being infamous on ET forums. After a lot of 16-hour days, I did well, and quickly went to cash trading in '08 (nq futures). First week of trading I believe I made something like 75 points (NQ) per contract with 1 pt stops on average - probably 35% accuracy. I was only in early 20's, so I was not used to seeing that kind of cash so fast, especially after working so hard to get it, and it got to my head. Quickly became trigger happy after losses, afraid to see profits disappear. Before I knew it, I started altering my strategy because 1 or 2 bad weeks was enough to displace 6 months of live trading, or so I thought. Traded until '09 and then was forced to stop.
Tried to get into Forex in off-work hours, but never had much success as I remember feeling it took a lot of screentime, more than futures. Since then, I glanced here-and-there at charts, but never had the means to get back in, until 6 months ago. I've been off-and-on sim for a while and doing 'o.k.', but have been a bit all over the place.
A little about my plan, in a macro-sense:
I designed my recent plan on simplicity, utilizing specific goals based around my psyche and decision making. The market isn't simplistic in any sense, but I felt I was constantly seeing mixed signals based around various edges I cultivated. This would constantly cause me hesitation in entries or lament over a loss because 'I should have..'. I felt a need to rationalize every market turn. I also wanted to skip afternoons. If I wanted an all-day screen-job,
I wouldn't be trading. It also coincides with my ADHD, as my focus becomes waned after 1.5-2 hours.
My plan goals:
Trading hours from open to lunch
Average of more than 1 trade per day, to keep me engaged and avoiding initial cash psych issues of seeing red days
Logic in my trading
Small losses, small wins, large wins
My journal goals:
I'm creating this journal to give myself accountability in my indecision. I have various methods that would be suitable to trade with, but I have had issues over-testing to find 'the perfect and ideal strategy'; which doesn't exist. The journal goal is to stick to 1 style of trading until it shows itself as being successful for me or not.
My short-term goals:
To be consistent in pre-market routine and understanding the day structure
Weekly average of 10 pts per contract, and over 35% positive days; minimum of 2 weeks
To successfully live trade with TST after passing a combine
Psych Understanding:
Goal is not to find the best hindsight strategy. Goal is to find the strategy I can execute the best on a consistent basis.
Trading is not a direct competition. The end result is profitability and expansion, not being 'better' than 1 person or firm.
On-going review:
My major issues are changing things quickly; becoming impatient. This is an attempt to curb that. Some of these taken from other people here.
Monthly: In every business there is a monthly quota. If not met a little research is done to see if business plan was implemented, and if it was, continue and chalk it up as a slow month
Weekly: Write down common error occurrences. If there is common issues, start to set goals to fix them. Grade myself every day on fixing those errors.
Change: Any ideas will be required to forward test for at least 20 occurrences. Analyze the results. If I'm happy with them, ill implement the rule into my trading but will track.
I will then compare the live tracking and validation results and make a decision on whether the rule change is worth keeping
Initial Trading Plan:
I'm rusty when it comes to trading live, so I am keeping it ultra simple at first. When I used to have success, I did similar things but got ultra tight stops in key areas utilizing the 5-sec chart with volume (similar to the …