Hi Folks,

Here is my thread on the Feb 2019 Trading journal challenge. I hope this keeps me on point with respect to journaling to keep myself accountable and develop the daily tasks and habits that makes winning traders win. My target is be become consistently profitable on SIM & go live in April. 1st target is 0-$500 / week including commissions trading 1 contract, and then up from there.

Summarized Trading Plan :
- Trading mostly ES in Globex session somewhere between 7 - 10 pm EST (with CL & NQ on standby in case ES chart is sideways, whippy or choppy).
- Start in Sim with 10k acct, trading 1 contract for no more than 1% risk at any given time. Daily target is $200 on average, daily max loss is $200, target is to have 75% winning days. Max & ave winner to be greater than max & ave looser. Walk away after 2 consecutive losses, either shut down for the day or way for a new trend.
- Method is trend trading ema bounces with usual targets of about 5-6 ticks, increased target to 8-10 ticks on bigger retracements, pivot magnets, etc. I will either sit on my hands, not trade or lower my targets to 2-3 tick scalps, in the case the market is whippy or choppy, having a difficult time picking a trend direction.
- Trade approx. 5-10 trades / trading session.
- Trade using tick charts. My main entry chart is 89ticks, using a larger time-frame (as an anchor chart) at 233tick. Mostly using price action with Ema's to help determine overall trend direction and retracement bounces. Also have a sensitive MACD to indicate divergence (or energy), and ST/LT scholastic for to help with cycles or timing.

Journal :
- My journal will start with a summary of market, times, any red flags etc.
- My journal will then list each trade including their specifics.
- My journal will include a daily report card, the good-the bad-the ugly.
- I will attach marked up charts that refer back and correspond to each trade.
- Weekly, I will look at weekly stats vs targets.
- Monthly, I will look at week to week performance, and monthly stats.

Thanks

Sunday Feb3, 2019:
As usual on Sunday night opens, open about 4 pts lower than Friday close.
Wait for some chart formations to develop.

Trades:
1) 7:13pm 34ema bounce 1c ES long. Looks as thou it is loosing steam. Stopped out -5 ticks
2) 7:27pm 2B (ems on 2 time-frames). Stopped out -6 ticks.
--- WAIT / BREAK ---- following my rules so far .....
3) 7:58pm 2B (on 89 ema). Limit order to enter, trailing stop. Winner +7 ticks
4) Going long for trend continuation .. stopped out at -6 ticks
5) Going long for trend continuation .. stopped out at --5 ticks
--- TREND REVERSAL ----
6) Short slingshot trade. Stopped out -4 ticks. Trend reverses and keeps going up.

Results:
The Good: Followed my trading rules except last trade.
The Bad: Pretty choppy, no follow through.
The Ugly: Took another trade even though I had already hit my daily loss limit.


6 trades: 5 losses, 1 winner. -21 ticks / $-264.38

Monday Feb4, 2019:
Start watching market at 6:30pm, ES doesn't look trendy, CL looks like a nice uptrend so .... Then wife calls .. she is about 10min away with a flat time. Off I go to pick her up. Come back to the PC and continue. CL still looking good.


Trades:
1) 7:07pm CL 2B ema bounce on 2 timeframes, early entry prior to 3rd candle trigger. 1c CL long. Stopped out for a -7 tick loss.
2) 7:51pm CL 3B (ems on 3 time-frames). This time I did wait for the trigger however it was a very big candle, so I tried using a bigger stop to allow some breathing room. SL 1 tick below swing low. Target is 8-10 ticks, secondary target is S1 pivot. Stopped out -12 ticks.
--- WAIT / BREAK ---- following my rules so far except early entry on trade 1. CL not agreeing with me so back to looking at ES which is now looking like a nice downtrend.
3&4) 8:16pm ES 2B ema bounce to thew downside. Come back to form a double top on the direction of the trend with divergence, so I add to my position respecting ~1% risk. No follow through and stop out for -9 tick loss.
--- STOP. Exceed my $200 daily loss.
5) Nice retracement and trigger so took a short position ES 1 contract short. SL 1 tick above swing high, Target is R2 and planning to trail stop in case it might be a runner. More than 1 hour in the trade.
Hit + 5 ticks so moved SL to BE (Break-even), then it touched my stop and was filled for a scratch / BE :-((

Results:
The Good: Followed ny trading rules except last trade. Did not enter choppy market however the market is slow and doesn't have much momentum and follow through
The Bad: Tough break, all losers.
The Ugly: Took another trade even though I had already hit my daily loss limit.

5 trades: 4 losses, 1 winner. -28 Ticks / - 306

Tues Feb5, 2019;

Busy all day, got home it close to 10pm.

Looked at ES & CL, very slow moving and no trend on either markets.

No trades taken, planning to wake up early to trade late London session - pre open of NY session tomorrow morning


Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

Twop trading sessions today. One at 5am, and one at 10pm.
-------------------------
Trade session 5am
Feb 6.

Everything on both CL and ES looks in a solid Downtrend. The question is whether there will trend continuation or a change in trend.


1/. 5:05 am. CL definitive down trend on anchor charts, retrace to 34ema on entry chart. short 1 contract 34B short. Hit +4, moved SL to BE -2. Stopped at -2.

2/. 5:15 am. CL BTF (bet the farm) .. came back to form a T7 double top in the direction of the overall down trend. Short 1 contract. No follow through, stop out at -4 ticks.

2 consecutive losses, take a short Break.

Watching CL
Retrace Several candles cluse in down direction however ATR did not flip so did not take the trade.

3/. 5:30 am. Watching ES
Limit order not filled and market moved to +4. Should have canceled order, came back and got filled. Market did not follow through to the downside Stopped for a -4 ticks.

The good : following rules for trade 1&2.
The bad : start trading right away, no pre trading routine
The ugly : order mistake on trade 3. Should have cancelled limit order after it was touched but not filled

3losses. -124

---------------------------------------

Trade session 10pm
Feb 6.

Everything on both CL and ES looks in a solid Downtrend. The question is whether there will trend continuation or a change in trend.


1/. 10:00pm ES 8ema & 34ema rolling over, bounce on 200ema with the trend, and divergence. 8 ema crossed below the 34ema, 34ema crosse below 89ema. first target is 8 ticks, secondary target is S1 pivot.


The good : following rules for trade 1&2.
The bad : not the sweet spot, but market rolling over for a trend continuation
The ugly : -

1 winner 2 ticks $25

==============================

3 losses, 1 winner = -104

This is NT built-in journaling tool ?

Yes it is. It allows you by date to type your journal in as the files I have attached. It’s under trade performance, and scroll down the window to journal.

Honestly it’s a bit finicky and takes a bit of getting used to.


Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

Thursday Feb 7th

Open up my platform around 6:30pm, having a look primarily at ES & CL. ES is in a downtrend with a fanning of ythe Ema's so it's looking good.

1) 6:49pm ES Short 1 contract ; 34 ema bounce in a downtrend. Went to +5 so I moved my SL to BE (Break even) +1. Ended up coming and hitting my stop at + 1 tick scatch
2) 6:59am ES Short 1 contract ; 34 ema bounce in a downtrend, + 4 ticks winner
Break - Go look at CL
3) 7:30pm CL Divergence and looks as thou it will roll over to teh short side. Ticked down very fast to come back anmd stop me out for a - 8 ticks lost. Immediately after stopping me to the nearest tick, it ran for $150 move. Arrrr.
4) 8:11pm ES Break down to the short side for a + 6 ticks winner
5) 8:15pm ES Same trend as above, couple of reverse candles came back to kiss the 8ema, jumped back in on 2nd candle going back down for a + 5 tick winner
6) 8:17pm ES Same as above, 3 candle pullback, jumped back in on 2nd candle going back down for a + 4 ticks winner
Trades 4, 5 & 6 were well executed for a total of 15 ticks.
7, 8) 8:23pm/8:30pm ES Looks as thou market turn to the short side is coming, divergence. Took 1 contract short on 1st trigger, added 1 more contract, ended up bouncing and took out my stop for a -2 & -4 tick lost.
Break - Go back to look at CL. At this point, I think I am already over trading and trying to re coupe myself.
9) 8:37pm CL Took a short and exitted on first reversal candle for a + 1 tick scratch
10) 8:45pm CL Jumped backn in the same downtrend, however I was nervous and got out for a + 2 tick winner. This ended up being a $200 run.
Back to ES
11) 8:47 pm ES double top on 89ema going down for a + 2 tick winner. Missed a 3 point (12 tick) run.
12) 9:10pm ES Failed 34ema bounce to the downside for a -4 lost
13) 9:20pm ES Failed 89ema bounce to the downside for a - 6 lost
Break. Back to CL
14, 15) 9:30pm-9:41pm CL Took a short position at the 34ema, added another contract at the 89ema, rolled over and touch my S1 target for a + 5 tick winner


The Good: I did not hesitate to pull the trigger except once or twice.
The Bad: Over-trading, back & forth between markets too much. Should be 5-15 (average about 7) good qualifying trades. Added to positions twice although still within about 1.5% risk. Will wait to do this as I become more consistently profitable.
The Ugly: Did not take advantage of several runners, exiting way too early on quite a few trades, thereby missing 2 – 3 decent runners. This could have easily been a 200-300$ day.

RESULTS: Total 15 trades; 10 winners, 5 of them were only 1 or 2 ticks ; 5 loosers.
Daily results after commissions = $54.60.
Still ended up green which is better than red, however could have been much better.

--------------------------------------------------------------------


Friday Feb 8th:

Not possible to trade due to work and personal schedule

Weekly recap, February week 1:

Total trades 30; Net Results -$620 ; Acct Status $9379.84 (started at $10,000)
Average trades per day = 8.7; Max draw down -$696.34; Sharp ratio -1.81
No of (%) Winning days 1out of 4 = 25%

Long: 7 trades; % profitable 14.29%; profit factor 0.18;
Short: 23 trades; % profitable 47.83%; profit factor 0.62; (Interesting difference)

Max Winner $83; Average winner $37.60
Max Losing $115; Average loosing $59.52



All the details are in the attached NT8 trade summary for the week. II tried to pull out the ones that mean the most to me. Feel free to comment or suggests.

What to work on next week:
- Make sure to wait for trending markets.
- Make sure to wait for signals & triggers.
- Trail stops with ATR or reversing candle … let it run.
- Do not add to positions.
- Do not overtrade.
- Also looking to add Renko charts to smooth out the chart next week, while still using tick charts as a reference.