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Sharp2be, eMini trading journal


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Sharp2be, eMini trading journal

  #1 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

Hi everyone, funded an IB account with $15,000 and here's my plan.

Background
Have been trading for over 2 years, mostly stocks. Traded futures for over 5 months but failed miserably. My failures are directly related to #1. too much risk, #2. impulse trading.
I have a full time job but have some time to trade in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.

Beliefs
- Every entry method is good, some are easier to follow
- Find one that fits your personality and your risk tolerance
- Poor risk management = failure, sooner or later
- Impulse trading = bigger failure, sooner or later
- You have to keep a ratio of 2:1 to succeed

Instruments and TimeFrames
- eMini ES, 5-minute or 4500ticks

Risk Management
- Account size: $15,000
- Max Risk per trade: 1% or $150.
- Max losses per day: 3.0% (or 3 losing trades)
- Max losses per week: 6.0% (or 2 losing days)
- Max losses per month: 12% (or 2 losing weeks)

Goals
- Improve my trading skills
- Improve my risk management discipline
- 4 es points per day
- 12 es points per week

Tools
- Charting: eSignal, Ninjatrader (own it)
- Order management: NT
- Journallng: this thread

Process, rules and others
How will I ensure I only risk my max amount per trade?
- Review account summary before the market open
- Setup automated order placement in Ninja
- Will not move my stop (EVER, EVER)

How will I ensure I stop trading for the day when I reach my max daily loss?
- Stop trading after 3 losses ! easy.

How will I ensure I stop trading for the week when I reach my max weekly loss?
- During my morning review of my account, if the number of available days to risk = 0 then no trades...

Will not enter new trades between 11:30am and 1:15pm because it's choppy.

How will I keep track of my progress?
At the end of every day I will post my account summary and trade results for the day. I will also (if time permits) write some observations on my learnings for the day.

Getting started

The reason I'm posting here is that I believe there are some extremely smart traders in this board and I'm hoping people will comment on my progress and most importantly on my mistakes, thoughts...

Here we go, my journed started yesterday at $15,000 dollars...

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  #2 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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Bravo, good start. Now the hard part: do it, and when (not if) you fail to follow your plan, be honest and report back, only then can you learn and grow from it.

I also look forward to seeing your signals/triggers going forward.

Mike

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  #3 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69


My first two days.

Initial Balance, $15,000
16/Nov, +81.56
17/Nov, +156.20
Ending Blance, $15,238

Overall I thought today was quite choppy but it was a continuation of yesterday's strength.
Unfortunately don't have time to write anymore as I have to finish some documents for work.

Wish everyone good trading.

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  #4 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69


Big Mike View Post
Bravo, good start. Now the hard part: do it, and when (not if) you fail to follow your plan, be honest and report back, only then can you learn and grow from it.

I also look forward to seeing your signals/triggers going forward.

Mike

Thanks for the encouragement Mike, I will be sure to report back on my failures and derailments...

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  #5 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

Initial Balance, $15,255
Gain/Loss Today, +$140.40 or 3.1 ES points
Ending Balance, $15,378

My observations (IMHO)
Overall a range day and continuation of yesterday's strength. I decided not to take any shorts.

My first step was to visualize the 15-mins chart (OHLC or Candles) is fine, everything bullish, no strong bear presence so the plan was to not short the market.



Good move between the open and 11:00am EST then choppy until 1:00pm (not unusual)... big players dropped the market to pick all stops (thankfully I wasn't there)... then I saw the bear trap at 13:45 (you can call it a Vic B2, uptrust, etc) with good volume... my first clue, I joined the longs... the failed flag and retest was a great buy, little volume on the consolidation and increased volume on the buying... another trap at 14:55, couldn't believe it... but again, my stop was far away.. decided to add a 2nd car on the 2nd failed trap...




What did I do well today?
- Read the market correctly

What could I do better?
- Was distracted with too much work
- Took profits too soon.. my stop was too far away

Overall a good day. Hope everyone had a good day too.


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  #6 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

Initial Balance, $15,416
Gain/Loss Today, +$349
Ending Balance, $15,727




Another winning day, getting ready for the losing one and will have to be really strict on my money management. Upset because NinjaTrader stop working at some point and I lost my stats... ARGH...

How did I score today?
1. Money management (B), kept my stops, didn't move at all but was up $700 in the morning and couldn'd stop trading... gave back a lot on the chop.
2. Impulse trading (C), had some impulse trades.
3. Trade execution (C), took profits too soon sometimes.

Market review
The ES filled two gaps today, I took a short as soon as I soon it opening in the direction of the gap. We have another one way below, hopefully it will not be filled anytime soon.




Lastly, some of my humble PV observations today...


Overall a good day except for giving up a lot of my profits in the afternoon AND NinjaTrader stop working on me.

Hope everyone had a good day too.

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  #7 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

I have been asked by two members to share my balance and trade tracking spreadsheet... so here it is, very rough and could be buggy...

Attached Files
Elite Membership required to download: Sharp Trades Tracking.xls
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  #8 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

9:41am-Plan for the Day

Short at the opening target 1,074 (top of the gap). See below. So far my position is -2.25 pts in the red :-)



10am - Market closed gap and bounced to the downside... 5-mins below, not many sellers stepping in yet... worried about a close above the OR...


10:07--- on the other side of the coin I'm buying some RIMM shares here as it's fighting the market...


10:29am-my ES position break even so far but RIMM is really putting a show, nice !


1:10pm (EST) - Market not dropping - time stop hit, reversing.

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  #9 (permalink)
 
sharp2be's Avatar
 sharp2be 
Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: Amp
Trading: ES
Posts: 57 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 1
Thanks Received: 69

Initial Balance $15,765
Ending Balance $14,915
Today -$812
Week -$85
Nov09 -$85
Total -$85


[IMG]https://nexusfi.com/attachments/journals-daily-charts/4727d1258665679-sharp2be-emini-trading-journal-20091119-balance.png[/IMG] [IMG]https://nexusfi.com/attachments/journals-daily-charts/4728d1258665679-sharp2be-emini-trading-journal-2009119-ib.png[/IMG]Well, I knew that day would come after 3 winning days and my confidence levels going up. Started the day with two winning trades, reached my daily loss limit by 11:00am, DIDN'T STOP TRADING and by 4:00pm gave up all my weekly gains. Not proud of myself and as a result on Monday I will only have 1 lot to trade and no more than 2 losses -- will I be able to stop ? Time will tell..

On the other hand, I had an amazing run on my stock trades, +$2,450 for the day which is great... was this the reason for my losses on the eMini? Maybe... trying to treat the 2 accounts separate.

How did I score today?
1. Money management (C), increased my size, didn't stop when I had to.
2. Impulse trading (B), traded well but had a bias on the market.
3. Trade execution (C), when my losses started to mount I took profits quickly.

Market review
The ES gapped down in the morning, failed to close the gap and traded mostly below and inside the opening range for the whole day. I wouldn't say it was particular difficult day to trade, I didn't do well because I had a bias in the morning, thinking it would drop and closed the previous gap but it didn't and I didn't listen to it... the market will never do what we want.


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cclsys's Avatar
 cclsys 
Sydney, NS
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja
Broker: Zen-Fire
Trading: TF,S,GC
Posts: 605 since Nov 2009
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Thanks Received: 393


I find that 'having a bias' to be one of the hardest things to overcome. No matter how many times I tell myself not to have one, once it creeps in I often fail to notice it. When in 'the zone' this does not happen, so I have been working on ways to pay more attention to my own attitude throughout the trading sessions, most of which only last about an hour when things are working out.

Well done on the RIMM!

Now, you took a 5% loss on Friday. Is that part of the plan? It's steep, isn't it? It's days like that which were killing my results this year and because of which I am drilling down into money management versus entry methods.

I think you might want to add a column in there: for example you have Max Daily Loss at 236. Might be good to display what the actual loss was to visually show deviation from the plan. Also av trade loss. But that layout is really good and I will try to use something like it. Very helpful.

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Last Updated on December 12, 2009


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