Mindset 

V impressive sharp2be. Seems to me preventing the losses getting out of control is the key.

Mindset is right.
The P&L is very good, a really nice job, but this is not (sorry) the most important.
Discipline, following the trading plan and the rules, this is more important.

I'm maybe wrong, but it seems that you had more than 2 ES cars in the market, which is, with a 15K$ account and a $150 max risk per trade, too much, imho.
But you had maybe good reasons for this .

sam028 

Mindset is right. The P&L is very good, a really nice job, but this is not (sorry) the most important. Discipline, following the trading plan and the rules, this is more important. I'm maybe wrong, but it seems that you had more than 2 ES cars in the market, which is, with a 15K$ account and a $150 max risk per trade, too much, imho. But you had maybe good reasons for this .

Mindset and Sam, you are both right. My timing and analysis seem to be working ok but I won't say I have discipline and risk management under control. My goal is to always trade with 1 car but it doesn't seem be matching my trading style. I am mostly swing trading at this point. After reading a few papers on money management and scaling out I'm a not a big believer in taking small gains of the table... did that before and probably the reason my PL is up at this time is because I've been letting my winners run.

I've also noticed that my normal stop is now around 10 ticks which for 2 cars represents $250 already. I have to admit that I'm cutting myself some slack when comes to 1-2 cars, however my goal is NEVER to go above my daily losses limit and so far in November I failed twice. I truly believe this is the one missing component to make me a consistent trader.

I used to have problems in following my setups but that seems to be working quite well now.

That being said, here is the summary of my first month of trading (November 2009).

NOVEMBER 2009 RESULTS



Although I broke my rule twice of going over my daily limit I am proud of myself for following my setups, not overtrading and also refining my trading framework. My charts are pretty much naked at this point with the exception of a 20ema which to be honest I don't rely on very much on.

My goals for December 2009:

• Not exceed my daily loss limit of $450 per day.
• Not overtrade
• Avoid trading when too busy at work. This is a big issue as lose the very important context that you acquire when constantly watching the charts...

Good luck everyone and my sincere thanks for you taking the time to comment on my journal and mistakes.

Today -$256 (-1.4% or 5pts)
Week +$2,577
Dec09 +$3,052 (20.3% or 61 pts)
Nov09 +$219 (+1.5% or 4 pts)
YTD +$3,271 (23.2%)




Today was a losing day but I followed my risk management rules, traded small and cut my losses short.

What could I do better today?
- Don't let my full time work distract me so much (kind of hard)

Today the ES tested the yesterday's high and bounced back. Two nice channel overshoot and reversal opportunities -- I was too busy at work, took only the wrong trades.



Daily view

I think you are demonstrating remarkable control and to be so public deserves enormous plaudits

My main difficulty is letting profits run but as you say you seem to have cracked 90% of the egg that is trading.

Friends, I was reviewing my results last night and although I'm happy with my profits so far this year I am not achieving my main objective which is strictly control my losses. I have gone above my established daily losses limit twice since I started.

As a results, I have decided to stop trading this account for one week, I will continue trading my stocks accounts which believe me or not I haven't exceeded my daily limit for over 3 months. It's something to do with how the eminis trade or even the platform control.

In any case, I will review my process and find ways to make it even harder for me to stop breaking my daily loss limit rules -- sounds stupid, really, but sometimes it's really hard to fight the urge to have your losses back... having a big day like I had recently does not help either because when you approaching your daily loss limit all you can think is to "get your losses back"... I'm sure you know this, called revenge trading.

Again, I'm happy with my profits so far but that's not enough... I will be back in another 5-7 days.

Wishing you fantastic and profitable days.

Sharp2be
The only way I found to control my daily loss limit is to trade with a broker that closes me down when I exceed my daily loss limit (I use TransAct, but I know you can set this feature with Open E Cry also). I know I should have the discipline to stop on my own, but after several days of exceeding my limit, I decided I needed something more.

papa14 

Sharp2be The only way I found to control my daily loss limit is to trade with a broker that closes me down when I exceed my daily loss limit (I use TransAct, but I know you can set this feature with Open E Cry also). I know I should have the discipline to stop on my own, but after several days of exceeding my limit, I decided I needed something more.

Interesting approach Papa -- I will check with IB to see if they allow me to do that, great suggestion. Thanks!

sharp2be


Its the weekend so I can't check this out so I can't swear to it but I am positive that inside TWS there is a self limit you can set regarding daily losses in % or currency. A dialog box comes up I believe to prevent you trading - if that's good enough?
There is also a v good function to prevent fat finger trades - I demonstrated it to a friend when he lost 80k on a single trade through trading 115000 shares instead of 115 ( I kid you not).

Mindset 

sharp2be Its the weekend so I can't check this out so I can't swear to it but I am positive that inside TWS there is a self limit you can set regarding daily losses in % or currency. A dialog box comes up I believe to prevent you trading - if that's good enough? There is also a v good function to prevent fat finger trades - I demonstrated it to a friend when he lost 80k on a single trade through trading 115000 shares instead of 115 ( I kid you not).

Since few months, you can log in IB TWS during week-ends.
It's possible to have a message when you exceed a certain amount in $ or in # of shares/contracts, but after a daily loss, hmm, I didn't know, and didn't already found it in TWS...

I have a message on my login box saying not possible to log in all day saturday and before 12 on Sunday (UK times)