I admit that I haven't been as candid with my trading lately as I have been in the past. It's because I've been struggling. You can probably tell from some of the videos how I've been overtrading and doing other rookie-esque things. I went 27 straight trading days in a row without making more than 10 average ticks per contract in a day. Wow, but since August 16 I've broken that streak. During the streak I lost 229 ticks. This doubled my previous largest tick drawdown.



It's been to the detriment of people learning here and following a trading journey, as well as a detriment to myself that I haven't been more open about it. So:

Yes, I've been struggling, but I'm really building confidence back and getting into the swing of things lately. Yesterday and today have been really great days (not because they were positive days, but because they were days where I did the right things the vast majority of the time, made good trading decisions).

One thing to note is that I really cut down on position size for this struggling period. Although I doubled my tick drawdown, my $ drawdown was kept to roughly the same level. It's really counter intuitive and really not comfortable, but in hindsight it's really the best play. I always want to double up and make things back quickly, but cutting position size while in a struggle period is THE absolute thing to do. It takes some pressure off, and allows you to focus on getting your groove back. I think that's how Stella did it anyways...

Another thought is... what caused this? I think it's a combination of things but very much mainly:

I took a LOT of time away from trading. I was destroying markets almost every day for months, and then I went to California, lost internet for weeks, a couple beach trips, etc, etc. Then I hop back in the drivers seat and expect to just be a trading master again. Trading is too hard for that, especially given the flow/descretion that I use. I don't just follow some rules so I can sit back down and follow rules again easily.

One other thing to consider is that all traders have periods of underperformance. So, I have to take that into consideration as well.

So I would like to say I'm sorry for "letting you guys down" and not journaling through this difficult period, it has probably made it harder on me not to talk about it. We all know it was pride that got in the way, as well as fear of not being seen as a "good trader". I'm glad we had this conversation.

-IT7

Here's a picture of my daily ticks p/l. I've highlighted the lackluster performance.

indextrader7 

So I would like to say I'm sorry for "letting you guys down" and not journaling through this difficult period, it has probably made it harder on me not to talk about it. We all know it was pride that got in the way, as well as fear of not being seen as a "good trader". I'm glad we had this conversation. -IT7

IT7,

You haven't let anyone down.. Your journal has been a great with some solid ideas for other traders. The fact that you publicly admitted your trading was not up to par is a sign of a mature trader who has their ego in check. I can say I would have probably canned the journal in disgust and "disappeared" . You did not do that.

Hats off to you for your candid conversation. The fact that you have had it and will self assess what needs to change is a self fulfilling prophecy to change what is wrong in your trading.

Thanks again,

Wolf

^^^What he said...^^^

Continuing to fight back.

Happy with the first two short trades taken. The 3rd and 4th trades were attempts to get long based on a gut feeling that the tail from the 9AM news announcement would hold prices and print the low for the day. I got stopped on the bottom tick of the day (as of now), ended up making the day profitable on a few scalped long positions that I added to when favorable and took profits a few times at resistance.

Not the best day, but happy with grinding out a profit. Not too happy with my intuition trade against the prevailing trend.

PERFORMANCE RATIO (WIN:LOSS RATIO X WIN%)




THE INDIVIDUAL STATS THAT MAKE UP THE PERFORMANCE RATIO:



AVERAGE WINS AND LOSSES PLOTTED SEPERATELY, AND MY DRAWDOWN GRAPH (BEEN IN DD ALL MONTH)

Here is a pic of the trades today. Pretty straightforward stuff, only area for improvement was trade 3 could have been scratched earlier once the hammer formed (bullish signal and I was short). I waited for my stop above resistance to get hit (still a valid play, but usually once I hate that I'm in a trade.... means I should just get out).

Completely pulled out of the extended drawdown I've been in after today's session. One of the best feelings I've had in a while... seeing hard work, focus, attitude, and the like, pay off.

Enjoy your weekends. If there's any questions on today's trades just ask.

Quite ugly trading today. Went 1 for 8! I know for a fact that it has to do with the type of market movement today. The large swings. It puts my trend change level very far away, so I'm looking for pullbacks when in fact it's already turned around and headed the other way. Completely off from the cycles.

Good thing for very tight risk management. Only down 0.7% on the day even with 7 losers and 1 winner.

Review to come. I'm still trying to figure out things myself.

indextrader7 

Good thing for very tight risk management. Only down 0.7% on the day even with 7 losers and 1 winner. .

pretty awesome to exercise tight risk management.

looking forward to your analysis.

thanks,
tihfa