I got risky today, traded a bit more size. Increased my max drawdown to -5.3%, but made a killing.

Today's trades and daily P/L for the week:

Nothing impressive by any means, but thought I'd share.

Great trading IT7 really happy for you just finished work so looking forward to watching todays video. hope the move and exam went well.

Nice trading today IT7! Killed it indeed. Cant wait for the video.

THIS IS A TRANSPARENT TRADE JOURNAL, NOT AN EXAMPLE OF ALWAYS PROPER TRADING. Keep that in mind.

I'll do a video and show what I did, but I'm not terribly proud of it. I took a lot of risk, I was negative ticks today. That means I just happened to be right when I had a lot more size on that when I was wrong. Traded with a lot of conviction today, not something I usually do.

Again, I'll show the trades, but I don't recommend trading like I did today.

THIS IS A TRANSPARENT TRADE JOURNAL, NOT AN EXAMPLE OF ALWAYS PROPER TRADING. Keep that in mind.

Screenr - indextrader7: 5-24 trade recap part one

Screenr - indextrader7: 5-24 trade recap part two

Hi indextrader7,

Thanks again for the very existence and the quality of your journal. It is very very interesting and inspiring.
I really like your trading style ( even if it would probably not suit to me! )

Would you allow me some questions, for my better understanding of the above messages?

a) Is the "max drawdown" the maximum drawdown in the trading capital observed during a trading session? If yes, it means that at one minute, you were at 94.7% (100%-5.3%) of your trading capital calculated some time ago during the same session. Correct?

b) Do you put limits to your drawdown during a session (walkaway rule or similar) or do you trade and only calculate the actual max drawdown at the end of the session?

c) In the win/loss ratio, what are the definition of winners and losers? Is it "winner = trade with gain" and "loser = trade with loss" or is it something different (for instance, "winner = profit target reached" and "loser = negative or scratched-positive")? I guess that I am right, because you do not seem to use profit target, but I just wanted to be sure.

Sorry to disturb you with these questions and... congratulations!

Nicolas

Nicolas11 

Hi indextrader7, Thanks again for the very existence and the quality of your journal. It is very very interesting and inspiring. I really like your trading style ( even if it would probably not suit to me! ) Would you allow me some questions, for my better understanding of the above messages? a) Is the "max drawdown" the maximum drawdown in the trading capital observed during a trading session? If yes, it means that at one minute, you were at 94.7% (100%-5.3%) of your trading capital calculated some time ago during the same session. Correct? b) Do you put limits to your drawdown during a session (walkaway rule or similar) or do you trade and only calculate the actual max drawdown at the end of the session? c) In the win/loss ratio, what are the definition of winners and losers? Is it "winner = trade with gain" and "loser = trade with loss" or is it something different (for instance, "winner = profit target reached" and "loser = the rest")? I guess that I am right, because you do not seem to use profit target, but I just wanted to be sure. Sorry to disturb you with these questions and... congratulations! Nicolas

Great questions, glad to answer.

a) Yes max drawdown is during the session every trade's P/L is used. Correct.

b) I've often thought it a good idea to have a daily loss limit, but I've never been able to apply one. Yes, the max dd calculation is just for performance review at the end of sessions, but I know what's going on and a rough estimate of what kind of drawdown I'm in while I'm trading.

c) win:loss ratio... A win is any trade with a tick P/L greater than zero. A loser is any trade with tick P/L < 0. I most always use a profit target on the first half of my position, and try and let the 2nd half run.

Hope this helps.