Today was disappointing in the fact that I made some great trades, but had two groups of wham, bam, 2 trades -25 ticks. Up for the day, but barely. The thing that is frustrating is I feel I'm at a point where I don't know of those were trades somehow flawed to take, or I need to just shut up and keep trading my edge because it'll never be perfect.

Trade 1: +6, +5, +1
Once we broke out above the range I was expecting (see pre market post) I took the first pullback to the top of that range area. It was too early for the move, so I scalped out.

Trade 2: +10, +8, BE
Pretty much the same trade as the first one. A pullback to the 40 level, looking for higher highs. Scaled out once it stalled.

Trade 3: -7, -8
Trades 3 and 4 are one of the back to back losers that hurt profits today. We failed to maintain above the .40 level, and sold off hard through it. Pulled back to it, so I take the short off of it. Full stop

Trade 4: -10, -11
Re-enter trade 3 here as price pushes off of 40 again, looking for 10's. again, full stop. In hindsight, I think I would take these trades again. Maybe exit a little sooner when it shows it's not acting right.

Trade 5: +11, +22, +20
Mean reversion trade here on a rare limit order entry for me. Took profits at levels on the way down, got out the rest once it stalled. We had also hit the uptrend line at that point.

Trade 6: -11
Trades 6 and 7 are the 2nd group of back to back losers for today. A quick -23 total for the two.
A breakout trade, since the trendline broke down. I usually lose when I take a breakout trade.

Trade 7: -12
"Oh, the breakout failed, the trendline will hold after all" Bought the top tick. Full stop.

Trade 8: -9, +15, +15, +19, +11, +6
Nice rangebound play off the previous lows. 1/4 got nailed on a stop, but the rest held on. Scaled out at prev swing high, added back 2 contracts on a pullback, held through some heat, and exited beautifully as price stalled heading into that .40 level.

Trade 9: +6, +17, +11
Just shorting here because price couldn't get to .40 again.

Here is the chart of today's trades. You can get NT7 to do this for you if you go to your trades or execution tab, right click, and select "chart..." Saves me some time from marking up the charts with entries/exits because it does it for you... connects them at least, which I like to see.




Overall made 6 ticks today, average ticks per contract. Sounds awful when you put it that way... +$230 after commissions.

On a positive note, I'm quite happy with my trade mgmt once in. Might could be a bit more selective on entries.

The relevant CUMULATIVE stats for the Combine are now:

Winning Days %: 75%
Win %: 57%
win:loss ratio: 1.8 ($455 to -$253) I JUST CHANGED THIS TO CALCULATE FROM $ INSTEAD OF MY USUAL TICKS-BASED CALCULATION, BECAUSE THAT'S HOW TST DOES IT.
winner time held: loser hold time: winners held longer
net P/L: +$1,530
max DD: -$1,120




As far as a start date goes, I'm in limbo... on one hand I'm ready to go, but on another hand, they're allowing combines traded via ninjatrader possibly March 1st... So I may hold out for that because I prefer chart trader to DOM.

Good Luck! I am considering taking the combine also but waiting for Ninja.

targetfilled 

Good Luck! I am considering taking the combine also but waiting for Ninja.

Too bad we can't trade TF for the combine! Good luck to you as well.

Yesterday CL behaved as expected, mostly. We did range around a bit, but it violated my level a few times. I finished trading for the day at 11:30 CST, and the next up leg broke that .40 level, pulled back to it, and went to my next resistance level at 97.22. The exact trade I tried to take early in the AM when .40 broke the first time. So we did range around at the bottom of the larger range, break out, and we're on our way up now.

We could range between 97.22 and 96.40 today, but again if we see price acceptance above .22, then the next stop is 98.




Seems like everything is on hold now until the news comes out in 9 minutes.

-IT7

this was just the last pic i took. got out at 94.5, entry was 96.22 +172 on the 2/4 i let ride.

Largest trade of my life today. Ok, that's enough said about it because it was LUCK that it was that large. Any further focus on that would be counter productive to what my focus and goals are on.

7 trades today: +2, +12, -10, +14, -10, +97, -3 (the last -3 trade was an execution click error)

Trade 1: Took the bounce off of early premarket swing low. Scalped out as price stalled for a tiny profit.

Trade 2: Price broke through a medium term trendline, and it was the move I was looking for earlier. I consider this chasing price a bit, but I used a scalp entry on a lower timeframe to really mange risk well in case it turned around. Scaled out as price didn't accept new highs.

Trade 3: EMOTIONAL TRADE. BAD. BAD. It's hard to see on this chart, but since price bounced a few times off of 97.22 level I was watching, I decided I would be REALLY SMART and limit entry long off that area. I was quickly burned for taking such a liberty and divergence from my trading plan. -10.

Trade 4: Now that price had failed the level I was looking to hold (much like yesterday's action) I knew I wanted to be short for the rest of the day possibly. So I shorted on a small PB to .22 area. Took partial profits on the leg down, and added that scale out back to the full position on a pullback again. Took all profits near the 97.00 figure as I sensed a bounce coming in the orderflow.

Here are trades 1 through 4:




Trade 5: I still only wanted to be short, and was slightly impatient since I had taken profits and missed the move down that I'm supposed to have a runner on.... so I rushed the PB short entry... I got burned for another quick -10.

Trade 6: Re entered trade 5 as price confirmed the PB. Scaled out of 2/4 lots for +27. Trailed my stop loss down as price truly tanked over the next few minutes and got trailed out of the 2nd half for +172 ticks.

Trade 7: Since I saw that price was really going to run on trade 6, I removed my limit order ATM from the screen. Now I had to manually put in a stop order, and something happened when I exited the trade that caused me to be long 2 lots (i think i just forgot to change the qty for the stop or something...) immediately closed it out for -3.

Here are trades 5 through 7:




The relevant CUMULATIVE stats for the Combine are now:

Winning Days %: 80%
Win %: 57%
win:loss ratio: 2.5 ($657 to -$259)
winner time held: loser hold time: winners held longer
net P/L: +$5,720
max DD: -$1,120

Index - are you just simultaneously executing in T4 and NT? That's a good idea actually to get the graphic record of trades that's not possible with T4...

btw, good work today!

Surly 

Index - are you just simultaneously executing in T4 and NT? That's a good idea actually to get the graphic record of trades that's not possible with T4... btw, good work today!

Hey,

I should have continued to mention that I am only preparing for a combine at this point. So no, I am not executing on both at the same time, I'm only trading on ninja currently; but yes, if time permits during trading, it would be a good way to keep track of trades in the visually appealing way that NT offers. I'm too short term to worry about clicking around on two platforms just to have trades plotted on a chart.

Yeah, not too pleased with T4, although it's DOM is not bad, but I don't like trading on the DOM.

My decision is still up in the air, whether to start the combine very soon, or wait a week or two for the anticipated release of being able to trade combine on ninja... You will know for sure when I start the combine, as I will post my trade blotter from the TST trade report.

indextrader7 

Hey, I should have continued to mention that I am only preparing for a combine at this point. So no, I am not executing on both at the same time, I'm only trading on ninja currently; but yes, if time permits during trading, it would be a good way to keep track of trades in the visually appealing way that NT offers. I'm too short term to worry about clicking around on two platforms just to have trades plotted on a chart. Yeah, not too pleased with T4, although it's DOM is not bad, but I don't like trading on the DOM. My decision is still up in the air, whether to start the combine very soon, or wait a week or two for the anticipated release of being able to trade combine on ninja... You will know for sure when I start the combine, as I will post my trade blotter from the TST trade report.

I am having the same issue with T4. Switched over to Sierra Charts which hooks into T4 on Monday. Its not NT but at least it has a chart trader and good reporting. They have a 15 day free trial. My biggest complaint about Sierra is how tedious it is to setup. Otherwise its a solid platform.

Robert

here is my setup.

indextrader7 

Hey, I should have continued to mention that I am only preparing for a combine at this point.

You're smart to do it as you are - keeping consistent records, etc. That will serve you well once you start a combine. I've grown quite fond of T4's dom but it you're not a dom trader, you're not a dom trader. I do think that with Oil's range it is better to use a chart than a dom to trade - the dom is just too "small" for the typical daily ATR of Oil.