I stopped journaling a while back because i was in a routine and it was same and to be honest i got bore of it because my trades were same my risk reward all was same for a long time. But now things are different and because they are different i needed to journal them to help me navigate i wanted to write this journal when i came back to trading but because of the events that followed i had to wait a while.

Short Recap. Everything was going well till november with that i mean was all to plan get one trade in get the ticks and get out all was going great .. Then had to take a huge time off and when i came back by then everything changed. Due to some shifts and major changes in personal life for 1st time in 2 years my mentality shifted from being content with what i earned to expand as quick as i can and with that mindset i set to start trading again this year ..

flawed beginning 14th Feb- A week earlier then i planed to trade .. but i had to get back in trading 3 months off was the longest i have been away from trading of any sort in last 4 years .. With changed mindset i started off trading and increased my risk from 1$ too 2$ every 500$ [the problem with this move was that i already had chained my legs when i had increased my risk too 1$ from 0.5 a year back]. Traded for 5 hrs that day [before this day for last 2 years max i trade was for an hr] Lost 60 ticks hit my daily loss limit called it quit. The problem with the loss was that because of my increased risk loss was also more the it used to be .. which was fine because i always knew what to expect if i hit my loss limit .. the problem was i just was not ready for it i just did not feel like trading next session.

By not ready i do not mean i did not expect to hit the loss or it was huge to handle .. by not ready i meant that i was too tired with all the restrictions i faced by increasing my risk 2x or even 1x .. trading was not fun anymore it was work .. and all the fun came from researching and back testing . And i was not ready to keep it that way which sadly for me i did not realize till i lost. To Sum up i was down 60 ticks on 2x size and after that instead of coming back tomorrow and covering that loss i wanted to go back to the start with no restrictions on what to trade and what not to trade [ by increasing my risk i had to trade in restricted manner ] So i had to change my plans again and still there was still change in personal situation which i needed to take care of..

So now instead of trading 2$ for 500$ i downshifted to trading 1$ every 1000$. My 60 tick of loss now was 240 ticks. and also to keep the profit in check increased my daily goals, 1st time in 2 years[ This is the unknown route]

I have no clues what all this changes are gonna do to me mentally or trading wise .. is it sustainable i have no ideas .. i have seen some good traders out here and seen them do it day in day out but for me its completely different .. i dont like changes in trading not even a little but this time around i am forced to change my mindset my philosophy everything and i have no ideas how all this will unfold .. I guess only time will tell.

Jinhar

Currently trading is going well only traded 7 sessions after feb 14th the loss has been covered and now i can move on ..

Feb 28th- Started trading before open and was looking for a move up before we could finally break down[higher timeframe were short but smaller timeframe looked for retracement up till resistance] .. took a trade and was all set to exit and net went down primary and backup both went down and by the time i could call trade desk and get the positions liquidated market moved a quick move down and i ended up 10. was completely pissed called up the tech support of my internet company and started firing left and right .. after heated conversation got them to change my line to temp working connection and started back trading.. took another trade but this time market went against my entry and took me out lost 10 ticks .. got back in again still nothing had changed from open and market was still poised for a move up .. this time .. market gave follow through and exited the trade for 40 ticks. My exit was per plan at longer term resistance. I called it quits after that trade .

Jinhar

Looking at charts this is what comes to mind..

Took the short before open and done with 40 ticks .. Exited at the support from the low, probability favor move up from here .. while that of market breaking the low and that of a move like yesterday are very low .. So just gonna enjoy watching markets for rest of the day .. !! hope you all have a great session ahead.

Jinhar

Possible bounce ?

jinhar 

Possible bounce ?

This is what happened later on...

Hi bud. Like the deep journal. Look forward to following. Will comment more later.

Do you think journaling now is going to change your trading in itself for the better? I mean before you had not but still was moving in right direction. Make everything the same as before? Just wondering.

adrian 

Do you think journaling now is going to change your trading in itself for the better? I mean before you had not but still was moving in right direction. Make everything the same as before? Just wondering.

There is a huge difference between now and then for me .. then i was set in a rhythm i new what i needed to do and was set basically doing same stuff again and again now its tricky because now my daily tick target is doubled and risk is same tick wise .. the problem with this is that my trading hours,trades everything also increases ..So a small change is actually a major change right now and as i stated this is now something i wished for but something i am forced to do right now and that's fine but to navigate through all this changes a journal is a great tool, it does help to record and also later on zoom on mistakes and also will provide solutions for it when needed.. So lets see as always time will tell but for right now this seems great idea.

Jinhar