mykee 

Hi Xelaar, thank you for all those wonderful posts. I am just wondering if GC can only be traded from 7am CT? I thought it can be traded from 1am to 3pm CT. mykee

Hey thanks. Yes in Combine you can trade earlier but in ltp and live in junior phase you can only trade from 7 am. This is misleading as my system loses at least half of its potential or more

Yesterday was a day of big moves and reversals on all instruments. But I could not guess anything and wasn't sure about direction.

I tried to trade gold, if I have held it would be a grand trade but I think it's just a lucky coincidence not a strong setup. A second trade was taken by mistake when drawing in Sierra, promptly closed. Net result 0 in gold.

Also decided to walk the walk and took a trade in crude, my second permitted instrument. Setup looked good but I was too late to the party. It tanked immediately, once it recovered I closed it for +2. And it was a very sensible thing, as it immediately came back down under and the move reversed into a bearish trend. The only thing that saved this trade was a very good location and decent timing.

In the end I had a very small positive day. Still under, but now have a slight plus in crude. If I won't see some great setups, I will still have crude checked by the end of it.

Good!

I guess Zero (which means a small profit that is equal to commissions) is considered a positive day.

iqgod 

Good! I guess Zero (which means a small profit that is equal to commissions) is considered a positive day.

It is. But the count overall day results, not per instrument. Overall day result is 45, thanks to crude.

Do I understand correctly, that you have to make $511 today so you would be positive by the end of 10 days? Or is it alright to be negative, as long as the days are at least 50-50% win/lose?

Otherwise go and get 'em!

Pedro40 

Do I understand correctly, that you have to make $511 today so you would be positive by the end of 10 days? Or is it alright to be negative, as long as the days are at least 50-50% win/lose? Otherwise go and get 'em!

Negative is not a problem, as long as other rules are followed.

I did not trade today, there was a marginal opportunity in crude right after the report, but not a bank buster and on a shaky ground. I took a winner in demo but it wasn't good enough for ltp. Gold is dead.

The issue is I am on a shaky ground from day 10, this is why it is best to win LTP by day 10. Or be massively in plus and have most days as winners. In my case every day would be a swinging to the fence after day 10 as I won't afford to have any losing days at all.

Crap day today. Nothing major but not helping. Gold is dead, ok move in europe morning but can't take it. Crude made a fake move down cost me 15 ticks, then died. Second trade break even. -450 on the day -960 total net. 10 days in. I just need two good days to make it happen but market just gives me a finger.

God doesn't want me to waste anymore time doing the same over and over again. I went full tilt today and it ended up badly, still running but it will close in loss, 1000 or 1 dollar loss is the same now.

I have decided not to pursue this matter any longer. I will go as per my plan live with my strategies, if after 3 months revision I will be not happy with my results, I will stop live trading and will do another combine. In this case I will chose most realistic combine as close to real trading we get at this stage as possible, i.e. 50k. Winning 150k feels nice, but tables are turned when you go to LTP and live, as you have to trade essentially with same risk as people who won small combines, but still have larger targets for going Senior and being able to earn a penny from it.

It was a good test, I think I managed it well, it went down because of two matters:
1. Holiday markets, drastically different to markets I traded during combine and when I have built my trading plan
2. Being a gold trader, being able to place a trade only from 1 PM my time (7 am Chicago) is eliminating most of the best setups as market is usually trading one way during Europe and start to range and reverse during US, given that US session is a minefield of news. I find european session being way calmer and more directional for trading.

Hey Alex, thanks for the journal and for your honesty. To be constructive about your 2 reasons why you failed:

1. Different markets during the holidays is kind of expected. (less volatility and such) I guess it would have been smarter to wait 2 more weeks and start then.

2. Since the same rule applied to your Combine, I don't see this as a hindrance to your performance, because you did just fine during the Combine. Sure, there are missed opportunities, but so were in the Combine.....

Otherwise Happy new year to you!