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trader000's Topstep Trader Combine Journal


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trader000's Topstep Trader Combine Journal

  #51 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

Date: 9/18/2013

No trades in combine.
I had 3 pending orders on the combine platform that did not fill. That was frustrating. I would have assumed at least one would fill, but no luck this today.


Date: 9/19/2013
No trades in combine.
Prices were moving quicker today and could not get over to the T4 dom in time. It’s tough trading 2 completely different dom’s. It’d be nice if I could place it on one dom and then transfer to the 2nd.



Date: 9/20/2013
P-L: $165
Balance: $50,975.50


Got a fill today and a quick move after entry when a ‘shelf’ broke. Wanted to get a couple more fills but did not get the fill. Not the week I was looking for in terms of fills and entries. Another great week of intraday volatility on soybeans, just have to fine tune my approach trading 2 completely different dom’s. I also find the T4 dom a bit cumbersome at times, which has me scrambling to enter or adjust orders. For example, I have an auto-oco bracket go out on every entry, but I will adjust profit targets at times. Depending where those are on the dom (which I keep centered), I then have to go into a completely separate window, find the order(s), click, adjust price, click revise. Very time consuming and not user-friendly at all. Meanwhile on my OEC dom (which is also centered), I can scroll up or down, find order(s) and drag right there, directly on the dom. I'm not sure how OEC which has plenty of retail traders can allow you to scroll the dom while keeping it centered, yet T4 which is targeted to professionals, cannot do that.
Have a great weekend!


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  #52 (permalink)
LogicalTrader
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 294 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 1,420
Thanks Received: 757

In the T4 dom, you can right click above the market to quickly scroll up and vice-versa below to find your exit limit order once you are in a trade. Every time you right click, it scrolls up 20-25 ticks I think. You can then drag and drop your order just like any other platform. If you left click after this, it will re-center the dom. If you want to split the target to have say, 2 exits then you can right click the order and the revise window opens up.

I have also learnt all this the hard way. I still have execution errors after almost 3 months of using it

Hope this helps.

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  #53 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64



iNeo View Post
In the T4 dom, you can right click above the market to quickly scroll up and vice-versa below to find your exit limit order once you are in a trade. Every time you right click, it scrolls up 20-25 ticks I think. You can then drag and drop your order just like any other platform. If you left click after this, it will re-center the dom. If you want to split the target to have say, 2 exits then you can right click the order and the revise window opens up.

I have also learnt all this the hard way. I still have execution errors after almost 3 months of using it

Hope this helps.

Good to know, thanks for the info!

I had a separate window w/ my pending orders open and went through there to adjust orders that were not currently visible on the dom, which is very cumbersome.

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  #54 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

Date: 9/23/2013
P-L: +$310
Balance: $51,267.50


Trade 1: Wanted to get short near the open, but the huge opening bar did not allow that. Got short on the pullback from the flush down at the open. I entered 1 contract to test the water and then 2 more. And then it tested my patience. Patience is not my strong suit, but I had my stop in place and told myself I need to give it room to breathe and not cut it. I was very tempted to cut it with a small loss and then price broke down quickly and my patience was rewarded. I staggered my exits at 3 points. Overall, the trade worked out according to plan and my impatience did not turn a decent win into a loss.

I planned to get a few more trades on, but to be honest, that first one mentally wore me out for a Monday. It’s so easy now to look at the chart and think – that was so easy!

P-L from today:



TST stats:

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  #55 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

DATE: 9/24/13

DAY NOTES: No trades in combine.
Was looking to short early and after 2 trades did not fill, I went into my shutdown mode. Those early trades seem to set the tone for the day for me – when I get in and filled, I like to trade more the rest of the day. When I miss 1 or 2, and when those were winning trades, mentally it’s a big block for me. Seeing missed winning trades continue to be a mental monkey for me.


DATE: 9/25/13

DAY NOTES: No trades in combine.
Missed a couple entries early on and got frustrated. I didn’t want to be shorting much lower after first two shorts did not get done, but once I saw the trend reversing and creating a potential \/ shaped day, I did want to get long. Trade did not fill and then I was done. It’s frustrating because I have yet to really get some good trades all done in one day on the combine platform, but I know it’s coming.


DATE: 9/26/13
P-L: -$55.00
BALANCE: $51,212.50


DAY NOTES: Trade 1 – did not get filled on the first pullback I wanted to get long, so took the 2nd pullback long trade. And it puttered around for a bit till it broke support and took me out.

I planned to take another trade(s) in the combine, but price was incredibly slow early on. Pullbacks became very deep and price was in a range. One advantage to focusing on a market is that you learn her ebb’s and flows. You learn when she is willing to play and when you are better off giving her space. Luckily in soybeans, she’s usually ready to provide opportunities.

This also underscores the importance of pouncing when your method is on (which I have not done in this combine) so that days like today are just a small hurdle and not a brick wall. Overall I was happy with today's end result because I saw early on how the market was slow and did not force trades, even after taking a loss initially. It's very easy to think you need to get that loss back and then things can grow exponentially.

P-L from today:



TST stats, before today:

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  #56 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64


DATE: 9/27/13
P-L: -$90.00
BALANCE: $51,122.50

DAY NOTES: Trade 1 – Got a late start today and first trade was a playing a short breakout of the low of the day. Got in short and trade showed a quick, small profit. Since I missed the much better pullback entry, I knew this was a bit more risky so I trailed my stop once price broke the lows and had tested the same new lows multiple times. This should have been a nice short with a standard profit, but since I missed the entry, I looked for another reason to get short and the breakout was the next possible entry point. This time beans decided against a quick, stop grabbing flush that you can see often on the beans. The trade was a tiny loss, so I’m ok with the execution – I just needed to be in with my primary entry signal, not a secondary one.

After that, I got into a little funk since I missed the better entry on that short. Felt like I was about to force something so just called it a day on the combine.

P-L from today:



TST stats, before today:


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  #57 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

DATE: 9/30/13
DAY NOTES: No trades in combine.
Had a doctor appointment today and missed most of the day, which was unfortunate considering the gorgeous moves.

DATE: 10/1/2013
P-L: -$427.50
BALANCE: $50,695.00


DAY NOTES: Tried to short from the open, had 2 no fills (thankfully), did not pull trigger on 3rd and ended up being a short near the high of the day at the time. Not sure why I didn’t put the trade on since the other 2 shorts did not fill so no harm. Gave up mentally but no trade plan reason to do that.

That immediately brought out the mental monkey and then I hesitated on the next short pullback, which was a quick winner… then watched the next short pullback work almost instantly into new lows.

I show 4 possible shorts from the open till 11am or so – none of which I got in and all 4 were profitable trades. This is the frustrating part of this business. A machine would have taken all of the trades and been able to show a great day. A human just knew better and avoided that.

I finally got filled on a short later in the day that (of course) was a full loss and did not show much profit at all. I entered quickly and somehow got in for 3 contracts so that did not help either. I wanted to scale in but all 3 got filled so the loss just got magnified. I’m not sure what I did on the platform to get all 3 contracts in, but I just wanted in and rushed to the T4 platform. The frustrating part is that the 2nd scale in worked just fine and would have brought the trade positive.

Regardless, one loss should not have made that much of an impact but it did to me because my previous shorts did not fill or I did not enter the trade. It just goes to show (once again) that if you cherry pick from your system trades, your previous results do not mean much b/c you’ve now created another filter – you.

And from there my mental state did not improve. Missing nice shorts early in the day and when things were moving to entering incorrectly on a quick loser really shook the confidence. I was ready to get in for the sake of getting in to try to minimize the loss but could feel myself watching every tick and looking for a reason to enter so just called it a day. Overall, my worst execution day this combine by far and very frustrating.

P-L from today:



TST stats, before today:



Ag's econ site today:

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  #58 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

DATE: 10/2/2013
DAY NOTES: I must have been skittish after Tuesday’s bigger loss, because I did not trade on the combine today. Trades were there and I had a mental block.

This combine is going to be ending soon, so I have to get it in gear and get trades on every day going forward.


DATE: 10/3/2013
P-L: -$60
BALANCE: $50,635.00



DAY NOTES: Got a very late start on the day after waking up with a nasty cold bug. I knew I needed to get some trades on the combine, but unfortunately only got 1 fill and it was a tiny loss.

Planning to trade Friday, hopefully can get a decent sleep tonight. Had I worked the combine platform better, I would not be in this position of getting trades on when not feeling well so it’s purely my fault. I know this is easy in hindsight, but I should be done with the combine and completed by now. This cold just reinforces the importance of focusing when things are in order so you don’t have to force it late in the combine.

P-L from today:



TST stats, before today:

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  #59 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64


DATE: 10/4/2013
P-L: -$2.50
BALANCE: $50,632.50


DAY NOTES: I did not get on the computer until 1pm EST, so I knew there wasn’t much time left in the trading day (since ag’s close at 2:15pm EST) and it’s Friday. I also knew I needed to get at least 1 trade on for the day. Tried a pullback long (way after the move up) and I babysat this trade closely. I knew the long signal was after the big stop run that had taken place already, so I wasn’t giving this much room to work. It was going to pop or I was going to be out quickly. I got a small jump after entry and just moved my stop, which was ticked. I’m ok with the day since I got going later and this was after a big run up.

Overall the week was disappointing as this combine comes to an end soon. I have exactly 1 week left in this combine. Early next week will dictate which direction I go with the remaining days – either pushing it hard to boost the profits or be content with a combine rollover possibility.

In the past I have gone for broke as I did not clearly understand the rollover rules (my fault). Can anyone clarify the combine rollover rules?

Thanks & have a great weekend.

P-L from today:



TST stats, before today:

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  #60 (permalink)
LogicalTrader
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 294 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 1,420
Thanks Received: 757


The rules recently changed and looks like your combine started when the previous rules were in place. I dont remember those rules but your stats look good so far. The following picture is of one of my combines that qualified for rollover and you stats look better than mine in every aspect so I believe it should rollover:


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Last Updated on October 11, 2013


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