NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





The Logical Trading Journal


Discussion in Trading Journals

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one LogicalTrader with 168 posts (223 thanks)
    2. looks_two jmsUK with 14 posts (11 thanks)
    3. looks_3 mfbreakout with 10 posts (14 thanks)
    4. looks_4 Balanar with 9 posts (13 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one Balanar with 1.4 thanks per post
    2. looks_two mfbreakout with 1.4 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 LogicalTrader with 1.3 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 jmsUK with 0.8 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 42,100 views
    2. thumb_up 277 thanks given
    3. group 30 followers
    1. forum 220 posts
    2. attach_file 189 attachments




 
Search this Thread

The Logical Trading Journal

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


Balanar View Post
@iNeo you make a great job here.

Maybe I am wrong with my thoughts, but as a reader I see the following "problem".

I think many traders see themselves in your words.

What I see is, that you pulled your stop to breakeven too fast.

I know this problem very well, but it is just the fear that you have.

The fear to get a loss.

Check your last trades where you got stopped out on breakeven and check if it was your fear that told you to pull the stop to breakeven.

Look @mfbreakout, have you ever seen him pulling the stop to breakeven after a couple of minutes? I think he is perfect in what he is doing. Maybe he is so kind and tells us something about his stop loss management.

You are right. It is fear of losing that causes that. If I analyze the trades that worked without me because of this reason and those that would have actually stopped me out for a full loss, I know the winners would make way more ticks than the losers lose. I am going to get away from this, very soon.

MFB does not move his stop. I remember from his posts.

Thanks for your support.

Reply With Quote

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Are there any eval firms that allow you to sink to your …
Traders Hideout
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
Exit Strategy
NinjaTrader
NT7 Indicator Script Troubleshooting - Camarilla Pivots
NinjaTrader
Deepmoney LLM
Elite Quantitative GenAI/LLM
 
  #102 (permalink)
LogicalTrader
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 294 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 1,420
Thanks Received: 757

I will be making a few changes going forward based on advice from one of the greatest on futures.io (formerly BMT). I am thankful for that.

Changes related to Trade identification and execution:
  • No more live entries of every action, thought, observation etc in the journal. I will only update during lulls in the market.
  • I will not trade the opening few minutes until price settles down.
  • I will identify beforehand if my trade is a trend trade or counter trend (not in the traditional sense but per ACD). I will be aggressive moving my stop to breakeven only if its a counter trend trade (when trading a box) otherwise I will leave it alone
  • If stopped out of a trade, I will not reattempt the setup no matter what the conditions are at that time. Instead, I will observe and learn.
  • I will use orderflow as an entry/exit confirmation only for countertrend trades. For trend trades, I will rely mostly on the 5 minute chart and ACD principles.
  • Regardless of trend or counter trend trade setup, I will wait for price to confirm via consolidation and other factors before taking the trade. I will not be in a rush to enter even if that means the trade will have a wider stop.
  • I will not worry about missing a trade. If it does not fall in these criteria and I miss it, I will say "Next!".
  • I will keep targets reasonable in relation to the following:
    • Time of the Day
    • Current day's range in relation to the ATR
    • Known ACD levels and non-ACD levels

Changes related to preparation:
  • I will practice by trading at least 7-10 days worth of past trading action using either Ninja or TOS EVERY WEEK. This is the single most important focal point going forward.
  • I will keep a journal/video of these practice sessions and identify common patterns for real time application

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


Missed short from 93.65 area. Everything had lined up over there.

8:25: Went long from 93.16 area with a 20 tick stop after enough consolidation. After almost 45 minutes, algo spike took out the stop. In hindsight, I should have taken a time stop. I had many opportunities to scratch but this is day 1 after many changes and I missed this simple filter - the time filter. No big deal. Now waiting for 10:15 until OR forms.

Reply With Quote
  #104 (permalink)
 
mfbreakout's Avatar
 mfbreakout 
BOSTON, MA
Market Wizard
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Tradestation, TOS
Trading: ES, CL, GC
Posts: 7,254 since Oct 2010
Thanks Given: 3,478
Thanks Received: 15,818


iNeo View Post
Missed short from 93.65 area. Everything had lined up over there.

8:25: Went long from 93.16 area with a 20 tick stop after enough consolidation. After almost 45 minutes, algo spike took out the stop. In hindsight, I should have taken a time stop. I had many opportunities to scratch but this is day 1 after many changes and I missed this simple filter - the time filter. No big deal. Now waiting for 10:15 until OR forms.

DOE report is at 11 am.

You need to be aware of relevant times. After late release due to holiday, DOE report comes out 11 am eastern time.

10.15 is O.K unless you meant your time zone.


There is no need to have 45 minutes hold time when ADX is at highs , giving mixed signal etc.

Correct idea but wrong day , time and execution.

Yesterday was the day to hold.

Today hold time may come later.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #105 (permalink)
LogicalTrader
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 294 since Aug 2013
Thanks Given: 1,420
Thanks Received: 757


mfbreakout View Post
DOE report is at 11 am.

You need to be aware of relevant times. After late release due to holiday, DOE report comes out 11 am eastern time.

10.15 is O.K unless you meant your time zone.


There is no need to have 45 minutes hold time when ADX is at highs , giving mixed signal etc.

Correct idea wrong day , time and execution.

Yesterday was the day to hold.

Today time may come which remains to be seen.

Thanks MFB. I meant 10:15 central.

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

10:26: Falied A down setup. Could not possibly have traded the 100+ tick run up from 92.51. So waited for pullback. Got long from 93.15 after pullback to 93.10. Took the long based on orderflow and 93.10 was prior support today, but made the mistake of getting too aggressive with the stop again. Got stopped out and market pulled away and I did not want to chase it. Eventually price topped out at around 93.57 and started pulling back.

10:43: Waited for market to pullback some more. Same premise of failed A down. Got orderflow confirmation and went long 93.36. Saw that shorts were trapped and held it till 93.76 for 40 ticks. I was almost certain we would see 93.88 but I am not allowed to think, I had to trade what I saw and 93.76 area was the area to get out.

Entry Chart:


I am done for the day. This was my one good trade of the day. No good will come from staring at charts now. I am off to practice a random day from the past.

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

Got in late today. Not feeling too good.

8:30: Got long from 94.22. 94.20 was previous resistance. Didnt give it time to settle down so wasnt a good entry. Took a 15 tick stop. It is a failed A down after all.
9:00-9:51: Scalped a couple and sitting at breakeven now. Watching paint dry.

Reply With Quote
  #108 (permalink)
 
Balanar's Avatar
 Balanar 
Germany
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: NTB / Continuum
Trading: FDAX and CL
Posts: 396 since Jan 2013
Thanks Given: 510
Thanks Received: 1,689

Sometimes it is better not to trade!


I sit on hands.

Much patience is required!

Do not force anything, let the setup come to you.

This box is too tight.

No setups available = no trades!

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

It is hard to realize the power of journaling without experiencing it first hand. I am glad I got motivated by the 70% discount being offered by TST and started a journal here at futures.io (formerly BMT).

All of this week, I have been wondering where I have gone wrong since clearing the TST combine. What happened? Why am I struggling now when I was doing much better before?

The answer was in this journal.

My primary method of trading changed since I started this journal - I switched from being a breakout trader to an ACD trader. This happened midway during my winning TST combine so even though this changed, I still managed to clear the combine.

Ever since then, I have been constantly trying to refine my method and as it has been pointed out countless number of times by many good traders, THIS was what broke it and my confidence in the process. I changed too much.

I realized this when I was reflecting upon my chat with @mfbreakout and when he asked - "How can I help you?". I didnt have a good answer. Its pretty clear that I had no idea what was wrong with my trading. I knew I did not need spoon feeding on the trading method - what I have picked up from his journal works just fine. I feel that I just wasted his time after he was so generous for having spent almost an hour with me on skype.

So after a lot of analysis and reflection and reading my own journal multiple times, I realized that when I cleared the combine, for those few days, the setup that I had was the best so far. The difference between then and now is that I have moved away from the slower charts I was using to much faster charts for my execution and overall. For whatever reason, I am watching the orderflow every time regardless of where price is in relation to the trading levels. Most of my trades have been random - pulled out of thin air - manufactured on the fly - whatever one may want to call it and I always try to look for a reason to justify every such trade.

Being a programmer, I wrote a beautiful piece of code that identifies temporary imbalance in the order flow and 9 out of 10 times, price moves accordingly - as the imbalance suggested. The problem came when I started looking at this imbalance at the micro level and taking trades at random levels. A month ago or so ago, when I first wrote this and used it with slower charts, it worked just fine when used at known levels. It helped me clear the combine.

So, all this reveals that I need to do the following:
  1. Go back to the slower charts - 5 min primarily.
  2. Take only the bread and butter trades - nothing in between. Failed As and retest of the 3 sessions are the ones to look for primarily. In fact, I am going to try my best to take only these. I don't want to etch this in stone because that screws with my mind in a different way.
  3. Do not change anything going forward.

Reply With Quote
  #110 (permalink)
 
iqgod's Avatar
 iqgod 
Mumbai, India
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: ChartNexus
Trading: Stocks, Commodities, Futures
Posts: 1,802 since Feb 2012
Thanks Given: 3,658
Thanks Received: 3,097



iNeo View Post
It is hard to realize the power of journaling without experiencing it first hand....



The difference between then and now is that I have moved away from the slower charts I was using to much faster charts for my execution and overall. For whatever reason, I am watching the orderflow every time regardless of where price is in relation to the trading levels. Most of my trades have been random - pulled out of thin air - manufactured on the fly - whatever one may want to call it and I always try to look for a reason to justify every such trade.

....A month ago or so ago, when I first wrote this and used it with slower charts, it worked just fine when used at known levels. It helped me clear the combine.

I have gone through this phase and had even come close to clearing a combine using faster charts, more trades (which tended to be random than anything else).

I too realized this because I had been constantly journalling my efforts.

The way I overcame it is the same as your plan:

I kept on doing what worked for me, did it without caring about the outcomes, focusing on the process of
trading well" i.e. taking trades when they set themselves up and taking my ego out of the equation by taking losses once trade premise proved wrong and not playing around with targets once in a trade or trade size when entering.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote




Last Updated on February 1, 2014


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts