MY account is officially back to where I started which was where my stopping point is. I was up almost 600$ again to start and I slowly blew it again. I stuck to my plan and just couldnt catch a break. This was the second time in a row that I had started back up to 5+% gains to start then to just blow all the profit in the next weeks. Not sure what to do right now besides walking away for a time. I know I have to be very close because its hard to pull in what I did twice in a row but I also must be missing something great because I shouldnt be falling in to such a fall right after also.

Any input would be greatly appreciated because Im kinda lost at this point.

My backtesting is good and can be replicated easy with an extremely profitable paper trading session before i went live. I feel confident trading and know my rules Im just not sure why i keep blowing up as fast as I start off.

eclipsemf 

MY account is officially back to where I started which was where my stopping point is. I was up almost 600$ again to start and I slowly blew it again. I stuck to my plan and just couldnt catch a break. This was the second time in a row that I had started back up to 5+% gains to start then to just blow all the profit in the next weeks. Not sure what to do right now besides walking away for a time. I know I have to be very close because its hard to pull in what I did twice in a row but I also must be missing something great because I shouldnt be falling in to such a fall right after also. Any input would be greatly appreciated because Im kinda lost at this point. My backtesting is good and can be replicated easy with an extremely profitable paper trading session before i went live. I feel confident trading and know my rules Im just not sure why i keep blowing up as fast as I start off.

The markets have been tough on a lot so don't beat yourself up.

Check - do you break your rules? Do you follow the rules but the trades don't work? (can just be a bad run, or maybe the edge isn't really there) Is there some highly discretionary component that is really important but comes and goes without you being aware of it? Are there some days/times that are just not good to trade? Just a few starters, I'm sure you can find loads more better questions, stay calm, take a break and look from outside, I've had to do it hundreds of times and will always have to as things change.

Cheers

Hello guys Its that time of the year again! Works has slowed up for the winter so I am going to give it my third run at trading the S&P Futures. I'm a year older and hopefully a year wiser, with a bit more of a cash roll saved up to hopefully take any pressure I was felling last year off.

The little bit that I was able to study over the summer was focused on the market structure and really getting to understand the ebs and flows of the market. I fell way better this year on my understanding of the market, my goals and how I am going to achieve them.

With the new knowledge I have gained I simplified my method and took away one indicator and my fixed targets. Looking back I realized there were a lot of times when I should have taken profit but didnt because it didnt hit my target because I was looking for too much. I also shortened my time frame down to fit the style of trading. I know most people dont like the smaller time frames but its what works for me right now so im just going to go with it.

I will post right after this with today results and thoughts

This is just going to be a quick daily update for now as I get everything back in line. I will just start of by saying this time feels way different. From my last 2 goes at it the most trades I have ever felt comfortable placing in a day is 3 which I had done once, and 2 trades a day only a few times. Most of the time I would place 1 trade a day and what ever I got was the daily result. This is obviously very hard to get result any where close to what you back tested as there are many many trades a day on my trading plan. Sometimes up wards of 10, hence why I has having very big draw down.

On to today. Today I placed 6 trades! Its great news because Im not focused on the short term expectancy, I see that over time this will be profitable and I need to roll with the ups and downs.

Today's tally
6 Trades
3 Wins
3 Losses
Profit before commission 5 Tics

Today was W,L,W,L,W,L slowly grabbing a little profit to end the day.

Thoughts and notes...

Overall I felt I have good execution on 5 of my 6 trades. One I had entered right after a very larger candle which goes against my rules, my mistake. The other thing I fell like I need to let go just a little more. I had 2 set ups that I missed because I had just taken profit on the last trade and felt content. If I had taken those trades I would have been up roughly 20 Tics on the day. Hind sight is 20/20 I guess, will get back at it tomorrow.

Just a quick post today as I am right in the middle of a backtest from a small tweak I found may help
4 Trades
1 Win
3 Losses
Down 14 Tic today
Overall Down 9 Tics

Was just a rough market for my style of trading.

And just a quick question for any one browsing this journal...

I was wondering how you guys feel about a system that has roughly a 50% win rate with a min Risk to Reward of 2:1 (may change a bit due to market conditions) and that have 7 to 12 trades a morning. Also the max draw down I have found so far in back testing is about 500$.

Im not sure if I can post about just stocks on here where it is mainly a futures site. If I cant just let me know and I will stop. But I like to have my things and thoughts down some where so im going to try here.

I just started trading smaller cap smaller price stocks. 1$ -4$ stock based off of my method and technicals a few pages back in short term 1week to around a month. Im only putting 2k max in to each position so the overall risk is not a lot.

Trades this year so far...
GLFH down 14% held over from last year super penny stock that I shouldn't have been playing with.
SAND 9% gain 1 month
S 8% gain 2 weeks
PTX 12.5% gain 3 days
PPP 7.5% gain currently in position Entry 1.60 exit target around 2.20
BXE 21% gain currently in position Entry .97c Exit target half position at 1.50 other half hold.