Took my 4th loss in a row today which put me under 5% gains again. My small stops are no match for this market so I am going to stop trading now to limit the damage and go back to paper trading to just work on my craft some more and wait until the volatility slows calms down. I have seen a lot of people with small stops getting killed out there with no limits on losses or anything, so I wanna make sure I don't go giving back all my money I just earned by making stupid mistakes. Once I get a small run on paper trading ill head back to the real thing again.

Today I took to paper trading because I saw the market was very volatile again and new my current method and stop set up would no work at all. Last night I was working on some small back testing samples for a big tweak in my method to compensate only when the markets are going crazy like they are and have been recently. I know you can not survive in this business if you can not adapt to the current market conditions quickly. Now the market has been trending pretty good today but the bars have still been way to large to compete with point and a half stops. So I turned to range bars in paper money with the bar range set at a small 5 tics. I did not change anything else with my method just the chart to range instead of 3 minute bars. I took all the trades that came up from 9:30 to 10:30 and even with this crazy market managed to pull in 712.50$ with just a 12k account! If the market stays like this next week I am going to paper trade this the rest of the week and the following week if I like it I will take it live depending on the market conditions by then!

No update on Monday as I will not be watching the market but back on Tuesday!

I didn't get a chance to trade yesterday due to some work constraints, but with the weather being out for the rest of the week I will be working on testing my new tweak with the market in its very volatile state. I did some more paper trading today and took 412.50 out of the market which is another great gain. I already feel very good with the execution of this tweak but I wanna make sure I get it down before I take it live so ill trade for the rest of the week and see what its goes like.

I really wanna go all in because I know this tweak will work great with the volatility but I am trying hard to not get ahead of myself.

I decided to go back to live trading because the market had seemed to slow down and my pre market conditions were met so I was ready to trade. I passed on my first signal because the market was coming out of a block of consolidation and I knew there could be a good pull back that would kill me. I decided to take my second signal of the morning but I failed to see it was still in my "pullback" window, which is the first 12 minutes from open. So needless to say I took my fifth loss in a row and 6 out of my last 7. This one wasnt due to the market volatility, even though all losses are my fault regardless, this one was just a mistake on my part and I will plan on making sure to watch out way more for that first 12 minutes if the market is in consolidation.


After I took this loss I went right back to paper trading to work on trading my full method for when I get ready to trade 2 contracts. I made 3 trades and pulled in 337.50 more profit which is well over 10% in the 3 days I have paper traded but something is still holding me back from doing this in the real market for some reason. I wish I could get over it because it is really slowing my progress.

Went back to live trading today because the market seems to be getting a little calmer. I am now holding out for the first 12 minutes from open for a while still though. I missed a fill on my first trade by half a point would have been a brake even trade. Second trade I got filled and was in the direction I thought the second move would come too. I moved my stop to break even once I was up 87.5 to only be stopped out and have the market continue up to where I had my target set But anything that isnt a loss is a good day so I cannot complain. I feel like I am starting to figure the moves of the market better had called all of this mornings actions spot on! Back tomorrow!

Took another loss today that market did not take as big of swing as I had thought it was going to. I had no emotion going in to or during but once I got stopped out it kinda hit hard. I will attach an equity curve that I have had since I started. I clearly need to change something up soon or else I am going to just blow my account up. Thankfully I started with an incredible run so these losses aren't taking money out of my initial investment. But I have been working on my other tweak and I hopefully will be finished with my testing tonight so I should have a good idea on which I should go to. The new one has me in a lot more trades but my targets will be smaller. I think that will be the way I am going to trade until I see the market start putting in nice trends like it did for most of September.



I have attached 3 things with this post. 1 is my equity curve in live trading since September 15th, 2 is my old chart that I was watching and taking a bunch of losses in October, 3 is the new chart that I will hopefully be watching and live trading off of very soon.

Well today I broke even plus 1. This was all completely my fault I didnt follow my rules when setting my stop to break even. If I had let it go I would have hit my full target and probably then some if I had wanted. I think the only reason I second guessed myself is because I have been on a bad streak here. Normally I know I would have been fine and stayed with my rules.

This just goes to show no matter what you are going through in the market if you have a plan that you know it works STICK WITH IT! That's all I have today.

Took no trades today because TD decided to be a piece of $*** for the first time. I had the short of the morning setting up perfect. I tried to get filled 3 TIMES and all three is denied to fill and instantly took my order off the ladder. I have never had this happen I restarted the program but by the time that had happened I had already missed my move.

I was aiming for a 1972.25 Fill and my target was at 1969.75 which right at 10 it blew right past that, so it was just what I needed to build a little of my confidence back up so I can rebound from this decline I am in. I'm not sure what I am going to do right now, I might take a week or two off just to regroup and clear my mind. I really hate to because this has been my dream since I was 17 in High school and I KNOW I am so close to being where I want to be. But it might be the best thing for me at this point. Might have an update tomorrow.

eclipsemf 

Took no trades today because TD decided to be a piece of $*** for the first time. I had the short of the morning setting up perfect. I tried to get filled 3 TIMES and all three is denied to fill and instantly took my order off the ladder. I have never had this happen I restarted the program but by the time that had happened I had already missed my move. I was aiming for a 1972.25 Fill and my target was at 1969.75 which right at 10 it blew right past that, so it was just what I needed to build a little of my confidence back up so I can rebound from this decline I am in. I'm not sure what I am going to do right now, I might take a week or two off just to regroup and clear my mind. I really hate to because this has been my dream since I was 17 in High school and I KNOW I am so close to being where I want to be. But it might be the best thing for me at this point. Might have an update tomorrow.

You may want to check a few things with TD.

All your trading agreements and surveys filed, and you meet the margin requirements for the trades you wanted to enter.

Can't remember but I think there is a Fill or Kill option for entering orders also, just some ideas on maybe why you had a hiccup today.

And yes TD software drops the load regularly, so it could have been that also. Keep the phone number to your TD Broker handy for the day when you TD Software misbehaves when you are in a trade.

Since you are with TD be sure to renegotiate your brokerage fee once you start averaging 10 or more round trip trades a day. I found out about this after a year of active trading. OOPS lots of money down the drain that year.

Hope this helps and at least you were ready to trade that is commendable. Thank you.

bd92154 

You may want to check a few things with TD. All your trading agreements and surveys filed, and you meet the margin requirements for the trades you wanted to enter. Can't remember but I think there is a Fill or Kill option for entering orders also, just some ideas on maybe why you had a hiccup today. And yes TD software drops the load regularly, so it could have been that also. Keep the phone number to your TD Broker handy for the day when you TD Software misbehaves when you are in a trade. Since you are with TD be sure to renegotiate your brokerage fee once you start averaging 10 or more round trip trades a day. I found out about this after a year of active trading. OOPS lots of money down the drain that year. Hope this helps and at least you were ready to trade that is commendable. Thank you.

Thanks @bd92154 for the reply, I made sure to check all of my margin requirements and that was all set. TD thought it was just a small hiccup with the program because they had me restart the program and I was all set to go! I also got your PM a little while back and right now for my round trip I am paying $6.84 per contract which is a good amount but until I can truly trade every day full time I'm sure they wont wanna help me out there. But I appreciate the advice because I would not have thought about trying to negotiate my fees.



Now just and update on why I missed Friday and Monday. I took Friday off because I was kinda in a funk and felt like I needed a break and just relax for the weekend and not think one bit about the market. And Monday I had to take a personal day to help a friend out but that gave me a 4 hour drive alone to think about where I was going with this situation and where I want to be right now. I think that drive will turn out to be a huge help because it got my mind back in the game and made me more determined than ever to achieve my goals. I will be back later on today with my daily update!