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The Bolt Trader Journal

  #1 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831

I am entering the October Trading Journal Contest but NOT to win! Why? First, I am not ready for an account that size. I need to be profitable trading only a few contracts before I move up to trading 15 contracts. Second, I already am trading with TopStepTrader. My Combine Size is $50,000 with a max position size of 5 contracts. Third, I will miss about a week of trading during the month as I travel to Colorado and Wyoming. So, why enter you ask?

Good question! I am hoping that the process of keeping this journal here and being accountable to the community will help me to become a more disciplined trader. Basically, I am starting this journal here at futures.io (formerly BMT) to help reach my goal of becoming a consistently profitable day trader.

Recently, my trading has been lacking discipline and really stinks. In fact, I have almost blown my current Combine by being dangerously close to my max drawdown limit. As a result, I have lost confidence and have been losing the battle to fear. This has led to some bad habits such as hesitation and moving of stops. So, in an attempt to correct this I am setting some new goals and rules for myself.

First, try to dig myself out of this deep hole and save this Combine. Don’t even worry about getting funded. Second, trade only 1 product crude (CL). Next, focus on my entries. To help me do this I am reducing my catastrophic stop loss to -6 ticks. Fourth, for the next couple of months at least I am just striving for base hits. That’s right, no home runs, just singles. In fact, I am just going to be scalping between 5 & 10 ticks on every trade with a goal of plus 20-30 ticks a day. Fifth, NO trading more than 2 contracts until I have raised my confidence level and have a proven track record. Finally, always use an ATM strategy to enter a position. Targets will consist of +5, +8 or +10 ticks. The initial stop will be -6 ticks. The stop will automatically move at +4 ticks to -2 ticks from the entry price. In addition, the +10 Target ATM will move the stop one more time at +10 ticks to +5 ticks just in case the order does not fill.

Looking forward to the journey with you all!

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  #3 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831


Yesterday, I tried trading my live account exactly the way I intend to trade my Combine account. For the most part I did pretty good. I took most of the trade signals until I reached my goals. I was in the zone and focused. I know that the daily profit goal is small but as stated I am in a rebuilding mode right now. Not only did I have a good winning percentage but I also kept my average losses smaller than my average gains. The following stats are provided:

Product Traded: CL

Total # of Trades: 8
# of Winning Trades: 6
# of Losing Trades: 2
Percent Profitable: 75%

Gross Profit: $340.56
Gross Loss: $87.36
Commissions/Fees: $36.80
Net Profit: $253.20

Average Winner: $56.76
Average Loser: $43.68
Max Drawdown: $87.36

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  #4 (permalink)
 
bobwest's Avatar
 bobwest 
Western Florida
Site Moderator
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: ES, YM
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Minutes
Posts: 8,162 since Jan 2013
Thanks Given: 57,341
Thanks Received: 26,267

Good start. Will be following along.

Good luck with it.

Bob.

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  #5 (permalink)
daddy
Budapest+Hungary
 
Posts: 151 since Aug 2014
Thanks Given: 139
Thanks Received: 204

Hi BoltTrader,

It seems we're trading quite similar style, scalping the crude. Do you plan to post your setups? Just made me curious

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  #6 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831


daddy View Post
Hi BoltTrader,

It seems we're trading quite similar style, scalping the crude. Do you plan to post your setups? Just made me curious

I will but for this week and part of next it will be hit and miss. For instance, I was gone today taking my wife to the Doctor across town and tomorrow I have to get the car ready to travel to Wyoming. Once I am back from Wyoming I will be able to be more consistent.

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  #7 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831

Well, I messed up last night. Placed a trade in the wee hours for fun wanting to see what would happen when I woke up. Only problem was that I thought I was placing the trade in my sim account and it turned out to be in my Combine. Of course, it didn't work out. I am under the gun and whereas I wasn't planning to trade the Combine today because of having little time in front of the computer, now I must.

I made one change on the Chart Trader Properties so this won't happen again. I changed the simulation color so that it is different from the Combine color. More importantly, I need to pay closer attention (especially during the early morning hours) to what I am doing.

I was able to place a scalp trade for +10 ticks around the CL opening. However, I missed 2 more setups as I was at the auto shop. I am hoping to get at least one or two more trades before I have to leave again.

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  #8 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831

I finally was able to take another scalp trade for +10. One more and I will call it for the day.

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  #9 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831

Bias: Short

Been in a Bear Flag Channel. Had setups at all 3 of my entry zones. Expecting price to break of out channel and move south but we will see. If it does first target is 89.06.

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  #10 (permalink)
 BoltTrader 
Phoenix + AZ/USA
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC
Posts: 532 since Jul 2014
Thanks Given: 2,481
Thanks Received: 831


Everything did as expected. However, I was not able to execute due to long distance phone call. Bummer. Took pullback trade. Stopped to the tick. I should have checked my mid-term chart and I would have been fine with my entry being 1 tick before my original stop and trade would have worked out perfectly. Loss -6 ticks.

Next target: 88.81 to 88.76

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Last Updated on March 7, 2017


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