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My journaled journey to success


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My journaled journey to success

  #61 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
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Thanks Received: 401

Learning day. Not an error free day either. Two cardinal sins. Moving my stop (cost me 90 ticks) and listening to someone else, and not trading my method.

My root issue is my inability to wait for the trades to come to me. I was forcing the trades and hit my upper loss limit. At least I didn't continue to trade when I was obviously over my limit and not on my game, yet this does not bode well for my mental outlook.

Thoughts that crossed my mind were: denial, record falsification, no entry. All image and pride issues. I definitely have a blind spot in those areas. I just don't want to let people down. Well, how about me. Shouldn't I be worried about letting myself down? Yes I should. Take it to the hangar, let's try it again tomorrow. Think about what you did and be ready to start tomorrow right.

G

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  #62 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

Q: Why is it the moment I enter a trade, the market goes the other way?
A: I am not reading the market correctly.

Hmmmm....

Time for more reflection....

G

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  #63 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401


Reflection is a good thing. I spent some time looking at Big Mike’s string on trading and advice. I was looking primarily for the advice part. I put some finishing touches on my newest of indicators. I realize my indicators will not save me. That much I realize from my personal trading experiences. But they do help ME read price action. My latest addition is called…wait for it…here it is…AaFantasticFour…TAH DAH! All I did was combine my four indicators into one with a simple moving average. I have weighting for each of the indicators and a selectable period for the moving average. What do I get for all of this? Some peace of mind. Long when things are green, short when they are read, but more importantly, watch price action. This is my aide to watching price action and keeping me from going insane. Some people play video games, some people play golf, some people read. Me, I write C# programs. I am an absolute hack, and I plagiarize regularly [almost as a religion], but I can make the displays look very, very pretty. I am not ready to send this indicator out to the masses either, just something to help me. I am not even sure where I am going to go with this. Maybe nowhere, maybe somewhere, maybe this is a waypoint on my journey. I just don’t know.

Trading today was with mixed emotions. I am learning how to read my indicator, so I have more trades than I would like, but I am getting better at reading them. I had a great learning experience along the way too. I put a screen shot in with my newest view. It seems to me as I write this, that I am just jumping from horse to horse. It does seem that way, but it is not the truth [I don’t think anyway]. I am simply trying to get a feel for price action. That seems to be the direction I want to head towards. I am uncomfortable with Fibonacci and pivots, for example, although they have an uncanny way of turning out. I just am not ready to use my money that way. So am I going to be successful or am I going to be a statistic? I hope not the later.

I feel good about today. I want this feeling good about how I trade and who I am to continue…for the rest of my life!

G

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  #64 (permalink)
 tmmaggi 
Toledo, Ohio
 
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gordo View Post
I realize my indicators will not save me. That much I realize from my personal trading experiences. But they do help ME read price action.

Gordo, I really appreciate your posts. I agree with your thoughts on indicators. They aren't going to save us, but the help some of us. I have been considering starting a journal on here but have been fearful because I use indicators as well, and they do seem to be out of fashion . . .

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  #65 (permalink)
 fluxsmith 
Santa Maria
 
Experience: Advanced
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tmmaggi View Post
...I have been considering starting a journal on here but have been fearful because I use indicators as well, and they do seem to be out of fashion . . .

Have no fear, I for one am always interested in what indicators are working and how they are used.

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  #66 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
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Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
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tmmaggi View Post
Gordo, I really appreciate your posts. I agree with your thoughts on indicators. They aren't going to save us, but the help some of us. I have been considering starting a journal on here but have been fearful because I use indicators as well, and they do seem to be out of fashion . . .

Don't feel that way. A journal is primarily to help you. The ritual of posting, examining your trades, and the accountability -- these all help you become a better trader. Worst case, if someone thinks your chart is incredibly confusing and says so, then see if there is any truth to the statement, any way you can benefit from it, and then move on. Nothing else you can do but learn and move forward.

Mike

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  #67 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
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Trading: CL,6E
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A bit of catching up to do. I made a lot of notes on my charts today. I am just going to put in the screen shots showing what I was thinking in each of my trades. I didn’t make a lot of money, but I am understanding better. Still made a bunch of mistakes. One thing I learned today is when it’s time to trade, trade. Don’t be checking emails. Don’t be looking at things on futures.io (formerly BMT). Trade! I missed several nice trades because I was ‘bored’ and was looking at something not related to trading. **[sigh]**

G

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  #68 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

Kind of a slow day. I had a meeting at 10 which took me out of trading for an hour before lunch. There was a couple of nice trades to watch that I might have taken. Overall today, I had a good session. I made six trades. One looser and one full winner. The others were partial winners. I felt good about how I traded. I stayed true to my rules for the most part. I took one trade (the loser) that was really at the end of the run and I should have let it go. I had a good weekend thinking about my trading. I felt focused today with little to no remorse in how I was doing.

So on another front, I have decided to give myself until the end of the year. If I can’t get myself thinking like a professional trader by then, I am not going to make it and I will seek another profession. I have been sim trading since the start of the year and dedicating a whole year to psychology is enough (IMHO). I will have to get focused and stay that way if I want this to work.

I decided to add my trade of the day to show how nice it set up. I am watching the 1 minute and 4 Renko for entries. That is why there are two screen shots. I also included my stats page. Tomorrow is another day and although I only made $109 today, it was a good day. If I can control my trading psychology, the money will come!

G

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  #69 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

This is crazy! Look at the numbers. I had 8 winning trades, 4 losing trades and I made $109??? I know it’s not the money, and don’t miss what I am saying. I have not lost sight of the fact that I am trying to trade error free. The problem is that two of the losing trades were HUGE! My money management skills have got to improve. As it stands right now, I enter into a trade and just hope my stop doesn’t get hit. Twice today, my wish was not granted. I have to do some study and get this under control. Remember what I said, I only have a few months to get this right. Not to muddy the water or anything, but there is going to be another grandson on Monday, total knee replacement for the wife on Tuesday and babysitting a granddaughter starting in three weeks. The stress factor is going to increase and the focus is going to have to be just that much better. NOW IS THE APPOINTED TIME TO GET MY COLLECTIVE ACT TOTGETHER!

So how did I do today? Calm, focused, traded pretty good. I did not trade a perfect day. One trade was just wrong. I did not have the supporting indications to confirm the trade and my stop got hit. DUH! One trade I just mis-clicked on the dom and it took me out of the trade. NUTS! The last one, the embarrassing one, the absolutely foolhardy one was a pure gut trade. BAD GORDON! BAD!!

On a positive note, I was very pleased with my restraint today in not chasing trades. I was down most of the day because the foolish mistakes were early in the day. What I didn’t do was to start chasing trades that were not my trades. That was a good feeling. It was okay to just sit here and wait for my trade. I can live with that.

Let’s look at the trade of the day. Nice retrace and nice entry. Notice anything wrong with this trade?


Do you see it?



Look hard!



That's right...I left 100 ticks on the table!


Now I probably wouldn’t have gotten all of them, but I could have taken my fair share. Tomorrow, I will be working to get some on the first contract and then let the big dog run. I researched and studied for about seven hours this afternoon and hopefully I have some tools that will help me. I will describe them if they work.


G

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  #70 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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Swing Trader
 
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gordo View Post
As it stands right now, I enter into a trade and just hope my stop doesn’t get hit. Twice today, my wish was not granted. I have to do some study and get this under control.

I'd like to see your stop placement on your charts for each trade, if you'll post it.


gordo View Post
Let’s look at the trade of the day. Nice retrace and nice entry. Notice anything wrong with this trade?

Do you see it?

Look hard!

That's right...I left 100 ticks on the table!

We all make comments like this from time to time, but you've got to be very careful. We are battling ourselves here. We can see that on SIM it's easy to make money hand over fist all day. On cash, not so much. This is a battle within. You've got to be careful with some remarks that can lead to self-sabotage, or just in general negative comments that don't benefit you but instead lower your expectations.

We've all left 100 ticks on the table in a trade before, but a better way to describe that is to say something like "It seems CL has these kinds of moves almost every single day. My current exit strategy does not allow me to capture the majority of these moves when they do occur. I should look into whether or not they really occur frequently enough so that I should modify my exit strategy or money management strategy to position myself to be able to capture more of these moves."

In other words, re-frame it - it's not a negative, it's an opportunity. I am not saying I am perfect, I make similar remarks, but I do usually catch myself very quickly and re-frame it into a positive statement, an opportunity, instead of something negative.

Also, the mind is not always objective. After study, you may indeed find it makes NO sense to try to capture such a move. You will then need to battle your mind the next time a move like that happens, and remind yourself that you've done the research, and you are 100% fine with not capturing those moves because your research has proven (x,y,z here)....

Mike

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