NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.


Discussion in Trading Journals

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one Tuglife with 110 posts (131 thanks)
    2. looks_two tonybravo with 5 posts (4 thanks)
    3. looks_3 Botts with 3 posts (16 thanks)
    4. looks_4 josh with 2 posts (5 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one Botts with 5.3 thanks per post
    2. looks_two Massive l with 4 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 josh with 2.5 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 Tuglife with 1.2 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 24,413 views
    2. thumb_up 172 thanks given
    3. group 12 followers
    1. forum 132 posts
    2. attach_file 8 attachments




 
Search this Thread

Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.

  #21 (permalink)
 Trailer Guy 
Aguanga, CA USA
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Ninja Trader 8
Broker: IB, NinjaTrader Brokerage, Schwab
Trading: ES
Posts: 215 since Sep 2014
Thanks Given: 68
Thanks Received: 387

Ah yes, more is not the same as many. "Mack" at PriceActionTradingSystems is frequently saying just take the best trades but keep increasing the number of contracts. The second part of that is that he says it tales a long time to get over the mental aspect of increasing the number of contracts.

It is also said another way, as in Do more of what is working and less of what isn't.

Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to Trailer Guy for this post:

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
ZombieSqueeze
Platforms and Indicators
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
Request for MACD with option to use different MAs for fa …
NinjaTrader
My NT8 Volume Profile Split by Asian/Euro/Open
NinjaTrader
 
Best Threads (Most Thanked)
in the last 7 days on NexusFi
Retail Trading As An Industry
58 thanks
Battlestations: Show us your trading desks!
50 thanks
NexusFi site changelog and issues/problem reporting
47 thanks
GFIs1 1 DAX trade per day journal
32 thanks
What percentage per day is possible? [Poll]
31 thanks

  #22 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174


Trailer Guy View Post
Ah yes, more is not the same as many. "Mack" at PriceActionTradingSystems is frequently saying just take the best trades but keep increasing the number of contracts. The second part of that is that he says it tales a long time to get over the mental aspect of increasing the number of contracts.

It is also said another way, as in Do more of what is working and less of what isn't.

Thanks for the advice. At this point it's clear to me that I need to switch things up.

Traded the MES for about an hour this morning. I woke up and traded the open but didn't do well. The price action spooks me a little. I keep using market orders to chase spikes. And I was still very nervous (waiting, waiting) to click the mouse. I don't need to watch the screenrecord to know how ugly it was. Feels like 1 step forward and 2 steps back the last couple of weeks. Still, this can be fixed...I made a bunch of rookie mistakes. Probably the biggest one was poor trade location (result of impatience).

Entering with market orders is a bad habit that results in being offsides immediately in a lot of trades. Best thing I did was cut losers quick. So my discipline in this area is improving.Lost $25 in the cash account.

I go to work this week (on a tugboat, hence the name). Internet is good and there is time to trade, but I will not. I think it's time to examine what I am doing and why I'm doing it. I will also watch and record the market every morning at open.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
  #23 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174


I use the Jigsaw Daytradr platform connected to Ninjatrader. I finally finished the training provided by Jigsaw. I am working my way through my book, too. It's fascinating.

Unfortunately the trading is going very poorly. Only sim trading (live trading would be suicidal at this point). It's hard to pinpoint exactly what is going wrong. I feel like even if this market is thin and a little tricky I should learn how to trade it.

I am open to suggestions if anyone has an idea how I can break out of my slump.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #24 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174

Had a better day on Friday. Sim trading only and it went well.

I have started using the VWAP. I know it will not always be like this, but it was very predictive of the swings on Friday. I am pretty sure that I will keep using the VWAP in conjunction with swing charts, DOM and volume profile.

Still reading the Mark Douglas book. It's eye opening to say the least.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
  #25 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174

Sim traded the open and crushed it. It went well enough that I decided to live trade.

It *wasn't* pretty but I had my best day ever on the live account. Made $130 on 25 trades. Twice I came within 1 tick of being stopped out for healthy losses. I am still learning to trade with the VWAP but I really enjoy the input it gives me.

Biggest fault today was poor trade management. I need to work on trade exit strategy and also need to incorporate better strategy for multi contract trades.

Feels good to finally get over the hump and live trade with confidence. I am trading MES and plan on increasing position size to 2 contracts tomorrow.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #26 (permalink)
JohnWick4ever
Los Angeles
 
Posts: 30 since Mar 2020
Thanks Given: 3
Thanks Received: 4

Tuglife, control your emotions, you have the same issue as i do, trading too many times a day, try to only trade once per day first, keep it for while and look at the result .

I am trading gold future only, 20 ticks is all i want for daily , don't over trade, once you hit the profit do something else, do not touch your account again for the day

Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to JohnWick4ever for this post:
  #27 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174

Thanks for the advice John Wick. I am following your advice today. I had some good trades and turned off the screen.

Best day yet. Live trading the MES $247 profit on 10 trades. That's a whole lot of ticks. Traded for 1.5 hours and things went fairly well. Feels like a breakthrough. I'm going to do my best to keep this up, understanding that losing days will have to be tolerated too.

Chased the big swing down with market orders and poor trade position but I got away with it. One area that's going well is my discipline cutting losing trades. I am sometimes doing it before my "automatic" stop if things don't look right.

The next thing I need to think about is how fast I want to increase position size. My trading account is a modest $1500 and I want to avoid big drawdowns while maximizing profits (of course). I'm currently trading 1 MES contract, sometimes 2. The last trade today I increased to 4 contracts because that move looked so strong.

Big shout out to the VWAP! It really feels like my trading has improved with this on my chart.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
  #28 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174

Pretty rough day today. Lost $390. Roughly 25% of my account size. I forgot to see what the market was doing...and acted like a gambler instead of a trader.

I overtraded all day. Then I lost discipline and let a trade really move against me. $350 of my loss was on the last trade. I had *several* opportunities to get out of that trade. Moved my stop too.

Wow. I didn't see the market!!! I thought my discipline had improved. Today showed me different.

On my to do list: Write some trading rules relating to position size, daily profit goals/ daily drawdown limits. No more sim trading. I will continue to live trade the MES. I can afford to lose 10-20 ticks a day if need be and I think the sim trading has reinforced bad habits. Also I will spend more time reading the trading psychology books and using the psychology/money management part of the site.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
  #29 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174

I spent today at my day job. I work on an oil barge. If you know what you're doing (I do) things move slow and there is plenty of time to think.

My failure of the last 3 days is because of a complete lack of risk management. I think better discipline will follow rigorous risk management.

By focusing on the money I made on Monday and Tuesday I overlooked the very important mistakes I was making. Trading too many contracts is part of it. The other part is not having a clearly defined risk management strategy written down, and followed.

I've decided not to post any P&L dollar figures from now on. The point of this is to manage risk well and trade well. If I do those two things the profits will come. I will post whether I hit my profit target or account stop loss for the day, as it kind of *does* matter if my mistakes or things I do right enable me to achieve these goals.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
  #30 (permalink)
 
Tuglife's Avatar
 Tuglife 
Escondido CA USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: YM
Posts: 168 since Jan 2020
Thanks Given: 88
Thanks Received: 174


One of my biggest weaknesses is macro level market analysis. Key level indication and big-picture bias would be welcome at this stage of my development. For this reason I've decided to join a reasonably priced content provider. The guy who runs the site is well regarded here and I think this will be money well spent.

As far as cash outflow, I've tried to keep it to a minimum. Lifetime subscriptions to Ninjatrader and Jigsaw were very expensive. I haven't paid for anything else (except losses.) The only thing on my radar at the moment is an "Anchored VWAP" indicator which runs $79. I am really happy with my setup but I would like extra insight in the middle of swings...

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:





Last Updated on September 16, 2023


© 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