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Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.


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Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.

  #51 (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

So I surprised myself by studying a lot today. Watched a few videos, studied charts for awhile and I think I've found a really good setup. It's clownishly simple and I wonder how long it'll work...I don't know the exact numbers for sure but I think it has P=.9 and R=1.5 (or better). It's a fairly mechanical setup, too. There might be some discretion and order flow analysis happening as the trade approaches but not too much.

Tomorrow I will be printing out 30-45 days worth of charts and figuring the probabilities and stops, and targets. This is the only way to figure this out because it is VWAP related. Manual backtesting. I'm stoked.

Edit: Looked at this trade. I got too excited too early. P=.8 but the R=1. Trade is only available 2 out of 3 days. I will keep working this as I think it has potential.

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  #52 (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

The trade setup didn't arrive today. Choppy market so I scalped 8 trades. I was 7/8 with pretty good discipline. Finished limit up for the day and turned the screen off. Turned the screen back on. Few more winners.

I had a scary moment late in the day when my Jigsaw platform froze. I had entered a limit buy order and couldn't cancel it. Restarted platform and order was still there. I had to emergency call Ninjatrader. To their credit they picked up the phone in about 10 seconds and cancelled the order.


I could have done a better job early figuring what kind of day type it was, and gotten some good trades on that range.

Wow the market really changed gears after lunch. My life would be so much easier if I could hop on some of those moves. Save a bunch in commissions and earn a lot more ticks per trade.

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  #53 (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


A mixed day at best and man was it weird.

Started out pretty OK, got short a couple of times but sold too early. I ended up a few ticks short of limit up so I took "one more trade." Bad trade. "One more trade". Even worse. Limit down for the day.

The I noticed I was trading on the sim. Back at it, trade selection improved but I am a little jittery the last few days. Ended up dead even at 3:00 and actually caught the first part of the big break down, going short at the -1SD MVAP, covering just below -2VWAP. Limit up for the day.

I managed to stay in a healthy mindset watching the price move down 30 more points after I covered. I just sat there and focused on staying relaxed. Yes, I could have gotten more but I executed that trade just like I planned. As long as I have better discipline there will be plenty more opportunities.

I seem to be scratching a lot of trades. Today was the first time in awhile that I felt nervous while trading. The only trade I absolutely *knew* I should stay in was the last one. I am actually flirting with trading profitability as mid month approaches. I'm at that place where I can recognize some progress but still don't feel like a good trader.


Platform crashed again. I am either going to reinstall it or just do a factory reset on the computer. It's been awhile...

It was a mixed bag today. I'm finally feeling like *at times* I can keep myself from making bad trades. So I feel like today was a "W" overall.

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  #54 (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

Slept in because I have been lacking sleep. Took my time and leaned on the VWAP to determine market state and a good entry. Scratched first trade. Let second trade run and it came back. Re-entered and got a good result. Limit up for the day.

Discipline seems to be good. My good trade was close to the end of the day and I held onto it, expecting the market to break down like it had yesterday. I think I let myself get emotional watching the trade run...there were plenty of opportunities to scale a contract and re-enter but I missed them because I was hoping for a big winner.

This is my first week trading 2 contracts on the MES. My risk management with multiple contracts needs a lot of work.

I'm now profitable on my trades for May. I have $180 in expenses for subscriptions and whatnot so I am not profitable overall. This doesn't suck but I am laser focused on the risk and psychological management that will help this continue.

Edit: I logged on the ETH and lost the last 2 days gains with two questionable trades. Something about the ETH brings out FOMO, emotional trading. I can't trade this session any more. Gaining and keeping discipline is a major struggle. All this can be fixed, though. I recognize the emotions as I placed those trades...anxious and fearful. I even entered with market orders which is a big no no for me.

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  #55 (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

Woke up late. Saw MES skyrocketing. I put on 2 FOMO trades. First one was OK but I brought my stop to break even too early. Second one was pure FOMO...poor location chasing a spike. Limit down, screen off. Only took 10-15 minutes.

It's so frustrating to *actually be aware* that I am doing the wrong thing, but I do it anyways.

What I just realized is that I have poor discipline in other areas of my life. Why should my trading behavior be any different? It's almost like I'm trying to flip a light switch and "turn the discipline on" when I sit down to trade.

As I got a few profitable days under my belt I could feel my psychology start to change. Sitting around dreaming about how rich I'm going to be or how soon I can quit my job. The fact that I'm currently trading 2 lots on the MES shows how out of touch and undisciplined these ideas are.

It might be time to make some changes. Lose a little weight, take things more seriously etc.

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  #56 (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

Started late again, but took my time getting set up and watching the market. Scratched 3 straight and then had 2 good sized winners. Risk management was probably the strongest since I switched to 2 contracts. I've abandoned the "limit up" idea. If I'm doing things the right way there's no reason to stop trading except when I am limit down.

Today felt like my best day in a long time.

I seem to be having better results since I've added the "Cumulative delta momentum" indicator. Right now it's VWAP, $TICK, CD momentum, and swing. I need to add in a volume indicator and I've been using a relative volume one...still tough to use it for good feedback. As always the "bid/ask split volume profile" is my ace in the hole.

When I look at the results of my "idiot days" vs "non idiot days" the contrast is stark. The way forward is clear...

My focus is still on profitability. Risk management and discipline will get me there. I am even on trades (commission included) for May.

Phew.

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  #57 (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

Spent time reading "Trading in The Zone" today. Watched @Salao 's webinar. Time well spent.

Looked over my trades on Friday. Not as good as I thought. I took 4 trades in the first 10 minutes. Location was good but I was wrong regarding the position of swing high. I probably deserved to get hit harder than I did. I ended up even, but with $10 in commission. This is hardheadedness, but I saved myself by scratching the trades that didn't look right, and cutting the loser early.

Watched a few other videos and picked up something I know I can use. I was watching a Jigsaw video and Peter started talking about how areas of low participation are harder to manipulate. I see these areas on the bottom and top of swings all day. I might be more likely to enter there in the future.

I only have 2 days to see the entire session next week. I'd like to see more consistency with discipline and results. I'm not sure I want to start posting my setups but i might post some "trade performance" stats from NT.

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  #58 (permalink)
 
Salao's Avatar
 Salao 
Los Angeles CA
Market Wizard
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: GC/MGC, MCL, MES
Posts: 1,250 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 10,570
Thanks Received: 5,870

Hey @Tuglife! Great journal, I can relate to it 100%! And I admire your attitude, it seems like resilience comes natural to you. Which is great! I had to learn to not get too down on myself when things get rocky. I find it helpful to remind myself that learning and growth is the only way forward and to focus on learning rather than results. I think a generally accepted tenet of trading is that 'bad things happen when we focus on results.' This seems true as I also need to remind myself of this when I get too high on recent performance. Ha! . So for me, even maintaining a good attitude is hard work. No rest for the wicked, I guess ().

Also, I definitely plan on checking out the "Senna" documentary you had pointed out before. Seems like it could be really good. Trade well!

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  #59 (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


Salao View Post
Hey @Tuglife! Great journal, I can relate to it 100%! And I admire your attitude, it seems like resilience comes natural to you. Which is great! I had to learn to not get too down on myself when things get rocky. I find it helpful to remind myself that learning and growth is the only way forward and to focus on learning rather than results. I think a generally accepted tenet of trading is that 'bad things happen when we focus on results.' This seems true as I also need to remind myself of this when I get too high on recent performance. Ha! . So for me, even maintaining a good attitude is hard work. No rest for the wicked, I guess ().

Also, I definitely plan on checking out the "Senna" documentary you had pointed out before. Seems like it could be really good. Trade well!

I hear you regarding learning vs results. I can go back to my best days and see real problems with my performance. At the very least it's a good way to stay humble. And I'm not trying to make myself crazy but what if I could have done a little bit better on the good days too? In my case there actually is a need to pay close attention to results, simply because I am not a rich guy. The losses on the MES, while relatively small, are still real money. I definitely want to keep live trading and don't want to fall into a cycle of having to put money into my account all the time.

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  #60 (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


Started out OK. Overtraded. Got run over 3 times in 15 minutes going short. The worst part is the last trade wasn't looking good and I missed a couple of good chances to get out. Limit down for the day. At the moment I have a lot of doubt regarding my trading ability. The only thing keeping me in the game is not screwing up my discipline to turn off the screen when limit down.

It's pretty obvious I need some kind of trading rule to avoid getting repeatedly run over on the same swing. I'm considering a mandatory break after a losing trade. Maybe if I'm wrong once I'm not allowed to trade on the same swing. Got away with it on Friday but not today.

Almost always happens going short. I go back and reread this thing occasionally and I know this is an ongoing problem.

Ongoing problems. None of this stuff can be fixed overnight but I have to keep it in mind.

1. Overtrading

2. Repeatedly getting run over on same swing. This one could be the easiest one to fix.

3. Failure to observe basic market context

What I learned in the postmortem is that when the market shifted gears at 10:15, the CD told the story. My last trade was actually in a decent location at +2SD VWAP *BUT* I was trading the wrong way. Market was definitely trending at that time. The trade should have been away from VWAP. Even if I would have been looking for it I'm still hesitant to go long at +2SD or short at -2SD. I think it's a good way to get run over, but today would have been a great trade.

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Last Updated on September 16, 2023


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