Hi,

I'm presently using E2T's TCP combine to forward testing some strategies trading ES/NQ that I've been struggling with. This is what this journal is all about to keep track of my trading habits with an emphasis on losing trades and mistakes.

As you can see from my screenshot, I've been trading this combine from April 4th without much success passing it. Therefore, I'll document every mistake here to see if I can figure out a pattern every time when I put in a losing trade.

Thanks for reading and any comment is welcome.

Today is a 'rare' and funny day.

E2T's maintain consistency rule states that no single trading day can account for 30% or more of your total PnL. So, I had to figure out how to put in losing trades after exceeding $520 daily profit.

~$250 to go. Wish me luck and luck seems to find me after posting my journal here

TCP2

One bad trade -> didn't follow entry signals rules.


tcp

zzzz2021 

One bad trade -> didn't follow entry signals rules.

1. Identify a trading problem.
2. Develop a solution.
3. Determine how I will implement the solution.
4. Measure the effectiveness of the solution.

You have identified the problem. That's where a lot of people stop as if once identified the problem will sort itself out. The hard work is the other three stages:

What solution are you going to try to make sure you follow your rules?
How will you implement that solution in real time?
How will you measure whether that solution is working?

Did you not follow your rules because for example: You were in a hurry and don't have the time to wait for the setups to come to you because you have time constraints, or the method doesn't suit your personality such as trying to enter on reversals for big moves the other way, but you can't accept the risk of loss; trying to scalp but you just aren't comfortably acting that quickly etc. and so on.
Identify one problem and solution at a time and work on that, focusing on it until you have improved. Then pick the next most important issue and begin again on that.

Just a thought. Either way, good luck with the evaluation.

matthew28 

1. Identify a trading problem. 2. Develop a solution. 3. Determine how I will implement the solution. 4. Measure the effectiveness of the solution. You have identified the problem. That's where a lot of people stop as if once identified the problem will sort itself out. The hard work is the other three stages: What solution are you going to try to make sure you follow your rules? How will you implement that solution in real time? How will you measure whether that solution is working? Did you not follow your rules because for example: You were in a hurry and don't have the time to wait for the setups to come to you because you have time constraints, or the method doesn't suit your personality such as trying to enter on reversals for big moves the other way, but you can't accept the risk of loss; trying to scalp but you just aren't comfortably acting that quickly etc. and so on. Identify one problem and solution at a time and work on that, focusing on it until you have improved. Then pick the next most important issue and begin again on that. Just a thought. Either way, good luck with the evaluation.

Thanks for your excellent suggestions. Futures.io is a great forum with great people like you and Bobwest.

It's obvious that I lack the patience to wait for opportunities to come to me, like they say "patience is a virtue' in trading.

I hit daily stop limit this morning. Few nice setups got triggered after, but I couldn't trade. Not in a mood for anything.


TCP

I'm confident that my setups work perfectly fine. I've spent considerable amount of time to back and forward testing. It's just my problem that I can't wait for perfect executions.

Back to discipline mode. Let's see how I'll improve this time.

zzzz2021 

I'm confident that my setups work perfectly fine. I've spent considerable amount of time to back and forward testing. It's just my problem that I can't wait for perfect executions. Back to discipline mode. Let's see how I'll improve this time.

This kind of thing is actually very common. It's one thing to test something, when there's nothing at stake and when you're not actually in the market, however you are doing the test. But once it matters, once the market is actually running live and you are faced with having to decide what to do while price is changing and when it matters, that's when all the personal issues come up.

And unfortunately, these cannot be "tested" in any way other than in actual trading. Even though your evaluation account is on sim, simulation can be real enough for your personal stuff to be triggered. Dealing with these issues is the most important thing anyone is likely to face.

Good luck. This is where the real work is done.

Bob.

bobwest 

This kind of thing is actually very common. It's one thing to test something, when there's nothing at stake and when you're not actually in the market, however you are doing the test. But once it matters, once the market is actually running live and you are faced with having to decide what to do while price is changing and when it matters, that's when all the personal issues come up. And unfortunately, these cannot be "tested" in any way other than in actual trading. Even though your evaluation account is on sim, simulation can be real enough for your personal stuff to be triggered. Dealing with these issues is the most important thing anyone is likely to face. Good luck. This is where the real work is done. Bob.

I totally agree to what you've said. It's difficult to avoid being emotional when many of us trade with a small account. The same goes for those combine accounts because there isn't much rooms for any error.

No trade today. I took a day off to rework some entry rules and to clear my mind.


tcp