Hi everyone, funded an IB account with $15,000 and here's my plan.
Background
Have been trading for over 2 years, mostly stocks. Traded futures for over 5 months but failed miserably. My failures are directly related to #1. too much risk, #2. impulse trading.
I have a full time job but have some time to trade in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon.
Beliefs
- Every entry method is good, some are easier to follow
- Find one that fits your personality and your risk tolerance
- Poor risk management = failure, sooner or later
- Impulse trading = bigger failure, sooner or later
- You have to keep a ratio of 2:1 to succeed
Instrumentsand TimeFrames
- eMini ES, 5-minute or 4500ticks
Risk Management - Account size: $15,000
- Max Risk per trade: 1% or $150.
- Max losses per day: 3.0% (or 3 losing trades)
- Max losses per week: 6.0% (or 2 losing days)
- Max losses per month: 12% (or 2 losing weeks)
Goals - Improve my trading skills
- Improve my risk management discipline
- 4 es points per day
- 12 es points per week
Tools - Charting: eSignal, Ninjatrader (own it)
- Order management: NT
- Journallng: this thread
Process, rules and others How will I ensure I only risk my max amount per trade?
- Review account summary before the market open
- Setup automated order placement in Ninja
- Will not move my stop (EVER, EVER)
How will I ensure I stop trading for the day when I reach my max daily loss?
- Stop trading after 3 losses ! easy.
How will I ensure I stop trading for the week when I reach my max weekly loss?
- During my morning review of my account, if the number of available days to risk = 0 then no trades...
Will not enter new trades between 11:30am and 1:15pm because it's choppy.
How will I keep track of my progress?
At the end of every day I will post my account summary and trade results for the day. I will also (if time permits) write some observations on my learnings for the day.
Getting started
The reason I'm posting here is that I believe there are some extremely smart traders in this board and I'm hoping people will comment on my progress and most importantly on my mistakes, thoughts...
Here we go, my journed started yesterday at $15,000 dollars...
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Bravo, good start. Now the hard part: do it, and when (not if) you fail to follow your plan, be honest and report back, only then can you learn and grow from it.
I also look forward to seeing your signals/triggers going forward.
Overall I thought today was quite choppy but it was a continuation of yesterday's strength.
Unfortunately don't have time to write anymore as I have to finish some documents for work.
Wish everyone good trading.
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Initial Balance, $15,255
Gain/Loss Today, +$140.40 or 3.1 ES points
Ending Balance, $15,378
My observations (IMHO) Overall a range day and continuation of yesterday's strength. I decided not to take any shorts.
My first step was to visualize the 15-mins chart (OHLC or Candles) is fine, everything bullish, no strong bear presence so the plan was to not short the market.
Good move between the open and 11:00am EST then choppy until 1:00pm (not unusual)... big players dropped the market to pick all stops (thankfully I wasn't there)... then I saw the bear trap at 13:45 (you can call it a Vic B2, uptrust, etc) with good volume... my first clue, I joined the longs... the failed flag and retest was a great buy, little volume on the consolidation and increased volume on the buying... another trap at 14:55, couldn't believe it... but again, my stop was far away.. decided to add a 2nd car on the 2nd failed trap...
What did I do well today?
- Read the market correctly
What could I do better?
- Was distracted with too much work
- Took profits too soon.. my stop was too far away
Overall a good day. Hope everyone had a good day too.
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Another winning day, getting ready for the losing one and will have to be really strict on my money management. Upset because NinjaTrader stop working at some point and I lost my stats... ARGH...
How did I score today?
1. Money management (B), kept my stops, didn't move at all but was up $700 in the morning and couldn'd stop trading... gave back a lot on the chop.
2. Impulse trading (C), had some impulse trades.
3. Trade execution (C), took profits too soon sometimes.
Market review The ES filled two gaps today, I took a short as soon as I soon it opening in the direction of the gap. We have another one way below, hopefully it will not be filled anytime soon.
Lastly, some of my humble PV observations today...
Overall a good day except for giving up a lot of my profits in the afternoon AND NinjaTrader stop working on me.
Hope everyone had a good day too.
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Well, I knew that day would come after 3 winning days and my confidence levels going up. Started the day with two winning trades, reached my daily loss limit by 11:00am, DIDN'T STOP TRADING and by 4:00pm gave up all my weekly gains. Not proud of myself and as a result on Monday I will only have 1 lot to trade and no more than 2 losses -- will I be able to stop ? Time will tell..
On the other hand, I had an amazing run on my stock trades, +$2,450 for the day which is great... was this the reason for my losses on the eMini? Maybe... trying to treat the 2 accounts separate.
How did I score today?
1. Money management (C), increased my size, didn't stop when I had to.
2. Impulse trading (B), traded well but had a bias on the market.
3. Trade execution (C), when my losses started to mount I took profits quickly.
Market review The ES gapped down in the morning, failed to close the gap and traded mostly below and inside the opening range for the whole day. I wouldn't say it was particular difficult day to trade, I didn't do well because I had a bias in the morning, thinking it would drop and closed the previous gap but it didn't and I didn't listen to it... the market will never do what we want.
The following 4 users say Thank You to sharp2be for this post:
I find that 'having a bias' to be one of the hardest things to overcome. No matter how many times I tell myself not to have one, once it creeps in I often fail to notice it. When in 'the zone' this does not happen, so I have been working on ways to pay more attention to my own attitude throughout the trading sessions, most of which only last about an hour when things are working out.
Well done on the RIMM!
Now, you took a 5% loss on Friday. Is that part of the plan? It's steep, isn't it? It's days like that which were killing my results this year and because of which I am drilling down into money management versus entry methods.
I think you might want to add a column in there: for example you have Max Daily Loss at 236. Might be good to display what the actual loss was to visually show deviation from the plan. Also av trade loss. But that layout is really good and I will try to use something like it. Very helpful.
