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Thanks! you would be correct. I have another journal I post personal thought and ideas in. This journal is the summary for the day. Some of the thoughts are copied directly out of my personal journal and posted here.
Having dual journals forces me to re-read my trading decisions thoughts and ideas for the day. Also, re-writing my detail notes into a summary has helped me have a few ah-ha moments.
Note: lots going on tonight. Did not have time to go to in depth. I copied this from my personal journal today.
Today started out horrendous. I was not focused at all. I ended up loosely following my rules and after three trades I was 700 down. I managed to keep my cool and go over the rules again in my head and then spend the rest of the day getting back to break even.
Quite honestly I should have been one and done after my first trade had I let it run. Between last night and today i would have been up 40+ ticks which would have been a good day. The 3 trades where I lost my composure I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. I hope my analysis later tonight will shed some light on what I saw.
The last trade of the day I let it run to my target. I need to do this more often. I closed the trade panel and moved up my stop till my target was met or I was stopped out. I will be practicing this going forward. As i look back over the past couple of weeks I have seen many trades which would have netted a large tick count had i only let it run. I know its not as easy as it sounds but I am determined to get more ticks out of my trades even it means taking more small losses or BE trades.
I followed through from yesterdays post to let my trades run. I practiced last night with GC on the final trade and did the same this morning on CL. It was hard to let it run.
The first couple trades from last night were me being arrogant. The final trade was rule based. It was a direction change with a double top. This was a obvious trade and should be the type of trades I take all the time.
I have decided to start practicing at night because it takes the trades longer to develop. Perspective is everything; If I have to wait a hour or more at night for a trade to develop then waiting 15 minutes for a trade to develop during the day wont seem nearly as long. This will keep me from wanting to cut my trades off early.
The CL trade this morning was a trend line bounce on the open. It was a obvious trade. I felt a little nervous at first that price may change direction on Open but I kept my cool and placed the trade and my stop accordingly. A month ago I would have not been able to place this trade. Progress!!!!
Ok, confession time: I actually closed out of CL the trade early. This was my first trade with a 50+ tick move. I really wanted to lock in profits.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
I followed my rules and took the trade off the trend line bounce.
I let the trade run!!
What was the worst thing that happened to me today:
If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten.
Celebrate because you executed your edge. Not because you won.
At the beginning of November I took some time away from nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) to figure out what I was doing as far as trading concerned. Looking back I realize I hit rock bottom around this time. I was tired of not getting anywhere with my trading. I felt like I was running in place while everyone was passing me by. I needed to do something.
During the next 3 weeks I threw every ounce of energy I had to figuring out how to take the trade and trade it correctly. It was difficult. I had to throw out everything I knew or thought I knew and start over... To except I was wrong. To accept there is a better way. To accept I needed rules and discipline. To accept that it is what it is...
So 3 weeks in here is my progress report, before and after. I realize I have a long way to go and a lot to learn and this only represents 3 weeks and not a trading career but It was reassuring to see I am making progress.
I made a trade off the open today but got in too late. ended up -2 ticks. Went over to sim and spent some time trying to figure out how to trade a range day. I failed... The overlapping bars kill me every time!
I upped my practice account today from 50K to 150k. I will expand my thoughts on why I don't see a difference between a 50K account and 150K account, other than the psychological impact, over the weekend.
My trading maybe limited until after Christmas.. possibly new years. Still going to take trades just not as many.
The overlapping bars kill me every time!