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Breakout Journal - a journey to full time trading


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Breakout Journal - a journey to full time trading

  #271 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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CL

Second trade of the day +20 ticks. Entry was solid and all the conditions were met. Again, price went another 50 ticks after I exited the trade. I am up 30 ticks for the day however, had I held to my original targets I would have been up 60 ticks. Still, I am happy with today's action because I did not have any hesitation on my entries.

Robert


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  #272 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
Legendary Master Data Manipulator
 
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My first combine is coming to a end and I didnt make it. I have to say since I have started I have been humbled by the market daily. However, I am not disappointed. At this point in my journey this is what I needed. Below is my high level summary of what happened and what I have learned.


Quoting 
I had two huge loss days which put me 1400 down early in the combine. I have methodically worked my back up to being 800 down. Most of which has happened since last Monday when I instituted my new entry strategy. Even though the combine is only SIM its hard because TST is watching you. I had a tough time adjusting and when I started off bad my stress level went through the roof. This cause me to force trades which snowballed into huge mistakes. My biggest down day was 1000. However, I didnt hit my daily or weekly loss limit. My Max DD for the combine was 1,500.

I have been making a comeback though. Today my trading average went positive on CL. This was a goal I had set out to accomplish before I moved on to the next combine. I would like to get my total back to 100k before I move on to the next combine. Currently 800 short. We will see what happens over the next couple of days.

I am not sure what happened on UB but I could not pull it together. I lost whatever edge I had. I started trading SIM on the 5th of March and have lost several thousand dollars since.

Being around other traders in the TST chat room while they are posting live trades has been a huge help for me. I have been able to ask questions and have private chats with different traders. The chat room makes it possible to get a better feel for the market. I watched funded traders and professional traders have bad days, even bad weeks. This was good to see. You sometimes think good traders never lose.

One of the professional traders in the room traded in SIM during rollover. This lifted a huge weight off my shoulders of thinking I had to trade everyday. Its ok to take a day off and just watch. There was a whole lot of other personal growth stuff which I wont bore you with other than to say it happened and I am glad that it did.

Something great that happened this week was getting over my fear of placing a trade. Having a trading plan has helped a lot. I am confident when I enter the trade I will be on the winning side. This makes it easier to place the trade. What I dont have is a solid exit plan. This has become painfully obvious over the past week. Today for example I ended the day +21 ticks on two trades however, I closed my second trade out early only to watch it go on to my original targets. Had I let the trade play out I would have doubled my profit total for the day. I have had several days like this over the past week.

The Lessons Learned:

Biggest lesson learned: Less is more. I have gone from identifying 5 to 10 setups a day to identifying 1 to 3 setups. This is all I need to be successful. So much less stress. So many more good opportunities!

Second lesson learned: Without defined rules you are doomed before you start. I went into the combine with about 10 different sets of setups and loosely defined rules. I changed them daily to fit the market. This ended in nothing ever working more than a couple days. Now I have one set of rules to enter a trade. Hardest part about having rules is having the discipline to follow them. But when you do they pay off. Currently I am on a 6 outta 7 day winning streak. My one losing day was the day I didnt follow my rules. I am glad this happened because it reinforced the my belief that you have to have rules to make it in this business. The market tested my resolve yesterday; I ended up sitting out the trading day because my entries were not there. This was hard to do but by the afternoon it was clear it was the right choice.

Third lesson learned: Higher time frames are better, period. (at least for me! ) This huge revelation. I went from trading a 300 tick chart to a hourly and daily chart. Its really night and day. Biggest part is being able to identify which way the market is trending and get in on the move. Hardest part about trading higher time frames is having the patience to sit and watch.


Well, thats it for now. I will be going over my stats this weekend and then make a determination when I will start my next combine.

Robert

nosce te ipsum

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  #273 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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Silver Dragon View Post
My first combine is coming to a end and I didnt make it. I have to say since I have started I have been humbled by the market daily. However, I am not disappointed. At this point in my journey this is what I needed.

Congrats Robert. I would call it a success even if you didn't pass, because you've gained experience and knowledge that will help you perform as a trader, and probably identified areas of strength and weakness to work on for the future.

Bravo for the effort!



Mike

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  #274 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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Robert, regarding the higher time frames (hourly/daily), how do you find that works with the combine's rules of being flat at the end of the day?

Mike

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  #275 (permalink)
 
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 Silver Dragon 
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CL

Last day of the combine. Made 31 ticks on the open. May try for one more trade today. See what happens next hour.

Robert


nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
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  #276 (permalink)
 
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 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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Big Mike View Post
Robert, regarding the higher time frames (hourly/daily), how do you find that works with the combine's rules of being flat at the end of the day?

Mike

@Big Mike,

I probably dont use the hourly charts as you would expect. I actually use them for intra day trading. Most of my trades are made in the first two hours. My entry strategy is based on entering a trade in the first 20 minutes of the hourly bar. I found the 60 minute bar does a awesome job of filtering out the noise of the market. Entries are really easy to see; if the bar is up go long is the bar is down go short. Obviously there is a bit more to it than that but there are some days its just that simple.

To answer your question I would enter around the open and exit at 4PM using the hourly charts and use the daily as confirmation of the trend. The longest trade I have held to date has been about a hour and half. Long term I envision holding for an entire trending day but I am not there yet. Right now I am happy with just having positive days.

Robert

nosce te ipsum

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  #277 (permalink)
 
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 Silver Dragon 
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Below are my numbers for CL and UB. Conclusion of the this combine: when you have a plan good things will happen.

I was reviewing my trades prior to the combine for UB. During this time UB was in a range for over a month. When it broke out of the range is when I started having problems. As I stated in a previous post, I traded UB in SIM after march 5th where I proceeded to lose several thousand more dollars.

Things I need to work on:
  • Cutting my losses sooner
  • Holding my winners longer

Robert




nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
  #278 (permalink)
iankotze
thabazimbi limpopo/south africa
 
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Very nicely done man, I see you have learned a lot out of that combine and it will pay off. I like the less is more and think you are doing very well to control your down side. Things will come together in the end.

Keep up the good work!!!
Ian

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  #279 (permalink)
 
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 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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Update:

I will be starting a new combine in the next couple of days. This time around I am choosing a combine which I am capable of completing successfully based on previous trading results, instead of picking one which my ego thinks I am capable of completing successfully. Should be a different result this time around. As with the last combine I will post occasional updates and charts.

Robert

nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
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  #280 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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I have been practicing in the yen over the past couple of months and have been considering it for a additional combine. I made this trade today for +40 ticks. (see green box) I use the hourly bars for the yen and hold time is anywhere from 1 to 6 hours. This trade was for 2.5 hours. What I like about the Yen is volatility is low compared to CL and it only needs to be checked once a hour. Risk reward is 2 to 1.

Robert


nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
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Last Updated on February 2, 2015


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