The Way of the AttitudeTrader

June 8th, 2013, 02:18 PM

A review of the week

On Monday I was still working on developing my approach so I took quite a few trades, but by Tuesday I had gotten a little clearer about how I wanted to handle things and I applied that for the rest of the week.

I find myself leaning more toward focusing on having profitable days by taking a few trades, as opposed to trading all day. In my mind there are arguments for both ways, but I'm doing what I feel most comfortable with right now.

More importantly, improving my attitude - what I think about and how I'm thinking about it - is continuing to be my main focus.

A look at the stats

I had a higher drawdown than usual due to my trading on Monday, but still finished the week with a good (sim) profit.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/wytyqn.png[/img]

Interestingly (to me anyway) my expectancy is in an uptrend.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/d7esta.png[/img]

June 9th, 2013, 02:20 PM

I created my own TST Combine stats grid awhile back when I was trying to trade M6E/6E. When I switched back to ES last month, I thought my current "style" of trading wouldn't come close to fitting into the TST required parameters so I didn't even look into it.

But lately I've been working diligently on my attitude and the way I'm approaching my trading business, and TST can be another valuable option for traders like me. So I decided to work on my trade log spreadsheet and see how my current trading is comparing to the TST requirements.

It has taken me most of the morning to get a stat grid built and clean up errors, but what I discovered surprised me.

I decided to use stats beginning with my return to ES (05/22/2013) and I've initially chosen the 30K/10Day combine parameters to work with.

At this point I appear to be meeting all of the requirements except the profit target. And with 10 trading days left, it would also appear that I could actually reach that target.

This is very good news, because it opens up another possible option for me moving forward.

I'll continue to track the results of my trading against these parameters, and if I can't meet the 30/10 profit target in time, I'll change to the 30/20 combine parameters and see if I can meet those.

If I don't discover any ridiculous errors in my calculations, and if I can actually meet the parameters of the combine(s), then I will seriously consider putting a plan together to do a real combine at some point.

I'll have to see how this goes.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/hrb7hd.png[/img]

June 9th, 2013, 03:02 PM

Hi,
I am watching your journal quite closely, wanted to suggest the same last week. your trading results are consistent and most probably you should make it in next 10 days trading.

All the best , we have another trader in making

..

June 9th, 2013, 03:04 PM

Hi AT,

Do you think you could share a version of that sheet ?

Would be interesting !

p

June 9th, 2013, 09:05 PM

tinkug112

Hi,
I am watching your journal quite closely, wanted to suggest the same last week. your trading results are consistent and most probably you should make it in next 10 days trading.

All the best , we have another trader in making

..

Thanks @tinkug112 !

podski

Hi AT,

Do you think you could share a version of that sheet ?

Would be interesting !

p

@podski , my spreadsheet is the culmination of years and years of adding/subtracting/modifying things and is nowhere near "user-friendly." I'm always tweaking and changing things, and some of the things I've done are not self explanatory and would probably be more confusing than helpful.

So I won't give copies of it, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have about how I went about getting any of the stats I'm showing here. Just let me know.

Thanks guys,

-AT

June 10th, 2013, 03:42 PM

Good to see how well you're doing according to these (TST) criteria. Looks like you're almost there.

BTW, the TST commission plus exchange fees is 2.50 a side, 5.00/rt.

June 10th, 2013, 04:11 PM

Mission Plan: Sierra.2013.06.Bravo
Theater of Operation: Echo Sierra Mike Three

Trade #298
08:44 Long. Buying into the downtrend. Also too early.
08:45 Stopped out. -5 ticks.

Trade #299
08:46 Long. Buying into the downtrend again. Timing is better.
08:47 Trailed stop up.
08:48 Stopped out to the tick before price moved back up to hit target. -3 ticks.

Trade #300
08:51 Short. Pullback in the downtrend.
08:54 Target reached. S5 filled me with +7 ticks, but I'm recording it as a regular profit. +6 ticks.

Trade #301
09:08 Long. Buying into the downtrend again.
09:12 Stopped out to the tick before price moved back up to target level. -5 ticks.

Trade #302
09:16 Long. Buying after retest of Friday's close and after being stopped out to the tick on the previous trade.
09:21 Target reached. +6 ticks. Only down 1 tick now after 5 trades so I'm calling it a day.

AAR

Objective: Follow my mission plan and do the best I can with what I've learned so far.
-
Outcome: 5 trades, 2 winners, small loss for the day.
-
Observations: I fought the short term trend on all but one of my trades today.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/39cgnx.png[/img]
[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/reuy4j.png[/img]

June 10th, 2013, 04:26 PM

bobwest

Good to see how well you're doing according to these (TST) criteria. Looks like you're almost there.

BTW, the TST commission plus exchange fees is 2.50 a side, 5.00/rt.

Thanks. And dammit!

I wasn't completely clear based on the explanation on the site, so I thought I was being smart by looking at some of the TST stats posts around here, e.g.:

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/864hrx.png[/img]

I was dividing the Fees & Comm by the Total Contracts. My mistake was assuming that "Total Contracts" meant round turns.

That puts me back a bit.

Thanks for pointing that out to me @bobwest !

I'll fix that stat page and post it later.

-AT

June 10th, 2013, 10:10 PM

@bobwest pointed out an error I was making with regard to the TST commissions, so I've corrected my simulated TST combine stats grid.

Comparing the numbers of this one with the one I posted over the weekend (using $2.50/rt) shows the significant difference commissions can make.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/kur9qx.png[/img]

June 11th, 2013, 05:06 PM

Mission Plan: Sierra.2013.06.Bravo
Theater of Operation: Echo Sierra Mike Three

Sitrep
I'm really busy with my other work again, so I'm a little late with this post. I'm also only going to be able to trade a couple of hours of tomorrow's session.

Trade #303
08:31 Long. Buying into the downtrend.
08:31 Stopped out with slippage. -6 ticks.

Trade #304
08:32 Long. Buying into the downtrend.
08:34 Stopped out. -5 ticks.

Trade #305
08:39 Long. Buying into the downtrend.
08:41 Target reached. +6 ticks.

Trade #306
08:42 Short. Selling into the uptrend.
08:42 Stopped out. -5 ticks.

Trade #307
08:45 Long. Bought on the pullback in the uptrend.
08:46 Target reached. +6 ticks.

AAR

Objective: Follow my mission plan and do the best I can with what I've learned so far.
-
Outcome: 5 trades, 2 wins, 3 losses.
-
Observations: I'm fading too much and what I'm doing is showing me that I don't have a solid "method" yet. The only thing that is really saving me through all of this is a fanatic adherence to my risk management plan. I have some ideas about how I'm going to proceed though.

[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/emwdex.png[/img]
[img]https://nexusfi.com/v/ah3u35.png[/img]

The Way of the AttitudeTrader

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