NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





TST Combine Journal


Discussion in Trading Journals

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one indextrader7 with 265 posts (970 thanks)
    2. looks_two josh with 28 posts (91 thanks)
    3. looks_3 Pedro40 with 16 posts (13 thanks)
    4. looks_4 Big Mike with 16 posts (55 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one rubyslippage with 18.7 thanks per post
    2. looks_two indextrader7 with 3.7 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 Big Mike with 3.4 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 josh with 3.3 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 106,693 views
    2. thumb_up 1,774 thanks given
    3. group 85 followers
    1. forum 556 posts
    2. attach_file 50 attachments




Closed Thread
 
Search this Thread

TST Combine Journal

  #311 (permalink)
 addchild 
Bay Area California
 
Experience: None
Platform: TT T4
Broker: Phillip Capital
Trading: Futures
Posts: 809 since Nov 2011
Thanks Given: 926
Thanks Received: 898


indextrader7 View Post
Excellent day today after the mishap yesterday.

Daily loss limit exceeded. Combine over on day 1. Thread closed.

Sorry to hear that, what happened?

.
Thanked by:

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Futures True Range Report
The Elite Circle
Are there any eval firms that allow you to sink to your …
Traders Hideout
Exit Strategy
NinjaTrader
ZombieSqueeze
Platforms and Indicators
The space time continuum and the dynamics of a financial …
Emini and Emicro Index
 
Best Threads (Most Thanked)
in the last 7 days on NexusFi
Get funded firms 2023/2024 - Any recommendations or word …
61 thanks
Funded Trader platforms
39 thanks
NexusFi site changelog and issues/problem reporting
26 thanks
The Program
18 thanks
GFIs1 1 DAX trade per day journal
18 thanks
  #312 (permalink)
 
iqgod's Avatar
 iqgod 
Mumbai, India
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: ChartNexus
Trading: Stocks, Commodities, Futures
Posts: 1,802 since Feb 2012
Thanks Given: 3,658
Thanks Received: 3,097


indextrader7 View Post
Excellent day today after the mishap yesterday.

Daily loss limit exceeded. Combine over on day 1. Thread closed.

Please please please continue trading "pretending" that the Daily Loss Limit has NOT been hit.

You will be surprised at the 10x amount of LEARNING that happens after the pooooof release of stress that frees up your vision that would otherwise be on the P/L number.

This had happened to me and I kept trading with faith (faith in myself, just to be clear) and the losing part actually showed me how I was trading NOT to lose instead of trading to win.

We are here to learn to trade to win and not to trade to not lose.

I was sorry to hear this too but the market is a hard taskmaster. (If you had posted this at the start of the month I would have thought it was an April Fools joke, but sigh!)

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
  #313 (permalink)
 indextrader7 
Birmingham, AL
 
Posts: 1,065 since Apr 2012


Showcasing the superb risk management:


  #314 (permalink)
 indextrader7 
Birmingham, AL
 
Posts: 1,065 since Apr 2012

I don’t think I’ve ever truly succeeded at anything in my life.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to not have blowout days in trading. This is my second one in 12 months. All it takes is ONE every 100 months to matter.

I know exactly where to exit trades for small losses. I cannot follow that rule 100% of the time.

I don’t know if I am cut out for trading. I know that I’m not cut out for trading if I cannot fix the problem, and the problem is me.

I don’t know how to fix the problem. There is a way to take the responsibility off myself and only keep enough margin in my personal account to where I’ll be hitting a margin call around the time of a daily loss limit. So that’s one thing I can do, but it doesn’t satisfy the root of the problem.

Honestly I’m tired. My arms are up in the air. I almost just don’t care.

This painful experience WILL NOT BE ENOUGH to change me. I’ve had plenty of them through the years, and I still go back to letting a trade get out of control from time to time.

I don’t know how to fix me.

  #315 (permalink)
 
jinhar's Avatar
 jinhar 
mumbai maharashtra/india
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Ninja
Trading: Crue/Tf
Posts: 287 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 764


indextrader7 View Post
I don’t think I’ve ever truly succeeded at anything in my life.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to not have blowout days in trading. This is my second one in 12 months. All it takes is ONE every 100 months to matter.

I know exactly where to exit trades for small losses. I cannot follow that rule 100% of the time.

I don’t know if I am cut out for trading. I know that I’m not cut out for trading if I cannot fix the problem, and the problem is me.

I don’t know how to fix the problem. There is a way to take the responsibility off myself and only keep enough margin in my personal account to where I’ll be hitting a margin call around the time of a daily loss limit. So that’s one thing I can do, but it doesn’t satisfy the root of the problem.

Honestly I’m tired. My arms are up in the air. I almost just don’t care.

This painful experience WILL NOT BE ENOUGH to change me. I’ve had plenty of them through the years, and I still go back to letting a trade get out of control from time to time.

I don’t know how to fix me.

Sorry to hear about your combine but again that's a start ... i had a similar problem like you mentioned just it used to happen every 3 months not 12 ... the only solution i found i already shared with you .. Control your gains .. i know you already told you are against it but try it now that you have nothing to loss ... i will tell you y and again this is what i had came up with when i was in same place like you .. when you trade freely like you are doing mind gets into habit and that habit is carried forward to day's like today also where your mind sub consciously knows that if you trade enuff you can come out of whatever hole you are in and that's where instead of taking losses and calling a day you keep on trading / adding on [whatever you do] your mind is heavily invested with your opinion.. On the other hand when you trade with fixed parameters for example in my case say 20 ticks win/ 40 loss if i have a bad day i know i have to stop as my hard stop is already double my average ticks my mind knows that , my mind knows that i wont be able to dig myself out as i always exit at fix target when i am right and even if trade goes 100 ticks in my favor so it does opposite of what it does in your scenario, it is scared in mine and after few losses starts to trade defensively [see i know this is hardly perfect but this is what i had to do to turn try it probably it will help you there is no certain way of telling unless you try] you said you don't know what to do .. then swing the bat one more time .. Best of luck with your future trading plans you are good just you need to get out into unknown for you something that hardly make sense i know but trading is a place where thing that doesn't make sense are the things that will work TRY IT [I am not a stat person like you are, but i can tell you this simple process has changed my Trading fortunes for last few years now ].

-Jinhar

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
  #316 (permalink)
 
josh's Avatar
 josh 
Georgia, US
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: None
Platform: SC
Broker: Denali+Rithmic
Trading: ES, NQ, YM
Posts: 6,216 since Jan 2011
Thanks Given: 6,752
Thanks Received: 18,136

Merritt, I'm reading what you're writing here and first of all I'd like to say that you have my 100% respect for your candor and honest attitude about how you feel. Too often we pretend we don't care about losses, etc., and truth be told, none of us like to lose. I had a down day today myself and quit, because it just wasn't working. I'm not pissed, but would I have rather made money? Hell yeah.

I doubt I can say anything that will "cheer you up" right now, so maybe it's best if you just go to a batting cage or a driving range and beat the hell out of some balls of some kind; I don't know if that's healthy or not but it sounds good to me.

The first bright spot is that you did not lose $3000 of your own money. Yes, you paid a combine deposit so that was real, but you actually still get to use that for practice if you like, and it was $400 by comparison. To me, that's the point of this whole process--we get to work our shit out without losing more than is necessary, while still risking enough to "keep it real."

Secondly, if you look at what happened after you stopped out, you realize that the loss limit served its purpose. That's the whole point of having it. You lost 3 grand. But how much would you have continued to fight the market and lost if that limit were not in place? It sucks losing $3K, but it's devastating to lose $10K, $20K, etc.

When I have blown up before, it's because I thought that the big down move was about to reverse, and after losing a trade or two, I didn't want to "miss out" so I hold in hopes that it turns around, which of course it usually does not. Maybe that's your thinking as well, which makes it hard to close. You'd hate to close on the tick just before it goes your way, so you hold, thinking it might just work. You will have to work it out, but that's one possibility.

Technically, consider this--if I jump in the market without extreme confidence in my location, I am much more likely to take more heat than I should. For today, examine your entry points and ask--"did I have a very good reason with 100% confidence in entering here?" If you have a great reason, and you're confident that this is where you want to buy or sell, and if your stop is placed at a point where you honestly think your premise will be invalidated, then you should be able to more easily take your stop. However, if you think 65 is a good buy, and so is 64 maybe, and maybe 62 too, then when you enter at 65 with a stop at 63, you will not have extreme confidence that you will be wrong at 63, because you see 62 as a possible good buy too, so you will have a tendency to give it a longer leash. While I am not happy with my 2 losses today, I can say this--I was 100% confident in my location, and 100% confident that even if my stop was hit and it reversed and went my way, that I simply could not have known this (said another way, the low would be in a "random" or "middle of nowhere" location per my analysis) and that I had put the odds in my favor on this trade.

In the end, you are too good of a trader to let one day wipe out your confidence. Look at what you can improve in your entry/exit strategy, and in your own mind, and get back on the horse dude.

  #317 (permalink)
 Brewer20 
Denver, CO
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: T4/TOS
Trading: ES
Posts: 110 since Jun 2012
Thanks Given: 71
Thanks Received: 93


indextrader7 View Post
I don’t think I’ve ever truly succeeded at anything in my life.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to not have blowout days in trading. This is my second one in 12 months. All it takes is ONE every 100 months to matter.

I know exactly where to exit trades for small losses. I cannot follow that rule 100% of the time.

I don’t know if I am cut out for trading. I know that I’m not cut out for trading if I cannot fix the problem, and the problem is me.

I don’t know how to fix the problem. There is a way to take the responsibility off myself and only keep enough margin in my personal account to where I’ll be hitting a margin call around the time of a daily loss limit. So that’s one thing I can do, but it doesn’t satisfy the root of the problem.

Honestly I’m tired. My arms are up in the air. I almost just don’t care.

This painful experience WILL NOT BE ENOUGH to change me. I’ve had plenty of them through the years, and I still go back to letting a trade get out of control from time to time.

I don’t know how to fix me.

I have been there it7. On the combine no less. It sucks, but josh is spot on, this is the whole point of the combine; to work these bugs out.

When you are ready, pick yourself up and get back on the horse.

If I may, can I ask a few technical questions about today?
- Do you define your stop when you place the trade? Do you ever allow yourself to move it once in the trade. If you do, you must not move the stop.
- I would highly advise you to not add to trades. I'm not saying this is bad strategy, but it is much more complicated to manage risk. Leave this to the experts.
- Lastly, on your next combine, size your trades smaller. Two consecutive losing trades shouldn't hit your loss limit. For my style of trading, I allow for 5 consecutive losses and will still be ok. I'll likely have to stop for the day, but won't run into the loss limit.

I'm speaking from personal experience here. The first two problems were my downfall in my first combine.

Plan your trade, trade your plan.
  #318 (permalink)
 
TonyParisi's Avatar
 TonyParisi 
Jacksonville, FL
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: CL
Posts: 33 since Oct 2012
Thanks Given: 217
Thanks Received: 40

The old adage "If it were easy, everyone would do it" I'm not going to bs you, still learning this myself, I am by no means an expert. I did sit in on one of your screencasts a month or two back and if I may make an observation: You trade A LOT. You can tell me to go fk myself by all means, and I mean this with the best intentions but it seemed as if you were overtrading hardcore. Personally I didn't learn jack sim trading, I don't know if it is my personality or what, but once I transitioned to 1 lots (which I still do almost all of the time) everything changed. Accountability, accountability, accountability is what it took for me. Take it for what it's worth. Have you considered limiting your trades? I mean having some serious patience to take say, 3 trades a day and stick with it? This might force you to only take the setups you deem superior. Perhaps you have altered your trading style since the screencast or maybe that was just a bad day. If this is the case, disregard. Perhaps screencasting again will force you to be accountable. Either way, keep at it man, GRIND!

  #319 (permalink)
 
AttitudeTrader's Avatar
 AttitudeTrader 
Dallas, TX, USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader, T4
Broker: IQFeed
Trading: 6E
Posts: 358 since Oct 2009
Thanks Given: 6,868
Thanks Received: 869

I typically don't interject in these kinds of situations, because you're going to get plenty of advice. But since we've talked some and have become "friends," I will.

I've been where you are on a cyclical basis for 2 decades of my life. It seems that I've always been good at things I've tried at the beginning, but never fully succeeded at anything "important."

The frustration, demoralization, depression, and defeat that I've experienced in my trading "career" are branded on my psyche for the rest of my life. They're like some of the scars I have on my body - they will never go away. But I don't want them to, because they show me where I've come from and they remind me that because of them I have been made stronger. They remind me that I'm still here. That I'm still fighting.

Which is why I started the exercise I'm currently going through. I had to get away from trying to make money or figure the market out or meet some certain criterion.

I had to start from scratch. It has been difficult because I already knew so much about trading. Why would I want to "dumb myself down" and start over? And it seemed very slow at first, but I so badly wish that I had done this a long time ago. It has changed me as a trader and a person. I have more confidence in myself with regard not only to my trading, but all other aspects of my life.

Finding another "passion" is completely acceptable and I have the utmost respect for a decision like that.

But every time I "quit" I could never really quit. So if you decide to try again, consider starting from scratch and building a solid foundation. It will not be wasted time.

All the best to you man,

-AT

"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow me on Twitter
  #320 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
Developer
Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Broker: IBKR
Trading: Stocks & Futures
Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Weeks
Posts: 50,396 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 33,172
Thanks Received: 101,536


Merritt you've shown a lot of skill most traders lack. Take a couple days off, clear your mind, and then start again. Every time you move forward you are gaining more experience.

You said you blew out twice in twelve months. Was this blow out less severe than the last? If so, it is improvement. Keep improving. Trading is all about small incremental changes that once tallied up will be the sum of your game, your edge. There is no single one thing that makes any trader a good trader. It's all about having all the pieces come together in the end.

Besides, a master trader is just someone who has made all the mistakes.

Mike

We're here to help: just ask the community or contact our Help Desk

Quick Links: Change your Username or Register as a Vendor
Searching for trading reviews? Review this list
Lifetime Elite Membership: Sign-up for only $149 USD
Exclusive money saving offers from our Site Sponsors: Browse Offers
Report problems with the site: Using the NexusFi changelog thread
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal

Closed Thread



Last Updated on August 28, 2014


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts