Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Just a quick note. You can't keep moving the goal posts and expect to score.
Sometimes you (traders) will establish a great plan, and when bumps in the road come they change the plan. Avoid this. You should try to focus on completing the goal/plan, and then take the time to measure yourself at the end of it. You can also create a new, better, plan next time --- but constantly changing things in the middle of the game makes it difficult to know what is going on and what you are succeeding at and failing at.
Trust in yourself and in your original plan enough to see it through before making a new one.
Thanks Mike for your kind reminder. I have the 2 live trades on a 10-trade log .. to be continued very soon. Yes, the suggested 50-trade one is a short detour as I would like to maximize the benefit of the recording application. It helps mapping out my entry/exit plan verbally + practising the revised entry requirements (as I have a few major mixes this week). When I am occupied with my thought, my fear level seemed not as overwhelming.
Completed 5 trading mornings and 17 trades on the log as of this moment. I maybe able to complete the detour tonight and resume watching out for the remaining 8 live trades tomorrow .. only high probability signals!
He post real trade logs and they should be an inspiration to you. Soon it will be Pro Trader Gal Beth's blog.
I can SEE you having logs very similar to this. Its just a matter of time.
PS. I saw your plan for 1 contract trades for 2 weeks, then 2 contract trades.
I personally would recommend sticking to 1 contract trades for longer, maybe even for a few months..this will get the 'trigger finger' ghosts out. It helped me for sure to trade smaller size at first.
GOOD LUCK!!!
Looking forward to the posts as always!
Jungian
I just completed the 50-trade program with results as follows:
Trade Instrument: 6E
No of Trades: 50 (42 1-contract trades and 8 2-contract trades)
No of Trading Mornings: 17
No of Winners/BE/Losers: 36 W / 4 BE / 10 L
Net Ticks: 136 ticks
Commission Cost: 58 x $5.33 = $309.14
Net Gains: $1,390.86
Note: 7 counter-trend trades and all happened to be winners LOL!
I am not sure if I can use the same stats logic to tabulate the expectancy since I had 8 2-contract trades. In any event, I tried:
- 50 total trades
- 40 winning trades (incl 4 BE)
- 10 losing trades
- Probability of win = 80%
- Probability of loss = 20%
- Commission Cost = $309.14
- Average commission per trade = $6.18
- Winning trades produced +192 ticks ($2,400)
- Losing trades produced -56 ticks (-$700)
- Average winning trade (after commission) = $53.82
- Average losing trade (after commission) = -$76.18
- Net profit (after commission) per trade = $27.82
Expectancy (0.8*53.82) - (0.2*76.18) = 27.82
My realization:
1. I performed better when I only did 2-3 trades. 4-trade mornings did not generate proportional results.
2. About 1/3 of the sample period I was able to reach or slightly over-exceed the daily goal of 8 ticks with 2 trades. Another 1/3 I needed 3 trades to meet the daily target.
Sooooo, I don't know if I now graduate with some colors! Missed dinner and will feed my belly now + an early night since I did not sleep well last night/this morning.
Am now officially back to the 10-trade (live) program. Only place a trade when a high probability signal comes along. Wish me luck!
Sorry I was too concentrated on my check list and mumbling .. Only remembered doing 2-contract trades when I had 8 trades left . In case you wonder how I did on these multiple-contract ones. Here they comes:
No 43 +15 (both PTs got hit)
No 44 -8
No 45 +11
No 46 -12 (full SL got hit)
No 47 +8 (counter-trend trade)
No 48 +4 (early exit when it did not look promising anymore)
No 49 +8
No 50 +5 (last trade and I was getting anxious to complete the program +2 and +3 plus zozozo)
Your 50 trade program was sim right? And the 10 trade program cash?
I think you should really focus on why the results of your sim trades are so different than your cash trades. You've got to get to this point and start getting past the hurdle. In my opinion, the only real way to get past it is to stop sim trading.
Thanks Mike for your kind suggestion. I know I can't sim trade "forever"!
Yes, the 50-trade program consisted of both sim (4 today) and market replay ones (remaining 16 mornings). The 10-trade program is a cash one with 2 losing trades on the log as of this moment. Today's practice esp going through the check list and voicing out where to enter (when a signal was likely to be triggered) helped a lot. I also have the entry requirements (incl alerts when I should start considering an early exit PLUS a reminder to check the osc indicator for trend reversal) posted in front of me.
Let me resume the 10 trade program .. actually no lapse as I completed the detour tonight .. smile .. Really challenging and I felt like burning both sides of my candles LOL!
I was catching up your great journal here Beth , excellent work and congrats on your perseverence . Its obvious you want to succeed as a trader and you will . If I hear you correctly ,since you wrote it, undercapitalization leads you to hesitating to take your trades and you get scared with the real money on the line .
Basically the same scenario for me because of focussing on the dollar value I needed to risk and it stood in my way of going ahead and pulling the trigger on live trades . I sorted out everything about trading and decided to adjust the markets I trade instead of conforming to a market I wasnt willing to risk anything in , for psychlogical reasons . Both the stress of daytrading/scalping for ticks and the futures market combined to make trading an unpleasant experience for me .
I tried forex because I could scale down my position size to accomodate my resources and I could employ proper position sizing for my account size . I need to risk < 2% of my account on each trade position to truly feel comfortable pulling the trigger without even a little hesitation . Focussing only on % and not $ makes all the difference for me now because its all about a little bookeeping on the risk end and all about technicals on the other end . Its the technicals I love about the trading game and without focussing on the risks (because Im always positioned comfortably) I can zero in on the charts and do what I came here for .
I only mention forex because its what I chose but the same approach can be made in ETFs or stocks I havent been involved with them but Im familiar with the cost structures . Some people put forex down for various reasons including "unregulated" "manipulated" but the futures arena doesnt have your best interests in mind either .
Also remember that scalping for ticks is scalping for ticks and when you scalp AND look out for runners at the same time its incredibly difficult and stressful , full of "I shoulda held out longer" days . Just look at protrader eds site that jungian provided , his ledger is all 1-3 tick winners, BEs and very few 2-3 point winners and tons of trades - mostly on sim .
Thanks Eric for your kind sharing. Yes, I started trading 6E in November. A 6:6 risk/reward ratio and quite often I am able to have a 3-5 SL cushion makes me feel so much better. My account size is close to $5,000. 1.25-1.5% risk on each trade is quite manageable. All these recent changes (like you said) reduce my stress level substantially.
I need more live trading experience while practising my signal spotting skills in my free time. Hope Big Mike won't bug me for doing that .. smile ..
. In case you wonder how I did on these multiple-contract ones. Here they comes: