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I SOH most of the morning and was patiently waiting for a high probability trade.
Goals Accomplished (proud to share):
1. Preserve Precious Capital - I practised not jumping into trades that did not align with the overall trend. When a trade did not work (with warnings), I got out breakeven.
2. Patience Patience Patience - The market was extremely slow and choppy this morning. Glad that I chose not to trade when there're no good signals!
I compared The Wizard's new set-up with mine last night. Decided to replace the Trending chart with the new release. This morning I was learning to familiarize with the new charts (4- and 6-tick) incl minor modification. For example, toying with having the vertical lines (found them too busy on the 4-tick chart) and adding the DonMa dots to the 6-tick one (for placing MM order after entering a trade).
I still like the scalping set-up as I will be able to get in early and out with an intial 6-tick target. I now recalled why I was 99% profitable for the Jan sim-trade mornings, ie I followed the scalping set-up more and did get in-and-out swiftly. Paying attention to the overall trend does help me staying with overall trend. However, I missed out most first-time entry points and ended up too late to scalp.
I'm thinking if I should add the indicators (esp the ones on Panel 2 on the Scalp set-up + the hashes on Panel 1) to the new chart so that I have less charts. Or simply have both set-ups and stay with primarily the scalp signals for entry while using the Trending set-up to keep the 2nd contract run (which I did and was quite successful).
More re-grouping necessary today and will resume sim-trading tomorrow.
2 trades both aligned with the signals and systems I'm using. You will see that I waited until the signals on the scalp system were more aligned with the Trending set-up. I've marked the trades' entry/exit on both charts so you will understand why I did not get in sooner on the scalp system.
For the 2nd long trade, it was a 20-minute one. The market was very undecided and I did think of getting out at a 10-tick loss (more than once). However, the Trending system has kept me in + the signals on the 4-tick charts were moving to my favor.
This week (3 mornings) is a Green one with $25 nett after commission .. haha!
Goals Accomplished today and this week:
1. Preserve Precious Capital - Followed the signals that aligned with the Trend! Did 1-contract trades today because lots of choppiness.
2. Only Trade when there's a valid/high probability trade. No over-trade. I'm happy with 1-3 PROFITABLE trades per day LOL!
I also enclosed the 4 charts I'm using today. You will see the new set-up for the Trending system (incorporating the new/revised indicators of The Wizard). I sim-traded mostly 4-tick charts in January and really liked them. I switched to 6-tick charts in end Jan/early Feb when I found the 4-tick ones "seemed" a little too fast. After using the 6-tick ones for some weeks now, I realize my 4-tick preference.
Should I go with my preference? I believe it's important to feel comfortable with the systems I'm using. I like the systems and it's matter of tick interval! For 4-tick, I certainly need to focus more and act faster!
That's what I'm going to do next week. Move the 6-tick ones to the further left (as reference) and focus on the 4-tick ones as my main trading systems! I also would like to do 1 real trade per morning (only when there's a really great signal) while sim-trading until 11:00/11:30 am.
Thanks for visiting this thread and appreciate very much your support/comments.
Happy & Successful Trading Always! (+ a Wonderful weekend)
1. Preserve Precious Capital: Did mostly 1-contract trades as the market was very choppy/undecided this morning. I got warnings for most of the trades (as soon as I got in). Some MM got hit. For Trade #10, I did have 1-2 chances to get out B/E. Considering it's a 6-tick MM, I chose to stay in and let the trade work on its course.
2. # of Trades: 10 incl 2 2-contract trades. I over-traded even the cum L has not exceeded my daily $100. I will do my best to do mostly higher probability trades and SOH while waiting - on my to-be improved list!
3. I missed paying attention to Support/Resistance. More than twice I got trapped there.
It's green before commission and I will continue working on the "to-be improved" areas.
I followed the trading rules and stopped trading when the cum loss hit $100. Some of the trades had a very low risk (6 points for MM) and it's unfortunate that they got hit then reversed a little back. For one of them, I did think of moving the MM to below the Extreme O/S level so that it might not get hit. On a second thought, it's very important to be a disciplined trader following the trading rules. No one knows if moving it further will work or may simply get hit as well. I decided to follow the rule.
Goals Accomplished:
1. Discipline Discipline Discipline - following the trading rules.
2. Accept the fact/reality that there will be losing days and learn to manage them.
Hi Beth,
Do you mind showing your pnl from the day you started journaling here until now? I find the method interesting even though some days have been hit and miss. In addition, do you find yourself studying price action more with wizards setups or not? I found that in the last few days when I had some indicators up I did worse because I kept watching the divergences occurring all over the place. However, a handful of people here swear by the wizard's templates and are trading well with it. I would love to trade indicator signals all day long so I wouldn't have to think, heck doing it automated would be the bomb. It just hasn't worked for me yet. Thanks in advance.
I started logging my sim result since Feb 8 after creating the thread the night before. Here it comes a quick recap on the trade results:
1st week Feb 8-12: -20
Feb 8 (245), Feb 9 (-135), Feb 10 (80), Feb 11 (140), Feb 12 (-350)
2nd week Feb 16-19: 25
Feb 16 (-55), Feb 17 (B/E), Feb 18 (Did not trade as I was working on revised set-ups), Feb 19 (80)
3rd week Feb 22-23 so far: -150
Feb 22 (-10), Feb 23 (-140)
You will see the performance summaries and trade logs on the daily posts. The Wizard's systems are Great. If one follows the rules diligently + catching the signals in a timely manner, he/she will be mostly profitable!
I sim-traded 2 slightly different set-ups (4-tick charts) in Jan and all trading mornings were green. I made $1,110 for the last week (Jan 25-29). I went live on Feb 1. The first 3 mornings were fine. I went crazy on Thu and Fri, ie not following trend, signals and trading rules. It's still a mystery to me. I've decided to resume sim-trading, work more on my psyche and develop a more disciplined/focussed trading attitude.
I like the scalping set-up because it provides more entry opportunities if I miss the first signal. I agree with you that more indicators do not help. First, they will keep us too occupied. Second, they conflict occasionally and we may end up missing some high probability trades. I am still learning.
That first Friday in week 1 looked a lot like a Friday I had a couple weeks ago. I wonder if it was the same day. Anyway, I hope I didn't come across as too critical. I say that if you are using indicators and can be profitable, that is absolutely awesome.
You mentioned in previous posts that you wanted to work on exiting trades that moved quickly against your position. Then Eric replied that he would rather take a full stop or a near full stop in because his experience had been that price tended to move in the direction of his entries.
I am pretty conflicted on this. If you have a risk/reward ration of 1:1 then I could see how you wouldn't blow up over time. On the other hand, it's pretty hard to let price move and breathe with a 1:1 ratio. How are you doing on this?
I am experimenting the ZigZag indicator this morning (added an audio alert to it). I hope it will help me get out of a trade earlier instead of waiting for the MM to get hit + alerting me to get ready for a trade.
Why I added an audio alert? I notice from the Market Replay that the golden dot was added at least 2 or sometimes 3 bars later from the "dot" bar. Still testing its effectiveness to help my trade management.
You will notice from my trade log that for 1-2 trades I entered a little early before the official signal (most of them had a "black hash" add-on after entry - which is not new to me anymore in this undecided market). Why? It's because I'm getting more familiar with the scalping set-up. For example,
- a red bar with a blue dot on Panel 1 (if the Sharfin indicator has a red horizontal line + red dot line is above 1), very likely the blue dot will turn to red 1-2 bars later when a short trade is on
- Same stays true for a blue bar with a red dot (most of the time anyway)
Since I cannot fix the dot/bar color change issue, I am now working on reading the pre-official signal (+ other indicators to confirm) so that I can catch a trade in a more timely manner and not 1-2 bars later when I feel like chasing.
Today is a Great day even it's -$15 before commission. Oh, I am extremely proud of myself on how I managed Trade #7. It's a runner in my mind as I chose to let it run a little and not cashing a quick 6-7 ticks (did have the Resistance level in mind). For Trades #9-10, I was fooled twice in a row ...
Goals Accomplished:
1. Always bear PPC in mind - I think it's ingrained in me now "finally" .. smile ..
2. Trade Management - Feel in more control and there're more to accomplish/improve of course (Note to Dragon: Hope the above address your question, ie I am learning not to have the MM get hit esp with 1 or more warnings. I side with the camp that there are always high probability trades waiting for us. Getting in-and-out is Fine!)
I believe it's important to feel comfortable with the systems I'm using. I like the systems and it's matter of tick interval! For 4-tick, I certainly need to focus more and act faster!
