I wanted to start this journal to bring some transparency into this journey to becoming a full time trader.
My Story
I have been trading for 6 years now on and off. I have been in stocks, options, futures, and currencies with experience in all of them. I am mainly looking to improve myself as a trader and hope that this journal will help. I have never gone full time but have always had a part time job to go along with what I am doing in the markets. I used to trade on Infinity Futures but found the connection to be patchy so I moved to doing all my futures trades on Think or Swim and am very happy with the platform. My personality matches best with day trading and I am looking to capture intraday moves and trends. I had some success trading options but just didn’t like holding them for a week and found that I would ignore my positions if they became a loss, and that just didn’t work for me. Capturing intra-day moves in very liquid markets is what suits me.
Currently I work full time and am only able to watch the markets occasionally throughout the day but do have some free time to trade and post charts. I will try to be as consistent as possible but do have other obligations and am going to be taking a few weeks off this summer.
I have been through the works in terms of indicators and systems as is everyone out there that seeks to become consistent in the markets. I have found a style and methodology that matches my personality and it has taken years to develop and refine to get to this point.
My Current Trading Style Currently my focus is on trading Crude Oil (CL), I watch the daily, hourly, 15 min, and 400 tick charts for direction and entry. I am a day trader and rarely will hold something overnight. I use fibs to show support/resistance levels. I use pivots and Opening Ranges to add clarity but other than that I don’t use anything else.
I keep my risk to about 2% per trade, and 8% max per week. I find that as long as I keep risk under control I can be a profitable trader.
I trade live mostly Tue, Wed, and Thurs, and occasionally on Mon, Fri depending on volume and how it’s moving and reacting.
2 Full stop outs means I am done for the day and won’t be putting anymore trades on for that day.
I use pivot lines, and OR ranges for 30 and 45 minutes.
I am looking at trend topping/bottoming patterns, trend continuations, and intraday reflection points as I call them.
I am working on understand market profile and Mark Fisher’s ACD method.
I don’t use any indicators in terms of momentum or oscillators. As of lately I switched from candle charts to bar charts and turned off all coloring of bars. I found that coloring and candles affected my entries and exits from an emotional standpoint. I would see a large red candle form and wouldn’t be able to put on my long position even though it was a prime entry, and that just didn’t work for me so I turned that info off.
I trade 50% pull backs and anchors within a trend. I find those to be the best setups.
Lately I have been taking smaller profits instead of holding for longer targets that may or may not get hit. I am working to refine what is going to work the best in the long run.
I have a lifetime subscription to Stocktickr and love it, also to thinkscripter as well.
What I hope to gain from this Journal
Become a better trader
Insights into the market I am trading
Make a consistent profit each month and build on that
Any feedback into what I may be doing wrong, or what I may be missing in my methodology from other members would be awesome.
Thanks for participating in my journal. Feel free to chime and post charts, give advice, post links or other relevant info.
The following 7 users say Thank You to greg9 for this post:
I wanted to be long after the inventory report. I had a strong upside bias but was weak on getting a good entry that I could hold.
Lately I have tried waiting for some sort of low to get put in and then trying to catch it on a turn instead of having the market push straight into my limit order.
Here is a chart of my 2 tries at entries but I wasn't able to hold either of them. This has been an issue lately with me; getting into the right side of the move but not having a good enough entry and getting stopped out. Anyone else having that issue?
I usually have my stop at 10-15 ticks. Is that too small? Larger stop for me?
I didn't take the trade because I was away from my computer but thought I would post it with some notes of what I look for. I see this pattern recurring over and over.
I didn't take any trades today; the long took off and didn't give me an ideal entry. This is a current snapshot of what I am looking at. I am looking for the market to pull back 50% of its move and then retake highs by 23%. This is my main methodology.
One issue I have is pulling the trigger and getting in. I like to watch them play out rather than physically being in the move. Is that because of fear? or I just can’t seem to participate? I don't know. That is one think I am trying to overcome and get better at.
On a side note I was listening to a trader interview yesterday and one of the traders said there are 3 points to a traders progression. He said this is usually how they progress to profitability and consistency.
1. A trader learns technical analysis. They learn how to chart and find patterns and learn market structure.
2. A trader learns fundamentals and learns more of the supply/demand side and what pushes a market in a direction in the longer term. This takes time but builds on the technical patters that present themselves.
Most traders get to this point and think they are good to go. They find the patterns, pick the longer term direction and try to get entries but over and they fail to make money. They are missing the last piece of the puzzle.
3. Learning to be a trader. This takes a lot of work. A trader can learn all the patterns and fundamentals but if he has not learned to be a trader he will consistently lose money. This is often overlooked and isn't incorporated into the beginning education. Learning to be a trader is learning to execute, and to find that ideal position and add when it makes sense. It means knowing when to hold and when to fold on a position and not marrying an idea in the market. This is often harder to do and takes alot of time but is necessary to being successful in the markets.
The following 6 users say Thank You to greg9 for this post:
