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RTR1701 -- Thank you for your comment! I would love to have a discussion on back testing methods and how to improve them! I remember Kevin Davey said we should expect to test as many as 200 strategies to find a tradeable system -- which makes manual back testing even more time consuming!
Trades: 2
Plan Followed? Yes
Daily Trading Goals: I have multiple opportunities which could set up for me today. My homework included all possible outcome scenarios as well as my planned response. I've planned for the worst, now it's time to trade with confidence and reach for the best!
Best & Worst: I executed my trades correctly. Multiple opportunities makes my plan for the day exponentially more complicated. Having my scenarios written out the night before helped me stay on track.
What Did I Learn Today? I re-learned the importance of enjoying the development process. I get impatient with myself for not progressing faster, which doesn't help me and only compounds my frustration.
Daily Trading Goal: It's disappointing, but most of my opportunity for this week is past now. My goal is to trade accordingly -- take opportunity as it develops and keep a close watch on my down side.
Best & Worst: I wasn't filled on my order today, so no trades. Going into Friday's action I am up + $7.50 for the week. My trading plan calls for me to make sure I finish the week positive if I am positive going into Friday -- even if I can't trade Friday.
What Did I Learn Today? I heard a good thought from my friend dante: "Although much is said of screen time, I place a premium on quiet time, journal time, and thinking time."
Daily Trading Goals: My trading plan calls for me to finish the week positive if I am positive for the week going into Friday's action -- even if my profit for the week is so small I can't trade Friday at all. The purpose of my trading is to make money, not to make trades. My goal is to sit out and protect my $7.50 profit for the week.
Best & Worst: My best trade was following through on my goals to not trade. While I was not trading I identified 16 straddle trade opportunities in my research which I want to trade in my next Combine. Who knows how these trades will work out, but I felt confident while adding these trades to my revised trading plan.
What Did I Learn Today? I used the Econoday calendar to map out 16 high probability trades over 13 days for my next Combine. The Combine rules require me to trade 20 days. I have determined 65% of my trades and added them to my plan.
Daily Trading Goal: I am in the waning days of a moribund Combine. My goal for the remainder of the current Combine is to play defense -- protect my positive account balance and preserve my upward sloping Equity Curve. My goal to prepare for my next Combine is to execute my new setups in my practice account, starting with the Durable Goods Orders economic release this morning.
Best & Worst: I did not have a good day today. My psychology was vulnerable. I don't know why. My computer was reacting sluggishly this morning and I couldn't execute my planned Durable Goods practice account trade. Was that the reason? Or was I just "off" today? I don't know. I made + 1 tick in my bond trade.
What Did I Learn Today? There is no harmless way for me to watch an open position. Even if I think I am "just checking" my position, I naturally analyze price movement any time I look at the screen. This analysis can only lead to second-guessing and modifying my strategy as it did today.
Daily Trading Goals: My goal for today is to set up my trade according to my strategy and let the trade work. In recent days I've slipped into the attitude that watching my trade is harmless as long as I don't make unplanned modifications to my trade -- but this thinking is wrong. Watching is a constant invitation to analysis of price movement. I will inevitably alter my trade. So I want to concentrate on not disturbing my position.
Best & Worst: I followed through on my planned actions. I have not succeeded in feeling as good about taking the correct actions and receiving a losing outcome as when I receive a winning outcome. I do feel better about today (which was a losing day) than I felt about yesterday (which was a small winner where I second-guessed my strategy.)
Daily Trading Goal: This is the last week of my Current Combine. My goal is to finish this Combine with a higher ending balance than I had in the last Combine. Last night I calculated how much money I can lose these last few days and still achieve a higher balance. Today I will trade in accordance with this limit.
Best & Worst: Without any single outstanding action, I made a series of good small actions. I prepared for the trading session the night before, I avoided watching my charts while in positions, I reasoned in writing why I should follow my trading plan when I was feeling risk adverse following a small profit on my first trade. I felt diligent.
What Did I Learn Today? I took another step forward in preparing for my next Combine by identifying a practice account trade I want to take tomorrow -- a dress rehearsal for a new idea I want to trade in the coming Combine.
Daily Trading Goal: I have two trades planned for today: my planned trade for my current Combine and a rehearsal trade for my practice account. I am trying out this idea before trading it in my next Combine.
Best & Worst: I am happier than I should be after my trade outcome was profitable this morning. My account balance is now positive for for the week and my Combine will finish above the profit objective. I won't qualify for funding because of my secondary metrics, but this is the first time I have reached this milestone with an ending balance.
Daily Trading Goal: My goal for the Friday before a three day Labor Day Weekend is balance. I am prone to treat weekends as opportunities for back testing, reading, listening to webinars, and generally losing myself in my trading obsession. I realize there is a negative consequence to obsession: resentment. I don't want to realize someday that I have missed years of my life because I did nothing except trading.
Best & Worst: I modified my Combine account trade and I am disappointed. I placed my Combine order in ZB at the Bond pit open at 7:20 a. m. CST. At 7:30 Personal Income & Outlays was released. I had a practice account trade I wanted to take for the news release. The practice account trade required me to watch the screen and I saw prices move against my Combine position. I felt my impulse trade compulsion surge -- compelling me to click out of my trade.
What Did I Learn Today? Each practice account trade teaches me a little about my new strategy.
This is geote88. Long time no spoken. I'm glad to see you that you're hanging in there! Eventually its gone bear fruit. I've red your journal and it's nice that you're sharing your thoughts. I wanted to give you some insights in what I'm perceiving that is holding you on the wrong path! You're writing that..."it's hard for me to execute a trade properly, take a loss and really believe I have taken a good trade to the same extent I would if the outcome was profitable."
This is a huge ego part that mainly has to do with your internal mindset. It's huge because many, many traders are suffering from this. Mainly it has do with the way we perceive our outcomes internally leading to a judgemental action. When we experience positive outcomes judgement shines with its absence.
Now....because this part is internal it's very hard to get over it. What traders have to do in this case is to shift focus from result-oriented trading to performance-oriented trading. Keep on judging your outcomes but from the point of performance not the point of your results. It's quite simple and the easiest way to achieve that is by going in with the same mind set you have when you decide to back test something. You're not back testing in order to get a 100% positive results from that, because you know that would be impossible, you're back testing in order to see how well a system performs and what to expect.
Same thing has to be done prior to your start of the trading day, and I do refer to the mindset you'd have to activate.
Second, NOT trading during option expiration day or any other day you've become aware of a bad performance attitude, is good. It means you have a higher awareness of things and that can only benefit you. BUT in case you continue to trade (sim/practice) during those days the only thing that you're going to add to your mental capital is confusion. You're firing off in your brain an ambiguous sort of I would have should have situation. Practising during those days can only harm you in case you're not planing to find ways of getting over your lacks and errors. In case you want to adopt a new experience that can lead you to a way of constructing a foundation of how to overcome yourself during those days when you do not perform well then you should do it. IF not it is much better to stay completely off the markets during those days.
In that way you can distance yourself from the "trading obsession" and get a higher quality of life begin away from the screens. Sometimes life gets easier when we distance ourselves from it, it kind takes us ironically enough closer to our goals that way!
Take care my friend and maybe I'll see you in the combine again some day!
Greetings from Sweden!
/George
We all struggle to make tomorrow look like yesterday!
Get rid of your past and let the future unfold from the now. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
/George
