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I decided to start a journal to keep an account from where I began. Some posts may just be a lot of text about things i read or watched and how I felt about it. It's meant to "chart" (see what I did?) my journey, so some posts will be boring to read for people. Other posts will be about my starting sim trades and my eventual move (one day) into live trades.
My journey started only a short while ago. I started with seeking out info on educational materials to help better educate myself with technical analysis and many other areas of trading. Coming from an investment mindset and not knowing anything about charts, patterns, technical indicators, and setups I was eager to soak up all the info I could!
Platform wise, I have toyed around with Ninja Trader since it seems very popular and I have tried using the historical data feed with the charts to try and see how I liked it. The layout was very different from what I have been using with ThinkorSwim. Right now, I think I am going to stick with my ToS platform since I am used to navigating it and I know how things work, I am still going to take the time and learn the in's and out's of Ninja Trader though.
I started with the "Where to start as a trader part 1" video here on futures.io (formerly BMT). There was a lot of great beginning information that gave me a good base to start from. I moved on to reading Japanese Candlestick Techniques by Steve Nison. I am still constantly flipping through and studying this manual like book as it has loads of great information. I began watching Steve Nison's Candle Charting and Beyond DVD set because I felt it would compliment what I was reading in the book (and I also retain more from seeing and hearing then just reading). I felt this would give me a good base as I eventually will move onto Al BrooksPrice Action Trading material
Beyond learning how to interpret Candlestick charts and learning the very basics, I want to also learn how to identify Support and Resistance levels and how to draw them on charts. I searched for posts on the subject and was able to read a ton of information, that honestly confused me. I decided to search the web for videos or past webinars that showed how to identify and draw it out on your charts. I came across and watched multiple videos on YouTube. I noticed that people have different methods of doing it, but after a few hours of video on the subject I started doing it for myself on multiple charts to try and gauge if I got it. Then I wondered if I was actually doing it right. So I was left pondering what could I do to see if someone could "check my work" so to speak. I don;t want to assume I'm doing it right only to find out down the road I was way off the mark and I need to go back to square one. Just like in school, you were taught how to do something and then you had to demonstrate to the teacher you knew how to do it, then the teacher confirmed you got it right or told you that it was wrong and to keep working at it (ah the good ole days of school!)
So this is were I was as of yesterday. Last night I started plotting some information based on the minor learning I've had so far. That will be the next post.
I was up last night at around 11:00 P.M. EST. I was looking over the Euro FX futures chart (6E) from the day. Just looking at this chart, I felt there was something I liked. I can't explain it but it just looked good to me. I started out trying to figure out if I could draw Support and Resistance lines. When I was finally done this is what I ended up with:
I had circled 3 key areas I felt were important. The first circle at 1.3741 showed a bounce early in the day and then it ran through what i felt is the most important mark @ 1.3753 (get to that in a bit). After getting through that barrier there was a run up to the second circle @1.3779ish area, but 1.3753 was a nice support area roughly 3 times in the day. Later in the day we broke through both the 1.3753 and 1.3741 areas going way down to the 3rd circle low of 1.3729. We get a bounce and get back over our 1.3741 mark with a run up to 1.3753 but never quite able to break that barrier. We get this teetering around the 1.3741 mark up until around midnight.
I said I felt the 1.3753 area was most important. Going back 20 days the 3 blue circles show where that area was touched (2nd one was almost a touch @ 1.3757). Each time it didn't drop below this area always running and staying above. I felt if it could break through 1.3753 again we'd find support for a bigger run up. First things first though.
Back at the first chart, when I went to bed at midnight I left with a plan of action to be awake at 5:00 a.m. and I was looking to buy 2 contracts at the 1.3741 range for a run up to 1.3753. I still wanted more data when I woke up.
So at 5am I look at the chart and see the massive drop down to a new low at 4am. I continued to watch the chart as it began to move back through the previous days low around 7am and hit the resistance at where I was looking to be a buyer @ 1.3741. I kept my eye on the chart and watched as between 7ish and 845ish we had a few touches at the previous low and a move over the 1.3741 mark. Once I seen the bar break through I waited for the next bar to close to get some confirmation. The next bar didn't help me much but then just after 9 we started climbing upwards and I moved into and took my 2 contracts at 1.3746 (5 ticks above but that is okay). The key area was 1.3753. I wanted a break above that and I felt once that broke that area it should hold as it has in the past.
I sold my 2 contracts @ 1.3755 (made an error thought it was 10 ticks but miscounted). I made 9 ticks and probably could have held a tad bit more for maybe 12-14 ticks but 10 ticks was my goal.
Looking at the live chart right now at around 11ish that 1.3753 level is being tested again. Between 9:15 and now there was certainly even more ticks to be made off of run ups and then back down to this level.
{Edit 2:56pm EST}
I took a 2nd trade for 2 contracts @ 11:33am for 1.3746. I was able to get a nice move back up to the 1.3753 for another 7 ticks today. It did run about 10 ticks past where I sold it, I could have let it ride few more ticks before letting the trade go but even though this is sim money, I have it in my head that this is real money. Real food I got to put in my families mouth so not going to get caught up in the "bleh it fake money" mindset. If I can't make money in a sim I damn sure have no business ever trying to do it for real. Lady luck was on my side, cause I'm not sure how much skill was involved here but happy for the fictional +$400 day.
This was just my recap on my first simulated trade and my reasons as to why I made it. I could be so off the mark about anything I said in this post. I just tried to interpret what I saw and incorporate a bit of what I have learned so far into a first sim trade. Hopefully when I look back on this some time from now I'll be able to see how much I have grown. Until the next time....
I didn't place any trades today, but I did map out 2 charts for the NQ and the 6E. I had 2 trades mapped out (1 for each chart) they both would have been profitable but can't count them at all since work was busy this morning and I had no time to focus. Rest of the day I put in screen time watching the charts and the movement on both.
Later in the day I watched some of the futures.io (formerly BMT) webinar on Al Brooks price action trading. Brooks is a bit monotone so I felt I zoned out a few times and had to rewind and concentrate so I didn't miss out on good information. Will watch the rest of it tomorrow while also trying to read some of the first book.
When you go live will you be trading with 2 contracts from the start? If not, then I suggest not trading 2 in the SIM. I would trade the SIM exactly like you expect to trade live. You want to build good habits from the start.
An issue people have is they trade differently in SIM, then expect that they will trade correctly once they go live.
I was figuring that when the one day comes that I eventually go live, I may start in the /M6E doing 2 contract trades, just to test it out and have real money on the line. I do like the /6E and the /NQ markets.
In the Sim I started with 2 contract with the purpose mostly to show me what losses can look like and to better limit myself. It's not about the big $ wins, it's about seeing when a trade goes south and I'm down 10 ticks, 15 ticks, 20 ticks what that looks like. I felt that may help me to better initiate trades, get comfortable seeing the "red numbers" so to speak.
I totally understand your advice and I agree with it 1,000%. I went into this wanting to trade the sim just like I would if it were real money so that when I do one day go live, there is nothing to change. I may readjust my thinking and just go with that notion.
Few changes, started using Ninja Trader some more for charting and setting up my sim account. I wanted to test out using the DOM and chart trading features a bit compared to how I did things on ToS platform.
Woke up a bit early this morning an was going over the NQ chart plotting out my plan for the day. Just going to jot down what was going on in my head, my emotional state and how I saw things play out. These are sim trades.
First look at the chart, I already had a prior resistance line at 3641 & 3607.5 with support at 3590. Didn't see anything I should add so I drank some water and looked over other charts while I waited.
Looking over the chart at around 8:00 I wanted to see what would happen come 9am before I made any decisions as to what to do. Between 9:25 and 9:35 I totally missed signals on this move up. I seen the first candle close and then the second candle close above my resistance line, when the 3rd candle started moving up I should have moved to get in, but I waited too long to act and missed the move. I decide to sit back and wait it out. It continued to climb higher and higher getting closer to my 3641 resistance line. So now I was planning to see what happened if it reached that point, would that resistance hold and would there be a setup opportunity to short around that level.
10:35 the candle peaked over my resistance line but closed below the line. next 2 candles didn't help me as I was waiting for some red candles to signal the move back down. At 10:50 I got what I was looking for, a nice red candle moving down. I sold 1 contract at 3635. The market didn't move like I expected but It didn't move to far up that I was going to stop out. I felt the risk/reward at my entry point was pretty good. I was in the trade for 26 minutes till I finally got some movement down and I able to cover at 3631 for a +16 tick profit ($80), think a bit of luck was on my side in this trade.
Looking back and evaluating, I know I acted too soon on the first red candle. I should have waited for the next candle for confirmation. The doji would have threw me for a loop and I probably would not have made a move and still continued to wait it out. I have to be honest and say a bit of impulse did kick in knowing I missed the signals for the big run up. Taking my mothers old advice and being happy with what I got, I'm happy for the $80 to the good on this trade. Rest of the day will be used for review and more educational studying of Price Action Trading.
Made 1 trade today even though I could have made a total of 3. The last 2 trades I didn't make because of lack of trust and indecisiveness. When watching things unfold live I was trying to interpret the action and talk it out so to speak. I didn't trust that I was interpreting things correctly so I sat back and just watched.
Trade 1 - Overnight there seemed to be a break through of the 3655 mark and then a pull back down to that level followed by some sideways action in that area up until this morning. Around 9:15 a.m I seen that things started to move up past the 3655 mark. When the bar closed I waited for the second bar to see if there was an uptrend forming. I initially had a buy limit at 3657.5 but canceled it and moved it up to 3658.75 and waited to see if the move up would fill me. At 9:24 I was filled and in the trade. I watched as the move climbed higher, I was vested in the move and glued to the screen so much thatThis is where I think I made a rookie mistake and should plan better for the future. I had my target 20 ticks in mind, which I could have sold before 9:30 open and made but decided to see if the run up would continue after the open. I heard the ding of the market bell from another app I had opened and the green bar shot up 3666.50 in a blink of an eye, I also saw my profit counter run up supper fast to $150 range, the second blink the bar started rushing down mighty fast! Quick decision time in my head was get out, I clicked the sell market when my profit showed $115 (or so I thought I did) but got my sell filled at 3663 (lot of slippage or things happen so fast I probably didn't even notice).
The trade netted me +17 ticks and put $85 in the win column of my sim account. A positive trade plus some really good learning experiences today. Will use the rest of the day to reflect and to catch up on some Brooks videos/reading. I have a lot more to learn
Today was educational. My 2 trades today me valuable lessons that I have to remember for the future. Also I learned not to play around with settings like the ATM during trades. Kept getting weird marks on the chart saying entry and the such, instead of buy and sell like the other days.
Trade 1 - I Shorted @3665 expecting that area of resistance would hold. I had my sell limit set at 3660 for my 20 tick profit. When the next bar started approaching that level in real time the red was moving so fast that I quickly moved my sell limit down to 3655 expecting the shoot down to make me even more money! Lesson 1 *GREED* I got greedy. I was happy with 20 tick profit which I would have got but went for more and the bar reversed. On the next bar I had to wait out a run all the way up to 3668 and then the next bar the run up to 3679. I felt things were going south (or north might be a better term), so when it got back down into the 3663 range I decided to get out. +6 ticks for $30.
Trade 2 - After watching 15 minutes of the move I had expected a tad earlier but decided to sell out of and miss the big profit, we got down to the 3655 range. Yet again I made the same mistake going against the trend and I bought @ 3655.50 expecting a bounce back up. Lesson 2 *Go with the trends not against them! * Big run down and then a bunch of long wicked failed breakout bars and I knew I was on the wrong end of it. I should have limited my loss, but kept "holding out hope" the trend would reverse. I finally admitting to myself I was on the wrong end of it. took a -21 tick loss on this one for -$105.
Total for the day I was -$75. I felt more like I gambled today than traded. I didn't follow what the chart was telling me and I kept *betting* against the trends. I could make more trades today but I rather just cut my losses, learn my lessons, and start with a fresh mindset tomorrow.
