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It was nearly 2 months from the time I was finished with Combine #1 to the start of Combine #2. I took that time to do a ton of studying and market replay work.
For Combine #2 I changed my approach completely and switched from ES to NQ.
Similar to my first Combine, I started my second in a fairly strong way. And interestingly, just like the first Combine, day 6 was the peak of my equity curve. After that I had a tough time and eventually my profits dwindled to a little below my starting equity.
I had begun to doubt my approach and this lead to trading with a lot of fear. So, like I did with my first Combine, I stopped trading to reevaluate.
During that time I studied my approach to try to find a way to improve what I was doing. I really wasn’t able to find a way, but I was running out of time in the Combine. So I started trading again a little over a month later when I had just enough days left to finish.
It had become painfully obvious that I wasn’t going to even come close to passing the Combine, so by the time I started back on Day 15 I had begun plans to simply earn a rollover if I could.
I was fortunate enough to have a few decent days, bring my account back above even, and meet the Winning Day % requirement. Once I had accomplished that, my only remaining objective was to finish the Combine with a profit so I could earn the rollover.
I wanted to finish with +$20 profit (+$1 Average Net P&L), and I did. I also met all the other requirements to earn the rollover. After what I’d been through in this Combine, earning a rollover ended up being a pretty big victory for me.
This Combine once again showed me how far away I was from being able to actually pass one. As hard as it was, I realized that I would need to work toward smaller profit goals first. So I made the decision that for my next Combine I would change my vague goal of just passing, to a more specific, and hopefully achievable, goal of earning a rollover with a $25 Average Net P&L ($500 net profit).
Links to the posts on my blog relevant to Combine #2 can be found in the Quick Summary section of this thread for anyone interested in the daily details.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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I started Combine #3 about 2 weeks after I finished Combine #2.
My first two Combines showed me that I had a lot of work to do to improve my trading approach/skill.
They also showed me that the goal of passing a Combine was too lofty. So for this one my goal was to earn a rollover with a $25 average net profit ($500 total profit for the 20-day Combine).
I stuck with NQ again for this one.
I traded with quite a bit of fear during this Combine, and I wasn't confident in the approach I was still trying to learn.
Although I didn't do terribly, my daily equity curve was a very up-and-down affair.
As I approached the final days, I knew there was no way to reach my initial goal, so I adjusted it. I wanted to make $1 average net profit and simply earn a rollover.
I was fortunate to get a decent day on day 18 to bring my account back above a slight dip below zero. This allowed me to have small losses on the last two days and finish the Combine with a small (+$25 net) profit.
Earning the rollover was a relief, but I had nagging doubts about the approach I was using and I knew I needed to do something to improve my trading and my attitude about it.
Links to the posts on my blog relevant to Combine #3 can be found in the Quick Summary section of this thread for anyone interested in the daily details.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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