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After reviewing this forum post Mike's "Benefits to creating a journal" thread I've decided to start my own trading journal here on futures.io (formerly BMT).
What this journal is for -
Creating accountability, personal and public
Creating a truthful, transparent, sometimes embarrassing journal of my trading
Promoting internal honesty and embracing reality, so as to learn and improve
Analysis of my trading to improve my performance
Share ideas, thoughts, quotes and connect with other traders
Measure and promote progress
Create a log for review
Taking responsibility for my trading decisions
Creating positivity, believe and confidence
Who I hope reads, contributes and offers insights, thoughts and advice -
Successful traders
People who want to promote and create a positive honest atmosphere around trading
People with inquiries about anything related to my journal
Friendly traders
People looking for a place or friend to discuss the YM, index futures, or day trading in general
What will be in this journal -
An account of my trading activity
Discussion, thoughts and ideas related to trading
Statistical analysis of my trades and performance reviews
Motivational quotes, pictures, ideas and videos
Interesting trading content
Occasional random content that's too good not to share!
I do not have proven consistent profitability trading *yet* and therefore this journal is not to give advice, or guide others trading decisions, to do otherwise would be to cement in my mind that I am a better trader than I am, and therefore give way to errors of convictions that aren't based in reality...
Now that I've set a foundation for the journal, a little information about me -
I'm 23
I lost £100 in 10 seconds on my first ever trade, aged 17, £10 per tick on the FTSE 100 index
I love trading, I love financial markets, I have been developing my knowledge and trading abilities since I was 16
I'm in a tough spot right now, I have no money
I live with my parents, I don't have a car, I don't have a job, I can't afford my dental filling the dentist said I need etc
That was embarrassing to admit all that, but as I warned, I'm creating a place of honesty and transparency, because I truly want to improve
Still embarrassed I had to tell the internet my problems, questioning now whether the details are neccesary
...
Starting again, this time with positivity,
I have a girlfriend, she is super awesome and intelligent, next year she'll do her Masters in Amsterdam in economics and I plan to go there and earn money trading whilst she studies
I'm really into fitness and work out pretty much every day, I eat a lot of protein, I squat a lot of weight
I enjoy my own company
Trading is a passion, that I'm now turning into a career
Last time I traded live I turned £6 into £184 in a UK spreadbetting account in one day trading the DJIA, attached below is my statement for those 36 trades
Setup:
[Instrument] YM
[Trading times] 6AM ET until close
[Platform] NinjaTrader charting, likely X_Trader Pro for execution
[Brokerage] Currently simulating, no brokerage yet
[Equipment] Powerful PC with 2 monitors, and additional monitors if needed + Macbook Pro
Routine and approach:
6AM ET is 11AM in the UK (my location), therefore I have plenty of time to prepare for my trading day including a long sleep, a big breakfast, a workout, a shower and a pre-market preparation.
I start with a coffee watching CNBC, mainly for entertainment purposes and to wake my self up, besides I've grown fond of Seema Mody
I then check:
>ForexFactory News
>ForexFactory Calendar
>Econoday Calendar and information
>Tothetick.com data sheet for YM
I then:
>Set up my charts
>Assess what other markets other than the YM are doing
>Analyse my charts, representing different time periods and chart types, for the upcoming day, generating trade ideas
>Listen to the free Ben Lichtenstein S&P 500 pit squawk pre-market and post-open
>Start observing intraday price action and order flow fluctuations using the DOM, time/sales window and a micro time-frame price chart
Then: I trade
I believe in my own potential profitability, I have faith that I will be a successful trader and I have confidence to trust my own trading decisions, thoughts and opinions and processes.
My plan:
I am simulating, hypothetical combines with 1 contract with the following rules:
- Daily loss limit: 33 YM ticks
- Maximum account drawdown: 100 YM ticks
- Profit target: 100 YM ticks
- Assumed commission: $5 per RT
- 10 trading days in a 30 day period
- Always implement stops with an open position
- Permitted trading hours:
- Achieve overall winning days of 55% or more
- Stop trading at daily target of 50 YM ticks
- Do not hold positions into major economic releases
- Stop loss automatically set at 15 ticks, non-adjustable in terms of increasing risk
Once I have successfully passed the above combine three times consecutively and feel confident I will be profitable instantly, I will go live trading either by:
- An investment provided by family, whereby share of profits is split at a pre-determined %
- A $300 investment in a two months of TST combines
Once live trading, my performance will be based on the rules as in the simulator, if I hit my maximum drawdown from my initial capital I will go back to simulating combines until prepared to go live again. Live trading includes a scaling plan, created using excel.
All the best,
Thanks for anybody who actually bothered to read all that and a final quote:
"Winning is not a sometime thing,
it's an all the time thing,
you don't win once in a while,
you don't do things right once in a while,
you do them right all the time, winning is a habit."
Now that the details are out the way, this journal and journey to success begins...
I am trading the YM as well, but here is some points what I don't understand around your plan (don't take it as an offense please):
- Are you planing to scalp the YM?
- What is your daily win limit? How many tick? (100tick is way too much on the YM. ofc it could move like hell, and you can make that, but there are some days, when just hanging around with 1 directional move for 60 tick, and thats it)
- Why do you want to trade the ETH? If you are not planing to trade the news, there is no reason to do that. You have to be super patient, even if you are scalping, to do it. Maybe before the open 30mins range worth to try, but the open could change everything....
I have not see your trading strategy. I see that you are planing to use 15tick stop, which is fine, but what is the profit target for that. Saying you would like to have 55% rate /trade or /day basis...?
So lots of things are missing from here, which should be aligned to the YM. Also if you are scalping, I would skip checking the at all. You don't need the news to predict the next 2 minutes, and most of the cases during the news you will see big violaty and some consolidation range, than after the news the market will continue to do what he was already doing (some cases are not ofc)
So please really don't get me wrong, as a start it is great but lots of piece are missing!
Great to hear from a fellow YM trader and of course no offense taken, input is welcome
I did not want to make my initial post too long, that is why so many details are missing, with time I will explain my entries, trade management and philosophy.
It's not that I do not have a plan for these things, simply that I will build this journal up slowly and thoroughly.
To answer your questions briefly, which later I will go through such topics with more detail:
- Yes, scalping the YM
- Daily win limit: 50 YM ticks ... Not a target, just a point at which I quit for the day.
- Trading ETH because statistically it's a very profitable period of time for me to trade.
- 55% of winning days (6 out of 10) to pass the simulated trial, along with other requirements
- 15 tick stop loss is my maximum loss on a trade, it's more likely I'll exit at break even or a small loss, I expect full 15 tick losses to be rare. What I care about is maximising my MAE and MFE averages, this implies my entry edge, trade management comes from statistical analysis of past trades.
- The news checking has three primary purposes, though it doesn't really directly affect my trades.
To further my learning and understanding of markets.
Entertainment, I find it interesting
To give me confidence I know what's going on, which makes me more composed/relaxed during the trading day
This pre-market routine is something that will likely simplify over time however, so I do agree with you.
I will address all the missing information and details with time
All will become clear with time.
Cool, I am looking forward to see it. Some comment:
- I am checking the news only for the following reason: Should I have to prepare a trending day, or the market will quite and slow. Many times, if red news are coming, before days, the market are quite. So I am oke with 20 tick win and I am looking for range moves, not trends. News days, I am not suppriesed, if the market moving heavly, and start to trend early. I never try to identify the numbers even I am not checking is it bad or good (bad or good has only meaning for retail traders like us everyone else, who is really understanding the news is looking behind )
- Once again, if you are doing a scalping 50tick seems to me way too much. Really it is a huge target for scalper. Ofc if you are using runners, and making some big winners, it is oke, but I can give you an example:
I love this guy ( @Jaguar52 ). Unforcuneatly I havent had a chance to learn from him, and he is trading Crude, but I've checked a lots of video from him on youtube, and also I've found a lots of link over his website, when he is teaching, mentoring people. As I understand it ,a high level, he is looking for trades with 2R risk 1R profit on Crude, also he is using runner as well. As far as I understand his advice is that, if somebody is ready with 20 tick/day on crude, than call it a day. Trading is not rushing, trading is being consistence over and over again. The only thing why I am trying to point this out, becuase that is once thing to love the market and giving you 10 hours trading window, but sooner or later you have to find a good spot, a good edge, and a good method to being consistence. And setting up goals like this in the begining makes it very hard
But that is my beliefe, so do your experiment on sim I am looking forward to see the results.
Anyway, dont get it wrong. 50tick is achieveable, for example @PandaWarrior doing it on crude, but with swing trades, and not with scalping
I've decided to start another journal here at futures.io (formerly BMT). I haven't journaled in quite a while here at futures.io (formerly BMT) but instead have kept a blog going elsewhere for sometime.
Thank you for the provided link, interesting stuff and many of the ideas there are consistent with my own trading methodology and philosophy.
50 ticks is not a daily target, or a trade target. Simply the point at which I will without exception quit trading for the day as a rule. Most likely I'll stop at 30 ticks, but in terms of fixed rules, at 50 ticks I'll switch it all off!
I'll talk more about trade management and targets at a later point in the journal It is a work in progress, I like to base many decisions off analysing the statistics generated from my trading journals. Optimization.
To be clear; I do not trade 10 hours, that is simply my permitted trading hours. I am usually done within 30 minutes. I trade with the goal of making money every day, nothing else. My trading decisions are entirely about making money today and capital preservation today. I'm like a mouse trying to get cheese from a cat, very swift, very flexible in entering/exiting and very careful Every day I'm hungry for more cheese, but every day I have to be very careful because the cat could eat me haha
" Trading is not rushing, trading is being consistence over and over again."
Wise words, I completely agree.
I think there is a slight misunderstanding, the rules I posted, are the rules of my simulated trading --- they are the bare minimum requirements to passing the simulated trial. For instance, I can only enter trades in those specific times, or else I have failed the simulation. However, I do not trade those hours, I am too intensely focused to last 10 hours haha
Thanks for the support and ideas,
Again I think with time it'll be more clear what I'm doing and I welcome your suggestions!
TurismoTek
Last night I talked with my good German friend I was at University with, he found a job in London in recruitment, he is on the phone making 200 calls a day closing sales. He earns a basic salary but the potential for bonuses are high. Like trading it's a performance job, and you get paid a commission for each sale. They have a high turn-over rate, often bringing in graduates like myself, giving them 3 weeks to 3 months to perform and if they do, they keep them on, otherwise "bye bye". Me mentioned he can get me an interview in 2 weeks and I had until the coming Monday to decide whether I wanted to or not.
It's a good opportunity, not particularly an ideal job but being good at sales isn't a bad skill to try to acquire, I'd be with my mate and living in London would be awesome. He said it was very difficult finding a flat and that he is paying £1100 per month for a shitty 1 bedroom with his girlfriend. I'd need to borrow money to purchase a suit and travel to the interview and to pay for my initial accommodation. But... I'm tempted, it'd give me somewhere to start in life, I'd have to move 6 hours from my girlfriend but I'd be in a cool City, I'd have financial independence, living at home isn't doing my integrity much good, problem could be if I didn't perform I'd be fired but I'm not exactly making any money right now... The other issue is that I really have a goal of becoming a trader, I'm not sure how to go about this professionally, I just know I love trading, I love markets, and it's what I want to do and I think I'd be good at it. On the other hand, trading is very competitive and difficult and I'm unemployed, I've got mixed feelings... He told me is hustling his ass daily trying to get some money together, and he's exhausted, I said I was proud of him for managing to establish a life, even if not perfect, we all have to start somewhere....
What do you guys think? Should I go to this job interview in London? Any wisdom from the elders?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm sim trading, playing around with ideas and using a bit of trial&error to develop my definitive plan, so take the below results with a pinch of salt...
I'm done trading today, these are the results trading the YM this week (results denoted in YM ticks):
" I didn't just want to be a *trader*, I wanted to the best *trader* of all time.
Dig deep down and ask yourselves,
Who do you want to be?
Not want, but who.
I'm talking about figuring out for yourselves what makes you happy.
You have to think outside the box, after all,
What is the point of being on this earth if you all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble.
We have so many rules in life about everything, I say break the rules, not the laws, but break the rules!
Trust yourselves no matter what anybody else thinks.
Don't be afraid to fail,
Anything I've ever attempted I was always willing to fail.
Don't be afraid of making decisions, you can't be paralysed by a fear of failure,
Or you'll never push yourself.
You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and your vision, and you know that it's the right thing to do. Success will come, so don't be afraid to fail.
I mean how many times have you heard you can't do this, and you can't do that, it's never been done before. So pay no attention to the people who say it can't be done.
I always listened to myself and said, yes you can. You're never going to fail because you didn't work hard enough, work your butt off.
I always believed leaving no stone unturned,
No pain, no gain.
When your out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard, someone is getting smarter and someone is winning,
Just remember that.
You can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets. "
- AS
Everybody have a great weekend,
All the best,
Turismo.
I would go to the interview. I don't think u r ready to be a profitable trader at this time.
I was in the business for over 10 years before I started trading. I worked on the floor of the Cbot...handling customer orders and then eventually went off on my own to trade. One thing about the floor is that you generally had to work there several years before you started trading. First to Learn and then to save money.
Unfortunately, these entry level jobs don't really exist in the mkt anymore. However, I would encourage to get a job, save money, and stay involved in the mkts in some way...the mkts are not going anywhere...be patient and try to have a long term perspective.
I don't really swing trade any longer. It was an experiment I ended up being bored with....
Secondly, 50 ticks is not HUGE in terms of intra day scalping if you are trading CL or something like it. That is about the normal leg size these days.....so a target of 50 is not unreasonable.
I define scalping as being in and out quickly for a few ticks...not the size of the target per se.
But each has their own way of defining things.....so one mans 50 tick trade is another man's scalp....and vice versa....
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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