NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





Sabrina's Trading Journal


Discussion in Trading Journals

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one sabrinavvv with 39 posts (74 thanks)
    2. looks_two rintin2x with 5 posts (6 thanks)
    3. looks_3 DjRonin with 4 posts (2 thanks)
    4. looks_4 Cs2005 with 3 posts (3 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one patrader65 with 3 thanks per post
    2. looks_two sabrinavvv with 1.9 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 rintin2x with 1.2 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 Cs2005 with 1 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 9,783 views
    2. thumb_up 98 thanks given
    3. group 15 followers
    1. forum 62 posts
    2. attach_file 38 attachments




 
Search this Thread

Sabrina's Trading Journal

  #31 (permalink)
 sabrinavvv 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 52 since Dec 2015

I had the worst day today. One BIG mistake and it wiped out several day's work.

March 3rd, 2017

Premarket analysis:
Hi: 2380.75
Lo: 2373.75
Range: 7
Bars: 33
S: 2374/2371/2363
R: 2382/2388
Special pattern: Double bottom


Trades:

Trade #1: buy [email protected] for it’s a pullback at a trendline. However, market BO of the trendline. I bought another 6@ 2378 after seeing support. Sold [email protected]; Sold [email protected]. P/L: 3*(-3 ticks)+3*3 ticks=0 (minus commission)


Trade #2: Sold [email protected], added another 4 @ 2375. However, the market went up and I did not keep my original stop at its place. I was given a chance to BE, but I did not do it. I bought back all 6 contracts @2379.75. P/L: 2*(-10 ticks) + 4* (-19ticks) = -96 ticks

I should have stopped trading here!


Trade #3: Sold [email protected], bought back @ 2380.25. P/L: 12*(-16 ticks)= -196 ticks.

Trade #4. Bought [email protected], sold @2380.75. P/L: 12 ticks.

Daily P/L: -284 ticks


Lessons Learned:

Today I have made so many mistakes.

1. Premarket analysis was not clear. It was a TR, and I do not know its direction. How? It should be easy, right? Buy low sell high and scalp. But I was still thinking about yesterday’s big success, and was stuck with BO mode. It’s very interesting how I can be so obsessed with one idea. I need to remember, 80% of the time, market is in TR and 20% of the time it BO. Trading should be simple. Just follow the most obvious clue.


2. Only take high probability trade!


3. Take time to feel the market. When I can see a clear reason to trade, just trade my full position.


4. I still have not found a trading style that I'm comfortable with. Still looking. I need to build a systematic way to manage my orders.


Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Exit Strategy
NinjaTrader
My NT8 Volume Profile Split by Asian/Euro/Open
NinjaTrader
Futures True Range Report
The Elite Circle
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
The space time continuum and the dynamics of a financial …
Emini and Emicro Index
 
  #32 (permalink)
 
rintin2x's Avatar
 rintin2x 
salt lake utah
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: CQG
Trading: ES
Posts: 542 since Jun 2016
Thanks Given: 634
Thanks Received: 542

I'm not sure if the previous post was a live or demo account, and I'm not sure if I'm qualified to say about this, but that's over -$3000 in one day.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #33 (permalink)
 sabrinavvv 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 52 since Dec 2015



rintin2x View Post
I'm not sure if the previous post was a live or demo account, and I'm not sure if I'm qualified to say about this, but that's over -$3000 in one day.

Yes, you are right. I am trading a demo account. I am using the parameter of TST's 150k account and I am still in the search of my own methodology. If I was in the combine, I would have lost it today. Do you have any suggestion on how to avoid revenge trading? Thanks in advance,

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #34 (permalink)
 
rintin2x's Avatar
 rintin2x 
salt lake utah
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: CQG
Trading: ES
Posts: 542 since Jun 2016
Thanks Given: 634
Thanks Received: 542

I think the best thing is keep doing what you're doing, thats what a combine for, experimenting without your own money but the cost can be building. Why not open up small live account while you can practice/experimenting/finding your own methodology without inactivities fee, and back doing combine when you're a bit more confidend with that methodology?

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #35 (permalink)
 
rintin2x's Avatar
 rintin2x 
salt lake utah
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: CQG
Trading: ES
Posts: 542 since Jun 2016
Thanks Given: 634
Thanks Received: 542

Ah sorry, you havent done combine yet, got to go back and reread your journal. Be patience and check other journals, there are many successful traders here that make a living out of futures trading, pretty sure you'll get something out of it. GL

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #36 (permalink)
DjRonin
La Serena - Chile
 
Posts: 144 since Feb 2017
Thanks Given: 51
Thanks Received: 92

My suggest to avoid revenge trading, at least it is what i do as i don't like demo accounts, i prefer 1k $ account to play with rather than 150000 virtual moneys account which leads me to act as a gambler. Maybe i am not disciplined enought to resist the temptation of pushing more contracts than possible, scaling in which is not suitable for a beginner trader and such things. 1k account means you can only trade instruments with less than 1k intraday margin requirement such as ES - NQ and so on untill you grow up.
Anyway, this is my hint. Stand up and go take a tea, walk away for a smoke in the garden, chase the cat around, play with your kids, go buy something at grocery, watch a video on youtube on how to avoid revenge trading... definitely as soon as your position closes... walk away from the charts for a reasonable amount of time. From 5 minutes to 2 hours depending on the size of your loss... if its too big you better stop trading for the day. But bear in mind once you get badk to your charts, you will find another setup... as there are trading opportunities all day long on any market, no needs to stick with one instruments.
The first thing you will do once you sit back at your PC is to consider what led you to take that bad trade, and possibly write it down, your feelings, reason of entry... in other words analyze it and metabolize it as part of your trading day should you find it wasn't an error of entry but perhaps a bad risk:reward management.

As for the trades you took here... you seems to have the very same problem i had with demo accounts... i wanted to play big as i had the virtual liquidity but when you lose you don't consider the margin per trade (losing 3k on a 150k account is only a 2%) and only see the loss as an average salary percentage lost you get what i mean? (like thinking i would have lost the salary of an entire month in one day)? have little toys you are forced to keep a low profile. If you don't want to open a small account with real moneys, consider editing your demo account to have a maximum of 5000k to start with... maybe less. You wont be risking 9 contracts on ES if you have 5k on your demo account.

Hope it helps.

Alex

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #37 (permalink)
 
patrader65's Avatar
 patrader65 
Boston MA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT, TOS
Trading: ES, CL
Posts: 56 since Jan 2017
Thanks Given: 696
Thanks Received: 128

My 2 cents of advise when I looked at your journal...

Do not scale-in when a position goes against you until you become consistently profitable trading live with 1 contract. I know it is very hard to do. But, as a beginner, I would strongly recommend you do that and first become proficient in reading price action.

Scaling-in when a position goes against you and getting out Break-even (or getting out with a smaller profit) is easy to do in a simulation account. Try doing it in a real account and you will know the difference psychology plays. I don't mean to be harsh, but I have been there done that. I trade Al's style of Price Action too.

The critical part of trading success is learning to avoid the bad trades. This requires we cultivate relentless discipline and patience along with technical skills. Scaling into losing trades works against this.

Wish you the best in your trading.

Reply With Quote
  #38 (permalink)
 sabrinavvv 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 52 since Dec 2015

Many thanks to all who provided me your great advices... @rintin2x ; @DjRonin ; @patrader65 ;

After reading your posts, I have made some guidelines to prevent revenge trading and what to do if I find myself is revenge trading. I'm sure all of them will work, if I could truly stick to them!
---"As a trader, you can control only one thing - yourself"

@rintin2x @DjRonin

I had a 5k account before, and I closed it after losing 1k. I do not think I'm mentally ready to go live soon. But I do plan to open a 1k account, just to get live data. And the representative at NT said they can waive the inactivity fee for two months. So it's much cheaper than a TST combine.

The only problem I have is, I don't believe a small account can last, because the risk tolerance is so small, and I would be very stressful even the price only move against me for 4 ticks ($50 in 1k vs $50 in 150k)? Ideally, I would like to have at least 20k in my account, if I want to trade seriously.

About demo account and gambling.. Yes this is definitely something I've been working on... I now used TST's 150k parameter, but I limit my maximum position size to only 6 lots. Because my daily goal is 9 points, and if I can swing 2 lots for 4 points, I can almost reach it. So that's something I'm telling myself now: I don't need to trade big to reach my goal (repeat & repeat...Hope it will become a second instinct for me)

@patrader65 Were you in Al's chat room? I was there for 2 months, and heard him talked a lot about scale in/out, and I just can't get it out of my head. According to Al, the ability to scale-in can help you at least avoid loss, if your entries are reasonable. The big direction is easier to find, but the entry point is difficult, if you scalp and you have a tight stop. I followed his talk and placed trades by myself in the live account, I had profit (or at least BE) every time, but the open loss was scary for a small account (or because I was not familiar with his style at that time, so my entries were not ideal). So I guess his method is more feasible for a larger account? Want to hear your opinions.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #39 (permalink)
 sabrinavvv 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: ES
Posts: 52 since Dec 2015

I made a table to organize my daily premarket analysis in Word. But I can not paste it here. The idea is to make everything as simple as it can be. Trade simple.

Hi Lo Important Pattern
Prior Day Session 2383.25 2374.25 MTR, Bull channel, tight TR until end.
Overnight Session 2380.75 2368.75 BO last session low. TR
Today
Trading Plan: BLSHS or follow trend
Always-in: Short
Support BUY: 2369
Resistance SELL: 2383/ 2376



Trade #1. Bought 2@2371, 2@2370, 2@2369. Scaled out 3@2373, stopped out 3@2371. P/L: 2*8ticks+1*12ticks+1*4ticks+2*8ticks=48 ticks (minus commission)

*****This trade is very clean & simple. I bought overnight suport at open, and achieved my daily goal. I become more conservative after reaching daily goal.


Trade #2. Bought [email protected]. I would like to see the market close open gap (2374.5, or higher) on 5min chart. The entry was a 2nd entry long at a trendline on my volume chart. However, it did not go as I wished. To cover cost, I scaled out 1 contract for 3 ticks, and was stopped out for the rest two contracts. Better safe than sorry! P/L: 3 ticks (minus commission)


Trade #3. Bought [email protected] (open swing low), sold @ 2369.25. P/L: 2*3 ticks=6 ticks

***I regret that I did not add on according to my plan. I could have built up at least 4 contracts here according to my original plan (buy low, scale in 1, 2 points lower). But I have already reach my daily goal. Better be safe! Or, should I completely stop trading after that?

P/L: 53 (after commission)

Lessons learned:
1. Trade according to plan. Trade simple.
2. Preserving capital first. I think today’s my style is more conservative, due to a book I read yesterday. It’s written by Joe Ross, “How to trade the Ross Hook”, very old book, and it was my first book. I did not finish reading it before I turned to Al’s book. But after yesterday’s failure, I finally pick it up from dust. Very good advices, although old, but it’s still useful.


Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #40 (permalink)
 
rintin2x's Avatar
 rintin2x 
salt lake utah
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: CQG
Trading: ES
Posts: 542 since Jun 2016
Thanks Given: 634
Thanks Received: 542


Sabrina, it's not my business, but NT charging platform fees unless you buy it + monthly exchange fee. From what I've seen so far, you don't really use complex indicator/s, so maybe you might want to check other brokers that provide free platform (these platforms can do what you need similar to NT) and no inactivity fee.

Many people don't like this idea but it's for you do decide in the end because it's not your fault if they don't charge inactivity fee. Just something to think about.

Reply With Quote
Thanked by:




Last Updated on March 19, 2017


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts