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1. Being unfamiliar with the new platform is a big problem. I cannot see my orders and my exits, and the chart is very difficult to adjust.
2. Not being able to catch a big move. It may be caused by the reason I listed above, because I was not comfortable staying in the trade.. Not being able to see the trades on chart like in NT made me feel I was walking with my eyes closed ( yes, I don't use DOM...)
3. Good thing is, if I followed trend and 2nd entry, it certainly was not so "excited", but it provided the valuable sense of security. And I did managed to add on once today to my profitable position.
Overall, good week, and next week I will keep shopping for broker.
Yes, the same is true for most of us. Fear particularly - of missing out, entering too early or too late, a large stop, premature exit for a loss before the mkt goes our way, giving up our small profit in case it turns into a loss, settling for a small profit and missing out on a big move... You name it, we're fighting it.
Hi @sabrinavvv if you think about it the first demon and the third should not live togheter, you can be perfect and buy the lowest and sell the higher, and that mean you dont need wide stops at all. OR!!! you can have fear so you should only look for setups with tight stops no matter the result, if you re right you can gain X ticks... but if you are wrong you have THAT little certainty among your fear that you re not going to lose too much, and that if you're right your reward will be much higher than your loss. At least 2:1
Finally get back to my chart after two day's winter storm!
Premarket analysis (done by 11am today)
Today I started around 11am. My first trade was at 11:20.
#1. Sold 2@2376. Bought back @ 2374.75. I was convinced that the gap would close today. P/L: 2*5 ticks=10 ticks (minus commission)
#2. Bought 2@2376 for there was a big bull bar after the market came back and filled gap (2374.5). I was confident that the market would come up after filling gap, so I added on 2 points lower: 2@2374. However, the market did not go up as I would like, so sold all [email protected]. Soon after I sold all contracts, the market went up. So I planned to get long again. P/L: 4*1 tick=4 ticks. (minus commission)
#3. Bought 1@2377 for I anticipated a BO of channel. Added [email protected] (previous pullback’s low point). Sold [email protected], [email protected]. P/L:1*9ticks+2*8ticks=25 ticks (minus commission). I felt the market would try to close today’s gap (2381.25), but it would need a pullback first. So I sold out all of my position. (Whether this is a good practice, needs to be consider. But my thought is: protecting profit comes first!)
#4. Long [email protected]. Reason: the market needs to fill a gap @2377.5, and it’s about 4 points away from my target 2381.5. The market bounced 3 ticks, but moved down quickly. It was an unexpected quick move, made me wonder if there was any news coming out. I got out @2376.75. P/L: -4 ticks (minus commission). Probably I should stay longer. After all, I only had 1 contract.
#5. Long [email protected], target today’s gap 2381.5. However, market turned back after 1 point. This should not happen, if it had the strength to reach higher. So I got out for 1 tick. P/L: 1 tick (minus commission)
#6. After a long waiting time, the market went down. (In the bear’s case, this created a lower low.) I was prepared, and when the market was falling down, I sold [email protected], bought back [email protected] and [email protected]. P/L: 9 ticks (minus commission).
I’m done today.
Net daily P/L: 41 ticks.
Lessons:
1. After two day’s winter storm, it was hard to get the kids ready for school. (We built an igloo!) I was worried, for I didn’t have time until 11:00 am. But the market taught me the lesson again: I don’t have to sit in front of computer all day from 9:30… There is always good trade… I just have to be patient and selective.
2. Trust my read…
3. 1st thing 1st: Protect profit!
4. Get out quickly if trades doesn’t go as I expected. I used to staying in a losing trade for too long, mainly because I was not familiar with the way the market works. Now, I am getting more and more used to the ES market, I should trust my reading, and try to end a possible losing trade earlier.
5. I did better with live data than replay data. I was more cautious when trading live data.
The market did not move much today. Mostly it was in a TR (bear channel)
Trade #1. I started around 10:00 EST. Waited, bought [email protected], added another 2377.5. The market turned back after reaching 2378.25. I could have taken 1 point for my entire position, but I did not take the chance. Added another 1@2376 (previous low), and market gave me another 1 point for my added position – I did not take it!
Because it’s near yesterday’s low, and I can see clear buying pressure, I added another [email protected] after seeing a big bull bar forming.
The market did not move as fast as I would like, and I believed it would give me a chance to buy lower than my current price, so I sold 3@2376 (my BE price for entire position) . The market went up, and I sold anther [email protected]. Total P/L: 1*(-1)+1*3ticks+1*5ticks+3*3ticks=16 ticks (minus commission)
This trade has consumed all my time for the whole morning. Though my P/L was red for most of the time, I did not feel very stressful. The reason I believe is I made reasonable choice: I started with 1 contract; the price was close to the low (overnight & yesterday); and the market showed buying pressure.
The 1st contract: entry good, bad exit.
The 2nd contract: bad entry. I was hoping a retest to the trend line. However, the bear was stronger than I thought, and they kept the price below the EMA.
The 3rd contract: good entry (buy low). This was my second add-on, and if I seized the opportunity, I could have BE on my first three contracts, thus freed myself from the burden of carrying a much too heavy position size.
The 4th -6th contracts: I saw the big bull bar and it was a prominent sign of market reversal, and I was confident that I could add another 3 contracts and not worry about market turn down another several points from there. Reasons I did not added on at the low of overnight low, for 1) no sign of a strong bull reversal; 2) thus not knowing how many contracts to add.
I listed them here to remind myself: the good entry can save me a lot of headache and give me the sense of security. The worst scenario is BE…
Trade #2. Buy 2@2379 (BO), did not go as I wished, and it’s right at a resistant level, so BE out. P/L: 0 tick (minus commission)
Seems like you have a good feel for trading, good results so far.
On your last trade I would be a little cautious in going from normal 1 or 2 lots to 6, is a big jump.
Market can keep going down for whatever reason, don't want to be stuck in too large of a position going against you.
Hi,
I would echo mjarzoms comments. And don't forget that once you pass the Combine you have to go through the FTP which follows the funded account scaling plan ( https://help.futures.topstep.com/hc/en-us/articles/220389528-What-is-the-Scaling-Plan- ). With the 150K combine you would not be able to trade a 6 lot position unless you had already exceeded the $3,000 profit threshold.
I was assuming you still intend to look at TST in the future but after looking again at your post #38 I'm not sure. Good luck anyway either way.
If you scale IN or OUT - you get less gain on the consecutive bought contracts...
That makes your balance not really thicken
IF you can trade nicely with one contract with a positive result - you can do it with more contracts.
Just make your private journal with ONE lot to have some comparison over time. Everything other will
distort your view.
Good trades
GFIs1
PS: happy to see your journal here - best of luck!
If you scale IN or OUT - you get less gain on the consecutive contracts...
That makes your balance not really get thicker
IF you can trade nicely with one contract with a positive result - you can do it with more contracts.
Just make your private journal with ONE lot to have some comparison over time. Everything other will
distort your view.
Good trades
GFIs1
PS: happy to see your journal here - best of luck!
Thanks everyone for your comments @mjarzoms, @matthew28, @GFIs1, please keep your comments coming!
I don't really like the way I managed my trades on Friday, a ATM strategy may be a better in this kind of choppy market - 1 point scalp, 2 points stop, auto-BE of rest position after 1 point... something like that. A good lesson learnt today. It's so funny that I said many times " protect profit first" on Thursday but did not do that on Friday!
As to scale in/ out, theoretically I would like to wait until market go back up to the price where my first entry is, so I at least get BE on my first entry and profit on the other add on. But I was impatient. I scaled out Friday for I wanted to add lower ( misread the strong bull sentiment), however I should scale out earlier ( or take lose of my first 3 contracts?) But for reasons I mentioned in my post (I was buying near support, and the market showed great buying pressure), there was no reason for me to give up my position, at least before the market proved me wrong.
But the thing I want to remind myself is to not chase a trend. Instead, do what the institutions are doing- buy support sell resistance... as long as the entries are reasonable, I will at least not lose... Not losing is the 1st step...
