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Trading 2 markets with a bot (ES, CL) - 50K Combine Journal
Day 6 of the Trading Combine
TO stay consistent with days prior here is an update with the EOD results. I guess there was only 4 trades on the day not 5! Misspoke there. Still have plenty of drawdown that I hope I wont have to need.... Cheers!
It took me 10 days to hit the profit target in the first combine and 15 days on this one. But I totally agrre with the guy that said trying to complete in less than a month makes you anxious and you end up making bad decisions. Better to do it slowly and steady, but being patient is very hard. FTP is gonna take a lot longer to me since I had 3 awful red days and now Im bringing the account back to green very slowly...
And we are about to bust the combine. With the past 3 trading days going 2/9 not much of a chance. Might try it again once I get more practice. But hit my personal daily loss limit of $800 so already done on the day. Getting discouraged at this point considering I lost that in less than 2 hours, CL had no volume and ES had reversal signs and continuously went down. Shit days recently.
Most frustrating and annoying. Wishing you better luck with the continuation and/or next time around. (Please excuse my mentioning it again, but I can't help wondering whether your position-sizing is altogether appropriate for a $50k Combine?).
Position sizing is something I would LOVE assistance with. I dont know how to adjust my contract quantity when I cant lose more than 1,000 a day... That's like less than 10 ticks on a 5 contract position... So I feel like that is a bit of a trap. I guess I just dont know how to do it properly. Should I make my profit target not in the 20 tick range and just go for more of a scalp trading strategy with more contracts? Im still in the combine but im assuming I will lose out tmrw. But maybe we will have a good day.
Personally, if I would be trading one contract, in the $50k Combine, not five.
I might add to already-winning positions after moving their stop-loss so that my potential upside is bigger when I've caught a good trade, but still without increasing my additional risk above its original size.
As I see it, if what you're doing has a genuine edge (which we're kind of assuming for the purposes of the discussion anyway) then you can lose from large position-sizes, when they fall foul of loss limits, but gain nothing more than speed from them, when your trades do as they "should". So my approach would be to take my time, not risk falling foul of any loss limits, and just pass the thing slowly, relying on my edge.
This question relates to trade management rather than to position-sizing, really?
I'm not sure I understand enough of what you're doing to answer it, except that the "with more contracts" part of it sounds like to me like the opposite of what I'd be trying, myself.
It looks like i fail another FTP today by hitting my max drawdown. Trading with 2 lots doesnt really suits my strategy of scaling in and out... i need to work on that, also cutting my losses quicker and not allowing myself to have - 900 red days like happened this time. About the number of contracts, i like trading with 3 on the 50k combine, always scaling in and out. I also dont know much about your startegy but it looks like your targets are too far and price bounces a lot before hitting them, when they hit. i think you could take some profits at half of your current target, then move your stops to entry and let the rest of the contracts run to the second target. Just my opinion
Yes indeed, I dont trade over 1 contract ever! But yes I should possible do something like RichGirl suggests and take up 2 contracts selling 1 at half the target to take profits. Really like this idea I will possibly incorporate this into the bot when I get motivated to think that logically again.
Bummer about the FTP RichGirl... I personally think the 50K FTP is a little silly and doesnt scale with the other combines properly. If I fail this combine I am going to look at doing the one under 50K as the targets all seem more obtainable. Thanks for the advice with multi contract and selling a contract at half the target! I have written this down and will incorporate it into the bot along with a position scaling schedule depending on cumulative losses etc.
This is basically how the past week has gone for me. Get within 1 tick of my profit target and then SEE YA! Lol just some morning funnies:
And there goes another stop loss. Last trade, before I take a break for the remainder of the month.
Hey guys! Been revising my strategy as I learn more and more about all of this in general. The first combine attempt was a bust but I was ready for it and expected it. The profit targets for the 50K don't line up with the loss limits so I think Im moving down to the first combine and just shoot for making 1,500 before I lose 1,500.
I have also started working on a new strat using Renko charts. I have never used these before but I am starting to like them! The strategy I think is going to turn into semi automatic, but this is okay as I enjoy watching the market anyway. I am basically looking at trading EMA spine trends with volume. Does anyone have any advice on this? Been looking around the forums and found some useful stuff to get me started. I will probably start the new combine in a week or so. Just wanted to let everyone know I am still here lol getting prepared for a new combine is all
So the new Renko strat did well today. Pretty hard to not do well in CL today though... Holy crap! Haha, I will get into my entry signals more once I make sure it works more consistently. But trend trading is insane with a trailing stop loss after youve made your profits, sure it leaves some profits on the table, but it ran all day today. Here are what the new charts look like.
