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Have wanted to log this weeks trading (I guess I didn't want to bad enough though because it's Friday night and I'm just getting to it.)
I have started another Topstep Trader Combine. It felt like I was starting all over again, and it took me a couple/three days to get back into the swing of things but I am feeling more and more comfortable each day as I trade. Sometimes journaling has been very beneficial (all the time really) but sometimes it seems like it's easy to discuss concepts and make them sound so concrete, like a math equation (Risk/Reward ratio + win rate= edge). And while I agree in concept and the general understanding of what has to happen sometimes it seems to easily explained in that way. There is a lot more complexity in achieving that in the relationships between strategy, market, money management and account. Anyway not wanting to make that a big topic just thinking about it as I start logging my process again.
I have completed 6 days of trading and will post those results as they are configured by topstep.
Day 1
I was uneasy (jittery actually) and struggled all morning going in the hole over $700. However by end of the day I was quite excited that I was able to keep my composure and let small winners pile up to just above break even.
Day 2
I was relaxed and confident to start but allowed my nemesis to come back in and almost felt like "will I ever stop being sooooo stupid" as I held on to losers and then added size to attempt a "comeback" foolishly. At some point I could tell what I was doing so I just stopped. That night I dug down and re-traded the day on 2X the speed to try to correct the habit. I also picked some other days and just tried to reinforce what I should do in random situations.
Days 3, 4, 5 & 6,
I have been able to keep a level head, sadly all of these days have had drawdowns and issues that I still need to work on but thankfully I have been able to stay focused on how I should act and re-act. Every trade is new, meaning the past is just that, the past. Bad or good makes no difference, my thought is "ok what's next and how can this next trade be profitable?" Not in an overtrading way either but in an objective way that stays anchored in the context of today's market and how can my style of trading best take advantage of it.
Thanks for coming back and reading all that . Please feel free to ask any questions or give any critiques.
Today was an interesting day for me. I am always enticed to look at and sometimes wish for those longer time frame "swing" trades and in looking at the market last night doing analysis I agreed with many others that I thought it would go down from near the 49 level. So even though it is not in my plan I began building a short position last night shorting above 48.80. By 12:30 am EST I was quite tired and disgusted with myself for "trying" something other than my plan so I exited for $77+/- profit and went to sleep. All morning I kept trying to find places to get short as I was still biased in this way as the market krept upward. Finally after digging a small hole from getting stopped out of short positions, I re-focused on my plan and stopped holding trades as long. My targets are usually 5-10 ticks sometimes in a truly big move I will just let a portion of it run. Well the big swoosh down finally came and I was able to get bits and pieces of it scalping it downward. Sure it would have been nice to hold 5-6 contracts for that whole move and hopefully as I grow in experience and knowledge and skill I will be able to work that into my system. But for now I will do what has gotten me this far.
I am really a momentum scalper I guess. Where I am picking levels of importance, and with some bias, watching those levels in the order book for clues. I tend to like trades where I get pulled in with resting stops. These are usually continuation trades, and they have a quick burst because other stops were triggered. For some reason my mind tends to look for continuation more often than I do reversals. One area to work on, I need to incorporate into my prep, things that help me see if it's possibly a range day or a trend day, as that could help me focus on trades that do better in each situation.
Anyway I'm glad for my biggest winning day yet and will continue to work hard at remaining in context and trading my method.
Another interesting day to analyze. I started the day out with some very small trades and it seemed like the volume was somewhat low and the action quite slow. It caused me to tighten up my stops and targets as there just wasn't the normal range of motion in the moves that I trade. I did recognize that it was somewhat of a poor market state for me to be trading but thought that I could adjust and while I might have a smaller day I would still try to make the most of it. And really I did that for the morning session to where just before noon I was up $206+/- profit. However because the market wasn't great for scalping and because I was getting tighter and tighter with targets and stops I probably should have just quit.
As many of us do I just wanted to hang around for a crack at the market in case some movement came in so I stayed until the close. Sadly little by little I payed the price for being in the market with out good conditions or a good adjustment to those conditions, until I was slightly negative on the day. I fought tooth and nail (atleast it felt like it) to get back to positive territory. Being very strict with risk and taking multiple small wins.
It didn't feel good to not reach the lofty ambitions I had for today. It didn't feel good to give up the small amount I had built throughout the day. I am however thankful that 1) The day ended up positive and 2) That I can learn to either make better adjustments or recognize that I am not able to make the adjustments needed so I should just stop trading. Every day that I can learn something is a good day!
Hi,
Looks like you are doing well. I only read this page and skimmed the other two, so maybe you have addressed this already. The one thing that jumps out at me is that your P&L Low is always pretty large compared to how you end the day. So you seem to be mostly losing money initially then digging yourself out the hole to come back in to profit. Simplistically, keeping the winning trades the same, you'd be making twice as much if you weren't losing so much at the beginning. Of course there will be losses, but I think for me, and a lot of people, just really focussing on reducing by a small amount the number or size of the losses could make a big difference to overall performance.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden
Hey Matt you are right. I noticed that as well when looking at the big picture of the results. There are several things in that data that show big holes in my trading that I need to fix.
1) Keeping P/L lows from getting too big in the start of the day. Solution: Working into the session with possibly a little more precision and maybe less size initially (I already kinda do that) until I build a nice start. Somes times those lows have actually come mid-day from holding a trade too long and then I've traded until the close to get it back. (definitely should not happen)
2) Doing ok on trend days and really struggling sometimes on range days. This could possibly be due to being unprepared and not having the market structured from the night before. As a scalper especially, I think I should be do well on range days and then be able to possibly stretch targets and do even better on trend days.
3) Time in Winning trades is usually about half as long as time in losing trades. I struggle with this one. I agree that losers should be cut quickly and that winners should atleast be given ample time to hit targets but sometimes my losers I actually get out for +1-2 ticks so it makes my winners look even shorter. I'm not sure that the data is exactly representative but I do know I can work on it some. Probably the best place to start will be in cutting the losers quicker. The winning trades often by style are rather short trades and when they don't work, that's usually when I am holding them waiting and waiting and then taking a bigger loss than I should. So I will need to work on taking the losses as soon as the trade shows it's not gonna work.
That was longer than I mean't it to be
Thanks for reading,
Otto
Truly disgusted with myself. Today I traded with some fear and apprehension. I remember thinking I really don't want this loss and I held several trades way to long giving my stop some extra room. If I am ever going to be a full time trader this cannot be. There is just no place for risking all that work and money for one trade. This is my nemesis, it has plagued my trading for some time. It seems to happen just when I put together a good streak or sometimes after I've had a really good day. I know it's something many new traders have had to deal with including me and I will conquer it. I'm just disgusted lol, soooo stupid.
So I will work at breaking this habit and build a strong aversion to letting risk get to big in hopes of it coming back. If it never get's to big my trading should be profitable. I am usually around 60-65% winrate. Anway this is just one of many things that can make my trading so much better than it is. Soooo I must work on this.
Not wanting to fall off the horse and take too long to get back on I reset the combine and re-committed to doing this right. Today's results are really not very good. I came into the day late as I had to do some errand running this morning and couldn't get started until after 10:30 EST.
I seem to get stuck sometimes wanting to only trade a certain setup instead of being flexible to the market conditions and that is what happened today. I am working too re-enforce the standard and keep risk equal to reward in every trade by looking at if my trades that I get stopped out on would have hit a double risk stop before they came back. I know that sometimes it can work out given enough time and room, but I cannot afford to lose more than my initial risk on every trade.
It would be interesting to hear from other scalpers if they struggled with this and possibly how they dealt with it.
Here are the results for today. Still too much p/l low and double the time in losers as the time in winners. Things to work on.
I get that sometimes. It's straight tunnel-vision combined with fear. You are trying to force the market to do what you want, instead of vice versa. And we all know what the outcome of that usually is. For me the fear was missing out on potential profits, something I always struggled psychologically with on exits, which turns into regret, and then hesitation on the next trade(s).
If you can, just try reducing size instead of being too rigid in your R:R. Go up to the bigger combine to allow for decreased risk-per-trade, if necessary.
. Please feel free to ask any questions or give any critiques.
