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Zen & the Art of The Small Account


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Zen & the Art of The Small Account

  #341 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
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Spent the weekend doing market replay, really honed in on some skills I felt I needed to work on.

Result: 5 trades, no fear. Daily profit target hit.

Done in 45 minutes. Would have been sooner but passed on two trades that were on my trade chart but conflicted with my filter chart.

All told, I give myself an A. I trailed my stop correctly, entered only with confirmation on my filter chart and managed to execute 5 trades with the best precision I've ever demonstrated.

This week is about growing confidence and having a series of small wins. My daily profit target is small right now, next week it will be slightly larger. And then the week after that, larger still, after that, will begin to scale up in terms of size.

Gonna go be a daddy now!

Happy trading...

Cheers.....

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #342 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
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torroray View Post
Hi AZ,

Been reading with interest.

Quite number of trade you taken. Commission must be huge.

With a small account and the trade you took wouldn't your broker classify you as pattern day trader and restrict your trade?

I ask bcoz I trade FX.

Well the number of trades over the month of August was 75. That works out to 3.75 trades per day. I don't think this is excessive. I took five trades today. 4 winners and 1 loss. For a futures day trader, this is in line with accepted "norms" I think. Maybe even on the low side. But I have this theory that says he who trades less, makes more money. All the Market Wizards say that over trading is the number one cause of trader blowout.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #343 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404


Did not have time to post yesterday but it was net loss day. Traded before the FOMC (I forgot about it) and just wasted ticks in the chop.

Today, followed rules and trading plan to the letter, made my daily profit goal on two trades and done for the day inside 30 minutes.

Discipline, discipline, discipline. This is the ticket.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #344 (permalink)
 soumi71 
Toronto
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Zen-Fire
Trading: CL , 6E
Posts: 199 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 760
Thanks Received: 274

Way to go Aztrader!!!
Yes , discipline is key in this business !!


William Hershey went bankrupt twice before finally succeeding at creating Hershey chocolate.

Henry Ford was bankrupted five times in his effort to create the Ford Motor Company

RH Macy lost 7 stores before finally launching Macy's in New York


Walt Disney went bankrupt several times before Disneyland

"Harry Potter" was rejected by 12 publishers.

Gone With the Wind: rejected 36 times

We need to get back up after our failures and try again. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up


  #345 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
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Two trades today, 150% of my profit target met. One more day at this level and then increasing profit target by a factor of 100%

Both trades were perfect signals, execute at the exact correct place and managed really well. The first trade I exited early as it was getting close to a double top and an important fib level so I took the profit early. The trade did pay the entire target but only by one tick. I am ok with that. The next trade was like the first, great signal, good execution at the entry price and this time no resistance to stop the trade before target was reached.

Something has changed in me these last few days. I can't put my finger on it but I feel it. Like a wind blowing or something. Its to early to tell of course but it feels different in my soul. The feelings of desperation are gone and are replaced with cautious optimism. I've felt this before as things began to change for the better. It's slow at first and gains momentum as I continue to do the right things over and over again.

Time is on my side. I only need to be patient, not be greedy, execute my plan with as much precision as possible and then live life.

Cheers.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #346 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404


soumi71 View Post
Way to go Aztrader!!!
Yes , discipline is key in this business !!


William Hershey went bankrupt twice before finally succeeding at creating Hershey chocolate.

Henry Ford was bankrupted five times in his effort to create the Ford Motor Company

RH Macy lost 7 stores before finally launching Macy's in New York


Walt Disney went bankrupt several times before Disneyland

"Harry Potter" was rejected by 12 publishers.

Gone With the Wind: rejected 36 times

We need to get back up after our failures and try again. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever give up


Funny you should post this. I was looking for this exact bit of information yesterday to use elsewhere and could not find it. Thanks so much for posting.......Winston Churchill is the source of the last quote by the way.....that one I have hanging on a wall......they were spoken during the darkest days of WWII to a graduating class of college seniors if memory serves me correctly.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
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  #347 (permalink)
rfharris
mem,tn
 
Posts: 11 since Jun 2010
Thanks Given: 5
Thanks Received: 15

Az i have been following your post i'm happy to hear that you are finding confidence in you trading system that is one of the most important things a trader must have. I find that has been a major problem in my trading but i to have found confidence and it has shown up in my trading acct. as it is very small 11k i'm trading Cl, GC & TF 2 contracts for profit target of 450.00 per day and i already hit my weekly target this. I would like to ask you about your acct size,contracts,and targets if its not to much to ask.

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  #348 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
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rfharris View Post
Az i have been following your post i'm happy to hear that you are finding confidence in you trading system that is one of the most important things a trader must have. I find that has been a major problem in my trading but i to have found confidence and it has shown up in my trading acct. as it is very small 11k i'm trading Cl, GC & TF 2 contracts for profit target of 450.00 per day and i already hit my weekly target this. I would like to ask you about your acct size,contracts,and targets if its not to much to ask.

rfharris,

Thanks for commenting....it really is a personal journey!

As to my personal stuff, my account size will remain private but currently I trade one contract and I am on a trading plan that calls for a week at a small profit target, if that is hit every day, then double that the following week. If that is successful for an entire week, then move to 150% of that. So in three weeks, my profit targets will have tripled. Once that is done, I'll add another contract to the position and gradually add size while holding the number of ticks steady for my profit targets. I don't try to get all of the ticks in one trade.

My targets currently are fixed and at some point, I will add a runner. However, I have learned where to put the runners on and so there is really only three places from where I will enter a trade with the idea of including a runner. That happens 1-3 times a day for me currently. And if I have my daily profit target filled without a runner set up occurring, then there will be no runner trade that day as I will have already left the building.

As to multiple instruments, I don't currently believe in trading more than one. I find its hard enough to keep up with one let alone three. I have an entry chart and two filter charts. If I had nine charts to watch, I'd be broke in a week! I'm just not that good! However, if you can trade three instruments at the same time, then more power to you. I just believe in becoming an expert in whatever it is you are trading and that's hard to do one instrument let alone three. Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

CL is my weapon of choice at the moment and probably will be for quite some time. I like the way it moves, the dollars per tick and I really like the ranges it trades in. I feel like the margin for error is better there. You can be wrong about the direction of a trade or the daily trend direction and still make some money whereas other contracts punish you right away for the slightest mistake about the daily direction.

Hope all this rambling helps....and thanks again for stopping by to comment.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
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  #349 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404

Tough day today. I got two set ups. One was right into support. I took it and then noticed the support. I quickly move my stop to BE+2 and waited. It painted 6 ticks of profit, then stopped me out and then went to make a new high. I managed a poor trade very well. The long for a new high was not a set up for me so no trade.

There was another short but I passed as this time I was looking for support to short into and this time the support was far enough away but I did not like the price action. So I passed. I am done for the day as I have things to attend to and I am leaving town for a couple of days.

So the week is profitable by 25 ticks. I had one losing day on FOMC day and that loss was small. I missed my weekly profit target by 25 ticks but all in all, I am happy with the way the week went in terms of trade selection and management.

Next week I'll continue on the 1 contract, one profit target goal for at least two days so I can get my tick count to where I want it before moving up in profit ticks.

Have a great weekend and don't think about trading at all.....

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #350 (permalink)
 mahlonhersh 
Arizona
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus/Zen-Fire
Trading: ES
Posts: 155 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 709
Thanks Received: 176


Good job AZ. Hard work pays off.

Have a great weekend.

Mahlon

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Last Updated on July 25, 2011


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