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Ok. This is the first week in the past two that I've been able to trade, I had a ton of relatives in town for my sisters Bridal shower so a lot of things hit and I thought it best not to trade. All of that is over with for the time being and I'm looking forward to (at least) 4 weeks uninterrupted trading.
I've finished the very simple trade journal I'll be using for these 4 weeks. Why did I need this? The ninja trader journal is actually really nice, but the problem is I haven't figured out how to have my stats disregard fees. Trading the Micro for the time being, going by actual P&L is misleading....the product has a $1.25 tick value and fees about twice that....My goal here is to build consistency and move to the 6E, $6.25 tick for prob $4.50 in fees......so I figured it's much better to journal my tick P&L only and disregard fees for the time being.
I'm strictly adhering to the following rules for the next 4 weeks:
- Goal is to capture bigger intraday swings via 2500 vol chart
- Execution hours 7 to 11AM. On the rare day I may trade the last hour but only if its planned.
- All trades are based on my pre market prep. Only.
- I will trade two lots with a scale out. First scale is equal distance from my stop (1:1), second scale is double (2:1). Every trade so far has been 10t stop, 10t and 20t targets. I'll move this at most about 4 ticks up or down based on levels.
- The shutoff valve comes at 3 losers in a day, although I may lower to 2 losers on certain days. But never higher for these 4 weeks.
The goal here is to flush out if I have an edge, and if so how can I optimize it. If/when I get there, I'll begin to allow more discretionary management. I've began this week, as the table shows, and my volume has been very low, and I'm ok with that. It will pick up as my trading gains consistency, and I get more acquainted with this product and improve my ability to game plan the trade.
How am I doing so far? I'm believing that I still have a very good market instinct, for lack of a better word. Thousands of hours of trading the tape and order flow will do that for ya. But this product is dramatically different so I am cautious. I feel like I was a 747 pilot for a lot of years and now I've been handed keys to a Gulfstream 550.
My weaknesses are:
-A tendency to sometimes fight the market: If my opinion of the day is that I will get long setups, I am often not attentive enough to shorts, for example.
-Mindset: Though somedays I can have a tremendous mindset, others (today) I can be easily rattled which affects decision making.
-Patience: If I am confident in mkt direction I sometimes enter too early w/o a proper setup. This affects how well my targets and stops are placed.
And more that I'm sure will reveal themselves and give me something to work on.
Strengths
- Market feel: As noted, I believe I have a good feel for the market and when I am in tune with it. And when I am not, I have no problem passing on risk. Except when I'm rattled. So I have to make recognizing when I'm rattled another strength.
- Routine: I'm a ridiculously routine oriented person. Approaching the mkt, my trading, and prep with the discipline I have is a great strength.
- My History: I've done this before. I've build an account and made the turn. I know how it goes and I am more than ready for the challenges.
I will try to update this journal more often, but time is so very limited for me. Here was my day yesterday:
-5:30 AM, Wake up, begin market prep/trading plan for ~60-90mins
-6:40 AM, Meditate for ~20mins to focus.
7AM-11AM - Execute my trading plan.
Noon - begin other work:
- Supplier run for my business. Visit business during operations, talk with manager about the day.
- Create weekly liquidity statement for other business. Complete payroll. Email operating partner about his
management of cash flow.
- Visit other business. Gameplan our month of April.
4:00PM - Go home, take my dog for hour 20 min walk.
5:30PM - 7:30PM - Train brazilian jiujitsu. I compete in bjj and my goal is 4x week training, in addition to resistance
training and some type of energy system work.
8:00PM - Cook dinner. This takes almost an hour and I do it every night. I eat very healthy, it is expensive in terms of
money and time, but its worth it and a way of life.
9:30PM - Replay the trade in high speed and begin market prep. I try to get some of this done in the evening to save
time in the AM.
Thats a very typical day. And there is no real time to spare. This will need adjusted because I'm finding my prep is not optimal at 5:30AM or at 10PM at night.
You'll notice I only spend about 4 hours with "real work"...ie what pays me at the moment. Thats no accident, I'm a firm believer you should structure your time based on what makes you most happy or content first. For me, this means my family, my dog, bjj, trading, staying healthy, etc....all are more important than what I do to pay the mortgage. And there's no changing that. This is how trading found its way back into my life, not for money, for passion.
As it turns out, rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated
Posting here is obviously not gotten into my routine. Posting charts and what not is too cumbersome and most of my blabber i fill in several journals. I AM, however, interested in the idea of finding a "trading partner"....someone who trades somewhat similar to me, around the same stage of development, trading the same execution hours. I'm not sure if that will be useful but I feel like it could worth a shot.
Why? Well, I'll tell you this: As someone who has done this in the actual trenches, at an exchange and in a few different offices filled with peers....MAN there are advantages. Talking shop and getting a feel for what other market participants are expecting, how their reacting....for me, I feel that would be huge right now. Not for getting any tips, certainly not....really, for the (constructive) competition. When I was coming up, during the time I was really making the turn, I was on a desk with two other traders, similar age, a bit more advanced than me but relatively close. When I ended a day up 50 ticks and they ended up 100 or 120....it was just a little reminder that more is possible, and its happening right next to you. If I complained that I kept making a mistake, then I find myself about to make it again...it helped me stop because I didn't wanna end the day telling them I did the same damn thing again.
Most importantly, tied in with competition.....when I would see a trade starting to setup...I would be AGGRESSIVE to take a GOOD SETUP....why? Because I didn't wanna have to tell my backer or peers I just watched it go. Taking a loser was way better than saying you just watched potential opportunity happen and didn't participate. It was very clear our job was to take good trades and you didn't wanna be the guy that didn't.
ANYWAY. On to the stats.
As you can see, Feb through April I feel I made good progress. My number one statistic is Expectancy, which I measure in M6E ticks. I measure it this way because the fees associated w/ M6E are ridiculous and skew everything. The tick measure is still off because of the M6E vs. 6E increments, but this does the job reasonably.
Tentatively, I'm thinking about 6-8 weeks of consistent positive expectancy of at least about 1 tick (M6E ticks) and I'll be ready to move into the 6E. It may actually be worthwhile with consistency about 0.5 M6e Ticks.
As April closed my obvious issues were : Ave winner too small, Ave loser too big. Thats what you can glean from the sheet. The psychological reasons behind this were:
- Becoming risk seeking after a loser, going 'on tilt' after a loser.
- Becoming too risk averse after a winner...protecting small profits to try to build expectancy, trading my P&L.
- Anxiety while in trade, taking too small profits.
- Not executing on good trades
You know....THE USUAL.
What am I doing well?
- My "market sense" is intact. I feel like I'm getting to know this market well, and I believe it is VERY tradable and gives opportunity almost everyday. I'm reading order flow very well.
- I'm seeing plenty of good trades and setups.
- When I'm not on tilt, I'm setting targets well.
Going into May 1 I had the obligatory F*&K everything up day and puked 4 losers, limit down on the account, and feeling terrible. I knew it was coming because I was becoming wayyyyy too risk averse towards the end of April trying to close a month with a positive expectancy and as it always does, I paid for it. Removing that one day and my stats are +3.5 expectancy, 55% win rate, 9.8 ave winner, 5.6 ave loser. So that day hurt.
I think alot of my issues are because I'm down overall. I did not have confidence issues before...I had a "cushion" of profits. When my trades were going well I ramped up my aggressiveness....when my setups were giving me losers I just accepted I wasn't in the zone or the action didn't fit my style and backed off. Now I am in the red and its uncomfortable and affecting me psychologically. I have to remedy this by being not only accepting of losers but welcoming them and what I learn from them.
My goals for May are of course to improve stats all around from April....but probably more importantly....to be more 'process oriented' and less focused on the P&L. Sounds contradictory kinda, but I have faith that if I stick with my plan and execute on good setups, the stats may be a bit volatile but they will certainly follow.
awesome sounds like you are deff on track..... sounds like we are in a similar place.... i noticed that you said your looking for a trading partner .... i am a member at convergence and it sounds like you would b a good fit for the room there (its not a plug and i get nothing for it ) ... check it out
tony
Sure as i have never traded in a prop environment i am grateful that the room exists as its like i have a whole bunch of serious traders exchanging ideas and have prop experience.....
The reason for the above statement is im still on sim and i traded live years ago and realized i could use some help this time around... not someone to trade for me but to guide my way to the promise land (well the trading for a living land)
The room is currently in beta and when i read your response to me i was like " hey he would bring a lot to the table and enjoy the rest of the participants....
I was a member of Convergent for a month but I ended up cancelling my subscription.
1) I trade treasury futures. The treasury room was pretty quiet. I think there were 3-4 people who would post occasionally, compared to dozens in the ES room.
2) Much of the focus was on statistics. I agree that approaching Opening Range, Volume Profile, and other characteristics in a statistical manner is probably wise. However, my trading is order flow focused and stats don't really help you read prints hitting the bid.
3) My impression with the majority of retail trading forums and spaces online is that ~10% of the traders there make a living from trading. Perhaps ~1% make serious money from it and they are usually quiet about their success. The remaining portion is people trying to make the turn. In my opinion, Convergent's demographics are similar. It's important to understand that this room is intended to be a Prop Floor. Unfortunately, the only barrier to entry is a monthly subscription. There really is no way to cull the herd and ensure that the community is entirely focused and driven--and not spammed by Trader Bob, who sits in his PJ's, cuts his toenails, looks at thousands of charts each day, and calls himself a trader.
All of that being said, I know that the room is run by FuturesTrader71 and he has had great success in many aspects of the industry. I think that Convergent is a solid idea but it will take time to iron out the kinks.
It seems to me that by subscribing to the room you're essentially buying a call on FT71's past success and his recognition throughout the retail space. If this thing really gets rolling it could be useful. For the moment though, the room is concentrated on things which don't help my trading.
FWIW the currency room is pretty quiet. John, I know you trade M6E, and you'll find that the large majority of the crowd there trades ES.
Reviewing the week, the numbers improved and that's good but I didn't resolve certain issues I was looking to resolve so I'm going to have to refocus on that next week. Most notably not taking enough setups. My volume was much lower than what I wanted it to be this week. What I think I did well was see good setups, I just didn't execute on enough of them.
My win % was improved but my average winner decreased so that'll be at the front of my mind going into next week as well.
I also feel like my mindset and approach are improving. I believe, at least for me, that a large part of doing this...specifically, profitably day trading a futures market with a discretionary edge, is in a very large part about your mindset and psychology. I feel like I made improvements there.
I caught up with one of my old mentors. I traded next to him on a desk in Chicago in 2005, he was a seatholder and pretty big trader at the time, I was just a clerk. Though my style and his were polar opposites, he taught me a ton. His record keeping was impeccable. Like me, he's now completely done trading our old edge, he says its disappeared. His focus now is in automation. Its always good to catch up with him and talk shop.
I'm feeling like I'll probably give it a try for a month at some point, however I'm really not sure if a chatroom would work for me at all...too many people. To communicate/be in contact with one or two people during the trading day is what I'm considering.
