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New2trade Journal (Emini Indexes ES, NQ, YM)


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New2trade Journal (Emini Indexes ES, NQ, YM)

  #1 (permalink)
new2trade
Conway
 
Posts: 18 since Jun 2018
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I’m using the Excel format similar to what Big Mike provided in my daily folder do I won’t post them in details again here. But I wanted to post my daily thoughts, including market summary, my struggles and whatnot here to find some support. I love what’s happening in this forum and hope we all can help each other out.

Plan: paper trade until I can consistently make profit for 3 months.

6/7 - today is rollover day so expecting the market to be choppy and slow. Expect to make small profit. My rule is maximum 5 trades a day and profit between $200-$350. I made 5 trades and loss $390. My biggest failure was that I moved my stop loss in my 3rd trade because I was so scare of loosing $$ and hope it would move back to my target again. Well it never did. As the result I didn’t know where to stop and when I finally accepted my responsibility, I was in a lost of $460...why can’t I be discipline and accept the fact that it’s a looser? What triggered me was that I was already in loosing position and couldn’t bear another loss. This was the 3rd times I did this this week. I think it has become my habit so I just did without thinking.

Another thing I caught myself doing was that I almost always enter another without rational decision after a winning trade or a loosing trade. I wanted to keep winning or fix my mistakes quickly. Most of the time, it turned out to be a very bad move.

Goal:
- make zero modification of stop loss while in a trade tomorrow and next week.
- after a loosing trade or winning trade, step out of my office, get a cup of water or eat some snacks, regulate my breathing before going back to my desk.

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  #2 (permalink)
new2trade
Conway
 
Posts: 18 since Jun 2018
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6/8 - first day trading September contract and boy NQ was choppy. ES was slow and had a hard time moving out of its neutral zone. YM therefore had a hard time moving as well.
I found myself watching the market patiently and kept reminding myself that I would be paid $150 an hour to wait and find a good entry, or I could go back to my full time job and get much lower pay for long hours. It worked.
1st trade was YM long - Finally found one trade and was so proud of myself, even though it wasn’t much because I was careful and took out profit early. I feel like I started to see the relationship between the markets and how they support each other. I reminded myself to step out and drink water, then breath.
2nd trade was YM long again. It was a winner as well. ES broke out of its sticky spot therefore helped YM moved. Good entry.
3rd trade was NQ long. Got excited as I saw it kept moving. It turned out to be a looser and hit my stop. I violated my rule and entered it out of excitement shortly after my 2 winning trades. Lesson learned over and over again. One thing I did well was that I didn’t move my stop loss this time. Hard to do but I did it.

Goal for next week:

- make zero modification of stop loss once in a trade.
- after a loosing trade or winning trade, step out and drink water, eat snacks, and breath.
- once my profit goal is met, stop trading. You will not win forever and will end up giving $$ back. Don’t be greedy.

Have a great weekend!

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  #3 (permalink)
new2trade
Conway
 
Posts: 18 since Jun 2018
Thanks Given: 36
Thanks Received: 25


6/11 - should I bother to find a new strategy?

After reading many posts about the discovery of the psychological aspect of trading, why can’t I just focus on improving this area instead of trying to identify my own niches in trading strategy? I probably should take a break. My head is exploding and wanting everything to work right here right now. Sometimes it’s unbearable to think that I have to let it run for another month to prove whether it’s working or not.

Anyway, one trade I took that I found it was interesting.

YM - found 2 levels that this market has been bouncing back and forth so I drew 2 lines and went for it when it hits the bottom of one line and set my targets at the other end. It worked. But I noticed it didn’t always move that way either. Why did I know it’s time to enter a trade for this one? Luck or skill?

I know I’m supposed to follow the plan but I didn’t with this one. I don’t want to just rely on the plan provided by the trading room. This forces me to really observe the markets and see it for myself what’s really going on. Maybe I’m dead wrong and just all over the places, but have you been there done that too?

Achieve:

- did not modify my stop loss when in the trade.
- did not make a trade right after a winning or loosing trade.
- didn’t make a profit, but it’s OK. I’ll have many more trades to make tomorrow.


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  #4 (permalink)
new2trade
Conway
 
Posts: 18 since Jun 2018
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Market: very slow. NQ and ES all went nowhere, the smaller markets hardly moved. What's going on after all those big news about Trump meeting Kim?

Made 4 trades and all loss.
#1 NQ @8:33 LONG - This was triggered from the fear of missing a good trade (because I missed 2 trades in the similar scenario yesterday).
#2 YM @9:25 SHORT - followed the strategy but it didn't go anywhere.
#3 YM @9:37 SHORT and #4 NQ @10:06 LONG - Well, I took these out of boredom because what else could I loose? Yep, impatient and stupid.

Achieved:
- did not move my Stop loss

Learning goal:
- Be patience and wait for the correct setup
- There'll be always another trade, the previous loser/winner has nothing to do with the next trade.

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  #5 (permalink)
new2trade
Conway
 
Posts: 18 since Jun 2018
Thanks Given: 36
Thanks Received: 25

6/13 - Market slow at the beginning and faster after 9am.

Made 3 trades and they were all winning trades. Catch the NQ move long twice and one YM move short. I felt iffy about it though. Probably the slow and choppy market the last few days made me not feeling comfortable with entering a trade. I’ll call these lucky trades.

Achieved:
- did not move my stop loss
- did not make rush decision (reading a book helped)

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  #6 (permalink)
 
matthew28's Avatar
 matthew28 
United Kingdom
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Bookmap
Broker: Stage 5, Rithmic
Trading: US Equity Index Futures
Posts: 1,250 since Sep 2013
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new2trade View Post
After reading many posts about the discovery of the psychological aspect of trading, why can’t I just focus on improving this area instead of trying to identify my own niches in trading strategy? I probably should take a break. My head is exploding and wanting everything to work right here right now. Sometimes it’s unbearable to think that I have to let it run for another month to prove whether it’s working or not.

If I understand your point I think the reason people generally say you need to find your own methodology rather than just using an 'off the shelf' system or method is because what you do needs to fit your style, mental strengths and time available for trading. Somebody who copies a long term trading methodology for instance but does not enjoy analysing data and waiting for potential setups, or can't hold a trade for longer than half an hour without wanting to get out with a profit isn't going to do well. Or at the other extreme, a person trying to scalp because they have studied the methodology from some webinars, but isn't good at fast intuitive thinking or staying calm and controlled under pressure isn't going to do well either.
So the advantage that creating your own methodology has is that it takes some time to do which gives an opportunity to watch the markets for a while, build up a knowledge base of familiarity and find the aspects of trading that play to your strengths.
Also regarding the last sentence, trading is really about just stacking the probability in your favour as you have no way of knowing whether an individual trade will work out. Psychologically we tend to find it hard to act decisively in situations where we don't have conclusive information, or we have information that could be argued either way (after all, half the people are selling, half are buying). So without knowing whether the individual trade will work or not it is much easier psychologically to take the trade anyway if you have some proof, through backtesting or sim trading, that what you are doing at least appears to have probability/expectancy on your side.


new2trade View Post
I know I’m supposed to follow the plan but I didn’t with this one. I don’t want to just rely on the plan provided by the trading room.

As you watch the markets you will see things that make sense to you that aren't in a plan from somebody else. Also market volatility and behaviour changes over time. So another person's plan or method can be a good start but it is likely to evolve over time with your learning. When you see a setup you think has potential then note it down, try it out and then as you say just gradually improve one area at a time.
Good luck

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
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Last Updated on June 15, 2018


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