NexusFi: Find Your Edge


Home Menu

 





Zach's Log


Discussion in Trading Journals

Updated
      Top Posters
    1. looks_one Fluid Fox with 277 posts (1,064 thanks)
    2. looks_two Botts with 27 posts (92 thanks)
    3. looks_3 Salao with 15 posts (51 thanks)
    4. looks_4 snax with 12 posts (32 thanks)
      Best Posters
    1. looks_one bobwest with 4.6 thanks per post
    2. looks_two Fluid Fox with 3.8 thanks per post
    3. looks_3 Botts with 3.4 thanks per post
    4. looks_4 Salao with 3.4 thanks per post
    1. trending_up 54,859 views
    2. thumb_up 1,509 thanks given
    3. group 19 followers
    1. forum 413 posts
    2. attach_file 326 attachments




 
Search this Thread

Zach's Log

  #121 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711

The last two weeks have been different for me as far as my trading goes, and as far as where my mind is. I feel more in control of myself than I ever have been in my life, because I've cut out a few bad habits and I'm currently and successfully cutting down on others. This desire to let go of my "deadwood" is finally taking it's course, after a couple years of being virtually powerless over some of my behaviors and desperately wanting to change. I wasn't disgustingly addicted to anything, it's just that I was in a bad position and acted in ways that made it worse, to make myself feel better in the moment. These negative forces are gradually diminishing, because I'm growing more passionate about doing the right thing, the harder thing, because I know how much it matters to the growth of a successful individual and I'm committed to becoming greater. In trading, self control is essential.

“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. ...And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” - Leonardo da Vinci

It's natural for people to look down on others who are drug addicts, or for people to look down on morbidly obese people, or for people to look down on anything associated with personal weakness. It's hard to respect someone who can't control themselves and who operates like an animal, in comparison to a person who is in the drivers seat of their life. Obviously, a man can't always act from his higher faculties, because humans are fallible- but that fallibility is how we learn to do better. A lot of people give up on themselves and their own lives and drift in mediocrity, and build up an enormous sense of regret. I definitely don't want to be that person, and because of this, I'm constantly striving for improvement. I also understand the importance of self-acceptance, and I don't discount it at all. It's possible to improve and still appreciate yourself, while taking out the trash, that you KNOW is trash:

"Your trading life affects your personal life, and your personal life affects your trading life."

If you were disciplined, patient, courageous and impartial in your personal life, how much of an affect do you think those qualities would have in your trading performance? I think it carries over to some degree, maybe even majorly- as long as you don't traumatize yourself in the beginning. I think it's the case that you can certainly become a better trader outside of trading, by genuinely becoming disciplined, patient, etc. which gives you "psychological edge" (you still need statistical edge). If you can do 10+ more sit-ups when the burn is at it's peak, do you think you can hold your trade until it hits your profit target? To the overtly left-brained, these things are totally unrelated, but I don't think they are. Both things entail mental grit, and that mental grit is like a muscle.

Anyways, I'm still a long way from becoming consistently profitable, and I think a big part of becoming consistent is through personal change. I'm not the same person I was one month ago, or even two weeks ago, and I've noticed improvement in my trading that I feel inclined to say is because of the personal changes I've made (I've become more disciplined), and because of how much I have immersed myself in this game. With that being said, I'm not going to celebrate and sabotage myself. I'm going to stay disciplined, patient, courageous and impartial- and I will routinely embody these qualities daily, ad nauseaum.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:

Can you help answer these questions
from other members on NexusFi?
Online prop firm The Funded Trader (TFT) going under?
Traders Hideout
Build trailing stop for micro index(s)
Psychology and Money Management
New Micros: Ultra 10-Year & Ultra T-Bond -- Live Now
Treasury Notes and Bonds
Deepmoney LLM
Elite Quantitative GenAI/LLM
NexusFi Journal Challenge - April 2024
Feedback and Announcements
 
Best Threads (Most Thanked)
in the last 7 days on NexusFi
Get funded firms 2023/2024 - Any recommendations or word …
60 thanks
Funded Trader platforms
43 thanks
NexusFi site changelog and issues/problem reporting
24 thanks
GFIs1 1 DAX trade per day journal
22 thanks
The Program
19 thanks
  #122 (permalink)
 
Salao's Avatar
 Salao 
Los Angeles CA
Market Wizard
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: GC/MGC, MCL, MES
Posts: 1,250 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 10,571
Thanks Received: 5,870


Zachary Standley View Post
The last two weeks have been different for me as far as my trading goes, and as far as where my mind is. I feel more in control of myself than I ever have been in my life, because I've cut out a few bad habits and I'm currently and successfully cutting down on others. This desire to let go of my "deadwood" is finally taking it's course, after a couple years of being virtually powerless over some of my behaviors and desperately wanting to change. I wasn't disgustingly addicted to anything, it's just that I was in a bad position and acted in ways that made it worse, to make myself feel better in the moment. These negative forces are gradually diminishing, because I'm growing more passionate about doing the right thing, the harder thing, because I know how much it matters to the growth of a successful individual and I'm committed to becoming greater. In trading, self control is essential.

“You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. ...And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” - Leonardo da Vinci

It's natural for people to look down on others who are drug addicts, or for people to look down on morbidly obese people, or for people to look down on anything associated with personal weakness. It's hard to respect someone who can't control themselves and who operates like an animal, in comparison to a person who is in the drivers seat of their life. Obviously, a man can't always act from his higher faculties, because humans are fallible- but that fallibility is how we learn to do better. A lot of people give up on themselves and their own lives and drift in mediocrity, and build up an enormous sense of regret. I definitely don't want to be that person, and because of this, I'm constantly striving for improvement. I also understand the importance of self-acceptance, and I don't discount it at all. It's possible to improve and still appreciate yourself, while taking out the trash, that you KNOW is trash:

"Your trading life affects your personal life, and your personal life affects your trading life."

If you were disciplined, patient, courageous and impartial in your personal life, how much of an affect do you think those qualities would have in your trading performance? I think it carries over to some degree, maybe even majorly- as long as you don't traumatize yourself in the beginning. I think it's the case that you can certainly become a better trader outside of trading, by genuinely becoming disciplined, patient, etc. which gives you "psychological edge" (you still need statistical edge). If you can do 10+ more sit-ups when the burn is at it's peak, do you think you can hold your trade until it hits your profit target? To the overtly left-brained, these things are totally unrelated, but I don't think they are. Both things entail mental grit, and that mental grit is like a muscle.

Anyways, I'm still a long way from becoming consistently profitable, and I think a big part of becoming consistent is through personal change. I'm not the same person I was one month ago, or even two weeks ago, and I've noticed improvement in my trading that I feel inclined to say is because of the personal changes I've made (I've become more disciplined), and because of how much I have immersed myself in this game. With that being said, I'm not going to celebrate and sabotage myself. I'm going to stay disciplined, patient, courageous and impartial- and I will routinely embody these qualities daily, ad nauseaum.

Nice trading this week. It definitely seems like you are getting better results! Now the hard part: keep doing it.

Haha! Don't you love it!?

Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #123 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711


I have to keep doing it, the only other option is to trade terribly and I don't want to do that anymore. Lol!

We'll see how long I hold up for. I imagine there will be lapses in discipline, but I will keep my mistakes small. I'm thinking about practicing my process over the weekend through market replay, so I don't get even slightly rusty on my execution or with my process in general. Once again, we'll see what happens. This game is full of uncertainties, it brings out personal ones, even.

Thank you, @Salao.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #124 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711

Live MNQ Trading

On my first trade, I lost 5 points. On my second trade, I lost 4.75 points. -9.75 points to finish the trading day. (-$19.50, not including commissions)

I was watching the MNQ ever since 7 this morning, and noticed that it was relatively active. I noted to myself on paper that "We had huge moves yesterday. Be [more] skeptical of price action." It's a friday too, and IME friday's sometimes aren't great in terms of volatility, and price can have less follow-through. Anyways, I also noted that price was "slower than yesterday.. back and forth trends" after watching the open. With that being said, I still thought it was an acceptable day to trade (the volume was decent), and thought that I could trade the way I have been this week, if I could wait out the regressive price activity. I was essentially looking for what I call an "internal break-out trade" in either direction, and had created multiple plans to capture possible moves. Anyways, I was constantly adjusting my plans to current price action, and had anticipated an internal bearish break-out (trade 1):



With this one, price took off past my entry price/line, so I waited for it to come back so I could go short. I entered when it did, and I got stopped out within at least a minute. In hindsight, what happened was price broke-out, there were no takers, and I was so focused on getting my entry that I missed the message that price was most likely going to reverse. I thought it was a great trade! (Lol)

The logic behind taking the second trade was that price failed to break-out bearishly, and it reversed dramatically to the upside. I had a plan in place already for an internal bullish break-out, so this also seemed like a great trade by this weeks standards. I went through discretionary elimination of events, and concluded it was worth the risk to enter the market again. So I did!:



I think price went in my favor 6-7 points, then it reversed quickly and I got stopped out. That's ok though, because I stuck to my process and didn't hesitate to act on what I consider to be great opportunities. It's very important for me not to become hesitant with my live trades, and to back my ideas. Anyways, I was correct about where the market was going, I just entered too early:



Today was a tricky day for me to trade. I think next time I identify the qualities I noticed in todays price action (I wrote some stuff down after analyzing price at the open), that I'll adjust my trading and not trade break-outs and instead, trade regressions. Either that, or I'll wait the regressive behavior out even longer and risk a break-out trade. However, I do know that I've been much more successful with break-out trades compared to regression-to-the-mean trades.

Obviously there are still holes in my process that I need to fill, I really want to be able to adapt to regressive price action than not to be able to trade it at all. I would be better off trading regressive price in SIM than live, so I think next Monday, if I identify that price is behaving in a similar way to today, I'll be trading differently/won't be trading break-outs and will be trading in SIM.

Anyways, even though I lost, I did everything that I was supposed to do. I didn't get upset after either trade, losing is just part of the game. After I lost the second trade, I had the thought that this is the price for gaining information. I now know that the way I was trading yesterday doesn't work in conditions like this. What happened yesterday in the MNQ was that price took off from the open (bullishly) and broke-out with no problem. I traded today as if a break-out was just as likely to happen, but that wasn't the reality. The reality was that price was regressive from the start, and I traded as if I was trading price from yesterday. Live and learn.

I'll be back-testing most of my week-end, and I'll try to find associative signals of regressive price action taken place at and after the open.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #125 (permalink)
 
Rrrracer's Avatar
 Rrrracer 
On the road
Webinar Host
Trading Nomad
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradingView
Broker: Oanda
Trading: FX
Posts: 2,512 since Feb 2017
Thanks Given: 17,582
Thanks Received: 9,752


Zachary Standley View Post
The last two weeks have been different for me as far as my trading goes, and as far as where my mind is.....


Great post man. Glad you are documenting the process as you go.

Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #126 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711

Last night, I went through my entire journal. It wasn't an easy task because a lot of my posts are dense and long, so I did skim the much longer posts and looked for the most important element(s) of a given day, and noted whatever it was on a piece of paper date-by-date. Because of going through my journal, I realized that a lot of the posts I write are un-necessarily complex, and writing to the length that I did back then now, seems and probably is a waste of time (writing this certainly wasn't, though). I think the main reason why I wrote so much is because I had no idea what I was doing, and was trying to think it out on paper, plus, writing comes easy to me and it all flows out. In the end though, each post can reasonably be summarized by a couple sentences at most. I simplified each mistake, accomplishment or thought I had in a brief sentence or two, and added some quotations to some, if not most of the dates. Some dates will have more text than others, depending on their importance. By the way- this post is naturally going to be incredibly long, because it's mainly an analysis of my shortcomings, and some of the progress that I've made just recently. I'm doing this to make sense of my journey.

To give a little context, when I first started this journal in January of this year, I was predictably more confused than I am right now. I was in SIM, discretionarily trading the ES with a $5000 account.. I didn't have any solid rules at this time, I didn't know whether or not if I should interfere with trades, and I wasn't even looking for set-ups or patterns to enter the market. Essentially, I was forward testing my random behavior. Here are the dated posts that are greatly simplified, with some of them being elaborated on:

Jan 23, 2019: Of course, part of my first post reads "I must let my trades develop... I gave into paranoia of losing money, and acted on impulse." I also thought I was so close to profitability, as long as I could hold my trades.

Jan 24, 2019: I didn't let my trade develop again. I put too much pressure on myself to enter a trade, too. "I was too critical of myself, and because of that, I chased." @spetscom gave me some advice on using a break-even stop, and I incorporated his advice.

Jan 25, 2019: I stayed out of the market because price action was too slow. I actually followed the rules that I had, I think this was the first time I acted with discipline in this journal.

Jan 28, 2019: I disrupted my morning routine by getting up too early, and I took too much kratom then drank too much coffee to counteract the effects of it. I wasn't in the right state of mind to trade, I was also watching YouTube videos when I should have been paying attention to price action. I was being mindless.

Jan 29, 2019: More evidence of my confusion (not in a derogatory way). The ES was in a range, and I didn't know for sure whether or not I should trade in these conditions in the future. I was wondering if I should stick to trend trading exclusively. I wasn't sure and never established what to do here.

Jan 30, 2019: I didn't let my trade develop again. I wrote "Always stick to your rules. You won't know if your system works if you constantly change it based on the behavior of the market." ...

Jan 31, 2019: "I'm still experimenting with my strategy. As of now, it isn't working, and that may be because I'm not always following my rules (closing positions too early on winning trades) and there's no saying if it works or not until I'm able to follow those rules." *Incorporates a new idea into my process immediately after stating that.*.. Wow!

Feb 1, 2019: I wrote "..3rd loser this week. Something needs to change." This is more evidence of my own inability to stick to a strategy, or even to establish solid rules for a strategy in the first place. Because of my losses, I kept implementing and getting rid of rules and changing my process, which causes a vicious cycle of confusion and frustration.

Feb 4, 2019: I came up with another set of ridiculously specific entry and exit conditions that weren't based on historical data. I didn't stick to these rules long either. Also, I didn't let this days trade develop.

Feb 6, 2019: I took a bearish break-out trade in a bull market. I also wrote "Alignment of charts is not enough. Attention to price action and consideration of the reactivity of such is as or more important than synchronicity between charts. Focus on getting an earlier entry on trends, because price may not move as far as you think or hope it will." There's some truth to that, especially in the market conditions at the time.

Feb 7, 2019: This was a great discretionary day. I made 8 points in the ES, and I was very pleased. I remember this day and actually I screen-recorded this trade and I still have the video. I'll consider this an important post and a milestone, because this was my first major winner ever and the first time I did the right thing that produced a fantastic result, and I described what made this a different trade. "Trade the failures of price." "My trading was both reactionary, and guided by alignment of charts."

Feb 12, 2019: I traded against the trend, trying to replicate the Feb 7th trade. Also I wrote "All the charts were aligned and signaled to me that it would be best to go long, but the thing was, price was behaving oddly." ... I've always had a short bias.

Feb 13, 2019: I was frustrated because I lost two days in a row. I created a "high probability checklist" to make sure my trades were good trades. (I didn't back-test any of this, I was going off a mixture of classic trading axoims and custom rules that satisfied me along with mainstream technical analysis)

Feb 14, 2019: I lost again and I broke my rules; price satisfied one of my plans entry conditions, but the move that did so was enormous. I knew better to get in, but got in impulsively and paid for it. I listed the rules I didn't follow to remind my future self to follow them.

Feb 18, 2019: I made a post, and evidently I realized that I was approaching the market in too much of an open-ended manner, rather than acting on a couple or a variety of patterns or set-ups. I declared that I was going to focus on a few set-ups from now on. This was a realization that didn't take effect immediately, but it's an important one nonetheless.

Feb 19, 2019: Lost my 4th trade in a row. I traded like I used to, with scenarios, even after stating I need to focus on certain set-ups. After that loss, I established that I was doing something wrong (but more dramatically), but for the wrong reasons (because I was losing..). I got rid of some rules and came up with another set of rules. 6 hours later, I posted that I was going AWOL for a couple of weeks. Max frustration. I was all over the place here, and I was conflicted as to how to trade.

Feb 21, 2019: The "I can't stay away" post. I decided to just analyze price action and not trade at all, so I could get a better understanding of how markets move, and to test my discipline. I did some price analysis in this post as well, and some imaginary trading.

Feb 22, 2019: I bought the lifetime license of NinjaTrader 8. This is when I incorporated volumetric bars into my trading, too. I also did some more price analysis.. I remember feeling very hopeful and inspired after this purchase, because I doubled down and dropped a thousand dollars after all of those events. I wasn't going to give up.

Feb 23, 2019: The heuristics and biases post. This is valuable information for a trader, and I highly recommend you read it!

Feb 26, 2019: I wasn't supposed to trade for 2 weeks to test my discipline, but apparently I couldn't help myself on this day. I traded when I wasn't supposed to. I also created another post about how sad it is that many traders don't make it, and I was wondering why (lol..). I thought about myself, and how it's unlikely that I was going to become consistently profitable, unless I change.

Feb 28, 2019: I posted about the benefits of not feeling like you have to trade, that you shouldn't feel obligated to trade everyday because you're a trader but should trade when there's an opportunity for you. This is a decent post. I made another post about what I have learned about trading, and it's a very long list. There's good bits in there as well.

March 5, 2019: I did a 180 on discretionary trading, and declared that "I am fully automatizing my strategy" after doing more research on automated trading, and after realizing that I was too undisciplined. I thought that I would be better off not getting involved (there's some truth to this). This was my much needed segway into back-testing.

March 7, 2019: I had back-tested the past two previous days and posted about it. Finally, I back-tested a strategy.. This is a milestone. I tested a double top strategy and got OK results, but they weren't good enough. Honestly, the strategy was barely profitable so I had to optimize.

March 8, 2019: I posted about the two major different schools of thought when it comes to trading approach, and I posted my first back-tests results. This is when I was exclusively back-testing different strategies, and I wasn't trading at all. I didn't want to trade discretionarily because I thought it would've been a waste of time.

March 15, 2019: The "I've been busy" post. I wasn't posting here often because I was too occupied with back-testing. I was going at it.. It was a very tedious process, and even now at 5/18/2019, I STILL have more testing to do.

March 25, 2019: I realized that the time I took away from trading took my passion away. I realized that I need to get more involved, and that I don't like treating this game robotically. I wasn't (and I'm not) going to give up on trading. I realized that I need to trade in the middle somewhere, between discretionary trading and automated trading. I deviated from this realization somewhere along the way.

March 26, 2019: I decided to start trading again with my back-tested strategy (the double top strategy) and would also allow myself to act discretionarily (I love discretionary trading) in the same account (this was a mistake..). "It's true for me that trading requires a certain level of personal engagement for me to want to continue trading, and damn, don't I miss it."

March 27, 2019: I put my DT strategy to the test and posted about it, but of course, I got out of the position too early. I also mentioned that I was forward testing my if-then style of trading again, separately..: "I'm forward-testing my discretionary trading and filling the holes of my process as I go/trade and I'm still back-testing a separate more automated system."

April 2, 2019: The "I don't like reading your journals" post. What an asshole, I think this was an ego trip. I'm sorry about that guys.

April 3, 2019: This post was me trying to work my discretionary process out. I decided that any plan that I come up with is acceptable, whether I created it pre-open or during price analysis, whenever. "So to summarize on the early morning planning v.s. improvised planning dilemma, there's no more versus. Both approaches are acceptable as long as I can manage the pitfalls of either methods. If my early morning plans don't pan out, I can resort to improvisation, as long as the improvisation is based on sound technical analysis and logical reasoning."

April 4, 2019: I traded and I didn't let the trade develop in my discretionary trading. I was still trying to figure out my process, how I was going to trade, which is clearly evident through this post.

April 5, 2019: "I need to stop wasting my time on plans around set-ups that I don't know have edge". I was frustrated once again with my discretionary performance. I was stuck between enjoying trading freely/trusting my own discretionary judgment and trading set-ups that I have back-tested and know might have edge. I had/have the desire to trade discretionarily, but know I should be trading verified set-ups.

April 8, 2019: I took an undisciplined and impulsive trade. "Honestly, I shouldn't have entered at all today. Even though the pattern could be considered a DT, it was not easily discernible in the 10,000 tick chart, and I deviated from my usual profit target (I didn't test for this entry/exit schema, and didn't test for the extended profit target)." Still confused- even with my more automated strategy- because I added a discretionary element to it.

April 9, 2019: "I haven't tested it, so why would I f$$$ with it?" - I'm getting more and more realistic about trading in general, yet still desire to trade discretionarily. I realize that adapting to current market conditions are just as important as trading certain set-ups with verified edge. I contemplated in a separate post about the potential benefits of trading earlier in the morning because of the low volume (for my acc. size).

April 10, 2019: I came up with the Tier trade system (it didn't catch). I was still evidently trying to figure my process out, even for the half automated, half discretionary account- I was trying to figure out the borders of my discretion for both the DT account and my scenario account. Obviously this lasted for quite awhile.

April 11, 2019: I traded too robotically and paid for it. I traded my DT strategy right before the open and got stopped out, then price went my way. This is why there needs to be a middle ground, IMO.

April 13, 2019: I posted about the mini double top pattern and how they're not as successful as their bigger counterparts. I also wrote "I realized I need a consistent process of getting my head straight before trading. I'm going to try genuinely meditating for an hour or so before trading this upcoming Monday. It seems like the most important thing for me to do."

April 15, 2019: B-day. Didn't let the trade develop and rationalized it away because my exit wasn't out of fear.. But then I said "There doesn't have to be strong emotional intensity in order to make the wrong decisions." - I knew I was wrong.

April 16, 2019: "How you do one thing is how you do everything." - A massive realization. A psychological milestone.

April 17, 2019: I declared that I want to try pure discretion trading- no rules, just trading momentum or however I want to in the moment. I thought I was being too much of a pussy when it came to taking trades at this time, and I ached to trade freely. It seems that this desire is just a fantasy, because constraints are absolutely necessary. I started a pure discretion account, on top of my DT account.

April 18, 2019: "Is this the longest I've been break-even?" post, regarding my DT account. And yes, it was truly the longest I've been break-even.

April 19, 2019: The Linda Raschke post. It's a great article about the difference in confidence when it comes to trading your set-up versus trading a set-up you don't normally trade. It resonated with me.

April 20, 2019: This is probably the most valuable post in this entire journal. It's a fantastic video, after I watched it, I started making real, conscious changes. Everything you do matters, and adds up over time.

April 21, 2019: Math talk.

April 22, 2019: This post was about how I was so sick and tired of making the same mistakes over and over again in my pure discretion account, and the pain of making these mistakes continuously inevitably pushes you in the right direction (if you're serious..). Valuable. In the next post, I said "I'll be increasing my trading-workload/ I'll be immersing myself deeper into this game by means of intensity of work (genuine engagement; my obsession has been re-sparked since realizing my progress) and frequency of work (I have enough time to commit to juggling trading ideas), and through writing here.."

I wrote another post on the same day: "To those who have, more will be given. From those who have little, even that will be taken from them."

April 23, 2019: "There is nothing external that's going to magically make me a better trader. The systematized approaches that I've come up with don't have that engagement that I'm looking for, and most of the rules I've come up with, don't jive with me at all. I'm looking for freedom of expression, the ability to be adaptable in all market conditions, which I find way more interesting than running a totally automatic trading strategy (don't get me wrong, I'll still be fore-ward testing my half automated one) and I actually love the challenge of becoming consistent. So yeah, the next step in my trading is to master being under pressure, so that I can act freely in those situations to the extent that I can." - With that being said, I know I can't operate without any boundaries whatsoever.. I recognize this as a fantasy now.

April 24, 2019: I realized with this post that I psychologically and emotionally need to get used to losing. ".. So I need to become more tolerant, or better yet, extremely tolerant of losing trades (and winning trades), and even losing streaks- because if I become thick-skinned enough, or actually, indifferent enough, the element of fear would be mostly out of my trading."

April 25, 2019: A post about meditation. "What you're scared of happening is going to happen."

April 26, 2019: Not a great trading day, I remember not being able to sleep the night before. I didn't let my trade develop. But, this is the first time that I re-initiated a trade, because I changed my attitude about risk. This is when I realized that I need to accept the risks and not to be scared to act on opportunities. I realized that I need to embrace risk.

April 27, 2019: Thanked Bob for uploading historical data of the ES.

April 28, 2019: "The 10 stages of meditation." - Excellent meditation information.

April 29, 2019: I traded irresponsibly, as if I didn't have money to preserve (in my pure discretion acc.). This behavior put me in a 6% drawdown.

At this point, I went through another long losing streak. I don't remember the exact figure, but I think I lost 7 trades in a row in my pure discretion account.

April 30, 2019: I violated my risk parameters- I risked more than 2% of my account size, and got into an even bigger drawdown. I recognized that I went against my word, and I was upset about it. There was a mental shift here.

May 2, 2019: This is when I exercised strong discipline (for me). I stuck to what I said I was going to do, and because of that, I was happy with my performance.

May 3, 2019: I appreciated the encouragement from you guys. I still do. I also lost another trade but stuck to my rules.

May 4, 2019: I quoted some lines from one of PandaWarriors journal because they reminded me of myself, and he made a wise reply.

May 6, 2019: This is when I realized that I was trading too small of an account in the ES, and I went too far into a drawdown to realistically pull myself out. I established that I was going to trade the MES instead because I can afford it.

May 7, 2019: This was my first day trading the MES. I traded it like an absolute beginner. Bad trading here, I had no discipline on this day.

May 8, 2019: I traded in a range and didn't get away with it. I implemented something new into my process: "Is today worth trading?" (I determine this by looking at the pre-open and open- if price immediately takes off and trends from the open, I'm trading that day)

May 9, 2019: I entered too early on a bearish break-out for the first trade, and then got it right the second trade. This was a refreshing trading day and I followed my rules.

May 10, 2019: I broke my discipline. I couldn't sleep the night before, and didn't do half of my process because I was limited on time. I realized that I shouldn't trade at all if I can't practice my process in full.

May 13, 2019: This is a replay of May 9: I got in too early but got it right the second time around. I did the right things.

May 14, 2019: I broke my discipline by getting out too early.

May 15, 2019: Same as May 9, and May 13. Literally.

May 16, 2019: Massive accomplishment. Did everything I was supposed to do, but trading live.

May 17, 2019: I experienced live losers. I stuck to my process, though.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's interesting to see my struggles in chronological order. When I read all of this, I got the impression that I'm just trying to establish my trading identity. The question is, how do I like to trade? The answer is obvious through my actions and through some of my posts; I love discretionary trading. I returned to trade scenarios over set-ups again and again, while knowing that logically, it wasn't the correct thing to do. I kept getting pulled into discretionary trading. In fact, I forgot about my half automated/half discretionary strategy all-together, and focused exclusively on my pure discretion account (that account is still breakeven).. I really enjoy coming up with price scenarios in the morning, and creating plans around those scenarios to capture moves. That's what I like. I also love break-out trades, and they've been working for me lately. The thing is, I don't necessarily have to separate these things. I can trade back-tested set-ups or gather statistically significant correlations in price within my discretionary/scenario trading and I know I need to combine my process with back-tested set-ups (like the double top). In the meantime, I'll do exactly what I did last week but better. So moving forward, if I see a double top in the MES this week I will be trading it as if I were trading my strictly automated DT strategy (absolutely no discretionary intervention), and if there's opportunities for break-out trades, I'll take them. The great thing about these two different set-ups is that one lends itself to a range environment, and the other lends itself to a trending one- I just have to determine what kind of day it is at the beginning.

This week I'm aiming to be more disciplined and more consistent than I've ever been. My goals for next week are to 1. Hold every single trade until I get stopped out or until price hits my profit target. 2. Act on double tops and break-outs only. If I can do those two things despite the outcome, I'll be happy. As for the rest of this week-end, I've got some more back-testing to do..

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #127 (permalink)
 
snax's Avatar
 snax 
Chicago, IL
Legendary Price Action Student
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Sierra Chart
Broker: Edge Clear
Trading: MES
Posts: 2,170 since Feb 2019
Thanks Given: 9,613
Thanks Received: 9,622

Great post as always, @Zachary Standley


Quoting 
1. Hold every single trade until I get stopped out or until price hits my profit target.

This is at the top of my list too, I think I have to actually wait for my brain to re-wire itself a little bit as I keep gaining experience before I get good at it.

Take care,
snax

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #128 (permalink)
 
mgcharl's Avatar
 mgcharl 
London, UK
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: ES
Posts: 359 since Aug 2010
Thanks Given: 951
Thanks Received: 1,458


Zachary Standley View Post
Last night, I went through my entire journal. It wasn't an easy task because a lot of my posts are dense and long, so I did skim the much longer posts and looked for the most important element(s) of a given day, and noted whatever it was on a piece of paper date-by-date. Because of going through my journal, I realized that a lot of the posts I write are un-necessarily complex, and writing to the length that I did back then now, seems and probably is a waste of time (writing this certainly wasn't, though). I think the main reason why I wrote so much is because I had no idea what I was doing, and was trying to think it out on paper, plus, writing comes easy to me and it all flows out. In the end though, each post can reasonably be summarized by a couple sentences at most. I simplified each mistake, accomplishment or thought I had in a brief sentence or two, and added some quotations to some, if not most of the dates. Some dates will have more text than others, depending on their importance. By the way- this post is naturally going to be incredibly long, because it's mainly an analysis of my shortcomings, and some of the progress that I've made just recently. I'm doing this to make sense of my journey.



To give a little context, when I first started this journal in January of this year, I was predictably more confused than I am right now. I was in SIM, discretionarily trading the ES with a $5000 account.. I didn't have any solid rules at this time, I didn't know whether or not if I should interfere with trades, and I wasn't even looking for set-ups or patterns to enter the market. Essentially, I was forward testing my random behavior. Here are the dated posts that are greatly simplified, with some of them being elaborated on:



Jan 23, 2019: Of course, part of my first post reads "I must let my trades develop... I gave into paranoia of losing money, and acted on impulse." I also thought I was so close to profitability, as long as I could hold my trades.



Jan 24, 2019: I didn't let my trade develop again. I put too much pressure on myself to enter a trade, too. "I was too critical of myself, and because of that, I chased." @spetscom gave me some advice on using a break-even stop, and I incorporated his advice.



Jan 25, 2019: I stayed out of the market because price action was too slow. I actually followed the rules that I had, I think this was the first time I acted with discipline in this journal.



Jan 28, 2019: I disrupted my morning routine by getting up too early, and I took too much kratom then drank too much coffee to counteract the effects of it. I wasn't in the right state of mind to trade, I was also watching YouTube videos when I should have been paying attention to price action. I was being mindless.



Jan 29, 2019: More evidence of my confusion (not in a derogatory way). The ES was in a range, and I didn't know for sure whether or not I should trade in these conditions in the future. I was wondering if I should stick to trend trading exclusively. I wasn't sure and never established what to do here.



Jan 30, 2019: I didn't let my trade develop again. I wrote "Always stick to your rules. You won't know if your system works if you constantly change it based on the behavior of the market." ...



Jan 31, 2019: "I'm still experimenting with my strategy. As of now, it isn't working, and that may be because I'm not always following my rules (closing positions too early on winning trades) and there's no saying if it works or not until I'm able to follow those rules." *Incorporates a new idea into my process immediately after stating that.*.. Wow!



Feb 1, 2019: I wrote "..3rd loser this week. Something needs to change." This is more evidence of my own inability to stick to a strategy, or even to establish solid rules for a strategy in the first place. Because of my losses, I kept implementing and getting rid of rules and changing my process, which causes a vicious cycle of confusion and frustration.



Feb 4, 2019: I came up with another set of ridiculously specific entry and exit conditions that weren't based on historical data. I didn't stick to these rules long either. Also, I didn't let this days trade develop.



Feb 6, 2019: I took a bearish break-out trade in a bull market. I also wrote "Alignment of charts is not enough. Attention to price action and consideration of the reactivity of such is as or more important than synchronicity between charts. Focus on getting an earlier entry on trends, because price may not move as far as you think or hope it will." There's some truth to that, especially in the market conditions at the time.



Feb 7, 2019: This was a great discretionary day. I made 8 points in the ES, and I was very pleased. I remember this day and actually I screen-recorded this trade and I still have the video. I'll consider this an important post and a milestone, because this was my first major winner ever and the first time I did the right thing that produced a fantastic result, and I described what made this a different trade. "Trade the failures of price." "My trading was both reactionary, and guided by alignment of charts."



Feb 12, 2019: I traded against the trend, trying to replicate the Feb 7th trade. Also I wrote "All the charts were aligned and signaled to me that it would be best to go long, but the thing was, price was behaving oddly." ... I've always had a short bias.



Feb 13, 2019: I was frustrated because I lost two days in a row. I created a "high probability checklist" to make sure my trades were good trades. (I didn't back-test any of this, I was going off a mixture of classic trading axoims and custom rules that satisfied me along with mainstream technical analysis)



Feb 14, 2019: I lost again and I broke my rules; price satisfied one of my plans entry conditions, but the move that did so was enormous. I knew better to get in, but got in impulsively and paid for it. I listed the rules I didn't follow to remind my future self to follow them.



Feb 18, 2019: I made a post, and evidently I realized that I was approaching the market in too much of an open-ended manner, rather than acting on a couple or a variety of patterns or set-ups. I declared that I was going to focus on a few set-ups from now on. This was a realization that didn't take effect immediately, but it's an important one nonetheless.



Feb 19, 2019: Lost my 4th trade in a row. I traded like I used to, with scenarios, even after stating I need to focus on certain set-ups. After that loss, I established that I was doing something wrong (but more dramatically), but for the wrong reasons (because I was losing..). I got rid of some rules and came up with another set of rules. 6 hours later, I posted that I was going AWOL for a couple of weeks. Max frustration. I was all over the place here, and I was conflicted as to how to trade.



Feb 21, 2019: The "I can't stay away" post. I decided to just analyze price action and not trade at all, so I could get a better understanding of how markets move, and to test my discipline. I did some price analysis in this post as well, and some imaginary trading.



Feb 22, 2019: I bought the lifetime license of NinjaTrader 8. This is when I incorporated volumetric bars into my trading, too. I also did some more price analysis.. I remember feeling very hopeful and inspired after this purchase, because I doubled down and dropped a thousand dollars after all of those events. I wasn't going to give up.



Feb 23, 2019: The heuristics and biases post. This is valuable information for a trader, and I highly recommend you read it!



Feb 26, 2019: I wasn't supposed to trade for 2 weeks to test my discipline, but apparently I couldn't help myself on this day. I traded when I wasn't supposed to. I also created another post about how sad it is that many traders don't make it, and I was wondering why (lol..). I thought about myself, and how it's unlikely that I was going to become consistently profitable, unless I change.



Feb 28, 2019: I posted about the benefits of not feeling like you have to trade, that you shouldn't feel obligated to trade everyday because you're a trader but should trade when there's an opportunity for you. This is a decent post. I made another post about what I have learned about trading, and it's a very long list. There's good bits in there as well.



March 5, 2019: I did a 180 on discretionary trading, and declared that "I am fully automatizing my strategy" after doing more research on automated trading, and after realizing that I was too undisciplined. I thought that I would be better off not getting involved (there's some truth to this). This was my much needed segway into back-testing.



March 7, 2019: I had back-tested the past two previous days and posted about it. Finally, I back-tested a strategy.. This is a milestone. I tested a double top strategy and got OK results, but they weren't good enough. Honestly, the strategy was barely profitable so I had to optimize.



March 8, 2019: I posted about the two major different schools of thought when it comes to trading approach, and I posted my first back-tests results. This is when I was exclusively back-testing different strategies, and I wasn't trading at all. I didn't want to trade discretionarily because I thought it would've been a waste of time.



March 15, 2019: The "I've been busy" post. I wasn't posting here often because I was too occupied with back-testing. I was going at it.. It was a very tedious process, and even now at 5/18/2019, I STILL have more testing to do.



March 25, 2019: I realized that the time I took away from trading took my passion away. I realized that I need to get more involved, and that I don't like treating this game robotically. I wasn't (and I'm not) going to give up on trading. I realized that I need to trade in the middle somewhere, between discretionary trading and automated trading. I deviated from this realization somewhere along the way.



March 26, 2019: I decided to start trading again with my back-tested strategy (the double top strategy) and would also allow myself to act discretionarily (I love discretionary trading) in the same account (this was a mistake..). "It's true for me that trading requires a certain level of personal engagement for me to want to continue trading, and damn, don't I miss it."



March 27, 2019: I put my DT strategy to the test and posted about it, but of course, I got out of the position too early. I also mentioned that I was forward testing my if-then style of trading again, separately..: "I'm forward-testing my discretionary trading and filling the holes of my process as I go/trade and I'm still back-testing a separate more automated system."



April 2, 2019: The "I don't like reading your journals" post. What an asshole, I think this was an ego trip. I'm sorry about that guys.



April 3, 2019: This post was me trying to work my discretionary process out. I decided that any plan that I come up with is acceptable, whether I created it pre-open or during price analysis, whenever. "So to summarize on the early morning planning v.s. improvised planning dilemma, there's no more versus. Both approaches are acceptable as long as I can manage the pitfalls of either methods. If my early morning plans don't pan out, I can resort to improvisation, as long as the improvisation is based on sound technical analysis and logical reasoning."



April 4, 2019: I traded and I didn't let the trade develop in my discretionary trading. I was still trying to figure out my process, how I was going to trade, which is clearly evident through this post.



April 5, 2019: "I need to stop wasting my time on plans around set-ups that I don't know have edge". I was frustrated once again with my discretionary performance. I was stuck between enjoying trading freely/trusting my own discretionary judgment and trading set-ups that I have back-tested and know might have edge. I had/have the desire to trade discretionarily, but know I should be trading verified set-ups.



April 8, 2019: I took an undisciplined and impulsive trade. "Honestly, I shouldn't have entered at all today. Even though the pattern could be considered a DT, it was not easily discernible in the 10,000 tick chart, and I deviated from my usual profit target (I didn't test for this entry/exit schema, and didn't test for the extended profit target)." Still confused- even with my more automated strategy- because I added a discretionary element to it.



April 9, 2019: "I haven't tested it, so why would I f$$$ with it?" - I'm getting more and more realistic about trading in general, yet still desire to trade discretionarily. I realize that adapting to current market conditions are just as important as trading certain set-ups with verified edge. I contemplated in a separate post about the potential benefits of trading earlier in the morning because of the low volume (for my acc. size).



April 10, 2019: I came up with the Tier trade system (it didn't catch). I was still evidently trying to figure my process out, even for the half automated, half discretionary account- I was trying to figure out the borders of my discretion for both the DT account and my scenario account. Obviously this lasted for quite awhile.



April 11, 2019: I traded too robotically and paid for it. I traded my DT strategy right before the open and got stopped out, then price went my way. This is why there needs to be a middle ground, IMO.



April 13, 2019: I posted about the mini double top pattern and how they're not as successful as their bigger counterparts. I also wrote "I realized I need a consistent process of getting my head straight before trading. I'm going to try genuinely meditating for an hour or so before trading this upcoming Monday. It seems like the most important thing for me to do."



April 15, 2019: B-day. Didn't let the trade develop and rationalized it away because my exit wasn't out of fear.. But then I said "There doesn't have to be strong emotional intensity in order to make the wrong decisions." - I knew I was wrong.



April 16, 2019: "How you do one thing is how you do everything." - A massive realization. A psychological milestone.



April 17, 2019: I declared that I want to try pure discretion trading- no rules, just trading momentum or however I want to in the moment. I thought I was being too much of a pussy when it came to taking trades at this time, and I ached to trade freely. It seems that this desire is just a fantasy, because constraints are absolutely necessary. I started a pure discretion account, on top of my DT account.



April 18, 2019: "Is this the longest I've been break-even?" post, regarding my DT account. And yes, it was truly the longest I've been break-even.



April 19, 2019: The Linda Raschke post. It's a great article about the difference in confidence when it comes to trading your set-up versus trading a set-up you don't normally trade. It resonated with me.



April 20, 2019: This is probably the most valuable post in this entire journal. It's a fantastic video, after I watched it, I started making real, conscious changes. Everything you do matters, and adds up over time.



April 21, 2019: Math talk.



April 22, 2019: This post was about how I was so sick and tired of making the same mistakes over and over again in my pure discretion account, and the pain of making these mistakes continuously inevitably pushes you in the right direction (if you're serious..). Valuable. In the next post, I said "I'll be increasing my trading-workload/ I'll be immersing myself deeper into this game by means of intensity of work (genuine engagement; my obsession has been re-sparked since realizing my progress) and frequency of work (I have enough time to commit to juggling trading ideas), and through writing here.."



I wrote another post on the same day: "To those who have, more will be given. From those who have little, even that will be taken from them."



April 23, 2019: "There is nothing external that's going to magically make me a better trader. The systematized approaches that I've come up with don't have that engagement that I'm looking for, and most of the rules I've come up with, don't jive with me at all. I'm looking for freedom of expression, the ability to be adaptable in all market conditions, which I find way more interesting than running a totally automatic trading strategy (don't get me wrong, I'll still be fore-ward testing my half automated one) and I actually love the challenge of becoming consistent. So yeah, the next step in my trading is to master being under pressure, so that I can act freely in those situations to the extent that I can." - With that being said, I know I can't operate without any boundaries whatsoever.. I recognize this as a fantasy now.



April 24, 2019: I realized with this post that I psychologically and emotionally need to get used to losing. ".. So I need to become more tolerant, or better yet, extremely tolerant of losing trades (and winning trades), and even losing streaks- because if I become thick-skinned enough, or actually, indifferent enough, the element of fear would be mostly out of my trading."



April 25, 2019: A post about meditation. "What you're scared of happening is going to happen."



April 26, 2019: Not a great trading day, I remember not being able to sleep the night before. I didn't let my trade develop. But, this is the first time that I re-initiated a trade, because I changed my attitude about risk. This is when I realized that I need to accept the risks and not to be scared to act on opportunities. I realized that I need to embrace risk.



April 27, 2019: Thanked Bob for uploading historical data of the ES.



April 28, 2019: "The 10 stages of meditation." - Excellent meditation information.



April 29, 2019: I traded irresponsibly, as if I didn't have money to preserve (in my pure discretion acc.). This behavior put me in a 6% drawdown.



At this point, I went through another long losing streak. I don't remember the exact figure, but I think I lost 7 trades in a row in my pure discretion account.



April 30, 2019: I violated my risk parameters- I risked more than 2% of my account size, and got into an even bigger drawdown. I recognized that I went against my word, and I was upset about it. There was a mental shift here.



May 2, 2019: This is when I exercised strong discipline (for me). I stuck to what I said I was going to do, and because of that, I was happy with my performance.



May 3, 2019: I appreciated the encouragement from you guys. I still do. I also lost another trade but stuck to my rules.



May 4, 2019: I quoted some lines from one of PandaWarriors journal because they reminded me of myself, and he made a wise reply.



May 6, 2019: This is when I realized that I was trading too small of an account in the ES, and I went too far into a drawdown to realistically pull myself out. I established that I was going to trade the MES instead because I can afford it.



May 7, 2019: This was my first day trading the MES. I traded it like an absolute beginner. Bad trading here, I had no discipline on this day.



May 8, 2019: I traded in a range and didn't get away with it. I implemented something new into my process: "Is today worth trading?" (I determine this by looking at the pre-open and open- if price immediately takes off and trends from the open, I'm trading that day)



May 9, 2019: I entered too early on a bearish break-out for the first trade, and then got it right the second trade. This was a refreshing trading day and I followed my rules.



May 10, 2019: I broke my discipline. I couldn't sleep the night before, and didn't do half of my process because I was limited on time. I realized that I shouldn't trade at all if I can't practice my process in full.



May 13, 2019: This is a replay of May 9: I got in too early but got it right the second time around. I did the right things.



May 14, 2019: I broke my discipline by getting out too early.



May 15, 2019: Same as May 9, and May 13. Literally.



May 16, 2019: Massive accomplishment. Did everything I was supposed to do, but trading live.



May 17, 2019: I experienced live losers. I stuck to my process, though.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



It's interesting to see my struggles in chronological order. When I read all of this, I got the impression that I'm just trying to establish my trading identity. The question is, how do I like to trade? The answer is obvious through my actions and through some of my posts; I love discretionary trading. I returned to trade scenarios over set-ups again and again, while knowing that logically, it wasn't the correct thing to do. I kept getting pulled into discretionary trading. In fact, I forgot about my half automated/half discretionary strategy all-together, and focused exclusively on my pure discretion account (that account is still breakeven).. I really enjoy coming up with price scenarios in the morning, and creating plans around those scenarios to capture moves. That's what I like. I also love break-out trades, and they've been working for me lately. The thing is, I don't necessarily have to separate these things. I can trade back-tested set-ups or gather statistically significant correlations in price within my discretionary/scenario trading and I know I need to combine my process with back-tested set-ups (like the double top). In the meantime, I'll do exactly what I did last week but better. So moving forward, if I see a double top in the MES this week I will be trading it as if I were trading my strictly automated DT strategy (absolutely no discretionary intervention), and if there's opportunities for break-out trades, I'll take them. The great thing about these two different set-ups is that one lends itself to a range environment, and the other lends itself to a trending one- I just have to determine what kind of day it is at the beginning.



This week I'm aiming to be more disciplined and more consistent than I've ever been. My goals for next week are to 1. Hold every single trade until I get stopped out or until price hits my profit target. 2. Act on double tops and break-outs only. If I can do those two things despite the outcome, I'll be happy. As for the rest of this week-end, I've got some more back-testing to do..


Hi Zach,

I think this is the best post in your journal yet. It’s important to reflect on your journey and it’s obvious how much effort you’re putting into your trading. Unfortunately, I fear that if you continue down this road you will be no further along in another 6 months time. Here comes the tough love, brace yourself! No amount of meditation or discipline will matter if you don’t have an edge. For automated trading, determining your edge for each particular strategy is simply testing and math but for discretionary trading I believe that the edge is in your ability to read price action and/or order flow. Some traders use naked charts, some use tools like volume profile and some read the order flow on the DOM. If you have a profitable approach, you deserve respect and I believe there are many different discretionary approaches that can be applied successfully, my list is not exhaustive. So, the question you should be asking yourself now is what type of discretionary trader do you want to be? A good way to do this is to read the journals of others here who are students of a particular approach and see which one resonates with you. Once you know this, you can seek out some education and begin to develop your skills. Simple patterns are probably not enough on their own to build a strategy around, as I think you are beginning to see. You correctly noticed that certain things work better if the day is ranging or trending, but how do you answer questions like this? You can try to figure this all out yourself, doing everything from scratch and from first principles, but it may take a long time! Instead, I would focus on finding some good quality education and then build upon that or tailor it to fit your personality. How do you find good education? Luckily you’re in the perfect place, this forum is full of reviews and seasoned traders who are willing to help. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees and every approach will have it’s diehard fans and it’s naysayers. What is required is a leap of faith and the ability to make up your own mind when things are not absolute. Anyway, I hope that gives you some pause for thought and whatever you decide to do going forward, I will be following along with interest. Best of luck.


Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
  #129 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711


mgcharl View Post
Hi Zach,

I think this is the best post in your journal yet. It’s important to reflect on your journey and it’s obvious how much effort you’re putting into your trading. Unfortunately, I fear that if you continue down this road you will be no further along in another 6 months time. Here comes the tough love, brace yourself! No amount of meditation or discipline will matter if you don’t have an edge. For automated trading, determining your edge for each particular strategy is simply testing and math but for discretionary trading I believe that the edge is in your ability to read price action and/or order flow. Some traders use naked charts, some use tools like volume profile and some read the order flow on the DOM. If you have a profitable approach, you deserve respect and I believe there are many different discretionary approaches that can be applied successfully, my list is not exhaustive. So, the question you should be asking yourself now is what type of discretionary trader do you want to be? A good way to do this is to read the journals of others here who are students of a particular approach and see which one resonates with you. Once you know this, you can seek out some education and begin to develop your skills. Simple patterns are probably not enough on their own to build a strategy around, as I think you are beginning to see. You correctly noticed that certain things work better if the day is ranging or trending, but how do you answer questions like this? You can try to figure this all out yourself, doing everything from scratch and from first principles, but it may take a long time! Instead, I would focus on finding some good quality education and then build upon that or tailor it to fit your personality. How do you find good education? Luckily you’re in the perfect place, this forum is full of reviews and seasoned traders who are willing to help. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees and every approach will have it’s diehard fans and it’s naysayers. What is required is a leap of faith and the ability to make up your own mind when things are not absolute. Anyway, I hope that gives you some pause for thought and whatever you decide to do going forward, I will be following along with interest. Best of luck.


Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

That's the kind of reply I want to receive. Your honesty is more than appreciated. Thank you, @mgcharl

I know that meditation and having discipline won't matter if I don't have edge, but I think if I did have edge and given no changes in my conduct, I wouldn't be able to utilize it consistently (as of now). I was honestly shocked going back through my journal, I can't believe that I was making the same mistakes over and over again, saying I was going to fix them, then not being able to. This actually could be or is the result of not having edge in the first place. I think I see what you're saying.

A lot of this struggle could've been avoided had I of gotten a mentor early on. I'll take your advice and spend quite a bit of time reading through some journals here to see exactly what appeals to me, then I'll do some heavy research and connect with those traders. I don't want to keep spinning my wheels like I have been the past 5 months, and it's about time I take the leap of faith. I have been trying to re-invent the wheel because I wanted to experiment what worked for me directly, but I could be here forever doing this and get nowhere. I would be better off emulating a trader to establish a base (and edge), then add my own elements to it as I grow.

Once again, thank you. I'd rather hear the truth than anything else.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #130 (permalink)
 
Fluid Fox's Avatar
 Fluid Fox 
Bangor, Maine
Legendary Retail Failure
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Trading: MNQ
Posts: 677 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 2,968
Thanks Received: 2,711


Lost 8.25 points in the MES:



Stuck to the program. I went for a bearish breakout 10 minutes after the open and got stopped out fast for a 4 point loss. The rationale behind taking this trade was that many of the successful breakout trades I took last week had very similar pre-opens to today (bearish trending before 9). After that trade, price was showing regressive behavior so I became more skeptical of taking another trade, although I considered the possibility of a total reversal to the open price likely if price could convincingly break out of this range (there were some solid reversals last week as well). Price did so and I went long, and it took probably 10 minutes before I got stopped out again for a 4.25 point loss. I went a tick over my max daily loss limit so I am done trading for the day.

I did everything that I was supposed to do, and I'll continue trading break-out opportunities the rest of this week. I do need to improve my understanding of what kind of market I'm trading in day to day, and I actually delved deeper into volume profile yesterday and I'm doing more research on it today. This was a trending day that changed into a range at the open.

I'm going to keep these posts short and sweet from now on. As long as I do what I should be doing, I won't feel the need to write long journal posts.

1/5 days down. I held both trades until I got stopped out, and I acted on a set-up that I limited myself to.

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:




Last Updated on December 31, 2019


© 2024 NexusFi™, s.a., All Rights Reserved.
Av Ricardo J. Alfaro, Century Tower, Panama City, Panama, Ph: +507 833-9432 (Panama and Intl), +1 888-312-3001 (USA and Canada)
All information is for educational use only and is not investment advice. There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures, stocks, options and foreign exchange products. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
About Us - Contact Us - Site Rules, Acceptable Use, and Terms and Conditions - Privacy Policy - Downloads - Top
no new posts