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My journaled journey to success


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My journaled journey to success

  #91 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

1/20/10

Well, now what. I have been at this for a year and a half(ish). Matter of fact, I registered my account with Ninja Trader on May 19th, so I still have a few months before my anniversary. For the last year I have been playing around with just about every indicator I could think about. I have become a much better C# programmer than I was when I started. I have met a lot of GREAT people on the web and especially my friends here on futures.io (formerly BMT). I have simmed for the whole year.

Over the last few weeks, I think I am finally settling down with a method that I can ‘see’ the trades. I still feel like I am missing some pieces so I keep searching. I know there is no Holy Grail, but part of the journey is the quest. Kudos to Jeff and his thread on Jeff’s CCI. I was reading that early and I can see why he got an award. Good job Jeff. I follow Sharky’s thread too! Another great piece of work. Even though I don’t trade like them, I can see why they received the acknowledgements they did.

My record for the past few weeks is not bad considering (attachment). Here is my work for the last 5 weeks. This is only 17 days actually, but it was over the holidays which can be difficult.

Now this is close to what I want to do ($200/day), but week two was not so good. The current week is proving to be better, but I still make the same nagging mistakes.

First [and most important], I don’t journal like I know I should. I get lazy. I am tired from starring a screen all day. I make excuses. And because I don’t journal, I don’t analyze. I am pretty good about logging my trades and my errors, but I keep making the same errors, so you have to wonder what good is logging the trades doing me?

One thing I have started to notice is I am become more disciplined in staying out of trades that aren’t my trades. I’m not going to kid myself and say I am a changed man, just to say I am better. For example, I want to limit my trading. So I got out 10 dollar coins (from Vegas and my 1979 winnings in the dollar slot machine…yes I kept those things for 31 years) and a metal bank. At the start of the day I get the 10 coins out. Every time I make a trade a coin goes into the bank. When the coins are gone, I’m done. It seems to have a steadying effect [affect???] on me.

My next errors of commission are (in order of offense): not following my strategy; chasing the trade and; moving my stop. I have committed 18 errors this year and have lost $2,000 total as a result of those errors. I will have to overcome this flaw or I will not be successful in this occupation.

The next thing that I am getting bad about but have not elected to include in my errors is to have achieved my goal (and then some) and still kept trading. I am hoping the Ike dollars will help me with that. But just today, I was up $340 and kept trading. My total at the end of my coins was half that. How many times have I read that over trading gets you back to break even? Too many!

Interesting story. I played a dice game called Farkle with the wife and kids tonight. I played that game like I am now trading. I could see trading in playing the game. What is interesting is I NEVER played that game before as confidently as I did tonight. I did not win, but I played well. I stuck to my strategy and came out good. If I can trade like I play that game, I can make it!

I am close to going live again. It is time to get back in the pond. I need to stay close to the shore and follow the rules. The sharks (not you Sharky J) are out there and they will take my money. I am not going to let that happen by being stupid and making the same mistakes over and over and over and over and…

Gordo

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  #92 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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Sounds like you know exactly what you need to work on, so that's always a good thing. For some, they are just stabbing in the dark. Just keep at it and you'll get there!

Mike

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  #93 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
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So it’s only been a few hours since I wrote in my journal for ‘yesterday’. After a few hours in the rack, I’m back in the saddle. So how did I do? In a word, good. Not great, just good. What makes it good is I traded error free. I was consciously thinking about that and was very pleased with my results because I was pleased with myself.

I am posting my trade summary, my best trade of the day, and my error page. With regards to why I waited so long to get into this short trade, it was the big blue line on my page. I find that price really gets hung up on the 50¢ marks. I’m sure it’s because people place large orders there and it messes with the minds. I find it funny that I don’t see the same thing around the even dollar lines. Just an observation. Anyway, I waited until I got 5¢ below the 50¢ line and went short. Picked up both my targets and called it a day.

Now I can spend some time reading futures.io (formerly BMT), studying and working on how to get line break charts to display price action (I call it BetterLineBreak in honor of aslan’s Better Renko which I use extensively). Time will tell if I am cleaver enough. J

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  #94 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

This is how I am currently setting up my screen to trade.

Better Renko (Set at 2)
AaMovingAvgVsMovingAvg (HoltEMA,55,WMA,50) [Background flooding: SameDirection]
**{I have a bug in this program that I am trying to fix. I will post it in downloads when I get the bug fixed...}
[COLOR=#0000ff]AaMACD[/COLOR] (7,21) [Background flooding: FastCrossingSlow]
[COLOR=blue]AaTrippleDszl[/COLOR] (10,20,30) [Background flooding: SlowCrossingLimits]
[COLOR=blue]AaOnBalanceVolume[/COLOR] (14) [Background flooding: ObvCrossing zero]
[COLOR=blue]AaADX[/COLOR] (14) [Background flooding: DmCrossing]
[COLOR=blue]AaTripleCCI[/COLOR] (6,20,50) [Background flooding: SlowCrossingZero]

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  #95 (permalink)
 
kareem40's Avatar
 kareem40 
Dallas, TX
Legendary TradeTheBar
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: IB, Oanda
Trading: ES, MES, MNQ, MYM
Posts: 708 since May 2010
Thanks Given: 1,887
Thanks Received: 903

Hi Gordo,
Firs thank you for your indicators. I have been testing/watching some of your indicators for a couple of weeks and believe that you (or I) can trade well with only two; [COLOR=#800080]AaTrippleDszl and [COLOR=#800080]AaTripleCCI[/COLOR] . They work best if one waits until the long line (for either indicator) is at extremes (20/80 for Dszl and -100/+100 in CCI), then would trade once the short term goes the opposite extreme and hooks back. Basically go back to the original long term trend as you stated in the indicator description. As you have notice I am a bit more aggressive with the AaTripleCCI, as I believe it to be a better indicator for trading.[/COLOR]
I only trade the YM and EURUSD. I don’t trade demo for many reasons. I just change to live mini lots (or even micro if needed) when I am trading badly. Your two indicators seem to work very well. No need for anything else on the chart, IMHO. A picture is worth a thousands Pips so I have attached some examples. The pictures show possible trades from 8:30-3:00 using 10 ticks/pips bracket. Most of the time, after $200 profit (or loss) , I stop trading for the day. The trade is shown with a vertical line using either one of the indicators/set ups. The blue lines are wins and the red lines are “cost of doing business.”
I would like to get your feedback if possible and again thank you for posting the indicators.
Kareem

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  #96 (permalink)
 
kareem40's Avatar
 kareem40 
Dallas, TX
Legendary TradeTheBar
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: IB, Oanda
Trading: ES, MES, MNQ, MYM
Posts: 708 since May 2010
Thanks Given: 1,887
Thanks Received: 903

Hi Gordo,
Six trades this morning 4 winners, 2 break even. I used only the [COLOR=blue]AaTripleCCI[/COLOR] and change to a 2 minute chart, as the 1 minute was too fast. Again thanks.
Kareem

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  #97 (permalink)
 
kareem40's Avatar
 kareem40 
Dallas, TX
Legendary TradeTheBar
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT, TS
Broker: IB, Oanda
Trading: ES, MES, MNQ, MYM
Posts: 708 since May 2010
Thanks Given: 1,887
Thanks Received: 903

I only traded the EURUSD today, but there were some nice ( but aggressive) set ups in they YM.
Thanks
Kareem

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  #98 (permalink)
 eman 
Galveston ,TX
 
Experience: Intermediate
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Trading: Futures
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@gordo - just wanted to stop in and say thanks for taking the time to journal. i have enjoyed reading thru it today and look forward to your future posts.

cheers,
-e

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  #99 (permalink)
 
gordo's Avatar
 gordo 
Tonganoxie, Kansas
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: CL,6E
Posts: 160 since Nov 2009
Thanks Given: 129
Thanks Received: 401

Long time, no journal. Why? Depression! I felt like I was just chasing my tail. Very discouraging, very problematic, very blah. I told my wife I would look for a job it I wasn’t doing well by January... how did that work out? I’m still not looking. If anybody tells her, you are off my Christmas card list!! I mean it!

So I was working on this Better Line Break chart. Why on earth would I go there? Some friends bought an expensive trading package that we hoped contained part of the Holy Grail. Guess what! Not so much. We did however learn that the system was using this line break charting. The problem was we couldn’t see what it was doing because the NT version doesn’t show price action. So I took the challenge and tried to figure out how to add price action. That was an adventure! I went deeeeeeeeppppppp into the bowels of NinjaTrader working with some very challenging code. The ‘#region’ statement became my friend. I even printed out the code so I could try to figure out the nested loops. It was reminiscent of the green-bar 14” paper days. After putting several hundred hours into understanding this code and trying everything, I figured it out. Then I posted it on futures.io (formerly BMT) and voila…I had a new toy. Well that was nice, but what to do with the thing. More weeks pass and we (my little international trading group and I) keep pecking away at this new program. I get the Welles Wilder book and read up on his work from the 70’s. Put that one on hold.

Then I went down another path. I read ALL of Sharky’s thread and tried to figure that out. There’s a lot of good stuff there, but I am now digging myself into a deeper and darker hole with more and more indicators and more and more charts. I have more indicators on one computer than a person should watch (See Left Screen and Right Screen below)! Deeper, deeper, deeper I sink. Wife is getting nervous. I am getting sad. The days are ticking by. Now what? Food stamps!!! [Just kidding, but grilled Cocker Spaniel is not out of the question]. (I know I am going to get hate mail for that last comment! I do love my dogs and Big Mike would likely suspend my privileges if I started spreading BBQ sauce on them. J)

So it’s time to back up. I am drowning in too much data. Information overload. Remember, I’m not the young pup I was back in the day. Let’s think. What do I NEED? I absolutely need price action. I need a DOM. I like the MACD. It seems like a lot of the ‘best’ indicators here on futures.io (formerly BMT) seem to be a derivation of the MACD. Therefore, IMVHO the MACD is a very valuable indicator, so let’s keep that. What about this BLB, can we make that work for us? I need some kind of money management too, so let’s use this Welles Wilder volatility SAR for the stop.

I start with time, then go to volume, then to ticks, and...wait a minute. That doesn’t look half bad. So I am working with my new and simpler chart I have a couple good days. The trend is easy to see and the pull backs are obvious. Let’s see how we do for a while.

I had 6 trades today. Four winners, two losers. Net for the day, $419.76. Not bad.

Gordo

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  #100 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
Developer
Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Broker: IBKR
Trading: Stocks & Futures
Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Weeks
Posts: 50,322 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 33,143
Thanks Received: 101,477


Hi Gordo,

Here are a few thoughts.

Make a two week plan. Do not change anything over the period of 2 weeks. Pick one instrument, and one chart. Put the indicators you absolutely, positively, must must must have and no more. Less is more.

Take 3 trades a day. Not 2. Not 4. Three.

At the end of each trade, journal about the trades. Talk about:
- Why you entered where you did
- Why you exited where you did
- Does your entry match your plan?
- Are you happy with your entry?
- Does your exit match your plan?
- Are you happy with your exit?

Grade yourself like A, B, C, F on each trade based on the answers to the above. Then grade yourself for the day as a whole.

If at the end of two weeks you don't have more A's and B's than C's and F's, there is no need to change anything or go any further. Until you can be consistently executing the way you want with something simple, there is no need to keep looking for something else.

Take note: No where above did I mention anything about profit. Do not concern yourself with profit of the trade or the day. You only care about the execution. If you cannot execute the plan, there is no need to change the plan, there is only a need to work on your own personal skills to better execute it. Of course if the plan is impossible then you need a better plan, but assuming it isn't...

I find that by knowing ahead of time you will do this for two weeks, knowing ahead of time you will take exactly 3 trades a day, and knowing ahead of time that the profit of the trade does not matter --- these will help you focus on what is important: executing your plan.

There is a lot of talk about methods on the forum, and it is easy to get caught up in the "newest system". Money is made in the proper execution of moderate systems, not in a holy grail system that can work even with poor execution.

Just my thoughts.

Mike

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