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I journal for myself as a learning tool first and foremost. Its kind of the "rudder to the ship" I guess, the thing that keeps me fine-tuning my process.
I do try to be as explicit and clear as I can in order for others who may be reading to find it understandable. This also makes it easier for others to point something out or offer their perspective, which is really valuable, especially after posting a day of bad trades.
The only problem with journaling that I can think of is there's just so much information that its hard to organize everything! I have already started a second journal that just covers weekly/monthly and other longer-term goals and things because they were getting buried in all the daily details.
The end result relies on so many different details and variables, and we're constantly iterating over each of these trying to improve them, so add as much detail as you want I say!
Always enjoy your journal, keep up the great work man.
Finished the week feeling like I've learned a little more about the strategy I am using, and that's a positive note to end up on.
Took an ES trade first thing today. I've been staying away from the equities but since I was still in Sim I thought I'd see how the strategy was working there. I did hit T1 for +4 but volatility backed up and hit my S2 for BE. Price then continued right on down without me.
As long as I was trying out volatile instruments, I took a trade in CL as well. I hit T1 for +5 and S2 for +2, a total of +7 ticks.
Even though both those trades were positive, they told me that my strategy, which uses relatively tight stops, is simply not designed for high volatility. I have not seen a strategy for this market that does not involve wide, high risk stops and that doesn't fit my personality or my account size. So, until things settle down, looks like I'll be sticking with 6E and possibly even 6J, 6B and 6A. I have found some success in the Asia session with the Yen. The Pound seems to move a bit like the Euro but that is changing with Brexit. The Aussie has always seemed sleepy to me, and then it will have these sudden, dramatic moves. I suppose if you watch it constantly you might catch those. We'll see. I think volatility in the equities is going to continue for awhile so I'll have plenty of time to study these other instruments.
With that in mind, I moved back over to 6E and faded what appeared to be a double-top. I hit T1 for +10 ticks and S2 for +13, total of +23 ticks on the trade. I have been experimenting with trailing my second stop a bit further back. I still move my S2 to BE once I hit the T1 scalp, but then once price continues to move in my direction I stay a couple ticks behind a second SuperTrendStop I have on the chart. I failed to do that here and gave up some additional ticks because of it. Learning to hold that second stop back is a work in progress!
Finally, I traded a pullback in 6E and hit T1 for +8 and S2 for +1, total of +9 ticks.
All in all a positive (sim) finish to a week that began with a nasty hit to my live account. Hopefully I learned a few things that will keep me in profitable territory next week.
By the way, I appreciate the feedback on my question regarding posting every trade. I do keep a separate trade-by-trade journal in TraderVue so I guess I have always considered FIO my "sharing" journal. Nevertheless, you are absolutely correct that the purpose of any journal is ultimately for my own benefit. Thanks for reminding me of that!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay healthy!!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
I know I mentioned this a few entries ago, but just in case someone is just now picking up this thread, I am currently using a strategy developed by Trish Ogilvie at EasyEminiTrade.com. It uses an old indicator called a Super Trend Stop as an entry signal, filtered by a dual stochastic which gives warnings about possible bounces or ranges. Seems to work pretty well. Where I have been tripped up is by not watching my S/R. I keep two sets, one from a 15 minute chart looking back several days and one from a 5 minute chart that I re-set every session at the Globex open. I was using a 1 minute chart for those daily S/Rs but have backed off to a 5 minute chart to see how that works. The only problem with all those S/Rs is that it is hard to find a clear entry sometimes because so often I will find a S/R line directly above/below my entry. Sometimes I get away with it anyway and sometimes I don't.
I am currently still trading 6E due to the volatility in the equities. My first trade today was a long that hit T1 for +8 but backed up on the S2 for +1, total of +9. The second trade I shorted right into a resistance line, thought I could get away with it but didn't . Hit both stops for -24 ticks.
Third trade was textbook and reminded me of how it's all supposed to work. Hit T1 for +8 and S2 for +28, total of +36. I sometimes set my T2 at a logical spot, S/R or high volume, but sometimes I just push it out a ways and just manually follow my stop as I did here. For the follow stop I am using a second Super Trend Stop indicator with slightly tighter settings and I place my stop a couple ticks beyond that.
Final trade was a short that did not run. I even placed T1 slightly closer than usual because both Volume Profile and Market Depth were lining up for a pretty significant bit of support. Hit T1 for +7 and S2 was BE for +7 total.
I'm still in the learning curve for this strategy but am encouraged by the results so far.
Happy trading everyone!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
Had a little time after the Globex open this evening and found just one trade in 6E. Price broke above the Super Trend Stop and I went long, hit T1 for +8 and then S2 was hit for +3, total of +11 ticks.
200406 Asia 6E 1
Didn't catch any other opportunities so I'll look forward to the RTH open tomorrow.
Night all!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
A nice, positive morning trading the 6E. Price was locked in a range from about 5:30 to almost 8:00 PT and my first two trades were range trades but still using my same strategy with the Super Trend Stop. Both trades were on the long side of the range with the first hitting T1 for +8 and S2 for -1, total of +7. Really, on a range trade, I should quit hoping for a runner going out of the range and just set my T2 for the other side of the range. Would make more sense but hope springs eternal, as they say. My second trade in the range hit T1 for +4 and S2 for +1. Here I moved my T1 to agree with the range limits, so only +5 for the total trade.
200407 6E 1-2
Right about 8:00 price moved into a down trend and once it had established itself I found a pullback to enter on. That worked out well hitting T1 for +8 and S2 for +16, total of +24 ticks. My indicators were now showing the possibility of a long trade but with either a pullback or flat period. In the past my stops have been wide enough to ride out the pullbacks so I went ahead with an entry. The pullback almost hit my stops, and then price wandered a bit. I lost confidence in the trade so when the opportunity to scratch it came around I did so with BE on both contracts.
200407 6E 3-4
Last trade this morning was a short following my Slinky (Super Trend Stop) entry, hit T1 for +8 and S2 was -1, so +7 ticks for the trade.
200407 6E 5
I quit a little earlier than usual today. No reason except I felt 5 trades was plenty and had a feeling that I had done all I could do for the day. Ended up with +43 ticks ($268.75) and am happy with that.
Hope everyone else had a positive day as well!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
I did not spend much time in front of the computer this evening and the fact is, if you're going to catch the set ups you have to have your butt in the chair! This evening in 6E a big move happened between 5:00 and 6:00 PT, when I happened to be eating dinner. By the time I sat down, price had settled down conderably and it didn't look like I would find a trade. However, a pullback set up short with just barely enough room for me to get a scalp before support so I set my targets at +8 and +9 and managed to hit both for +17 ticks total on the trade.
200407 Asia 6E 1
Considering how little time I devoted to trading this evening I felt very fortunate to walk away with anything.
First trade in 6E today was a long above the Super Trend Stop. Hit T1 for +8 and then price hit resistance. I had T2 set a ways above that resistance but there was huge volume both on the Volume Profile and the Market Depth and after price bounce off it a couple times I should have moved T2 down and taken what I could. That is something I am still working on. As it turned out, price finally retreated and hit S2 for +6, total of +14 on the trade.
200408 6E 1
After that, price slid into a range for about an hour. Finally I decided to go get breakfast and, of course, about 5 minutes after I left price did a nice 40 tick slide down. After seeing price make a nice move last night when I was at dinner, I am thinking of starting an advisory service: I will send out a signal every time I get ready to leave the keyboard so all my subscribers will be alert to be ready to enter a big move!
My next two trades were both pullbacks and both losers. The first one looked great but I aggressively entered at the first entry, which in this case was a mistake. Second error was that I left my stops at their default rather than moving them up as I usually would on a pullback entry. Result was a max loss of -32 ticks. Ouch!
The second pullback also looked good, I took a more conservative entry, and did move my stops appropriately. It still moved against me but at least the loss was only -8 ticks.
200408 6E 2-3
Not a whole lot of action after that so I decided to pack it in. I ended up losing 26 ticks for the morning and, much as I hate to end the day with a loss, at least I hopefully learned something. I will definitely be watching my entries and stops on pullbacks a little more closely in the future.
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
Had very little time last night to watch the markets and when I did, I simply did not find a trade worth taking.
This morning, 6E went on a nice bull run from about 5:00 - 6:30 PT. When I sat down at the computer shortly after 6:00 I managed to get one trade in on the end of the run for +18 ticks before price settled into a range where it stayed for the rest of the morning. My next two trades, still using the Super Trend Stop for entries, were range trades and netted +8 and +4, a total of +30 ticks for the first three trades.
200409 6E 1-3
The next trade I entered long just under resistance. When price faltered I was lucky to be able to scratch the trade for +2 ticks. The next two, still range trades, netted +16 and +17, total of +35 ticks for those three trades.
200409 6E 4-6
My next trade took the shine off my day. Same strategy, still a range trade, but it simply backed up clear past my stops before it finally did travel to the bottom of the range and it cost me -30 ticks. My final trade was a stupid move. Probably revenge trading brought on by the previous loss. Rather than following my strategy I tried to "pick a bottom" with my filter stochastic and nearly took a maximum loss. As it was, fortune sometimes -- but not often -- shines on fools and revenge traders and I was able to scratch the trade for +2 ticks, giving me -28 ticks total for my final two trades.
200409 6E 7-8
After 8 trades I was sitting at +37 ticks and felt like I was done for the day. I'll take a look at the Globex open tonight and then tomorrow is a holiday in the markets.
I hope everyone has a great weekend! Stay safe and healthy!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
Quick comment about the indicators you are using. Harry, aka Fat Tails has continued to update the Super Trend indicator and it is a part of the library at Lizard Indicators, his web site.
General comment on charts. I do not do FOREX so my comment only applies to equity indexes. If you go to the ES or the Micro ES etc you really need to not use time based charts. A huge amount has been written over the years about volume confirming moves in the equity indexes. Only significant time theories seem to be related to time of day, not bar time. So if you stick your toe in the micro ES waters switch over to tick charts. With Ninja * you can run a tick and a time chart in the same space to get a feel for the difference. It is fascinating to set the tick chart parameter to equidistant bar spacing off, makes it very clear how trade moves in waves or bursts.
Traded 6E last night in the very thin Asia session, most markets observing Easter Monday. I only took two trades, losing one for -16 ticks and winning a second for +3. Just not enough volume so I bailed out at that point.
This morning I took a PB in 6E that ended up being a sideways move that eventually took me out for -24 ticks. I've been having trouble lately with my PB entries and I'm going to have to go back and do some studying. Obviously I'm making some fundamental errors somewhere.
Next trade was a break above that range using the Super Trend Stop (STS) as an entry. Again, price moved against me for -18 ticks. I felt like I just wasn't in sync with the market and decided to back off 6E for awhile.
200413 6E 1-2
I watched CL for a while and found an STS entry, hit T1 for +5 but S2 was tripped for BE, total of +5 ticks.
200413 CL 1
I had some breakfast, came back and found another STS entry in CL, took it and again hit T1 for +5 and S2 for BE.
200413 CL 2
Even though I was hitting my T1 scalp in CL, the volatility was taking out my second stop and I knew it was only a matter of time before both stops were hit for a max loss. That would be a -20 tick loss and that takes 4 scalps to make up for it and those are not good odds.
So, I went back to watching 6E, which was excruciatingly slow. This is how 6E used to be before things went wild with the equities. Who knows, maybe this is a good sign and I'll be able to return to the equities if they simmer down soon. Anyway, I did find one more STS entry, went short and hit T1 for +8 and S2 for +2, total of +10 ticks for the trade.
200413 6E 3
Not a tremendous start to the week, -32 ticks in 6E and +10 ticks in CL, but it will be interesting to watch the markets this week and see if things are changing.
Happy trading, y'all!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
