Sim trading continues. More signs that I am taking this seriously is that I have standardized my platform setup. It's nice to know exactly where to look to see things. I will be buying another monitor, a 32". I use a laptop for trading and there just isn't enough real estate for what I want to see. I will get another mouse, too. I have carpal tunnel and want to make things as easy as possible on my hands.
This week's trading has gone OK. I am "profitable" but there are holes in my approach, and I have come to a conclusion. For the time being I need to stop fading session tops and bottoms. I have lost more money trying to do that than anything else. I tell myself I will wait, but then I'll just shout "That's absorption" and put my trade on. In other words, I am guilty of trying to pick tops and bottoms.
I am hard headed but the insanely simple "the trend is your friend" just never caught on with me, until now.
So this week I will be trading with the trend. I hope there is room for me on the bandwagon.
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
I have been trading futures for about a year now and just a few weeks ago I started trading in the direction of the trend. Up until then I was buying lows and selling highs and losing plenty of money along the way! Glad you switched, looking forward to see your progress.
The following user says Thank You to blackgrey45 for this post:
Important update: I traded live for a couple of days, MCL and YM on nights. It didn't go well, thankfully. I went back to the drawing board. I have a nearly unlimited amount of free time and I have done a deep dive into the charts, literally poring over them. tick by tick for 12-14 hours a day. I leaned into the work and really enjoyed it.
I have found my edge, and a system that works. It's an idea that is explained in basic on Youtube but I stripped it down, oiled it, adjusted it, and rebuilt it. It starts and ends with risk management but I sincerely hope that the volatility of the last few years remains for s few more.
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
I have wanted to switch from Ninjatrader to Sierra Charts for awhile. I was going to do it a few weeks ago but I decided changing platforms wasn't going to make me a better trader. I've changed my mind...I feel like the time is right to make the switch.
By all accounts Sierra is faster and more adaptable. Ninja has generally been a good platform but it's DOM is terrible and I have started to dislike using Jigsaw as a plugin. Two separate platforms seems unnecessarily complex, especially when both of them are prone to bugs. I still have a funded account at Ninja and it will take a week or so to get a account set up with Sierra with the Teton order routing.
The following user says Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
I have spent a significant part of my life being an arrogant ***. Apparently this will not change. After a couple of successful days paper trading I had already picked out the color for my Lamborghini. Jesus wept.
No I'm not profitable yet, although I haven't even live traded. Being a discretionary trader is hard work and I'll continue to do it.
The following 4 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
The most frustrating part is that I'm such a lunkhead that I still think it's going to be easy. I discover something simple, like a moving average crossover system and immediately think I will get rich with minimal effort.
I did market replay last night and immediately got into two trades against the trend. So even though my knowledge is growing by the day, I will still have to fight those demons. I was in a huge funk by the time I turned off the screen but was amazed to see that I was basically even.
I am putting in massive hours studying charts and the frustration when the paper trading goes badly is awful. i actually think I need to spend more time paper trading, just to get acclimated with the speed of the market and using my new setup, which is kind of complicated.
I need to do a better job seeing the context in the market. Unfortunately I now have 7 charts up. They are all crucial, but if I'm not paying enough attention to the one I am trading I am in deep doo doo.
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
Although I made a decision a week or two ago to finally trade with the trend, the paper trading the other day convinced me I still have some work to do mentally. I think about trading all the time now and all I'm thinking about are pullbacks and second entries.
I think I might be getting somewhere. I plan on doing more market replay/ paper trading tonight.
Later:
So, I got the trend following part right tonight. Despite reading the market well enough to get some really good entries, my trade management was so poor that I turned what should have been a very profitable day into a losing one.
One culprit: poor stop placement. On a couple I had too tight a stop, then a couple of other ones it was too loose.
I need to start recording my trading with a screen recording program. My memory is fuzzy but I am relatively sure I turned a = +$1000 day into a -$250 one. It can be fixed and the recording is the best way to review.
The plus side tonight was my entries. It was an easy read but I was able to do it in real time and *not* try for stupid reversals.
The following 3 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
I am waiting for my new trading account to be approved, and don't have CME data on Sierra Chart yet so I am just going through the chart every day looking at the price action. Thursday and Friday were tough reads. I honestly think I might have gotten smoked on a few of the early morning fakeouts.
I did fire up the platform and did some paper trading at about 3:00 EST. Price was in a tight zipper and I went 8 for 8 for 90 points on YM. It seems like short term scalping goes a lot better with a limit order entry. Unfortunately these were 0.5R trades but there's a good chance that I could risk less or even if I was able to keep up a high win rate that this type of trading could work.
I think my new strategy works better in a tight range. I seem to be getting better reads on double tops and bottoms now, too.
My hands continue to hurt a little from all the computer time. I might have to give up Reddit in order to keep up the hours studying and trading. That would really suck but if it helped me be a profitable trader it would be worth it.
Edit: Turns out I don't need a funded account for Sierra Chart intraday data. So I'm in! The next step of my trading journey begins.
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
I am finally setting up Sierra Chart. I was unhappy with my old platform and couldn't be happier with Sierra Chart. It is written in C++ which is about a million times faster than C# (the language some in which some other platforms are written. It works more like a machine than a piece of software.
To give an idea about how reliable and precise Sierra Chart is, on the user forum people log in and pose their questions/ problems. The only answer the engineers usually give is posting a link to the instructions.
I understand this journal doesn't really provide trade statistics, setups, etc. It is more of a trader's journey. Still, I feel like the next few weeks could see a change in the way my trading goes.
Until now I have been unprofitable. If I count the money I have spent on Ninja + Jigsaw + training + trading losses, it is probably about $5,000. Ouch. I am willing to change my process to turn that around.
The following 2 users say Thank You to Tuglife for this post:
