Hi folks. Quick introduction about me and my trading experience. My name's Mike, and I have invested in stocks for about 10 years. I was doing research on how to play a market downturn and I discovered futures trading.
Through a simple Google search and Reddit thread I came across the names John Grady, No BS Trading, and Jigsaw Daytradr. I bought the Jigsaw Daytradr platform and training, NT lifetime license, and John's beginner Ebook.
I read John's book and went through about half of the Jigsaw training before i decided I was ready for live training. Mistake there, and I paid $1,100 in trader's education. Since then I have meticulously gone through ALL of the training I paid for, and have done a lot of sim trading. Since I am consistently profitable, I am ready to try live trading again with a focus on being profitable.
An interesting aspect to my trading is that I really prefer trading the ETH session. It feels like everything slows down to a manageable speed. It's harder to get good signals from the cumulative delta, but *very* easy to see when someone is pushing the market around and is running out of steam. That's when I like to jump in.
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First day of live trading was on Friday. I made 12 trades on the MES. Won 8 lost 3 with one scratch. I was patient looking for entries, and impatient on trade exit. My biggest mistake was trying to fade the big move from 3:00 to 3:30 lost 2 out of 3 trades including my biggest loser of the day. Down $10 for the day.
Areas of improvement include remembering to turn on my screen recorder. Trying to stay calm and confident. My heart was really pounding every time I got into a trade. Another mistake was letting my worst trade really move against me, with the rationalization that "I'm $50 ahead, I can afford to give this one leeway to get back onside".
Area of best performance was probably trade location. Winning 8/12 is a recipe for success if I can have the confidence to let the winners run a little more.
I will sim trade then live trade the ETH session on Sunday night/ Monday morning. If I have another losing day no matter how small I will take 2-3 days and exclusively sim trade.
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The most important thing is I know it will get better. The nervousness is partly because it's so new to me.
I am doing a little meditation. One subject I meditate on is missing trade opportunities. This is a big one because jumping into a trade just because I think I'm going to miss it is a bad idea, so I can't let that worry me. Another thing I meditate on is staying calm if the market moves against my trades.
Another thing I like to do is loosen up my jaw. Open my mouth an inch and take deep breaths. I know this sounds goofy, but Michael Jordan and Pete Sampras did this.
What do you do to keep calm, Michael? Is it working?
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#1) I've got a picture of my family up on the wall, along with a little note I wrote to myself after a particularly bad day promising not to repeat it. Checking in with both as the computer starts up is a good little moment.
#2) Have you read Steenbarger's bit about an emotional "thermometer"? I took his concept and put it to paper, so I've got a physical page in front of me with a little game piece I use to mark where I am. The 3 options are "hot (negative) - cool - hot (positive)". If I catch myself outside of "cool", I physically get up from the computer, go make a snack or take a walk etc. "hot" works both ways - I'll start doing nervous things when I'm feeling "too" great and/or when I'm feeling angry/sad/etc. Happy to take a pic and send if this explanation sucks
In short, I've found the best things are preemptive. I agree with meditation, it's been a good discovery for me too. In general cutting out other stresses in life will help with trading stress. I can point to several periods where I underperformed because of a relationship, other business problems, health stuff, etc etc.
Thanks for sharing (I'll step back from your journal now!!). Best of luck with everything, I look forward to reading more!
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Wow that all sounds good. I appreciate you sharing that. I suppose when I get past my "opening night jitters" I could move on to an emotional thermometer.
I have a question for anyone reading this. At the moment my style is short term scalper. More like ultra short term. I am trading the MES until I am consistently profitable in live trading. Does it make more sense to have a depth of market for the ES on my screen? The ES is kind of driving the bus in my mind. Of course I could be wrong.
My thoughts are that is doesn't matter what you use. As long as you are comfortable and feel that it gives you an edge. Trading is very psychological. Those price movement describe the emotions of everyone involved directly or indirectly with the market. Considering that the movements of the MES (or any other market) is solely based on human emotions. That being said I've used market depth and felt that is has just caused noise for my brain. Play around with systems and indicators and get a feel for what you trade. When it comes to the tools you use to help interpret what the price charts are trying to communicate there is no right or wrong. Every one is different.
Good Luck
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The problem is that I primarily use the DOM and a split volume profile. The numbers are sometimes very different between the ES and MES, yet the price moves the same way. Since absorption at extremes is the most important thing for me, I want to make sure I'm trading off the best information.
I had a very good Sunday evening Sim trading. Tried to live trade the MES but looks like Ninjatrader has raised their margins.
Best thing I could suggest is to trade as little as possible, and pick a window of 2-4 hours max. Have a daily profit goal where you stop after you achieve it. I'm in it for the freedom at this point, and hate being too glued to my screen.
I keep a photo of my Son at my desk. It's him who reminds me that I can quit this business while I'm ahead if I need to, and that I don't need to push big trades. When I am distracted by him (toddler), I drop the business for the day to focus on spending time with him!
You've got a long journey TugLife. Hang in there and take it slow and make sure you have some emotional (and financial) support and backing. You can definitely become profitable and make it a career, so long as you don't set the bar TOO high. Be realistic and you got this.
