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In the spirit of holding myself accountable, I have decided to create this trading journal. On a daily basis, I wholeheartedly intend on posting my outcomes in both /ES and options. I primarily scalp /ES for 2-6 ticks and scalp options for 15-40%. My daily goal is 5-7 handles net on /ES in the European and premarket NY session.
Correction. I have decided to reopen this thread. Decided to take a step back, go through another funded trading program (topsteptrader) versus blowing some of my own capital. Previously tried an earn2trade gauntlet but had failed it due to poor risk management practices and overtrading. Also felt uneasy about going through another gauntlet with them after some of the recent negative news regarding their unscrupulous practices. With TST, I want to get through Combine 1, Combine 2, and build up to the 5k profit target on a pro account. I will subsequently withdraw this capital, add personal capital, and move forward with trading my personal account. I think that this will help ensure that I build the right psychology and solidify my edge before trading live on my account.
50k TST Challenge
-3k profit target, 1k daily loss limit, 1k weekly loss limit.
-2 contracts max (most of the time one). I will not increase contract size since I do not anticipate trading with more than 1-2 contracts once I fund my personal account.
-Daily monitoring of news events to prevent myself from breaking this rule.
-Day 1: 50,249 starting account size on Combine 1 starting day of 11/13. I can finish the combine on 11/19 if I meet daily targets but I'm giving myself the time to get through each stage of the combines so that I'm only taking high quality setups. If it happens, it happens. If not so be it.
Positives, Limitations, and Solutions
1. Every single time I've blown a simulated or live account it has been due to overtrading and overleveraging. I also tend to give all my profit back/blow my account in the daily doldrums. Most of these days I'm up between $600-1200 and I'm chasing a higher profit target for the day. This is when I self sabotage and take suboptimal entries leading to eventual losses. This means that my entries at the start of the day are solid and they get progressively worse as I go through trading sessions.
1' The solution: Trade European open 0300-0400. No trades after until NYSE open where I will trade between 0930-1130 and 1500-1540. I will focus on other priorities in times outside that. If I hit a profit target of $1200, I will automatically call it a day. If I hit $600 in profit, I will stick to one ES contract max or move on to micros. If I hit $800 in <30 minutes of the European or NYSE session, I will call it quits for the day.
2. Hopium
2' Hard stops at 10 ticks on 1 contract with the option to average down when down 6 ticks. If I reach a 10 tick loss on both I will take the loss and move forward with the next trade. After a losing trade, I will take at least 2 minutes before initiating another trade.
3. Planning and Preparation versus flow/discretionary training
3' I will plan my days by charting to determine ranging versus trending days. I will determine important levels off the daily, 4 hour, and 1 hour to gauge trend. Daily=green, 4 hour=brown, 1 hour=red. I have pivots up on my chart already and will look at overnight ES activity relative to crude oil, $tick, etc.