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Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
First time to start a thread and trading journal. Preparing for February 2020 trading journal challenge. I've been trading futures off and on now for 6 years. I'm a net looser since the beginning but have a dogged desire to make trading a living. I'm still trading as a hobby and working full time. I'm learning over the years and plan to make 2021 the first profitable year. I'm using TopStep combine as a means to my goal. Join me in my journey for February journal challenge.
I just want to point out that, as of now, you do not have an entry in the contest. (Oops . )
You will need to post the url of your current journal (this one) in the journal contest thread. As it is, you have a link to your original pdf on google docs. You will need a link to this journal.
You won't be able to edit the original post you made in the contest thread any more, because more than 24 hours have passed.
If you like, you can make a new post in the contest thread with a link to this thread, and I can delete that old post, and all will be fine. As it is, no one will be able to use the existing link to find this journal, or to vote for it....
Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
Day 1 of the Challenge:
Trading plan – trade only ES, 1 contract, 3 trades per day, daily loss limit $300, stop loss 7 ticks, 2:1 win ratio target but at least have 66.7% win rate for each day. If I can watch price action during the trade, take action based on what I see happening.
02/01/21 trades: all ES trades. 1st trade around 8:30 am Eastern, market was slow and probably should not have traded, but the charts looked right, below the trend from early in the day and below the 1st deviation of VWAP only +1 tick after holding and no movement. 2nd and 3rd trade around 9:45am. Price had broken away from same trend line and 1st deviation of VWAP breaking toward VWAP, had about 3 to 4 points to go, volume and price action looked good for a short. First attempt (2nd trade) was a quick loss on pull back, lost 7 ticks. 2nd attempt (3rd trade) was a failure of that pullback, was a winner for 14 ticks. Net for the day 8 ticks.
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Watched price action for the rest of the day but managed to not trade and to stick to my plan. Lessons learned today – wait for consistent volume before I trade, most good trades are before 11:30 EST. Goal for tomorrow, trade my plan, shoot for 3 profitable trades with at least one trade a 2:1 winner.
Month to date profit/(loss) +8 ticks.
Learning this posting process, hope these picture show up well. I'll try.
Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
Day 2 of TopStep February Trading Journal Challenge - A little longer than what I like but a unique day today. See trade pictures to the left and my reason for trading following.
02/02/21 trading journal- all ES trades – 1st trade around 9:35am – I realize the risk trading that early in the day, the price was way above my day trend line, price was ripping, had a small pull back and I took just below the pivot point, raced through pivot and began to pause so I took 10 ticks, I could have gotten my 2:1 but not much more.
2nd trade around 9:50am – Market was still trending up, price above trend line, pulled back and touched 1 deviation off of VWAP and at R1 pivot as support, price moved up with a small pull back, took trade at close of bar, had room for 3 points to the day’s high – +12 ticks.
Looked for 3rd trade in the 3pm last hour but did not take the short due to it being within last 15 minutes. I show the chart anyway.
Net for the day +22 ticks. Net for the month, two trading days +30 ticks
Lessons learned today – take action when market is in a strong trend early, read prior days lessons.
Goal for Wednesday, the 3rd day of challenge – this is a unique goal due to my status in my TopStep combine which I started before the challenge. I’m within $934 of my max drawdown of $1,500 before I break a rule and have to reset to continue in a combine. My rebill date is tomorrow Thursday of this week. If I have broken a rule before Thursday, then I get a reset with my rebill and I don’t get a reset if I have not broken a rule. I pay the rebill amount regardless. My goal for Wednesday is to trade my plan and look for setups as normal early in the trading day but I will trade with more contracts so that I either make $600 today (to get back above the $1,500 max drawdown) or I hit my daily loss limit of $500 and break a rule before my rebill day on Thursday. This goal may change as I go through Wednesday trading day depending on the results of the trades. But I will be a winner or loser for the day by 4pm.
Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
2/3/21 3rd trading day. Well if you read my post for yesterday, Tuesday, you might understand my post today. Today's goal was to either bust my TopStep combine by loosing $500 or be highly profitable by $600 or so. See prior day post for reasoning. Well I started out today and got up to $500 pretty easily and was so close to my $600 goal. I chose to go for the win rather than play it safe. I know this does not help my results in the challenge but my journal is to publicly state my trading plan and trade according to that plan, recognize my faults, and improve my trading. I will accept the results of today but believe I stuck to my goal for the day. Lessons learned today - don't trade if there is no trend according to my methodology. Momentum is of high importance, don't trade until there is confirmation of the expected direction by at least one pull back. Goal for tomorrow - reset my combine and trade according to my journey toward hitting my target in the combine. I had too many trades to post pictures and they were not representative of my methodology.
daily loss -40 ticks month to day (3 days) net loss -10 ticks
Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
2/4/21 - 4th trading day - Actually no trades today. I trade only in my spare time during my full time job. I did not see any trades today when I was watching, so no trades. As I review the charts, there were obvious trades but not a lot of short term momentum. Lesson to day - accept that you can't trade every day but learn from reviewing charts for the day. Goal for Friday 2/5 - review prior post to journal and refresh my mind to my trades and my plan.
Trading: Mostly NQ and MNQ past 9 months, ES & CL in the past
Posts: 22 since Mar 2016
Thanks Given: 14
Thanks Received: 32
2/5/21 - 5th trading day - Another busy day at my 8 to 5 job so only one trade today. The was mostly to see the result in the TopStep combine that I started trading today. Took only 5 ticks on one trade Over the weekend plan to play with grand children and review my past week entries into my journal and refresh my lessons learned and goals for next week.
Hi,
I just discovered your journal, do you trade the ES or the MES?
If you only have a 500 USD daily loss limit, I suggest you to trade the MES . I have been trading with TopStep for a while and I have earned and lost several accounts with them. I have always traded the 150K account, that has 3000USD max daily loss.... and it's difficult.
With 500 USD max loss I think it might be really impossible.
I know that you have to "only" make a 2000USD profit to pass the combine, so you might think that everything scales accordingly. The problem is that there is something that does not scale, and that is market volatility. The only way you have to take care of it is to reduce size accordingly.
For instance with 3K max daily loss I trade only 1 contract at a time until I make enough money for the day, only and only if I am up at least 600 USD I increase to 2 contracts.
I apologize for "daring" to make a suggestion, because I am not a profitable trader either but I would suggest you this: "forget" about when the rebill date and assume it will take some months. If you want to really learn a lot, give it a try to Micros and allow to take multiple trades per day and to be wrong. With current level of volatility you can make 100USD per contract on Micros, so with 3 contracts you can make some 300USD on good days. Once you build your account above a certain level, you will have more power and you can increase size.
You will learn a lot! and you will progress without stress.
. )
