I trade mostly micro oil MCL, micro dow MYM, and the micro SP MES. I trade with Infinity and really like the DOM they offer. Right now I am trading 1 contract.
I track all of my trades in an excel spreadsheet. I will post my performance for the current month
So far in July:
Number of Losses: 181
Number of Winners: 3
Sum of losses with commissions: -$482.55**
Sum of winning trades with commissions: $770
**I consider a loss any trade resulting in less than a $100 profit. So a $25 profit is counted as a loss in my spreadsheet. So far in July I have 3 winning trades resulting in a profit of over $100 for each winning trade.
My trades today:
26-Jul
Oil(Market) 1(Number of Contracts) L(Long or Short) 98.31(Entry Price)98.29(Exit Price)-2 (Profit or Loss)
Dow 1 S 31851 31851 0
Dow 1 L 31871 31865 -3
Dow 1 L 31833 31835 1
Dow 1 S 31838 31839 -0.5
Dow 1 S 31836 31837 -0.5
Dow 1 S 31861 31860 0.5
Dow 1 L 31831 31820 -5.5
Dow 1 L 31777 31776 -0.5
Oil 1 L 95.03 95.03 0
Dow 1 L 31730 31728 -1
Dow 1 L 31702 31702 0
Dow 1 L 31689 31704 7.5
A little about my strategy: I like to make a market in the market I am trading. I place limit orders into the market. Sometimes I have an offer and a bid in at the same time. I place the limit orders about 10 to 20 ticks away from the last price. Once a trade is executed I try to reduce losses as much as possible. My goal is to scratch on most trades. If the trade moves in my direction I use a trailing stop. I like to let my profits run and hold onto winners as long as possible. If the trailing stop is not triggered I will exit the trade at the end of the day.
The following 4 users say Thank You to blackgrey45 for this post:
I ended the day with 13 trades(13 losses and 0 winning trades).
Average loss including commissions: -$8.5
So far in July:
193 losses
3 winners
Sum of losses with commissions: -$585.4
Sum of winning trades: $770
Average loss with commissions: -$3.69
My average loss for the day was more than double my average loss for the month. This was a very unsuccessful day. I held onto losses longer and chased profits. An overarching goal is to reduce losses to the point where every loss averages to be a scratch.
Trading Plan
Reduce losses as much as mentally possible. Aim to scratch on average for each loss. Use limit orders to exit the position and reduce losses.
Stay with winners and let them grow. Use a trailing stop with unlimited profit potential to the upside. Exit a winning trade before market closes for the day.
27-Jul
Market| # Contracts| L(long)/S(short)| Entry Price| Exit Price| Profit/Loss
Oil 1 S 97.87 97.97 -10
Dow 1 L 31792 31812 10
SP 1 S 4031 4030.75 1.25
SP 1 S 4033.5 4040.75 -36.25
SP 1 S 4039.75 4040.5 -3.75
Oil 1 S 98.45 98.45 0
SP 1 L 4033.25 4033.5 1.25
SP 1 S 4036 4038.5 -12.5
SP 1 S 4038.25 4038.25 0
SP 1 L 4034.5 4029 -27.5
SP 1 L 4027.25 4026.5 -3.75
SP 1 S 4031.25 4031.25 0
SP 1 L 4020.25 4019.75 -2.5
You want to improve your trading plan but you are not keeping track of the data correctly.....you are using a spread sheet for the facts but using 100 as the win/loss calculation is muddling the results....over 0....a win ...under 0 a loss....try that....it makes more sense with the facts....then you know what is really happening.....and can make better decisions .......I am enjoying your numbers though....and would like to see your results....
The following 2 users say Thank You to loantelligence for this post:
Agree with loantelligence. The way you are counting losses as anything below +$100 now has you with a win rate of 1.5% for July. So you "lose" on over 98% of your trades.
Obviously choosing not to use negative outcome trades as losses and positive gains as profits makes no difference to how much money you have actually made or lost, but does make your statistics kind of meaningless if they are based on personal assumption of counting a $100 gain as your zero profit level.
Part of the point of having trade statistics is that you know when your real trading is going off track so you can stop and reassess your process based on process stats (expected win rate, profit to loss ratio, longest losing streak etc), not just PnL which is all you actually have when your stats are based off incorrect data.
Currently for instance how can you really recognise you are having a bad few days based off your stats if they tell you you expect to lose on 98% of your trades. You lost on 100% of trades yesterday and you say that was an unsuccessful day, but that was only on a small sample of 13 trades. You would really need another day or two of full losses for a representative sample size to be inconsistent with the stats.
However, three days of 13 losing trades a day, but one winning trade amongst them would give a win rate of almost 3% for those three days so then according to your stats you wouldn't be trading badly but instead actually trading much better than expected.
I don't understand how you taking the trouble to keep a spreadsheet of results, but then choosing to set zero profit as an arbitrary amount instead of zero, doesn't negate that data analysis based on what you have said so far.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. - Gary Norden
The following user says Thank You to matthew28 for this post:
28-Jul
Market| # Contracts| Long/Short| Entry Price| Exit Price| Profit/Loss
SP 1 S 4062 4062.25 -1.25
Oil 1 L 96.38 96.37 -1
SP 1 S 4063.75 4064.5 -3.75
SP 1 S 4064.5 4066 -7.5
SP 1 S 4066.75 4068.25 -7.5
SP 1 S 4068 4069.75 -8.75
SP 1 S 4069 4071.75 -13.75
SP 1 S 4071.75 4075 -16.25
SP 1 S 4070.75 4071.25 -2.5
9 trades executed (9 losses and 0 winning trades)
8 contracts traded for micro SP
1 contract traded for micro Oil
Sum of losses including commissions= -78.45
Thanks for trying to help me. I am going to continue counting a loss as any trade resulting in less than $100 profit. It just helps me differentiate between real winning trades and little winning trades.
The following user says Thank You to blackgrey45 for this post:
Market | # of Contracts| Long or Short| Entry Price| Exit Price| Profit/loss
SP 1 S 4132.25 4131.75 2.5
SP 1 S 4134.75 4141.75 -35
SP 1 S 4141.75 4140.75 5
July Numbers
# of Losses (any trade resulting in less than $100 profit): 205
# of Winners (any trade resulting in greater than $100 profit): 3
Total sum of losses including commissions: -$699.25
Total sum of losses including commissions: +$770
Average loss with commissions: -$3.46
Average win with commissions: +$256.67
Today I was working on reducing my losses. The $35 loss on the second trade was me just hoping things would turn around instead I should have taken a smaller loss earlier. I was also trying to wait more patiently for a time of day when I have an edge, which reduced my number of trades substantially from the average number of trades I usually take. I traded for about 3 hours today, 1pm to 4pm.
Just got my monthly trade statement for July from my broker. Had a p/l of +$402.75 without commissions and exchange fees. Commissions and exchange fees were -$253.92 and -$162.08, respectively.
Market | #Contracts | Long/short | Entry Price | Exit Price | Profit/Loss
MES 1 L 4126.5 4122.5 -20
MES 1 L 4121.5 4122 2.5
MES 1 L 4130.25 4121 -46.25
MES 1 L 4120.75 4120.75 0
