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My accounts were basically flat today, with $30 per account on average (copier issues made for discrepancies between them, they ranged from $4 - $50 per acct.).
As I said yesterday, I'm working through this week's plan modifications.
Back tomorrow!
Goal for tomorrow: I will remember that losing days are part of the normal outcome. So long as I ensure my loss days are within 1-2 win days. 70% of days should be positive; 90% of weeks should be positive; 100% of months should be positive.
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
Done for today. A real hodgepodge of trades. I'm still working out how to best structure the latest program I broadly outlined on Monday. It's not really working as of now. I had one 4pt ES loss out the gate today, then I switched to one micro for a while, then took a 2 lot ES scale out on the move down at 9:30 am PST and got more than my daily profit target so I stopped. It's kind of all of the above trading, not the simple trading plan I'm after. But sometimes I guess it just takes 'all of the above.' I'm not sure.
The main issue is not taking exits when it doesn't do what I expect in scalp mode. There's almost always an exit, like 99% of the time. I just have to decide how many times I will allow it to come back to my entry without going down another tick to pull the trigger on a break-even or minus 1 tick trade. After this morning's loss, I decided if it goes back past my entry, comes back and touches it once, and ticks away again, then I just move to a -1tick exit. It will make for a less than pretty win rate, but it's absolutely critical to take those exits. In fact, to err on the side of many small losses or scratches. The opposite always leads to holding losers. Even if it means losing some that come back after all. I have to be ruthless about it. The only other option is to structure it with a scale in at the next level, where it almost always comes back at least mid-way. But the problem with that is... you know what it is! The final option is hodge-podge trading. I guess I could give it a positive spin, such as 'mixed martial arts' trading or something.
Lots to think about, as always. I'm going to tinker around a bit in sim for the rest of the session.
Back tomorrow!
Goal for tomorrow: I will remember that losing days are part of the normal outcome. So long as I ensure my loss days are within 1-2 win days. 70% of days should be positive; 90% of weeks should be positive; 100% of months should be positive.
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
I've lived the last 13 years learning this the hard way. Every time I had a loser I just held on until it came back or turned into disaster. These big losses blew my accounts up over the years. I think your definitely on the right idea! Thanks for the good read.
Daily 15 min chart (don't usually ever post it here) -- I like the way it looks tonight. It feels right. The Mancini et al levels ine up with what I'm seeing. There's this red megaphone with last Friday's high as a start point and the up channel breakout overshoot this week above, and below, the prior two highs that undershot it forming a retest level. The lower portion lines up with the 4574 level and the upper one with the 4617 level. If to go below, the mid-channel had held every time so far, and that lines up with Smashelito's 4570 level. If to really pull back the bottom of the channel lines up with 4531 (Mancini) (and above 4631). But I can see the price action ranging inside the megaphone (breakouts are always possible). This is not what I trade, for the most part. It's the high-level road map.
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
Today was one of those days when it works out early. Just my two scalps. No mixed martial arts today
My profit target is $75 per acct. That's set in my risk mgmt so it stops here. Gonna tinker around in sim now. Work on those exits!
Happy trading to all.
Back tomorrow!
Goal for tomorrow: I will remember that losing days are part of the normal outcome. So long as I ensure my loss days are within 1-2 win days. 70% of days should be positive; 90% of weeks should be positive; 100% of months should be positive.
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
This is just adding to the live trading reporting above for today. Entering it separately as it's a different installment. These are sim trades that include the first two and continuation afterward just in sim. Good practice.
I had two of the ones I was talking about yesterday that are sometimes hard to get out of in live trading. When it goes past my level, but almost always retests the level from above (trading short, for example). If I'm at the level going in, I can get out for -1 tick on the retest. I said yesterday that sometimes it'll come back down and I will miss a trade, but I have to be ruthless and just take them when there's an obvious push up over the level. That was the second one where I took a loss. On the first one it continued against me.
Another thing about the sim session is that I don't rely at all on my orderflow strategy trigger, just on my levels. In real life what this means is that the levels often precede the order flow, as the order flow is in fact reacting at those levels, so I am in a way better off, or earlier with simply putting resting orders on my levels and being ready to exit if it breaks against me. Where I get in trouble is if there is a breakout at the level. Then of course it's better to have the orderflow strategy trigger my orders, so I am never triggering against the order flow. I found in practice that if I turn it on at the level and it triggers, great. If it start pulling back from the level and I've essentially missed the level (i.e., now my 3 ticks from the level are questionable because I am too far removed form it), then I keep the strategy on, but turn off the auto order trigger, so if I see there is an orderflow trigger I simply go in and put in an order back closer to the level, anticipating it may momentarily go back from that trigger price and towards my level before continuing into profit. This is hard to visualize without knowing what I am working with. This is a journal and so I just put it down here for my own reference. If you can figure it out so much the better
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
Live trading done for today; week done. Gonna go to sim now, like yesterday (may post separately later). It's good to hone the strategy. Gonna keep it like this until I feel very comfortable and then increase daily profit. This works for now. I'm trading multiple Apex accounts (the weekly profit chart below tracks 3 Apex accts because that's what I had last month, to keep apples to apples, but I have more accts this month).
Hope everyone has a great Friday!
Goal for Next week: I will remember that losing days are part of the normal outcome. So long as I ensure my loss days are within 1-2 win days. 70% of days should be positive; 90% of weeks should be positive; 100% of months should be positive.
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
Here are the Sim trades I took after this morning's live trades, posted above. This degenerated a bit into typical sim trading. The last one is definitely not something you could do with ES contracts and a $2.5K drawdown, but it would have worked with micros. Good practice nonetheless. Great to do this post live trading as it is quintessential over-trading...
Have a great weekend!
There's a typo on the slide below, it was positive delta not gamma (typing fast)
Also a typo on the one below (or rather a shorthand). They're not technically selling
the crap out of it, they're absorbing the crap out of it (yes, selling to buyers), which
might as well be as good as selling, because that's what they do next (or the crowd
does when they can't get over it, or both)
You can't outsource confidence in trading decisions
The final option is hodge-podge trading. I guess I could give it a positive spin, such as 'mixed martial arts' trading or something. 
