Six month's into my day trading experience it's time for me to start a journal. I hope this journal will provide accountability and increase my ability to stick to my trading plan.
I'm a chemical engineer, nearing the end of my career in process safety and risk management in the oil and petrochemicals business. These last five years or so I have been working with onshore shale and offshore deepwater drillers applying process safety systems to an industry that has largely utilized human controls. So my obvious choice of futures was crude oil, I've been an energy market news junkie for years, and in the past I've usually invested in the energy markets in my retirement and investment accounts.
I started day trading UWTI and DWTI and transitioned to Ninja Trader a few weeks ago. My personality is suited for scalping, and my biggest enemy is over trading. In the past several weeks I have gotten a better grasp on technicals and charting, and my goal is to eventually play crude options in addition to intra day scalps.
When I started a few months ago I read many of these trading journals, and I noticed over and over again, almost every successful trader has blown an account or two before getting disciplined. I figured I was smarter than that, and of course I experienced a 20% overall drawdown rather quickly. I've managed to claw back to roughly even at this point.
I'm "retiring" from my corporate job in a few months, as soon as we can complete a transition. I have learned to be successful I cannot trade at work, it's too distracting, not to mention not fair to my employer. So I really treasure the days when I can schedule a vacation day and trade.
This brings me to the most important part - I LOVE TO TRADE! I have not been passionate about a career in many years, and my wife says my eyes light up when I talk about it. I could easily spend 20 hrs/day studying and trading, I am totally fascinated by it all. But that is not a good life, and I have better, more fun, more fulfilling things to do with my time, like kayaking with my grandson or traveling with my wife.
So my trading plan is to get in front of the screen around 7 am central, study the markets and wait for the momentum that generally happens between 8 and 10 am each morning, then break for lunch and come back around 12:30 pm to the settle. After the settle quit. I've had very good success staggering up to 20 CL contracts during high momentum events, like a selloff triggered by an EIA report, or a FED statement. What typically happens next is I start over trading, getting greedy and searching for more adrenaline. I've been up $5-8k at 9:30 a couple of mornings, then loose half of it by 2 pm over trading.
Trading has changed my life. The mental discipline aspect is fascinating to me. It's just like diet and exercise, everyone knows how to stay healthy, yet many of us don't eat right and don't exercise - it's all about discipline. My wife is also retiring, and we have both started doing yoga and working with a trainer, eating healthy - life is GOOD! I think it's important to establish a dedicated space to trade, and not just sit on a couch with a laptop. I get a better mojo using a dedicated space. I'm also a furniture maker, and I'm making a trading desk - more on that later.
If I can limit myself to less than 5 trades each day, I will be successful at this. I hope this journal will help me reach that goal. I will post performance results and discuss my trades / win or loose, as I progress.
I want to thank everyone on this forum for taking the time to write their threads - I have learned more here than from any other source. THANKS ALL!