I really want to improve my trading consistency. This journal is meant to keep me accountable for sticking to the trading rules outlined below. Please don't expect any earth shattering strategy on how to trade ES. What I want to do is to show up every day and report how well I was able to adhere to my own rules. I expect this journal to keep me accountable and honest on how well I'm doing.
What I'm hoping it will give anybody bothering to look at this journal an encouragement to work on the consistency of their trading. There is no silver bullet. There are a lot of approaches to trading and one has to come up with their own. I strongly believe that what really sets apart a successful trader is the risk management and ability to stick to their trading rules.
Story
I have been trading stocks for the last six years (2011) and the futures since 2014. Still not profitable. I had a really good mid year last year but unfortunately, I have been taking too much risk and gave all the profits back. I tried multiple instruments before to find the one that fits me. I like treasuries and notes, ZB and ZN but haven't been able to trade them without large swings. I like ES for its fairly consistent behavior and good volume. I mostly try to trade volume profiles and price action.
I have a full-time job but have ability to watch my trading screen during breaks.
The following people had most influence on how I think about trading:
Big Mike
FuturesTrader77
Peter Davies
Kam Dhadwar
John Grady
Broker
I use Stage5 as my broker. I used to use IB but it does not make sense to purchase a data feed to compensate for the quality of their feed. S5 provided me with an excellent customer service and a nice variety of tools, like S5 Bookmap and their trade analyzer.
Tools
For tools, I use Sierra Charts and Bookmap. Sierra Charts' DOM works nicely for me and I like its ability to develop custom indicators and analysis. I recently started to use Bookmap and really like how it provides auction insights.
All my tools run on a physical server with Windows 7 Pro that is hosted at a local datacenter. I connect to it remotely using excellent iOS/OS X client, Jump Desktop.
My monthly cost of trading is:
Server: $47
Sierra Charts: $22
Bookmap: $100
Data feed: $11
Total: $180 / month
Goals
My goal is to 'kick the habit' of random trading from mobile device, without proper setups and outside of predetermined trading hours while strictly adhering to risk management rules.
I don't have any specific financial goals. In the past, whenever I created financial goals for trading, I felt miserably because I got myself into trading for the specific financial goals. I don't need to trade for income but it would be good to at least cover the monthly cost of trading. I also want to get consistent to the point where:
I don't trade my own money meaning that I made enough to withdraw the initial deposit
I can confidently increase contract size.
But most important, I can show up every day and report back that I adhered to my rules and from that point of view I was in green.