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I'm 34, from Hungary/England. I've been playing poker for a living for about 10 years. I got in touch with trading here and there through free and semi-cheap stuff but never made serious steps towards going live.
Recently I've met some great sources like futures.io and John Grady's Nobs and decided to dedicate 3-4 hours of my day to become a profitable trader.
Besides playing I'm also coaching poker players to get to know themselves and develope the best mindset for being profitable and enjoying life, so I'm really curious what I will experience about myself while learning the markets.
In this journal I will share my notes about the process.
If you are familiar with John Grady's stuff, there will be no surprises about the setup. I will use the Jigsaw DOM for monitoring the US treasuries and the E-mini. I have spent a little more than a month passively spectating the ladders to get a feel about what's going on.
I will use Topsteptrader's combine parameters to determine loss limits, drawdown, sizings, short term goals.
As I'm starting from scratch with almost no preconceptions I will keep it simple and don't plan to add anything else in the near future. I will continuously making notes about myself and see what I can find out through the process.
Milestone goal is to hit the combine target and after that either taking the 150k combine or going live with my own money. I will see.
All your comments and questions are more than welcome.
To evaluate my sessions and staying in the process I'm going to answer three simple questions.
1, What did I do well?
2, What did I learn?
3, What will I do better the next time?
Here are my main takeaways from the first week:
1, What (I assume) I did really well is cutting my losses really short and fast. My avarage losing trade lasted 1min 46sec and cost ($59,46) in avarage as opposed to my winners produced $98.69 in 5min 6sec on avarage.
I made fast exits when I realized any crucial missplay, like opening a trade close to news or bad sizing.
My best trades were really obvious. I joined a sweep with good timing or saw the tension at a certain level and got in front of the breakout. I knew exactly what I was looking for to stay in or exit the position. I could keep my stop tight and did not need to hope for anything just go with the action.
2, Mindset experiences:
in the beginningI experienced strong temptation to instantly get back into the market after a scratch or one-tick loser
after exiting a decent winner I instantly wanted to get back into the position because it seemed like it's moving further – although I had a good reason to exit
after a missed move I was eagerly looking for the opportunity to join the party
exciting means that I have no idea what's going to happen
boring trades are probably the best way to make money
sometimes I caught myself of hoping something will happen instead of reacting on what is really happening
Technical knowledge experiences:
when it seems like nothing is happening – actually nothing is happening
I have seen at least one or two really obvious opportunities every day – no need to take part in the guessing game when it's choppy
E-mini is really fast when it moves (compared to treasuries) so it's probably a good idea to set up a take profit target to catch the possible spike before it pulls back
exit decisions can (should?) also be based on R/R – can I make a decent reward from this point or should I just exit because the risk if the price turning against my position or nothing happening is bigger?
a big print does not necessarily means movement or entry sign
all I need is a good reason to enter and a good reason to exit – whatever happens after these decisions does not matter
3, This point can be considered as a trading plan.
I realized I'm not getting paid for being busy, I only take those obvious trades
After taking a trade I stand up for a minute and just honor myself with a minute of silent attention, let my toughts and feelings flow
Instead of looking for signs that justify my preconceptions, I pay attention on what's going on right now
I only have maximum one open position at any moment
If I'm "late to the party", I enjoy the ride from outside and learn as much as I can by spectating
I have a good reason to enter, I have an idea about:
