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I recently signed up for the "Trading Challenge" with TraderDock. It's pretty much the same as the TopStepTrader Combine. I believe the biggest difference in the rules is that with TraderDock, there is no trailing drawdown. You can take as long as needed to meet the goals but you have to trade a minimum of 10 days. There are two stages to this Challenge/Combine. The rules are the same in both stages. However, the amount of the P&L above $2,500 for Stage 2 will determine the profit-sharing percentage and the number of contracts allowed for trading in the live funded account.
RULES:
Profit Target - $2,500 Daily Loss Limit - ($1,000)
Max Drawdown - ($2,000)
Required Trading Days - 10
Permitted Trade Times - 8:30AM-3PM EST
I'm posting this journal to help me be more accountable. Hopefully, along the way I will get feedback from veteran traders and experts here to help myself and others reading this grow into a mature futures trader. For this challenge/combine, all trades will be S&P 500 Emini. Any time posted will be CST (Central Standard Time). I will try to be as detailed as possible. I'm trading from a DOM but I've included the trades with the timestamp below. Please subscribe to this thread and feel free to chime in with any questions or feedback. Thanks!
So here goes...
July 8, 2019
My first trades...
8:30AM - I took an ORB (Opening Range Breakout) short at the open for one contract at 2980.
8:41AM - Long 2 contracts at 2977.50 ($125 profit, net Long 1 contract)
8:47AM - Long 1 contract at 2976 (Net Long 2 contracts)
9:07AM - Short 1 contract at 2980.25 ($137.50, net Long 1 contract)
9:16AM - Short 1 contract at 2984.50 ($425)
9:34AM - Long 1 contract at 2976.75
9:47AM - Short 1 contract at 2978.75 ($100)
9:57AM - Long 1 contract at 2977.50
10:01AM - Short 1 contract at 2979.25 ($87.50)
10:41AM - Long 1 contract at 2977.75
10:48AM - Long 1 contract at 2976.50
11:04AM - Long 1 contract at 2975.50
12:04PM - Short 1 contract at 2978.50 ($37.50, Net Long 2 contracts)
12:41PM - Short 2 contracts at 2976.75 ($75)
1:15PM - Long 1 contract at 2976
1:24PM - Long 1 contract at 2974.75
1:51PM - Short 1 contract at 2977.25 ($62.50, Net Long 1 contract)
2:23PM - Long 1 contract at 2978 (Net long 2 contracts)
2:39PM - Short 1 contract at 2982 ($362.50, Net Long 1 contract)
2:49PM - Short 1 contract at 2979 ($50)
I mainly traded two contracts at any given time with the exception of one trade where I scaled in 3 contracts as I had the impression that the marketing was range-bound at that time and we weren't too far the low and I was already up for the day so I can take a little heat if needed. That trade didn't turn out to be much. I went long later in the day expecting the market to run up near the closing. I'm not sure how realistic are the fills in a live account.
I have lots to learn and much to improve but overall, I think I did pretty well considering the day's range was about 10.50 points and I took $1,421 from the market mostly on two contracts at a time.
PS: Vote for me!
I entered my journal in the July FIO Journal Challenge. Please stop by and vote for me by clicking the 'THANKS' button on my thread.
Today should have been a really great had I stuck to trading the ORB, moved my stop to break even afer the first target, and trailed my stops. Instead, I went long 2 contracts at the open and closed them out before my targets were reached. It was still a decent trade but I continued to trade and initial shorts during choppy mid-session (3-4 pts range). Luckily, I was able to reverse position toward the close of session and take back what I gave the market but I ended up baby-sitting my positions throughout the whole day plus paid more than 10x in commissions. Figures below shows Time, Long/Short, # of contracts, Price, P&L...respectively.
I thought about doing position size of 3 lots so first one can pay for the trade, and other two at different targets but I'm afraid during choppy open I won't have wiggle room with $1k daily drawdown limit.
---------------------------------------- Vote for me!
I've enter my journal in FIO Journal Challenge. Stop by my post below and click 'THANKS'!
I don't really have a style of trading that I stick to. I glance at the ON and premarket to get an idea of how the market will open. When the market opens, I try to pay attention to the price movement and see where the opening range is then I take the trade when it breaks the opening range. Once my 1st target is met, I move my stops to break-even. I look at other indicators to get a sense of when it's overbought/oversold then I look for entries on a 3-bar breakout.
Honestly, today, July 9th, should have been better traded than the day before so I didn't do well today despite being up $484 for the day. Overall, today was trending and I should have managed my positions the way I described above.
So I think it's just a little bit of skill but mostly luck. Trying to improve on that. How's your trading?
