Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Hey everyone, not really one to post much but saw the fund raiser Big Mike is putting on for new journals, and Im all for supporting a cause.
Here's the gist of where I am to catch people up:
Software: Jigsaw Daytradr on top of Rithmic Pro. I also use Journalytix to record each trade, I love digging into stats and this makes it easy to capture the trades and associate different parameters/hashtags with each trade so I can dig in each day. Yes Daytradr & Journalytix cost money, but Im of the mindset I am going to pass, I am going to be funded, and I am going to be doing this longer term, so they are an investment in myself.
I'm currently doing the Earn2Trade $50K Mini Gauntlet. I have done the TopStepTrader $50K as well, passed after a few resets, and moved into the Pro account and subsequently blew it up. I decided to go after with E2T for a few reasons. 1: Promo, took the 50% off memorial day sale so it was all of $85 for month 1 (with the intent to pass before month 2). 2: I wanted to try the slightly different plan of 15 days, $3K goal, no day can be bigger than 30% of the profit. It would keep me in check from trying to swing for the fences. So far, it's worked well.
Currently were in the middle of Day 7 and I'm done for today. Other than -$10 day 1, every day has been profitable, and reasonable.
I only trade Crude Oil. Personal interest, moves at a good pace for me. Goal was just average $200 a day, slightly ahead of that and right on pace to finish in 15 days.
Day 1: -$10
Day 2: $210
Day 3: $440
Day 4: $310
Day 5: $220
Day 6: $330
Day 7: $180
Total: $1,680
Avg Day: $240
Lessons learned from going through TST, a few resets, getting a pro account then f'ing it up:
Stop overtrading. I would trade out of boredom, like it was just a hobby. I had plenty of days I was up $200, $300, etc and somehow magically ended up down $1,000.
For the above stats for E2T, I would say I spent 2 hours on average each day for those results. When I get over $200, I'm done for the day. Lesson learned from my TST days, take the profit, book a winning day. It feels a hell of a lot better going into the next day up a few more hundred, than having traded like a madman only to end up losing, which is what would happen 9 out of 10 times when I keep chasing.
Along with that, patience. I have a few setups I like, when they happen I feel much more in control. The rest of the time, I was basically just gambling, is it going up or down, red or black, odd or even, etc.
Below is my dashboard - Where it says Trade a Min 15 days and it says In Progress: 6, that means 6 are completed, currently as I write this we are in day 7 and I already made the amount for Day 7 above, that is included in the balance. Not planning on trading anymore for Day 7.
No trading update, just posting my starting balance for the day, showing 7 days complete and $1,681 in profit over the $50K. The official day ends at 1pm PST (currently Im on the west coast), and starts at 3pm for CL trading (I think technically 1:10pm end time but honestly I try to do my trading in the evening, slower moving but enough action to get what I want out of the market, then I'm just done for the day. If I do trade the morning, I'm done by 12pm at the latest).
I'll update with my trades for Day 8 (which ends Friday 1pm PST) after I'm done. Goal is to round up another $200, if things go well push it to $300+ to get over the $2K mark but not going wild with anything.
In other news, I finally figured out how to make the image show in the post, so that's a victory right there.
Day 8: Goal ($200/day) & stretch goal (get over $2K profits total, or $320 profit today) met.
A bit of a grind, up past my bed time for sure but was close to the $320 profit for today goal and wanted to make it happen. Ended up at $52,028 balance, 8 days done with 7 left to make the remaining $1,000. Feeling pretty good about the progress, I'm trading basically how I would want to progress in the real world. $200/day would be plenty fine with me.
Goal for next week, Days 9-13 will be to actually get to the $3K mark, then I just have 2 days left the following week to get at least 1 trade in a day so they count as days traded on, but the financial goals been met. Basically I'll just keep doing what I have been doing, its been working out dandy.
At this point I could scale up to 6 contracts max, but I'm sticking with trading 2 which I have since the start. I'm well on track and ahead of the game, no need to push it.
Originally I was going to try and document any bigger trades today. The one below was the first trade I believe. After that I got caught up in just doing the work and not documenting it all. If you want a bit of insight into how I thought through the trade (and similar approach to other trades), feel free to read, give feedback, questions, etc.
As well I wanted to show how the software (jigsaw Daytradr) looks as I have it set up. I'm guessing more readers of this journal will be newer traders like myself and/or Earn2Trade candidates, and I found it helpful when I started out seeing what others were doing.
Will post Sunday night/Monday Morning with Day 9's results.
Have a great weekend, enjoy the trade play by play below if you want.
Day 8 - Trade #1
TLDR: Shorted 2 contracts at 37.32, 2 tick stop loss, 10 tick take profit, ran down and got the $200 winner.
I mentioned before I use Jigsaw Daytradr. It works great for me. It probably isn’t for most people. I got away from candlesticks and technical indicators 100% though and am far more content. For scalping this works for me, I understand its not everyones cup of tea. My style is scalping, anywhere from 3 to 6 ticks normally, occasionally I'll adjust my take profits looser if I think it'll go on a run (low resistance in the order book usually).
Trade 1:
Was anticipating a break low after it had gone up to 37.38 approximately and was hitting a wall, then was starting to moving down with momentum. I like trades where it look like its going to try and break a low, so that’s why I waited until 37.32 to short when it had a bit of downward steam headed towards the low.
Shorted 2 contracts at 37.32 (grey column, 37.32 highlighted in Red)
I have Jigsaw set up with “Strategies” which are the same as Brackets, and probably other names as well. Basically when I enter a trade, stop loss and take profit orders are automatically placed. I want to save myself from any quick spike against me, and/or if the price fires my direction quickly, I’m all for grabbing the quick profit. Doesn’t happen a lot, but it has happened. Once my order is filled, I then manually manage the stop/take profit. My default is 3 tick stop loss, 6 tick take profit. In this case I moved the stop to only 2 ticks to hide behind that 15 buy limit order, and moved the take profit down since I was looking for the big jump down.
About 2 seconds after this screen grab it ran down and triggered the take profit, so a $200 trade. You can see in the image that 37.27 is highlighted, (and on the far right the ticket tape the latest trades), it basically shot right down from here.
Ran some stats for the last 8 days, pretty much no surprises. I wanted to identify a few things to work on though the upcoming 5 days. No profit goals, the profit will flow out of increasing performance.
Goal 1: Increase win rate
Last 8 days: Win rate 53.3%, Losers 39.3%, rest are pushes (all excluding commissions)
Going to try to get this to 60% winners. How? More picky on entry, I'm the first to admit I might jump in a trade, it bounces against me and stops me out, and I'm right back in again for another round of punishment.
Going to be waiting, little more patience, looking for prime setups.
Goal 2: No moving my stop loss.
I'm the first to admit I get in a trade with my standard 6 tick take profit, 3 tick stop loss, and immediately Im adjusting the stop loss down further, especially if it moves even 1 tick against me. Very seldom does moving my stop loss bigger pay off because it bounces back in my favor, instead I just take a 5-6 tick loss instead of 3. If I get stopped out time and again, then I need to pick better entries, and that ties into Goal 1 as well.
Thats it. Lots of things I could work on and eventually will, but for the next 5-7 days those 2 things should go a long way.
I'll admit I was almost nervous going into today. My 7 straight winning days, on the back end of the 15 days needed, I feel like a losing day is coming. I spent a more time prepping for today mentally than I spent trading. I reread my list of notes I keep. "Don't Overtrade". "Daily loss limit of $200 MAX". "Once over $200 in profit, stop". Just a few of about 20.
Today wasn't that inevitable losing day though. Actually today (Sunday 3pm start here on the west coast of Canada) and within 10 minutes I had exceeded my goal for the day, so I stopped. ~$300 in profit. Few screen shots below, the E2T dashboard with the balance, and my trades.
There was/is a fair bit of action happening right from the start, and I honestly jumped in when it was pushing new highs.
7 trades - 6 long, 1 short. The 1 short is the only loser.
Longest trade just over 1 min. Shortest 22 seconds.
First trade entered at 3:01, last trade closed at 3:12.
Honestly if this was "real money" sure I'd keep trading. I'd pick some spots. Sit back and wait for the market. But since I now have ~$700 left to make to pass, and 6 more days minimum needed, Im not looking for a home run. I'm all for going over the $3K needed, but I want to do it in a consistent manner.
PS: If anyone is super keen and adds my previous day total to the profit I show in Excel for today, its off about $10 from the E2T dashboard total. The excel download is from Journalytix, and you have to manually set the commissions. I obviously have them slightly off, I just never bothered to fix them for the sim trading.
How the hell do you blow what was $2300 in profit and 6 days left?
Well, today was going okay, not special, was up $50 total after 2 hours and several trades. Lot of back and forth.
Then I was in a short, I didn't have my brackets on, and the price tanked, quick. That's not what knocked me out though.
Me, thinking I'd be slick and ride it back up with 4 contracts to make the money back, jumped in. I then got an email that I had failed.
At that point my account was below $1500 in profit, and at that level, you are only allowed 2 contracts. Immediate fail.
Sadly, I would have ridden it back up, here's a shot of the big red down that killed me, and the up-green that would have saved it.
Lessons learned: Broke my own rule of not just scalping and instead trying to get a home run, took off my brackets (Take profit & stop loss)
2 - after a big loss, take some time and evaluate. It might have dawned on me Im not allowed 4 contracts.
That's it for this journal unfortunately, pretty disappointed in myself that 10 days of work amounts to a fail. Some more valuable lessons for me to put in my backpack that I thought I had learned before when with TST.
Not sure my plan this second. I will try again, either TST or E2T. I'll sleep on it and decide, which ever route it'll be stricter rules for this rowdy.
@lexknight Sorry to hear that you've lost it right towards the end. This is when it usually happens. As i was reading it, i noticed that you are trading 2 lots and i thought smart move. Looks like pride kicked in and desire to finish it ASAP cause the failure. I can relate to it myself I didn't it so many times.
I am sure, you will be able to pass it without any issue next time around. May be switch focus from getting there fast and keep a concentration on the quality of the process. Print gauntlet rules and keep it in front of you as well.
P.S - > It is very easy to pass any of evaluations but for some reason it is much harder to keep that account going. I guess it is relating to the focus. When you are in evaluation your focus is sharp but as soon as you pass it fades away and pride kicks in and rules are not followed.
I've been funded my self with TST, Gauntlet, Leeloo 3 times but still unable to hold live account for the exactly the same reason you failed yours.
Good luck and looking forward to read your new journal.
Hey Markus, I haven't been checking Gauntlets rules recently so can't comment on that. I pass the full Gauntlet and i was allowed to trade the same size and rules as per evaluation. I blew it up because i hit max draw down.
I made a move to Leeloo and was funded with them 4 times already. The last one was just a week ago. I blew it up by reaching max DD.
Just to add to the above. During evaluation the focus was in a single product but then i added ES to my list, and as soon as i done it, account was gone.
It is good idea to keep focusing on a 1 product only.
Thanks for getting back to me.... Sorry to hear you had to go thru it a few times. Does profit have any bearing on the DD. Say you have a 25000 account with 5000 in profit but and you hit a 1100 DD (I dont know the exact figure) will that loose your account and what happens to the profit?
