lencho
Registered: Sep 2006
Posts: 40 |
01-12-07 01:54 AM
Hey everyone! Im a long-haul truck driver who is also very active in the markets. I want to trade full-time and will hopefully make the transition this year. Thought I would start a journal to document my progress towards that goal.
Back story: 8 years ago, I got tired of office politics and having a boss. Wanted to start a business, had a good idea, but needed funding. Why not trucking? The late-night commercials made it seem not so bad. So I sold everything, drove a truck all over the US for 2 years, had a decent time, and saved my money. Business idea had obsoleted itself by then, but the markets looked interesting. Studied up, quit job and became a full-time trader. Did well in the beginning. Switched from equities to options. Moved to central Mexico. Drank a lot of modelo's, chased senoritas, and blew up my account spectacularly. Came back to the US and started trucking again and trading on the side. Hated myself for wasting a good opportunity. Blew up several small accounts in over-leveraged attempts to get out of a job I was beginning to seriously dislike. Became very mad at myself for screwing up and then screwed up some more...and some more. Hated myself even more. Hit rock bottom and then quit trading for a few months. Switched from options to e-minis, grew up a little, and began studying MYSELF much more than the MARKETS. Slowly, my attitude began to improve and so did my trading. Coincidence? Maybe. So now Im close to going full-time again. But I still need to be mentally stronger and more disciplined. Im working on it.
My set-up and trading style: I trade the ES intra-day. 3 point max loss and 2% max risk per trade. One hour max holding time. I use candles, volume, moving averages, RSI, S-R levels, and trend lines to get my signals. Very basic stuff, but it works for me. Risk / reward is a bit less than 1:1, but my hit rate is around 65%. All signals come off the 5 and 1 minute charts, and I always watch the daily. As for my set-up, its much more complicated than my technique. Since Im on the road averaging 400 miles a day, it gets a little hectic. I can plan all my driving and about half of my deliveries, so that helps. Last Thursday was a good example. I woke up at 0430 near Little Rock AR and started driving towards TX. I wanted to put in 550 miles that day on my way to Laredo. Stopped just short of Dallas to avoid the rush hour and settled down at 0800 to trade as planned. Got my Verizon supported laptop out, checked the charts and tuned into Bloomberg on my XM. Was planning for 3 hours down, but after 2, I had made a few good trades and packed it in. If I left then, I could make it through Austin and San Antonio before the other rush hour. Lots of planning involved.
Ill try to update every couple of days and hopefully you guys can watch me reach my goals. Thanks for reading! Lencho
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