Wow, what a run up today. I had some longs from the lows and I am currently trying some shorts from the highs. I like to take the strongest long and the weakest short. It seems like anytime I do something else I get bit. I am getting close to the $500 profit mark. Things are getting exciting. I have started to allow myself to scale in ONCE. No massive "averaging down." Doing this more than once seems like a recipe for disaster. Here are my M2K (micro Russell) short trades for the morning.
AAPL earnings at/after the close. I should have been long ALL DAY. The FANG stocks are all very strong today. AMP futures doesn't have stock data, but Investing.com lets me use this live data for free.
Never ever do that. If you find these people influencing you - probably a good idea to stay out anyway. I hear people present opposing views of mine all the time. Couldn't care less. Only trade your own signals.
Accountability. One of the reasons I like doing this journal is because I consider all of you "accountability partners." Thanks! I take a lot of trades and don't desire to post all of them, but I commit to continue to post my 5-day AMP history, as I have done. So if you don't see it each day, I give you permission to harass me! The commission on the micros is deadly if I am not careful, and it also messes with my head on the progress for the day, since it doesn't seem to track correctly mid-day. Because of this I can't post real results until after 10 pm EST when I get the email, but may not get to it until morning. I am really doing well right now, but I know that I will have some bad days too. I don't want to hide them. I am only hurting myself long-term if I do. Knowing I have to post my results will help me trade better.
Today was AWESOME. And I broke my daily record for this account. Got some longs, got some shorts. Kept everything on a short leash. Below is my favorite trade of the day. I have been working harder on "expansion trades" --where, instead of mean reversion, the market takes off (up or down). This is also known as a "breakout" trade. Unfortunately, the breakout trade is one of the hardest for me to take because of my affinity for fading. Indeed I am the contrarian of contrarians. Well that double negative is positively confusing. How about this-- I am the King of Contrarians. But I know that there are times when the market seeks out a new value are. It stops reverting and migrates and forms a strong trend. Know the tipping point is a great skill. I am working on it. In any event, as the NQ was at the highs of the morning (see the R line), I decided to try a LONG instead of my normal short. Not only did I not get creamed, I actually made some profits! See, old dogs can learn new tricks....
I'm bringing this up also because this was not true for myself in the past and I made the same mistake. I was a participant in a chat room with an allegedly great trader many years ago now. Truth be told - I don't really know if he was or not. But I remember more than once changing my opinion based on his comments and found myself making bad decisions because of that. I think listening to other traders makes a lot more sense if you're formulating long term views or otherwise do research on your trading plan/signals. Meaning - if some guy is sharing something which seems interesting, then backtest/backcheck it, verify it for yourself and then use it if it's good or fit you. But during a live market session you shouldn't be doing it. Obviously, you know that. But pointing it out still. Nice sheets. May I also suggest tracking the number of points you're extracting per contract? That way you can track relative performance as your lot-size grows. It might make less sense if you're trading various markets, but if you're consistently trading only one market, it's interesting to see how many points you're extracting per trade regardless of lot size.