Seems you're stuck in a multi-year losing streak. Save the 10k you'll lose next week and spend it on a good trading coach. Van Tharp or someone like FT71 who can provide proprietary tools to pinpoint deficiencies in strategy and psychology. Going forward with a 50 percent drawdown is sheer madness.
So you are doubling your profit target even though you failed to reach the pervious one by huge margin? That doesnt make sense and almost feels like revenge trading.
C'mon get real. Not willing to reveal weakness in one's strategies comes to mind... lack of time to do so... those are your reasons... however the latter can always be addressed at some other point in time. This isnt a soap opera-- mutual benefit from readers & OP is what a journal is designed to accomplish -- this falls far short of that mark. Real world trade examples can only help all involved. And yes-- to respond before u say it-- of course I know im not obligated to read the thread... that isnt the point however. Cold hard reality is the point.
Secrets to what? Losing money? Aren't you down ~50% from your $1m starting equity? Still waiting for $0 equity within "n" months. I think Neke would benefit from posting his trades.
Neke, with your drawdown now 50%, I think it's time you may consider lowering your risk. Instead of risking 10k per position, maybe halve your risked number of contracts. Or maybe go even lower, go for a few hundred profit targets for a while until you've worked out and adapted your trading system to fit the times. A lot of trading experts are now saying liquidity has dried up, and mostly all that's left are computerized trading and HFT. It may be a few years before folks come back to the market. Consider going for a longer term plan. And improve your trading with sim trading on TOS. You still can make your money back in the next 4-8 years. You don't have to keep pushing the markets. Only funds with billions can really do that anyways. The options pits are just full of the market markers screwing the retailers out of good option prices now. That and HFT. You must get your edge back to compensate. So like others said, please consider finding a reputable coach, a different trading system, or money manager to help with some intervention.
Reverse engineering is not done that way. Typically reverse engineers have a history of trades and engineer from that, not points where it would have been the most optimal to enter.
I used to love reading Neke's journal because it was raw, honest, and lacked a lot of the BS that so many journals have on ET. Neke reminded me of myself early in my trading career...self-financed, working stiff with a very good life and career compared to more than 95% of the world's population yet still missing that one thing that would complete you. Seeking to get out of the rat race, ditch the cubicle, shed the suit and tie, and provide for your family in the comfort and freedom of your tee shirt and boxers. Then you wake up and realize that it is all bullshit really. This is a business...serious business and you better treat it like that, and you better make sure that everyone else that is around you treats it like it is serious business. Neke's meteoric success is the exact cause of his current malaise. He has been conditioned to treat trading as a game and the account balance has merely been a tally of the high score. Too many cliche's and trading adages have been at work in Neke's trading to allow him to adapt and overcome the changing tides of the market. 1. Plan the trade and trade the plan. But what if the plan is no damn good? 2. Stick with the plan even when suffering a serious drawdown. But what if the plan is no damn good? 3. Focus on the plan...not the money. But what if the plan is no damn good? The money is the only thing that keeps you in the trading game. It is your life blood. When the trading capital is gone...your trading life ends. Neke has failed to properly discern luck from skill. Neke still hasn't realized that he is a reversion to the mean trader. Neke has failed to realize that trading with 500k is a lot different than trading with 50k and thus the strategies and risk should also be different. With 500k he should have graduated to writing credit spreads, doing straddles, condors, etc. I have a saying "Small accounts seek volatility; large accounts seek predictability". I told Neke over a year ago that he was playing a very serious game. Neke is an engineer and I know how much or shall we say how little most engineers make per year even those from top schools only make around 100k/yr. Now he has been making monthly withdrawals to help maintain his current standard of living all while suffering a hellacious multi-year drawdown. This is the type of thing that destroys marriages, families, and causes guys to take a swan dive off of the highest building in their city. This is real life Neke not a computer game. Take time and seek advice and let a trader you trust review your trades. Many of the trades you used to post had absolutely no apparent rhyme or reason to them other than they had gone too far in their current direction so you were going to go short or long and wait on the "inevitable" correction/reversion. If they kept running then you'd add to the loser and keep adding until the pain got too great to bear. Oh and then you'd lament how the market eventually turned and you would have made tons of cash if you had just held on a little longer. It's not all doom and gloom though Neke. You still have a sizable account balance for someone with a viable trading plan and proper risk management skills. Stop trading, withdraw all but about 50k, learn a few viable strategies, develop solid risk management, and share your trades with someone(your wife is a good start). I wish you much success Neke but you have developed too many enablers and cheerleaders here on ET. P.S. automation is overrated. Automation isn't made to replace discretionary trading only enhance it. Computers can only trade the plan that it is programmed to trade. But what if the plan is no good?
What's the difference? You can't reverse engineer anything in trading, even if you have an idea of how it works. Why don't brokers reverse engineer their best clients, quit then trade it themselves?