Thought id do a little journal just to document my reults and see if i (or others) can spot any patterns in my results and maybe get some suggestions. I am a LOSING trader!! Been trying to learn for years and years. About 6 years. A few of them years have been 15 hour days everyday staring at the charts, and some of them years have been trading after working a 'real' job for 4-5 hours per night (im in the UK) Im not 100% sure whether its possible, but i've put so much time into it that i'll probably NEVER give up, even if it means just trading the tiniest stakes possible so that at least not much further financial pain is possible. Over the years ive seen a lots of people on forums who were thought of as being trading experts being 'found out' to be frauds. That didn't help my confidence in terms of this being a feasable way to make money. Its so easy to lie on the internet, and i sometimes wonder if anyone at all (other than those working for big firms who are privvy to special information) are actually making money. Still, like i said, i'll maybe never know, so for now im just gonna keep plugging away. I've had spells of success, but over time have lost lots of money ('LOTS' being relative. Its certainly a lot less money than some of the horror stories ive heard, although it's still a lot to me ) I tend to just use support/reistance, candle formations. Dont really use indicators much. I though i'd start the journal today as ive just downloaded ninatrader7. Im back on sim at the moment after losing a good chunk of my account over the last week or so. Today was great for me. I dont know how i can do so good today, but i'll probably get killed tomorrow. Im hoping there's a pattern somewhere which maybe this journal will help me spot. I mainly look at oil and cable(6b). Hers todays reults. I tihnk im up about 100 ticks. PS - Can anyone tell me why when i go to 'tradea' in 'acccount summary', my 6b and 6a trades show profit as '0'? Obviously that's not the case if you look at the entry and exit price. cheers.
I guess nobody knew the answer. Turns out that there is a problem with NT7 and it isn't able to display fx trades in points gained/lost at the moment, so for now i'll do it in dollars rather than points for now. I always trade ONE contract. Yesterday was +$730 Today I am negative at the moment. Will post when im done for the day
Good luck with the journal and with your trading. Regarding the comments below, even though everyone on this forum recognizes you were joking, your subconscious mind does not take a joke. Words are powerful. A fellow trader put me straight about this in no uncertain terms so hopefully you can take this as constructive criticism. All the best... Today was great for me. I dont know how i can do so good today, but i'll probably get killed tomorrow.
Hi afto. Can you elaborate? Do you mean i shouldn't be saying things like 'i'll likely get beaten up tomorrow' etc? Its just based on experience after trying to crack to market for years. Even if i dont say such things, we cant stop thinking certain thoughts, can we? Also, im not sure how such thoughts could actuallly affect ones trading, especially when there are rules in place, which are being abided by. Thanks. --------------------------------------------------------------- Ok down $300 today. Dont think i'll always post the actual blotter. Its sim, and so ive got no reason to lie. Also, i cant seem to post them without taking up a huge amount of room, most of which is just a blank white space Lets see how tomorrows market fits my trading. Still Up on the week so far.
Basically, what I hear you saying is that you believe your experience (which in this case you'd likely label as bad, frustrating or unwanted) is the truth as you know it and saying or thinking otherwise is unhelpful or dishonest. I'd certainly agree that mindlessly repeating words or mantras that you don't actually believe in is ineffective. However, what I'm suggesting is that when you consciously begin to stop talking/writing about stuff that you don't want to experience then your desire to be successful is less hindered by interference from thoughts of the contrary. That's an important first step. Re: thoughts not affecting trading performance. Again I respectfully disagree. You might want to have a butchers hook at Trading in the Zone (Mark Douglas). JMO
thanks for elaborating Ato. I carried on trading as a few more setups triggered, and I am now only down $100 for the day. Better. so +730 yesterday - 100 today See what tomorrow brings
Probably done for the day here. Losing day of -104 glad that my losing days so far have been a lot smaller than my winner meaning im still in profit overall so far, although I cant rely on such winning days to occur as that winning day was rather rare where i was able to pocket over 100 ticks. That doesn't happen much! Also, I missed a very good trade early on this morning which would have given me at least 20 ticks and would have made today a small winning day. fri 730 mon (-100) tue (-104)
Just remindind myself. I shuold have mentioned that I plan to use this method to test other ideas and theories in my head when it looks like my current stuff doesn't work. Im gonna give my current method at least another week or so. I think bearing in mind that im trading off of 5min charts and taking over 10 trades oer day on average, that 2 weeks should be sufficient time to tell me whether im barking up the wrong tree or not? Thoughts on this please????? Is that long enough???? Next ill probably try concentrating on just one instrument and tweaking my setups again. It does all seem a bit busy looking at 3 or 4 instruments with all sort of setups triggering all over the place..maybe its causing confusions and mistakes..???..or maybe the setups dont work. Its a balance between the advantage of monitoring more instruments, thus improving the odds of getting a setup, versus the confusion of looking at lots of things, and possibly doubling your losses if your method doesn't work in the first place! I find it interesting how people often say that SIM trading is the easist thing in the world and the amount of people who say they can make lots and lots of points everyday consistently on SIM but fail with real money. I can only assume that when they are SIM trading, they are not taking it seriously...?.... They must be just trading without stops, and keep adding to losers, using all of the margin their huge account balance gives them. Obviously this wouldn't be feasable in the real world. Having experienced what trading with real money is like, i feel that if i can gain consisteny on SIM then ill have a shot at making money going live. Its just getting there which is proving extremely difficult.
A couple of things I noticed: 1. You are most likely overtrading with an average of 10 trades per day on the 5 min. Try to limit this down to 3-4 per day, concentrating on the very best setups. If you analyzed a log of 100+ trades, you'd be amazed at how much small losses add up trying to catch the big ones. 2. That mistake you made where you missed the huge winner yesterday could be the difference between net positive and net negative in the long run. I've been there more times than I'd like to admit.