Aphie's REAL Trading Journal

Aphie - Don't take this the wrong way - but what happened to that chart that worked like an ATM? Why are you not trading that chart?

 

Hard stops are good Alphie, especially for a newbie, I use them for every trade I do and it does help psychologically and removes some of the anxiety and gives you some sense of control - just remember to account for slippage.

I don't think you should be trying to trade the pre/post market yet, leave that to the vets.

Stick to your original plan, if you are not going to use your futures strategy you need something else - a man without a plan will always be at the mercy of the man who has a Plan.

 

Alphie

There has been some good advice here, majority is worth your time to digest and make a part of you.

Your worst loss is always around the corner,

stick to a defined trading plan, and strict money mangement otherwise you might as well just have gone to Vegas and stop posting about your trades!!!!!!!!!!

You have put too much pressure on yourself now. You don't need it. Go workout and come back to the game with a detailed plan

Robert T.

 

Some of those posts were absolute bullshit. I look back at my naivete and just shake my head in disbelief.

That ATM machine still exists. I am that ATM machine.

 

Concerning "sticking to the plan."

What I don't understand is how a trader "sticks to the plan" when the market is moving in real-time. I guess maybe some systems are more simple than others, but when the heat is on, I find it very hard to be objective. Maybe that is because I am new to this game.

What will scare me most is the realization that either:

a) My system sucks.

b) I have no system.

If I don't have a system or a system that sucks, I really have to go back to the drawing board -- and that area is not fun. I had enough of a headache with Technical Analysis, I don't want to go back there.

Apparently I was just a great discretionary trader on paper that is getting hurt by my own emotions.

If my emotions don't come under control with time, I'm going to have to go see a counselor or take stress management classes. Perhaps there could be other areas of one's life that leak into trading.

I'm lacking patience and confidence right now and that isn't good.

I am determined to continue to learn and evolve. I now have a new found respect for all of you "serious" traders.

Simply put, this shit can be hard.

 

in two days you have already shown your lack of discipline. you you used a simulator and developed a plan for the es that apparently worked. now you get your account open and in two days you have traded spy, qqq, ym in addition to the es.

why did you spend all that time on the simulator trading the es and then just completely abandon all that you did there? if you want to trade the es then TRADE IT AND ONLY IT. while you're at it why not try trading the method you developed on the simulator.

it's up to you what kind of trader you want to be and what markets you want to trade. it seemed that you wanted to trade es and that is why you spent all the time trading it on the simulator. seems like a lot of wasted time if you aren't going to trade the way you have practiced.

 

Right. Like when I'm in a trade and the power goes out and / or my broker goes down. That's gotta be a REEEAAAALLL nightmare.

 

QQQ, SPY, etc .. they are all indexes (indices?). I am finding that each handle on ES is 1% of my account. You're only supposed to risk around 2% of your account per trade MAX. That basically limits me to minor scalping.

I went to QQQ and SPY for practice. I can trade 100 shares of QQQ and still apply my system, which is applicable to all indexes as I've seen it, and not deal with such large leverage.

I was turned on by the glamour of ES and its strong leverage, but I'm feeling how sharp the other side of that blade is.

 

You picked an atypical market to trade the last two days. So you can't draw any long term conclusions from it. Your discipline could use some work though.