Brief History of Trade I’ve been day trading since 2007 and I started in a trading room, not a prop firm more like an office that collects commissions and sets everything else up for you. No training at all, they gave you leverage and you were on your own so I just started hitting buttons. Most of the guys traded against the specialist until that went away so everyone in the office was trying to find a new way to trade. I discovered that good traders adapted, and some didn’t. I had a $5000 account and that lasted over a year. Then I would fund it with as little as $1000. I was rather good at trading for a long time on a small account. I had the mentality just stay in the game and eventually I will figure it out. That trading room went from about 15 guys to just me and I traded alone in that room for another year until they closed. A couple of guys made a lot of money in that room and two of the biggest that made over a million in a year don’t trade anymore. So it always seemed possible but I’ve never had a profitable year in 13 years of trading. I recently started trading again this February after a 2-year break and it’s the first time I’m up and still up. Reading through a lot of the posts I’m a little sad about the realities of 20% a year but I know deep down that’s the only thing that’s sustainable. This is the first time in my life I can actually ‘afford’ to trade. That’s why I took a few years off and built up some income and paid off all my debts being a real estate agent. I’m a west coaster so it’s early mornings and I’m in this for the long haul. What and how I trade. 7-13 pts ES and a little NQ Retest of breakouts Consolidation Breakouts Trendline break Trendline continuation When I'm looking for a trade I'm usually talking out a story. If I don't have a good story it's not a good trade. "Bulls are defending this area pretty hard I'll look to get in if we a break lower that will weed out some traders playing the range and some momentum shorts could pile in too that drive it down real fast I think I'll look at getting in if if breaks about 2pts below the range because I also like all that resistance 2 pts below that so I like risking 3 pts and we got 10-15 on the upside and if this thing doesn't go back up pretty quick I'm out." So I'm always talking out these little stories and when the r/r looks right I take it. This year I have been teaching a friend how to trade and he screen shares with me every morning and I talk out my trades so instead of these stories that used to be just in my head are out loud. Whenever I'm in a trade, especially if it's in the money, I'm looking at 'what if' scenarios constantly. 'You're up 5 pts what are you going to do if this trade goes to flat real quick? You've been in this trade for 15 min would you take a new trade right now? If yes what would be your new r/r? What are you going to do if it just hangs out a 0-4 point winner for 20 minutes?' Not trying to freak myself out but being ready to act and anything is possible and having the mindset I could be totally wrong about this trade but let the tape tell me I'm wrong. How my accounts have always died. I have a day when I’m down huge compared to account size 20%-30%. I’ve gone on tilt and can’t stop trading and by some crazy trading or luck I get back to even. Now all my daily stop limits in my mind are gone and one day soon usually in a few days I’m going to go down huge again and not come back this time. The damage is done and that account is over. This year might be the first time I’ve broken that habit. Had 20K account and had gone down about $5k one day and got it back. I traded like a monkey since that day and I could tell this account was on its way to zero. It went down to 15K quickly and for the first time ever I started trading Micros. I had to stop the madness I’m trading smaller and I’ve been stopping with $100-$300 up days which is probably more in line with my account size. I always thought Micros were a rip off on commissions, but they are nice I can scale out of trades or go smaller on slow days. I had this belief micros were only for people with $500 in their account.
I use Tradervue for tracking my trades. I've been loving it-super easy to use. Knowing I was going to post this trade already had me thinking differently. You can see the red and green diamond for entry and exit. Coming into today- We have had three straight days of Gap and goes into lunch. Inside day, no catalyst, fed meeting this week, big run up last week. Just felt like it was going to be choppy so a good fade day. I was initially thinking of going long if we broke lows of the day and fade back up to hi's. I never took that trade and watched it go all the way back up. Made new hi's but didn't break Friday's hi or overnight hi's. Saw a risk of 3.5pts(a little past new hi's) reward 4pts back to 3204 range. It moved very quickly to my target so I moved the exit to 3202.5. Moving my exit was probably a mistake because it did bounce back up to my entry but trade still looked good so stayed in it. I have a 15K account and my daily stop is at $250. So I'm usually looking at risking around $100-$125 per trade. Looking for at least 1/1.5 RR. Today's trade didn't fit into that R/R very well. Somedays when I don't think the market is doing much I usually cut my max loss in half. In this particular trade I was only going to risk $70. (4 lots x 3.5pts.) I've gotten into the habit of scaling into my position the closer it comes to my exit. I scale into the position if it only goes against me for example back up into the range, so if I'm going to get in 4 lots I might get in one at each .50-.75 pts it goes against me. If it never retraces I'm just in my 1 lot. Which kind of sucks but better than 0. I know this is going against the advice of scaling into a loser. When I traded the regular eminis I was usually a 1 lot trader so multiple lots is fairly new to me. Is this is a viable strategy or just sloppy trading and I'm getting into some bad habits?
1 of 2 trades. All I could think about before I got into the trade is you better have a good reason and clear R/R before you get into a trade. Last night on TV I watched a police chief that was complaining about a new regulation that paperwork had to be filed every time an officer pulled out his gun and pointed it at someone. He argued that could impact their safety because they might not pull out their gun if they know they have to file all that paperwork. If you make this trade you know you have to file all this paperwork! 3193 was yesterday's cash session low we broke below that and was looking for entry at retest back around that area. Retest of Break out trade. This is my first time using the Levels in my chart. I still need to watch some videos on this to see how those might work with my trading. Any good links would be appreciated. I decided to average into this trade and I only average into when it comes closer to my stop not if I'm in a winner. Averaging into winners became to difficult to keep track of R/R while trading. Results-- Broke back up into my exit it was easy to get out because I figured the trade had a good chance of bouncing down in those levels and keep going up.
Trade 2 of 2 Wow, this is going to keep me from overtrading! I used to do this to my personal blog several years ago but this is different because I have another layer of accountability. Much better looking trade. I am entering this trade with a lot of chop to the left but good bounce off overnight lows and consolidating. Break out to and past hi's. Results Exited the trade on the way up still working it out if this is a viable strategy for years I just traded eminis with 1 lot. This trade made twice as much as the loser of the previous trade. I'm going to work on these levels for a while and next look at order flow. Lot of info in this community going to take it slow. Thanks!
Setup--Retest Break out area. Liked the risk reward on the setup so took the trade with 3 lots. I sold it as soon as it came into that price not after it wicked up. In the morning I'll get in more on that first retracement hoping for a quick reversal without much consolidation. First trade of the day is usually between 3-5 lots I have no idea how I figure that. Journaling every day might give me some answers around that. I moved the stop on 2 of the lots closer to my entry after the trade initially went my direction. I was worried off of bounce off lows. In hindsight of course that was a little too conservative of a stop movement. I'm working on when to move stops down just have to be constantly readjusting r/r. That is one nice thing of being in multiple lots you can reduce a position instead of all out.
After FOMC Trade Retest of R/S (pink line) Pretty clear r/r 3 lots Result - One thing on this trade I took off 2 lots for 3.75 and 5 pts. In reality, I probably would of held those 2 lots back to my original stop loss of 6 pts. Especially since the last trade went against me and I got out of 2/3 and then tanked. I wasn't going to do that again. This trade is a new deck and has nothing to do with that last trade. I need to tell myself. So my true risk reward was less than 1/1. If I'm going to add to the position for a momentum play with a smaller target I need to adjust the risk I'm taking on that trade and not use the original stop. Each entry has to have its own R/R.
Drunken Monkey Trading-- I got it under control knowing I was going to post all my trades no matter what makes a difference. I probably won't break down the drunken monkey trades much. I was thinking about all the paperwork. I had in my mind a little bounce up in the morning then lower. So that view kept me out of the directional trend. Not much better. I 'saw' some support. I had a tight stop on that one. This was two trades. Going long stop was past low of the day. I'm still bottom fishing! I don't know why I only got into one lot here. Couldn't break overnight lows. Stop was 3098 overnight lows. It went fast 9.5 pts. If I'm going to play that bounce looking for the best level was the overnight lows. I wasn't very patient this morning. Not sure what I was thinking on this trade went up broke hi's and turned around pretty good. Now I remember I was like this doesn't look good, have a tight stop. I had already established overnight lows as a good S/R so this was a horrible trade. So after my monkey trades I luckily was down just a tad because of the one winning trade. I started to look for a good trade didn't happen. This is more of my setup that I trade. Break of support retest back into S/R. It just didn't get to my order and I wasn't going to chase it. I'm probably done for the day.
First week here and keeping track of all my trades has been different. Kept me from overtrading and if I hit a winner early I just stop. I very rarely did that before. Also today tried something new as soon as I got into the trade I'm filling in my targets and stops (attached picture) Then I really have to look at it and say 'does that make sense.' When the trade went up in my stop area it was great I had a plan if it hangs out up there for a while I'm out. Went up and got rejected so added to the trade. Got in a tad early but was going to sell more into my stop area. This trade felt like a 9/10 trade so got into 6 lots. I increased my stops and targets with the increased volatility. I did get out a few lots before my first target area also said was going to hold 1 lot till it filled the gap. I didn't do that. Results
3 Trades today. Got in pretty early with the first one. Had Friday's low as S/R. Was going to be pretty tight with it going against me. I wasn't really planning on getting in early but when I see a good R/R I just do it. Had a tight stop and saw a lot of room on the downside. Showing the trade without the overnight I like looking at this chart because I assume that a lot of traders don't look at the overnight. I clustered this trade real good! Went for me got out of 2 and got greedy with the 3rd. Rode back a 17pt winner and that might not have been the worst part of that trade-Shocking- I then sold more when it came back to entry. Super amateur at least I had a tight stop on it and didn't let a bad decision turn into a disaster. Took a $250 winner and turned it to about flat. I said to myself you made a bad decision on that one at least you aren't down. Settle down and look for your setup. I've gotten better at not revenge trading.
2nd Trade. I was using Fridays low as support now. Big bounce in the morning so started to look for longs. Had a tight stop which I usually do early. Got stopped out quick but got back in in the next trade. Results 3rd Trade Much better setup. Had a much clearer R/R on this trade. Results- Hit my target. I didn't even realize until going over this trade that I accidentally added to my position when I meant to exit half. I'm trying to watch the chart more and not the dom but need to pay attention to those things.