This journal is gonna be boring to start off with. I am trying to learn to trade the ES. What id realy love to do is learn to daytrade stocks, but im never likely to have the $25k required so thought id try to learn something i could at least try for real at some point. I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my current method for the last few weeks. I thought id update my number on here aswell, as i keep forgetting to save the spreadsheet and when we have a powercut the data is lost. Also, if this journal progress, i have more chance of getting help from any profitable traders. Its my dream to trade for a living but if im honest, i am VERY skeptical as to whether it is actually even possible. There's the '90% of daytraders fail' staticstic thrown about for one. Lots of people pretending to make money etc.... One way to find out tho. Here are the results so far. All daily profits/losses are always trading 1 contract on the ES using the AMPfutures demo. I add on $5 in commissions per trade and add on a further $15 or so per day to make it more realistic, as Im not sure the demo accounts for any slippage i may incure. m+450 t-180 w-175 th+340 fri+35 total week 1 - +$470 m+200 t+120 w+140 -th155 fri+200 total week 2 - +$505 m-305 t-85 Bad start to the week so far. 2 red days. p.s - this is the second time ive written this post today. 1ST attempt was better, but the whole thing got deleted as i tried to post it without putting a 'title' on the thread. Annoying....
Good luck I wish you well Do you have an account yet? Are you actuallly trading a demo account? or are you just writing it down of paper?
thanks. I am trading a demo account using AMP futures software. Ninja platform. If in the unlikely event i can string together a few months of profit i would look to probably fund an account with them or someone like them.
I see you are a newbie to ET. In spite of all the bullshit on this site, there are a few worthy threads. You have a lot of reading to do!
slight correction. Just going over my spreadsheet and Monday was actually a losing day of 2.75 points. Dont know why i wrote it down as -305. ill call it -180 So that gives us: mon -180 Tue - -85 wed - +140 slightly down for the week. See if i can turn it around tomorrow or make the hole even bigger!! Also - I will probably post blotters as from tomorrow fro what its worth....
Hi Lexcorp, If you are using Ninja Trader I would recommend posting charts which will show your entry and exit points on the chart. That way it might be easier for people to provide help and the like. I too am new to trading ES. I have been having greater success using larger 3 point stops. If I try anything smaller I usually get whipsawed out before the move goes green for me. That and patience waiting for a good setup. If I over trade like a madman I also lose like a madman. That has been my experience. Good luck!
not a great start to the day. 4 trades. -1.5 , -1.5 , +1.25, +2 Too many trades, really. Also the first trade that was stopped out for -1.5 stopped me out and then dropped 7 points in my favour! (to where we are now) This happens quite a lot. It seems like everyday, a trade that i either took a small loss on or a small win on would have given me about 6 points or so. Anyway, see what RTH brings.... proper numbers after ive finished for the day including the usual $5 per trade commissions and an extra $15 or that i like to add on in 'costs' to make it as hard/lifelike as possible....
d'oh. Things managed to get worse! :eek: todays numbers: -1.5 -1.5 +1.25 +2 -1.5 -2.75 -2 Overall that makes -6 ES points! (-$360) Worst day since keeping track of my numbers. When i thought i'd found a trend and got in, it turned around on me. When i thought it was chopping around it waited for me to get in and then began trending in the wrong direction. When it hit my stops, it then turned right around and went nicely in my forecasted direction. Couldn't do anything right today. Pretty certain its gonna be a red week. Only thing of comfort is that some people in a private trading room i visit who are apparently 'proper' traders seemed to have not done very well today on the ES either..... On to tommorrow