Btw, everyone....feel free to post on how YOU feel I performed on any day. It's OK...I can take it! That is why I maintain this journal...to get feedback from YOU -Fast
Hey, Nice journal keep up the good work....but yes...im here to criticize...i hate to do it cause in my opinion no one should criticize anyone unless they are the top tier in what they do, and everyone starts from the bottom in ventures like this...but.... looking over your trades, and trying to get a fell for what you do...well lets put it this way...i dont see a actual plan or way you trade....to me it looks like you are shooting a gun at a small target with your eyes closed...maybe im completely wrong... take today as a example... you traded like 12 RT and you scratched... i can possibly see that on a low range choppy day... but today was a full blown action day...granite if you got on the wrong side you didnt do good...but there was some moving today. Basically id like you to explain your plan. what exactly makes you get into trades? Today wasnt worth your time NET wise...you must a racked up a good 50+ in commision....itll bleed you to death in this crazy game. ok..enough of my bablin...
Go back over in your mind as to what you were thinking as you entered 4 LONG ES trades in a row out of the open. Try to find what it is that you did not see as the market was in an obvious down move out of the open (not one single push north...for one hour every candle had a lower or in some cases an equal top as compared to the previous candle.....on the 5 min). It seems you had a LONG bias mentality that was clouding your picture, and the TRIN info was your rationalization to support your bias. You actually did very good with only a -.50 pt loss for the 4 ES LONG trades combined. You were able to protect your capital in LONG positions as the market was moving against you. I would say that you need to make sure you are looking at the whole picture as you enter your trades and do not hold all faith in just one indicator for trade entry decisions. This is an area where the T&S scroll speed, in numerous rapid price level descents out of the open, could have given you great hints as to the markets intended direction (price level drop). This takes time to figure out all the twists in the road, but I would say that you did an awesome job of capital preservation as you tried to swim up stream out of the open. Capital preservation is the critical component to survival as a beginning trader, and in this department I would have to give you an A for the day. Chris
Joey, first of all...I appreciate your criticism I do have a plan, but my problem yesterday was that I put too much emphasis on one part of the plan. I use the TRIN to get a feel for overall market direction and since the TRIN seemed bullish to me at the time; I didn't get into any shorts. But the other part of my plan is to get into trades in the direction of the 3 min. chart which was screaming SELL most of the day. So, I was getting conflicting signals. What I should add to my plan is when NOT to trade. When I'm getting conflicting signals I should either stay out or trust the charts (price/volume) and enter based on price action. I will write a post detailing my plan later tonight. This will be good for me. -Fast
Chris, thanks for your great post! I've added a T&S window to my setup and will be observing T&S going forward. And you're right, I was looking for any reason to go Long, and the TRIN was good enough of a reason so I justified all my Long trades. In the beginning trading is a constant battle, and I'm learning something new every day. I'm willing to put in the time and capital to learn this. I know a lot of people paper-trade in the beginning, but my problem is I quickly forget whatever I learn through paper-trading. I have to put some capital on the line if I really want to learn this and remember it. -Fast
Among the 3 instruments you trade, NQ seems to have the better results. Since the beginning of your journal, on the 26 trades you made on NQ, you only lost 5 (80% hit rate !). You netted 13 NQ pts and 135$ (after comm.) With ES & YM, you lost a few $ but not much. Focus on what works best for you. If you keep this consistency, you'll be ok. Keep up the good work.
Fast, You could try highlighting tradees for large amounts of contracts in your time & sales window ( like more than 50 contracts ). I find this helps me see when bigger buyers or sellers are getting interested. t_a
x-or, thanks for going through the journal. I appreciate the feedback. As an expirement, here's what I will try next week. On Tuesday, I will trade ES only and on Wednesday, I will trade NQ only. This should provide some interesting results. -Fast
t_a, I will play with eSignal and see how I can do this later tonight. Do you think 50 is a good number to filter by though? Should it be set higher/lower? Thanks, -Fast