Hi All, F F F F F F F :-( Have a guess how my day went ???? Sorry guys, right at 10am just getting ready for my day, and I get side slammed with some heavy stuff, family decisions. Should have switched off the computer then, but (fear) I traded the day. Because of money flow, I set out to follow my trading system but couldn't let it alone. Anyway here's the stat's. Went long just after 10am (888.5) finially had to cover and reverse at 873.5, then closed out at 4pm at 871. Of course that's not all of my day, ended up scalping in between the system. If I had followed it excatly the system would have given me , 1st trade -15pt's, 2nd trade +2.5pts, Total -12.5pts. Running total Trades = 19 P/L = -18.5pts. The scalping actually saved me about $150 dollars in losses for the day, but I didn't follow my plan even though it would have given me a big loss for the day. I guess this all seems strange, but I've got lots of thinking and praying to do, to see if it's going to be feasible to carry on. At least on the educational front, may have to cut it short and go back to scalping to try and make a living. Right now time is not on my side (at least I don't think so) to wait for the chop to stop and the stratgy to start making winning trades. Oh well, I'll report back when I know what I'm going to do. Have a super evening guys. Later, Andy By the way it's not the end of the world, I've just got to see what my God has planned and trust Him for it.
You must be thinking about money Andy, instead of following your system? Think about the outcomes of the path you choose. You execute 100% and the system fails, you are a winner in the discipline department, and need to improve your system or wait out the drawdown. If you fail to have discipline and get lucky and make money, can you seriously trust yourself to make a living at this? You've injected an unknown variable (yourself) into the equation, and won't be able to rely on historical performance of your system when the time comes to make a decision to hire yourself as sole provider. You almost guarantee you won't be a professional trader if you don't demand discipline from yourself. Also, if you let emotions affect your trading when you're making a living at this, you will underperform even if you are good. So require yourself to follow your system regardless of profitability or cut your losses now is my suggestion. What is the maximum drawdown for your system based on historical testing? Maybe you should do 100 shares of Spy or QQQ to test this instead of the futures? That would vastly lower your capital requirement, even though the commissions would be slightly higher. Good luck
You are right, I agree also about how important it is to still being a winner in the discipline department, something I failed in today. I'm still o.k. about the system, it's still no where near the draw down I had at one time while testing it (-64pt's) To be fair I guess my circumstances changed, I thought I had time ,and I guess the cash to take these baby steps, over the next 20 days to add discipline to my trading, plus all the other good education that is coming from the trial. I goofed I guess on my calculations. Not really too much else to say at this time apart from waiting on God to show me the way.(which will come, through His peace and His word, plus a few other ways Thank you Minime, for reminding me of some of the truths I also believe in of what it takes to be a professional trader. All the best, Andy
Hi All, well I was able to get alot of stuff straight and it looks like I'll be able to finish up my twenty days, praise God. Today went well as far as following the plan, score A + I am also testing and papertrading a scalping system through out the day, which I'm not going to go on about, just hope I can keep my discipline with the longer time frame system, and not fail with mixing the two !!! Today went short at about 10.15am (870.0NQ), then watched it pretty much all day, early afternoon thought I was going to take a big hit, it really took some guts from me to hold on and let the system tell me when to exit. Which didn't come until the end of the day. 4pm 875.5. Could have got out a few min's early at 873, but with things looking down I put in a 2pt stop, guess I didn't set it right or I just lost an extra 1/2pt in slippage. Stat's Today 1 trade P/L, -5.5pts. Running total, Trades = 20 P/L = -24pts Well finished the week out good on discipline, very shaky middle of week, but now I can enjoy my weekend. Hopefully and prayerfully the storm has left for a while Have a great weekend, Andy
Hi Andy4, Your system you speak about...is it discretionary or mechanical ? Or is it something that only gives trade alerts via a mechanical method but you then review the signal...using discretionary analysis to decide upon the trade entry and/or exit ? I'm asking because today's Short @ 10:15am est in the NQ has me completely confused why you would take such a Short position. That position at that time had BOUNCE written all over it. Send me a pm if you want to know what I saw as more upside room than downside at the moment of time (10:15am est). NihabaAshi
Hi, The actual time of the trade was in the 10:14 period. I'm following a set mechanical system. Todays signal was a new low to enter. I wait till just after 10.00am, then enter on a new high or low. Like I mentioned to somebody else in a PM, you can tell I'm no rocket scientist, it's a system I papertested for a while and it looked like it might work. If you've not read the whole journal, it's not really about a trading strategy, but an educational time for me in discipline following a set trading plan, not only to learn to trust a system and take trade number 6,7 or 8 even when the previous ones have been loosing trades, but having a plan to follow, sorry for the confusion. God has given me plenty of times in the past to see I can make money trading, it's keeping hold of it I have the problem with !!! DISCIPLINE !!! Even though you can tell by the running total it's not very profitable, I am actually feeling a lot more comfortable taking the trades, at least the first one of the day. It is still hard when I'm reversed in the middle of the day, but lucky for me that's already be taken care of by a trailing stop - placed early when no emotion is around Yes, I also see all kinds of set ups while watching my loooong time frame trades move along, I'm just hoping this set time trial for me will help in my growth to become a professional trader. Maybe I'm way off, but something had to change in my overall performence in trading, this is a way I thought might help. Hope this explains some of your questions. Later, Andy
Hi all, sorry guys this is getting to be crazy, a nasty "F" again for following the set plan :-( Pretty much I allowed myself to get pressured and stressed, and not putting my hope where it should be. Started off the day following the set plan. Short NQ at 10.19am (858.5). what happened ?? I just watched it too much, around 12.55pm saw a uptrend developing and covered. Then kinda just tried to keep in my system on the downtrends and jump out before a uptrend took away profits. If anybody else was following the NQ between 1.30 and 2.30 you also saw the whipsaws I was taking. I was the one selling the low and buying the highs :-( Maybe my trading wasn't quite that bad. For the record, "IF" I had followed the system I would have closed out at and finished the day +11.5 pt's NQ . Two commissions. By playing around (I know that's not what I mean, but it fits) I finished the day +14.5pts "not" including the extra commissions (13rt), To put me about $2.5 less in my pocket, alot more time in front of the monitors, as well as a loosing day following the set plan :-( Not a good start to the week. Hope you all did better. Later, Andy
Andy, They aren't going to put an asterisk on your account statement saying "didn't follow system." When all is said and done, it's about the money, not whether or not you followed the system. Maybe you should tweak your system so that you can live with it. That way you can stop beating yourself up when you don't follow it.
Thanks guy It's kinda funny, usually just after 4pm I'm in the gloom and doom :-( (especially concerning not following the plan) But then I'm done for the day, get to play with the kids and just chill out, then I remember how blessed I am. Even for God to give me the chance to do/try something I enjoy so much for a living is pretty awesome Lifes good, and yes, maybe tweaking would make things alot easier. Got some praying and thinking to do, it's funny, there's always praying to do, guess that's how God intended it to be You all have a great evening, thanks again AAA Later, Andy