What do you mean exactly? I am not trading both at the same time. I traded ES for the size on a separate trade different from the micro trade. Day 6: Open type was an auction day, small initial balance that setup the big breakout after shaking everyone out. I was loading up heavy on the opening anticipating a breakout. Sure enough it did, and I sold near the highs..And soon after it tanked pretty hard causing the big shakeout which reversed 100%. After it reversed 100%, I was waiting for a pullback to get back on the longside, but the market never really gave me the type of dip I was hoping for. This caused me to try to short at key zones, most which failed as the buyers are coming from longer term players. MNQ:
Day 7: Was doing decent on micros and then I got the "I want to make lots of money" syndrome. I wanted to short ES on the pullback after it made a lower low. However the ES went further then what I imagined....and then collapsed. Looking back, the internals were not confirming and I should have been more patient for the 100% perfect trade especially when trading ES. Instead I ignored the 100% confirmation due to inpatience and cost me this loss. Was 2% away from getting auto liquidated today. Thus I banned myself from trading from rest of the day. MES
Being mad at myself for my performance this week:I will implement a new rule going forward. If I break my discipline, I am breaking the process of being a good trader. A maximum of 3 individual trades a day on ES and micros with size -this will lead me to be very selective and let the trade "run" If trading 1 micro lot however, this does not count towards the "3" trades a day. Trading 1 micro lot will help me manage my FOMO.
Day 8: Yesterday I broke the rules above- mainly due to being a Sunday afternoon(Not having my usual early morning type of focused trading) and wanting to "play" or "make money". I only stopped as I almost hit my auto liquidate of 30% again. Thus no trading allowed for Monday morning. Another new rule: Don't trade Sunday afternoon unless some big news event happened over the weekend. I did trade micros on my other account Monday morning however and managed to be green.
I totally agree. Being an undisciplined loser will lead me to being a shit trader for the rest of my life.
interesting journal. i've switched over to MES as well trying to rebuild my account. Except this time, some profits are going into long term equity plays/dividends so i diversify a bit. from my experience, you break your rules when they are subjective. Take your "no sunday trading unless a major news hit the market". what's considered major? sometimes market moves hard without news, would that be significant. Lay out your rules in hard numbers, then it's easier to follow. otherwise, these gray areas will fuck with your mind when shit hits the fan.
Day 10: -$1.50/Scratch Was loading up heavy on the long side at low of day. I had to leave for work before Fed announcement at 11am PT and couldn't monitor the market so I closed out my positions. Would have had a massive day, oh well.
Do you have a system/methodology or at least well defined entries/exits? There's a lot of 'would have' and 'should have' here. My impression is that your approach is very discretionary and subjective. That will usually not work out. Like Hilmy correctly points out you likely are breaking your rules because they ain't any good to begin with and it may not even be clear to yourself why you have them. An example of a simple rule would be to not initiate trades until after the initial 30 minutes. I'm not saying you should use this rule. Just an example of something which is very clearly defined and not subject to interpretation. If you have such a rule - your only job in the 1st 30 minutes is to watch the market and prepare for a trade that sets up following that.