"Things are not always easy, but you have to work at it because the upside is always so great." - Arnold Schwarzenegger so here it is, my journal. i have to say, i never thought i would do one. however, as many of you know, i've whined a lot about my failures. i realize it may be annoying to some that i bitch, but don't explain how i operate; that's understandable. hopefully, others will get something from my journal, as well as me. i've gotten so many good responses to my questions, i almost feel spoiled. here i am, given so much feedback, but still i lose. i want to thank everyone. also, i have no grudges with anyone here. i don't care if you've insulted me in the past, or if you insult me in the future. i can take it. so, as many of you know already, i'm ET's big loser. i'm not afraid to admit it. it's ok, this is going to change. my journals will be good; i guarantee you that. i am stating the following oath: i will not quit this journal until i have at least 4 consecutive profitable weeks. i may later decide to continue it longer than that, but for now, this is my goal. i don't care how long it takes or if i'm the only one posting in my journal at that time. i will give a little bit of background about myself. i'm 24 and i've been trading since 1999, believe it or not. although i'm not consistently profitable, i'm no newb. i've learned a lot, even though i have nothing to show for it. i know i can do this. i want to make something clear, because it's obvious some people have the wrong idea about me. i've read in other threads that people think i'm out to get rich quick. no, i'm not. it'd be nice, but i'd happy to make $100/week to start. i just want to be profitable and grow as a trader. i need to get out of my confused mess. i'd be happy to make money at the rate i currently lose it. i think that's a pretty achievable goal, aside from spreads, commissions, etc. i'm not looking to make 2983% in 3 months. just so people don't feel like they're wasting their time with me, i can have $25k in my account, but it will not happen until i reach my previous stated goal. i have a few grand in my account now and i can sell my brand new car. it only has 7,000 miles on it. although i don't want to, i am willing to sell it. i have to take this risk. the financial rewards of trading are worth more to me than my car. however, i can't lose this last stash of money. if i lost it, i'd have nothing. i'd have to work for a year or so to build some more money back up. so like i said, i am not going to use that money until i have a clear plan, and i am profitable for at least 4 consecutive weeks. i think a lot of you will see that i'm not a total newb. i think i have a lot of good ideas; i just don't have the details worked out. i am not going to hold back anything in my journal. i will not keep my ideas secret. a few months ago, i was someone who would not make a journal. i thought that i would be hurting myself by exposing all my ideas. however, i then realized what Publias/Commisso/Te' said: imo, it really is up to each person to be successful. it doesn't matter if they are told what to do. look at me, i've been told everything, but i still have problems. if you're gonna be successful, the time comes when you gotta make it happen on your own. for this reason, i am not going to hold back anything in my journal. if you're going to be a loser, you're going to be a loser; it won't matter what i say here. ok, i also want everyone to know that i'm going to be posting charts of what i see. i will also explain my thinking for each chart. it will be easy to help me, or fade me; whichever you want to do. feel free to fade my trades. all i ask is that, if you do, tell me why. if you fade me profitably, please tell me how you did it. my journal is going to cover every aspect of my trading. from determining initial position size to hopefully dealing with taxes later on. i will keep track of all my trades. all my trading rules will be stated at the time a trade is made. when i exit the trades, i will show how they turned out. some of you may be disappointed here, but these trades are going to be paper trades. i have lost enough money with real trades. i know what real trading is like. i've been trading since 1999. my paper trading will be accurate. i know how to paper trade realistically. also, as i said, my rules will be stated when trades are made, so i will not be able to use hindsight for optimum results. i am going to start with one specific entry and system. i also don't want to have too many trades at once and get overwhelmed. i have many trading ideas, so i haven't decided yet which i will start with. i am thinking about this now. my plan is to start with a system, work out the problems, and fine tune it. if the system turns out to be not profitable, i will try another one. i have many ideas. just so everyone knows, i tend to not like indicators much. i'm talking stochastic type indicators. although they are liked by some people, i tend to not like them. i'm not saying that they can't work, but i don't really like that stuff. i like OHLC price patterns (which i will explain later) and sometimes a few simple moving averages. i will not be using any moving average crossover systems. i will get more into what i'm going to do in other posts. i just wanted to lay a foundation and let everyone know where i'm coming from. everyone should feel free to say whatever you want here. as i said, i have no grudges with anyone on ET. question or suggest anything you want. this is the real deal! moderators, please do very little moderating here. just get rid of the spam posts if they show up. if someone insults me, i don't care. also, please don't open and close this thread. just leave it open, please.
may be the problem. Perhaps you should spend less energy justifying what you've done and/or learned so far - it ain't working. SURRENDER. Give it up. Not trading, but THE NEED TO BE RIGHT. You say on one hand "I want help" and on the other "I'm no newbie - I've learned a lot" the implication being that you only want to hear what validates what you think you already know. I can already imagine you debating everyone that tries to help you. In order to conquer my chronic losing, I had to decide that it was OK that I had been totally wrong for as long as I was wrong. My opinions were killing me. I had them confused with the reality of my behavior. In life as well as trading. Surrender to win. Good Luck GG, I'm rooting for ya (and me too). Paul
Gekko, good luck... I just hope that everyone stops mindless rants. Paper trade? Hey that's fine, it's a way to build up confidence with your trade. Once you are comfortable and humble with trading your working style (I'll give you the answer, understanding the system and the relationship between you, the style and the market), you'll have a better chance of doing well in real market situation. Good luck.
Gordon, that's quite an honest admission! I doubt there would be too many willing to face up to the dire reality of their circumstances at all, let alone publicly. It makes for a pleasant change from the tedious braggadocio one normally encounters on internet message boards. They say fortune favours the brave. If that's the case, you have a lot to look forward to! I wait with baited breath for the saga to unfold.
if you are trading futures, eg. e-minis...there is a free demo that logs your trades and gives stats so that when you paper trade you wont be able to say "well, i wouldnt have really made that trade if it had been real money..." its here : http://www.pfgbest.com/simulated_trading/index.asp its free for 30 days , will give you win/loss percentages etc. , the demo account gives you $50000 but i just traded 1 contract cosistantly for 1 month. heres my account results trading 1 contract for 4 weeks , other than the balance the stats are intraday only http://12.36.73.178/pl/demo/status.asp best of luck LP
sorry, i guess you can see my account only through the software....here's a screenshot then, attached. LP
GG, Congratulations. Two suggestions: 1) If trading, forget the paper trades. Use 100 shares instead. If you normally trade spoos, trade the SPY or the cubes instead. Use IB so that the comm don't hurt. 2) BE ANAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. I WANT TO SEE TIME IN AND TIME OUT ON THE SECOND BASIS. I don't want to see "I got in at 10:53 when the PREM spiked." No, I want to see, "At 10:53:32, I entered when PREM was 2.20, and TRIN started backing off from the 2.00 level, which as I was totally aware the whole day, was resistance - I timed my trade using TIKI at -18 to get the draft..." You get the idea... Best of Luck and let it all hang out - you got nothing to lose now and the only way to go now is up. nitro
What comes next in this pattern? $$$¢$$$¢$$$_ The answer is what I suspect you will be left with if you don't amend your approach. If you were on a burning ship and everyone else was jumping off would you ignore them and stay with the ship? Ask yourself this..."What does everyone else know that I don't?" Ignoring such basic indicators as stochastics etc, means you are ignoring what other people are doing and therefore stacking the odds against yourself. Whatever your entry method, getting long/short in overbought/sold areas will make you money sometimes but wipe you out sooner or later, and worse, wrongly reinforce your reason for the entry.
$100 a day huh? Seems ridiculously easy a goal to obtain yet remains elusively out of the reach of oh so many. My advise is to stay away from the E-Mini's and options in the current market, however if you desire to be parted quickly from your money and suffer undue psychological distress, then by all means they are the perfect trading vehicles. Best of luck in you endeavor. "Best laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft agley"