I've been reading some journals for years, many beneficial some entertaining. I wanted to start this thread as way for me to stay active with my trade journal and put my numbers and theories out there. I am 100% discretionary trader, I trade primarily futures, I am no CTA but am managing couple client accounts. 2012 was a break-even year but 2013 was a good year, I made money for myself and my clients. However, I had a bad start for the year 2014. I've lost money consistently and almost systemically from week of January 2014. I am coping and working on reversing things, as such continued losses very big and unusual for my portfolio size and trading. I was down over $11K for January and today I lost another $2,600
I am trying to re-evaluate my trading and throughout the process I am both confused and disappointed. As my losses in the first weeks of January piled up quickly I did a few things: -cut position sizes in half -then cut further to half of half -on January 20th, I suspended all trading in client accounts -last week of January, I switched to demo account to re-evaluate and test my setups again. -Regardless of "changes" I was making I keep losing. I must reverse my losing streak. here is January break down by weeks: 1)WEEK ENDING 1/2/14(-2,239) 2)WEEK ENDING 1/10/14 (-2,066) 3)week ending 1/17/2014 (-$1,922) 4)WEEK ENDING 1/24 (-5,111) Today, 1st week of Feb was another loss of about $2,600 This is proving very challenging, at least until I figure whats going on.
One of the contributing factors in early January was trading too many things. I primarily trade E-minis, specifically ES, YM, NQ but in January I traded Gold, Crude, Corn, Soybeans, miniGold, miniCrude, ... trying to jack of all trades...but ended up being master of none.
I trade 100% price action, besides EMA no other indicator, one way to describe I am trend trader, directional trader but have been making every single mistake possible such as trying to guess the top or catch the bottom. Though I know damn well you can't short the top without clear confirmation, first breakout always fails, you need to confirm then short, same goes for trying to catch the bottom, again without first confirmation such as trend line break, valid reversals, market reaching certain measured moves, support levels. Again, I am trying to learn and spot my flaws, it's proving very hard, hard.
With your cash you should apply for Margin, which I'm sure you know will give you 4x the Leverage. Using close to 1 million in buying power. $11K is basically a drop in the bucket. You can make that in the first 2 weeks. Eg: 992,000 divided into $501 will give you 1980 share with AAPL. You can anticipate a min. of .40 going long or short, which is $792. TVIX purchase 7000 shares let that move .10 (average movement is >$1.50) that's a quick $700. When I recover from losses I go slow. $700 x 5 + $3500 a week. IN 3.5 week you will earn $11K. Or you can trade mulitple stocks at a time and shoot for $1K daily. FNMA at 25,000 shares your earning $250 per penny. In any given direction it will go .03 cents. however shoot for a penny and 1/4. .0125 = $ 312! For a quck safe recover trade intr-day momentums with trail stops.
I trade stocks in my other longer term account but not here, it's primarily futures so leverage huge as it is
What's gone is gone. You've taken some good steps by going SIM and identifying what is not working with your system. You said it yourself that your system is trend based and my guess is on the long side. You don't have to be in the market everyday to make money, patience is key. IMO, don't try to fight your weaknesses. If you are not good at mean reversion trading then don't try to be, at least in live account, until you come up with a system that allows you to trade it profitably in SIM for months. Mkts have a funny way of set
Cali, after 5 years I have recently developed an entire system that is simple to execute and assures you are on the right side of the trade every time you enter. Sure price can fail to follow through but that's it. Trend and range trades are identifiable in real time with objective parameters. Just throwing it out there as I'm trading overnight (in the early stages of profitability) while I work 9-5. Best of luck. Please take care. BD