Someone pm me and suggested I start my own journal. I've been posting my returns in the P/L and will start posting them here from now on. If you want to read my past entries, they start at this page. Other threads I currently have on my trading are: How do you get over a big losing day? How can I get over fear of making big profits? How do you get over fear of taking a risk? Also, I couldn't think of a name for my journal so I borrowed someone elses. I'm sure she won't mind though. Thanks. Looking forward to lots of discussions.
Horrible Day. Lost -$455 on five trades. The exact same amount I made on the Aug 10th. Mistakes was mainly due to being too impatient. Taking bad setups instead of waiting for the good ones to reveal themselves. And doing revenge trading when at a loss. If I had stayed disciplined and followed my strategy I would've made a lot of money today. Oh well, what's done is done. There's nothing much you can do about it. I supposed I deserved what I got and will try to learn from this. My account is blown, but I still have enough money in my bank account to fund one last attempt. Just barely. I'm gonna take the day off on Friday to recover from this. I'm not giving up. Not when things are so close.
And only a few days ago, you flatly rejected the idea of taking a real job, because you could make so much money on a $1,000 account... Welcome to reality...
Might I suggest switching to the NQ's? YM and ES jump around too much like a crack whore looking for their next fix to trade with such a small base. An 8 tick move on the NQ's are not the same as 8 ticks on YM. Pretty much works off the same signals as its bigger brethren.
jinxu, You may want to take a week or two off from trading and really reflect on what just happened in the last few days. You had a great run, which put you in the mindset that you could take a few aggressive chances. You held on to an incredibly steep drop that turned around, only to reinforce the bad habit that you don't need a stop because "price always turns around," or "you 'knew' price was going to turn around." Nobody knows what price is going to do. As soon as someone says, "I think..." it's always an opinion. You're really gambling on a small account and the massive amounts of advice you are getting isn't being regarded. I think you have potential, but you really need to look at what you're doing. You're pretty much doing all the wrong things. Once you finally realize what you're doing you're going to look back and say, "yeah I made every mistake out there." Right now your account is a case of "I told you so." I hope to see you come back and become successful, but first you must work on yourself. Your trading isn't the #1 reason why you lost so much money over the last few days. It is because: 1. You believe you know what price is going to do. 2. You are too greedy. 3. You believe that luck is involved. 4. You hope and pray that you can get out at breakeven. 5. You aren't disciplined. Those are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. To turn that around just the slightest: 1. Use stops. 2. Don't trade around news reports. 3. Stop trading off the 1 min chart. 4. Learn to take profits. 5. Act in your own best interest. I am going to add some pointers from an ebook that I read a couple weeks ago. Some people may recognize it. *Act in your own best interest* 1. Set daily goals that are realistic, attainable, and measurable. 2. Learn to love to take a loss. 3. Time has no bearing on money. 4. Remain flexible. 5. Does your self-image tell you that you deserve to make money? 6. Have trading rules. 7. Have flawless execution. 8. Use stops. 9. Learn how to deal with the market when it never stops moving. 10. Be objective. 11. Be an active winner and loser. 12. Paper trade after a loss. 13. Self-improvement. 14. The worst mistake you can make is having a profit when you don't follow your rules. 15. Don't make revenge trades. 16. Don't wish, hope, or pray. 17. Don't add to a losing position. 18. Don't be greedy. 19. Don't fear the market. How many of those would you say you don't follow or that relate to you?
It really doesn't matter. They all move in the same direction. I get the same signals on all three. I like the YM for the smaller tick size but I dislike it for the low liquidity. But at one contract it doesn't matter. Beside, it wouldn't be right to switch now when I already named my thread "Jinxu's Dow E-mini Journal".
Yes, they both move the same direction, but an 8 tick move in the YM does not equate to an 8 tick move in the NQ, even tho you get the same result in your account. Hey, it's just food for thought.