<b>Trading for a Living Journals The place for keeping a daily journal of wins, losses, and <i>anything else related to your quest of becoming a better trader</i></b> (sounds good to me). Greetings to All: Now that I am a little more familiar with the <b>EliteTrader</b> (please, feel free to suggest a more appropriate forum or website) I'd like to chronicle my journey into 2008. Some here may already be familiar with my take on account/fund management. Perhaps I'll share a bit more on this. Feel free to contribute, since by no means am I an expert on this topic and welcome your responses. <b>Please do not take my temperament as too offensive.</b> I hope to manage money much better than people.
More infomation regarding the systems I manage can be found by clicking my profile: <b>"paysense"</b> You may PM (Private Message) me at any time and I have changed my ET account options to allow receipt of email.
a little bit on my <b>Bio</b>. 48 yrs. (young?) I now feel old. Maybe it is from trading futures, even though my approach to system design is quite simple to manage. Well I am not <i>that</i> old! I grew up in Southern California and spent my engineering "career" in Northern California (San Jose). I quit my day job in March of 2001. I now reside in lovely Los Angeles. I spend my days waking up at 5:30 am PST to prepare to now manage (6) accounts. At 2 pm I take a nap until 4 pm, when I capture closing news and perform various updates. I am single and therefore can then leisurely have dinner, watch movies or try to get more sleep - which has been a task this past year with volatile overnight futures waking me up 2-3 times in the middle of the night! :eek:
Now a bit more on the types of systems I manage: I feel like the odd man out, because I usually hold positions for days. ET is a scalpers paradise, so I do not know if anyone here can relate to a "swing" trader. I do welcome any suggestions you may have regarding a better avenue to forum. I place my positions in anticipation of a market uptrend or downtrend. When I get a LONG or SHORT signal, I will test the market by taking an initial position. If this proves out I add or phase into the remaining position. I use stops (hard and otherwise) along with proper money management and diversification. At times I must exercise MUCH patience in letting the market come to me. My goal is to ultimately manage large account size and have been taking the necessary steps to eventually achieve this. In my accounts I buy and sell e-mini index futures, index ETF's, index ETF options and sell short call (covered) options. I would like to share more on this later.
Sorry, no Joab. I meant to start this thread in "Journals" not "Career Trader". I asked the mods to move it.
Feel free to subscribe to this thread. I'm not sure it will of that much use, but we can share thoughts and ideas. One of the things I find very useful came from a thread right here on ET. TradePilotPro1's (Joe Baker) <b>"S&P daily pivots and break-down & up Targets</b>: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=130450 I get the MACRO trends well enough, but it is sometimes helpful to know what it is the intra-day traders are looking at. This makes for a bit better entry/exit from contracts. From today's levels (I get them via email) and knowing that there is significant overhead resistance at the 897-917, I may opt to partially close my LONGS and/or enter a partial SHORT as it tests and is rejected off the 917 level. Usually Joe's calculations are right on - along with knowing the key times when traders move (9:36, 9:42-9:44 area, 9:50, 10:00) and the first 15 minute and 1 hour high, low and average. These support and resistance, break down, break out and target levels seem to be exactly the place where day-traders move in and out of positions.
Looking forward to this. I have a rough idea on your trading methodology since I follow Joe's thread. Will you be posting your trades here, along with profit target and stop-loss levels?
a word regarding "proper" money management (well, it works alright for me). There seems to be a few different schools of thought. Most e-mini traders will "scalp" or day-trade desired setups, using specific profit targets and stops. Usually these traders will only risk a certain small percent of their account. Often contract size does not ever vary. I know some do utilize compounding - which can be very powerful (if done correctly). If successful, these traders may scalp an average a tidy monthly profit using 1 ES for a certain period. As the account grows, one can then use the same risk level (usu. 2% or less) and method with 2 contracts, then 4, then 8 contracts and so on and so forth. Perhaps you or someone you know has done this and can share your experience here?!? However, it seems to that most are content to make a couple thousand dollars on a $25-50k account for as many months as they can. This is more like a steady income rather than a path to a much larger account. I am a firm believer in the power of compounding and I manage my systems with that in mind. As my account ebbs and flows (grows and decreases) my exposure is increased or reduced. Based upon the desired level of constant exposure (each account is different), proper money management dictates that this is always maintained. As you already know e-mini futures are a leveraged instrument and the motto "live to trade another day" absolutely applies. pay$ I would like to further note that trading this market has been a wild ride. Most day-traders will close out all of their positions by the end of the day. As a "swing" trader, holding overnight can be gut-wrenching with 100 point ES moves - especially in a higher-margin account! That is where SPY or QQQ ETF call or put options come in. When used properly (for a relatively small cost) these can <i>hedge</i> against this risk - while still allowing the account to profit from my directional plays.
Regarding today's market, thus far it has been an "inside" or consolidation day. We've had some strong gains and now they need to be digested. I take an especially close look at Nasdaq and NYSE volume when coupled with index price gains and declines. It give me an excellent snapshot of what larger investors are doing (accumulation or distribution). After the recent high volume gains, it is comforting to see today's loss in lighter trade. This points to a healthy market consolidation. As <b>Fast_Trader</b> noted, JB's levels are key and after a failed attempt by the ES to break out to the upside, today we are now meandering between the breakout and break down levels. Remember that the vix is still historically very high and in this volatile environment - anything can happen at anytime. Whenever the stock market corrects to the tune of 40%+, much damage (technically speaking) will need to be repaired. If this is a new uptrend, a volatile swing to the lower target is not entirely out of the question. I pre-planned for this possibility and may add more to my still small LONG position at the lower 874 target. Other points to note are that we seemed to have bounced off the first hour mid-point a few times, then broke through and tumbled to the daily low and are now bouncing. <b>TradePilotPro1</b> was also nice to point out that it helps to watch higher-highs and higher-lows (lower highs and lower lows) for intra-day trend shifts. Also I've learned to watch for trading above or below the first hour high or low. Usually if the market breaks above and then pulls back, it will close up. Vice-versa if it breaks the low. Today the ES broke the first hour high and may very well move up toward the close. I will especially be looking at volume if this occurs, since price rarely moves far without volume (but I am doing much better using just PA or price action). Amazing how these intra-day traders are predictable. I am just not made with a day-trader temperament. Probably why I am now posting instead of watching every tick! I would like to share more on why I think my methods (when done successfully) are not only easier for me to manage, but very profitable.