Lil Lex.... it seems to me that you should establish a risk parameter, I know you said 15 ticks, and 1 contract, so before commissions $75. I've found that based on my set-ups YM usually requires a 10-20 tick risk to place the stop, and I risk the same amount of money every trade ($200), so based on the stop size is how I position size my contracts: ie.... 10tick stop = 4 lot size and so on. its good that you're doin a journal, I think its important to write down how you feel throughout the day, before trades, when you're not takin any trades, while in a trade, when you exited, and why you entered and exited each position. I bet you'll start to see a pattern develop on your losers and your winners, so it'll help you get rid of the losers and emulate the winners, and remember to print out your charts and link each emotional trip to each trade. stick to your plan, you said 15 ticks stop and you just had -44 +...just out of curiosity, how do you determine when to get out of a winnin and losin position?
Thank you for your reply bakrob99. I agree that I should have exited this winning trade sooner. A trailing stop certainly would have helped in this case. Wouldn't you say however that the point of exit of a winning trade depends on your trading style? If you are looking to trade trend reversals you would rob yourself of the chance to make large winning trades by never allowing a profit exceeding 30 points. The reason why I am writing this is that in all "Golden Trading Rules" you are told to cut losses short and let profits run. I suppose this isn't true for YM day trading with a 15 points stop limit?
Hi Dubs07, I think you are right about the journal. I am currently using one journal where I simply record all my trades and a second journal explaining my actions and emotions. Now about the -44 ... I managed to save myself 5 bucks by hitting the exit button manually. How do I determine when to get out of a position? That is certainly an area where I need to work on. I go into every trade with a fixed target and a fixed stop. I may close a trade earlier if it does not move according to my plan. Sometimes this works out in my favour, sometimes is doesn't.
somethin that might help in this area is that with different time frames you should expect different movements...like my style is entries based on the 1/2 minute charts and patterns found on the 2 and 5 minute charts, never really goin against the 5, only on occassion...so the moves I expect should be quick, if the trade hits the entry and doesn't move in the proper direction (ie bulls/bears steppin up to carry out the trade) I kill it or move my stop to break even. money mgt. is an important thing so determining your exit points for winning trades is crucial. some numbers that help me with that are a simplified sharpe ration (simply your avg. winner divided by your avg loser) and my batting avg...and I graph them to make sure that my avg winning trade is at least 1.5 that of my loser, kinda helps me determine if I'm exitin positions too soon or if somethin is wrong, know what I mean? hope that helps somewhat.. dubs
Simple? Wow, my charts are mega, super simple then. I'm not bashing the OP, it's just interesting to see what different traders call 'simple'.
something about oscillators and indicators, all of those are derived from price...so they follow price...so they're actually lagging. To keep it real simple, focus on price action and pattern, maybe keep some MA's to help you easily identify overall trends of high time frames and such, but the rest of that is unnecessary and just clutters the screen.
Little Lex, I will be following your thread with interest. I also trade YM almost exclusively, 1-2 contracts being all my 'comfort-zone' can handle I noticed you only posted the result from your 2'nd day, not the actual trade results - it would be nice if you could post the actual trade results, that way, it will be obvious that you are honoring your stops. Just my 2c.
To my defense I have to say that I am not using all of those indicators all the time. What I tried to say is that those are the ones I might use for any given trade. But I don't have all of them up on the screen throughout all of the trading day.
You are right Omelette, I should have posted the trade results. But don't worry about me honouring my stops. I enter the stop orders straight away. I have learned from past experience. It really hurts but here are yesterdays trades: Trade 1: -15 Trade 2: -15 Trade 3: -14 There you go. That's as bad as it can get for me. I stop trading for the day after 3 losers / max 45 points.
Another awful performance! I still had yesterday's losses on my mind and wanted to win them back. I did not trade according to plan. I think I might have to take a few days off to get my head back. trade 1: +8 trade 2: -15 trade 3: -3 trade 4: -12 today: -22 week: -56 month: -56 After the first small profit I jumped into a second trade without waiting for confirmation (--> overconfidence?) The third trade brings us back to the question of targets. It was 20+ points in the green before reversing. The last trade wasn't too bad. Actually the trend is still intact and I would be up by 40 points by now. But I was stopped out at 12.515 (now 12.568). The idea was good, the timing was crap. Little Lex