Hello, I am a bond trader located in Chicago. I am new to trading and would like to keep a daily journal of my progress. I would like to keep my privacy so I will not be using my real name, and I will not mention the company I work for. The reason I am creating a journal is to get as much feedback as possible. The large majority of my trades will be in the German 10yr. (Bund). This is only my second week trading live and I will be only trading 1 lots until I become more consistent. I will be updating my progress daily.
I had a terrible day today. My worst to date. I had 55 round turn trades followed up by negative twenty one ticks. I was up almost 10 ticks within the first hour. Once that 4:00 # was release I was toast. I got suckard in an there was no turning back. I am confident ............... 51 trades -21 ticks = -$210.00
Today was more horrifying then yesterday if you can believe it. I was trading beautiful all day. I was up 6 ticks thinking about calling it a day. Instead I decide to buy a trend that is clearly bearish. I manage to loose 9 ticks in a few seconds because I am to stubborn to admit i am wrong and cut my losses. This is only half of my travesty. Once I cover my 9 point looser. I decide, Hmmm... maybe I should sell now and catch the forever falling knife. Well you guessed it, as soon as I sold it, it turned and went right back up. I felt like my small one lot contract had effected the whole market to go against me, immediately. This on the other hand ONLY turned into a 7 tick looser. I had managed to loose 16 ticks in about 2 seconds. ------------------ 62 trades -19 Ticks= -$190
Yesterday was a little better. I was able to control my losses. The rule I try to stick by is not to take more then a 3 tick loss and not to hold onto a position for more then 4-5 minutes. ------------ 31 trades -3 ticks= -$30.00
Yesterday was a crazy day. I started off very positive. I was up 4 ticks for the majority of the mourning. Once the US 10yr opened things began to get much more volatile. I am still learning how to deal with this. I wound up loosing 12 ticks within the first hour when the US markets opened. I was able to keep a positive attitude and was able to battle back and made up the majority of the ticks I had lost and was down only 1 tick. I told myself that if I was able to get back to even I would call it a day. unfortunately things did not go my way and I took several 3 tick losers in a row. and wound up down 12 ticks for the day. I need to learn how to manage my losses a little better. If anyone has any advise I would greatly appreciate it. thanks ------------ 52 trades -12 ticks= -$120.00
Well i think you have to pay some commish : 51+62+31+52 = 196 * 2.4(roughly) = 470. Quite double your losses. Try to trade less and let run in an identified trend.
Hello: I feel for you guy. Based on what I am reading you shouldn't be trading this market. You don't seem to have any edge and you don't seem to know how your market moves. In this business, if you want to learn on the job, you had better have deep pockets. Judging by your commments, you get anxious just losing a few ticks. These are bad signs. My advice is to stop trading and start observing your market. Learn by watching and by asking questions of other good bond traders. Your big challenge will be to make friends with some (at least one) good bond trader. The way you are going about it you will probably just bleed your account to death slowly. Use the search feature at the top of the home page to start your search. Check the exchange sites for free seminars and education. Good luck, Steve
I agree about my losses. I need to learn to contain them. I actually have more winning trades then loosing. In regards to coms I am paying $.25 per side.