First off...I just discovered this thread today, and read the whole damn thing. Sub, if trading doesn't work out I think the guys at theonion.com would hire you. You're a funny guy. You have made some great progress recently, but your lack of discipline on bad days makes me nervous (not that you asked). It seems like you stick to your plan very well on winning days, then throw it out the window on losing days. Mind if I ask...on your winning days do you often start the day in the red, and end up positive later? If so, what is a typical losing p&l before you usually turn it around? I'm just thinking what I would do in your position would be to take that -$ amount...add -$100 or -$200 more...and make that your cut-off point for every day. Any other cut-off point really doesn't make sense because it's not custom-fitted to your trading style. Just an idea on a boring Thursday. Continued success with your trading...
Commisso, CaroKann and Dustin - I appreciate the suggestions and advice, and will look into ways of implementing them. Mom - I will start tithing myself as of today. I owe you 1 ES point. tampa - OK, trade the mornings, but steer clear of Quah's fib times. That should be fair to everyone.
Another way to see it is having a max number of trades per day. It seems that you need about 10 trades (and often less) to reach your daily "goal" (IMO that goal shouldn't be a rigid $$ amount). When you are trading more than your usual number of RT, that could tell you that something is going wrong. That's not so hard to quit : - Look at what your equity should look like if you have applied a daily MM rule (any kind of) - Have fun with something else than trading. P.S : Mr Sub, I've got to tell you that I appreciate your journal very much. It reminds me my not so old learning curve (mine took much longer than yours). Every newbie should see it before puting one trade for real. They could see the 3 (4 ?) following stages : Stage 1 : 'Trading the future, it could be fun' Facts : Some good days with "wipe out days" eating the profits and more Thoughts : It seems that is not so easy... but I'm feeling ok. Benefits : Having fun Stage 2 : 'Trading can really hurt' Facts : Big disaster days Thoughts : I didn't think that it could happen to me ! Benefits : Psychological/electrical shock causing the willing to not to be hurt like that again. Stage 3 : 'It's time to be serious now' Results : Almost sexy equity curve Thoughts : If I want to make it in this businnes, I'd better do my homeworks Benefits : Hard work brings good results that bring self confidence that brings good results... Stage 4 : 'La Cucaracha' Results : Very pretty equity curve Thoughts : I never thought that I could make so much $$$ Benefits : Giving 50% to your mum and 25% to the helpful ET members Good luck.
x-or, I unwittingly followed your advice of a maximum of 10 trades per day. I'm still not used to the higher daily profit target and potentially longer trading day and was quite drained by 10:30am so I stopped, a little short of my 10 point daily target. +7.75 pts / 10 RT / 2 ct lots
Sub, You're doing extremely well. Out of curiosity, is your futures account net positive since you've opened it? You seem to win a high percentage of the time but I'm wondering if the few days when you blow up are costing you all of your profits. Bong
I'm still net down basically because of 2 huge blowout days ($5.5k trading 4 contract lots on August 5, and $10.4k trading 5 contract lots on August 13). When one adds to this the fact that out of my 35 trading days 28 have been profitable, the importance of a trading plan in general, and a daily stop loss in particular, becomes glaringly evident and should serve as a valuable lesson to all traders. I like to classify my e-mini trading history into 2 periods - post and pre-trading plan (August 15) and am pleased to report that since I wrote and implemented my trading plan I am net profitable. Nevertheless, there still have been discipline breaches and larger than necessary drawdowns, not to mention the continual tweaking and testing of various parameters. You are witnessing a painful evolutionary process.
Mr Sub. You are a good trader, you simply need to control your losses on a bad day. You are definitely turning the corner and your account will be positive very soon. I am in the same boat as you, I turned the corner on my trading, and now have a "rule" to leave if I am not doing well. For example, yesterday I was down $752, and I left since I didn't want to continue trading. Today, I am up only $350 and "dont feel it" so I am leaving now too. Keep the cash for the good days when you hot and don't blow it when youre not.