Thanks. I am working hard on sticking to the schedule - only trading during a set time and not worrying about the market the rest of the day.
good luck to you young man you are on the right track if you can keep making profits weekly and avoid losing weeks or bad drawdowns during those weeks you are on the road to being a trader I hope I am not jinxing myself but looking back at this month I did not have any drawdowns and my acct grew 20-25 %
Update for week ended 2/8/2008. Was in Las Vegas Tues through Thurs so I must have had gambling on the brain and not trading Monday morning. I put on a couple lotto trades (I did come to my senses and close them) and rolled over a losing position from Monday to Tuesday. Completely shitty week in terms of quality of trading. Thursday there were no trades, just a Cash FX Loss. Code: Date P/L Pips Range Size W L S Monday, February 04, 2008 -$185.88 19.0 61.0 62,000 4 1 0 Tuesday, February 05, 2008 $1,024.71 129.0 136.0 62,000 5 0 0 Wednesday, February 06, 2008 - - - - - - - Thursday, February 07, 2008 -$4.52 - - - - - - Friday, February 08, 2008 - - - - - - - --------------------------- Total for the week: $834.31 148.0 197.0 - 9 1 0
Update for week ended 2/15/2008. Nothing really to speak of - not much trading this week. I did some looking back this week and I think people really underestimate the importance of sticking to a schedule or routine. What I have seen in myself is that if I sit down and try to trade at times other than when I am used to trading, my performance is generally bad. I can't accurately describe the feeling in words, but it is as if I get out of sync. The bars on the chart may move the same, but I just react to them in a different manner. Code: Date P/L Pips Range Size W L S Monday, February 11, 2008 $160.07 29.5 39.0 65,000 5 2 0 Tuesday, February 12, 2008 $130.26 24.0 39.0 66,000 4 0 0 Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - - - - - - - Thursday, February 14, 2008 - - - - - - - Friday, February 15, 2008 - - - - - - - --------------------------- Total for the week: $290.33 53.5 78.0 - 9 2 0
Update for week ended 2/22/2008. I really fucked myself fast, hard, and relentlessly. Like past disasters, it started out as a small loss that compounded in front of my eyes - and my lack of discipline under pressure prevented me from letting it get to this point. What was the reason for this nightmare... Greed? The excitement of losing? It just comes down to a lack of discipline and there is nothing to blame but myself. All the time I would hope for a turn-around in the trend to prove me right. Trading is a lonely deal - and sometimes it would be nice if someone was looking over my shoulder at the end of everyday to review my trades. Someone without any skin in the game to say "wake up and don't be stupid, hope is for losers and gamblers". I will be taking it one small step at a time. Code: Date P/L Pips Range Size W L S Monday, February 18, 2008 - - - - - - - Tuesday, February 19, 2008 -$1,200.12 - - - - - - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - - - - - - - Thursday, February 21, 2008 -$1,980.60 -194.0 307.0 67,000 0 1 0 Friday, February 22, 2008 -$285.72 -282.0 382.0 67,000 0 1 0 --------------------------- Total for the week: -$3,466.44 -476.0 689.0 - 0 2 0
Hi Datamerc, I've been reading your journal since last year and have been following it with interest ever since (mainly because I, too, am struggling with forex for the past year) Up until last week, you were doing great and have been fairly consistent, then this happens. You've wiped out all your gains for the year. I guess you've now realised your mistake by holding on to losers instead of cutting your losses early (something which I have immense problems with). Have you ever thought about setting a maximum dollar or pip amount that you could lose in a single day/week before pulling the plug for the rest of the day/week? Anyway, hang in there, you're basically there. You're experienced enough to know that you need to cut your losses early but let me say it again... Cut your losses early!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck for next week. 6
I sincerely appreciate your comments. Actually, I was struggling as to if I should even post these awful results - but needed to be honest with myself and my fellow ET members. Since the middle of last year I've given myself a 2% daily and a 5% weekly max loss. I'm able to obey it sometimes and other times I can't. Like I mentioned before, it is quite lonely without someone looking over your shoulder (acting a risk manager), so it would be nice if my software could help out. I know that in the end it all comes down to my discipline, but I'm looking into different interfaces for IB that can help me enforce my max loss amount (ButtonTrader looks to be the most popular/advanced but I just don't like it). My dream software would have: - Only 3 buttons (buy, sell, close). All orders would be market orders with a trailing stop order automatically submitted/canceled. - Only allow trades in the direction of my strategy (e.g. with the trend). - Close open positions when max daily or weekly loss is reached. - Good trade analysis. Good trading to you too.
As you mentioned discipline is the key and often our worst enemy is ourselves. I know a trader that has his prop firm lock him out of his trading platform once his daily max. loss limit is reached. I wish I could have such a feature with my forex broker but all I have, like yourself, is the 2% rule in the back of my head and myself to stick to the rule. Kudos for posting your results despite your losses. Stick with your system and try to keep those losers small. Good trading for next week.
Take it easy, it takes three years to be profitable. Is this your second year? Hang in there, you are close.
datamerc many traders have been where you have been if you have an "edge" and know how to prevent yourself from -revenge style- adding on to losers or holding on to losers syndrome and know the best "time of day" and what "is driving the markets" that day as well as charts in various time frames and even what the daily pivots high lows are you have a chance to make a living at any market you trade ( it can be non forex too )