Everyone's process is different. I find this public journal quite useful actually because it forces me to post on a daily basis and provide justification for each trade. A private journal I would tend to probably neglect over time since I wouldn't feel the need to be accountable. As crazy as it sounds, but the public platform here holds me accountable even though barely anyone probably reads this journal lol. Also, this public journal is the same platform that allowed you to provide me some tips and guidance, which is another perk. Your tips regarding the PDL and PDH probably saved me a couple months until I learned it on my own, or maybe I would have never thought about it? But anyways, I'll keep posting here in the meantime as I do see the value add. Thanks!
Of course, I am just trying to point out a few things now that you will realize later on. I do not expect you to understand, as that is just the way things are. There is no shortcut to experience, no matter how much sim trading or backtesting you do. The best way is to start with small risk, ignore everyone else and concentrate on feedback, not feedback from others on internet forums, but feedback from the market you have decided to trade.
2016-10-17 Summary Daily P&L: -6.75 (3 trades, 2 break-evens, 1 loser) Trade Summary Trade 1: Line A (PDL) was the resistance line in the morning so I shorted close to the level at 4795.00, however got caught as the market trend changed and rallied to the HOD. [-7.50] Trade 2: Flipped long as Line A is now the support line, however as I was in the money I held too long and the market reversed on me to get stopped out at break-even. [+0.25] Trade 3: Shorted at 4797.00 as the market broke below Line A once again, and it was an evident down trend on the 10 mins / 20 mins charts. Got too impatient waiting too long for a major move.. I should have walked away and focused on another task instead of micro-managing and overthinking the trade. Ended up breaking even, however once again, it could have been a profitable trade. [+0.50] Things to (continue to) focus on: -More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop) -Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan -Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop) -Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day -Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?) -After every trade (win or lose), take some time to assess before entering the next trade
2016-10-19 Summary Daily P&L: +5.25 (1 trade, 1 winner) Trade Summary Trade 1: Line A (line extended from previous S & R) was the resistance line throughout the day so I shorted when it approached that level with a close stop. [+5.25] Things to (continue to) focus on: -More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop) -Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan -Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop) -Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day -Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?) -After every trade (win or lose), take some time to assess before entering the next trade
2016-10-20 Summary Daily P&L: -5.25 (1 trade, 1 loser) Trade Summary Trade 1: Got caught trying to call the bottom as the trend changed and market sold off hard. MORE PATIENCE! [-5.25] Things to (continue to) focus on: -More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop) -Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan -Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop) -Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day -Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?) -After every trade (win or lose), take some time to assess before entering the next trade
Ok, but you must do it, otherwise you will not learn anything from it. For every sim trade you place you will also toss a coin - heads you go long, tails you go short. You must use a stop based on current market activity, not on what you think might happen if price gets to a certain level. You must use a take profit based on current market activity, not on what you think might happen if price gets to a certain level. Note: Your toss coin stop and take profit can be different to your sim trade stop and take profit, as the purpose is to see the difference in the results, and then work out the reason/s why.
I quite like this idea. But using stops and targets based on market activity, although sound, will muddy the stats results, no? If he wants to go long for example at 4840 which he thinks is support, but the coin tells him to short, then he might want to play it very tight, and place the stop right at 4842, just 2 points higher, cause he "knows" its gonna stop out. But if he does in fact get a long from the coin "signal", then he might stick with his standard 5 point stop, hence the stop will be at 4835, 5 points below the long, because he will believe in the long, even if support is broken. Using what the market tells you first assumes you can read the market properly, but then it also assumes that the market will follow what you think each time you make this prediction. There is an inherent randomness in all of this, and this is what I assume you're getting at with this experiment. I would imagine what would be better is to use the same stop and target for each trade, and if it so happens that the coin tells you to go in the opposite direction of what you want, just let it play out. Hopefully you're better at guessing direction better than the coin, but this certainly won't be 80% of the time I don't imagine. Sometimes, maybe even 30-40% of the time, I bet going in the opposite direction of what you think will be the winning trade. Of course I have no idea where you are going with this, and so perhaps what you're trying to illustrate is different than what I have in mind, in which case, forget what I just said.