I think bobcathy1 was just trying to be helpful, which I appreciate. As far as the trade in question (BOT 1295 SLD 1293) is concerned, I knew very quickly that the trade was a mistake (there was no signal for this trade other than a gut feeling from the tape that going long was the right thing to do). My error was that instead of reversing at 1294, I tried to get out at 1295 and ended up reversing at 1293. When everything had stabilized, I reversed at 1292.5 attempting for 1295, only to get doubted out at 1293. Finally, I received a short signal at 1295 and got out at 1293 because I wanted to quit for the day. The reason I wanted to quit was because my signals were short, but my gut said long.
So your first trade was made on "gut feeling" rather than according to your plan? Did you get a signal from your strategy that called for you to enter at 1294? Was the 1292.5 trade signalled by your strategy? If so, why did you exit at 1293? As to the last trade, you were correct to exit since - as far as I can tell - you were fighting with yourself, and the middle of a trade is not the time to be doing that. But what was it that persuaded you that long trades were the preferred choice?
Yes there are some trades which we all know we made a mistake. Or the market moves so swiftly against us that we do not want to be swept along with the tide. I just happen to be mentored by nice people who make a lot of money in futures and trade huge lot sizes. I was just trying to pass on tips they gave to me that has literally turned my trading around. And helped me be a lot less nervous with trading and cured my fear of pulling the trigger. If you want to find out more, please pm me. I do not want to deal with the public again.
AFterburner, Is this a personal journal? I mean...do you have a trading plan? If so...are you going to reveal it? (You don't have do go into in-depth details) Also...if your asking for help or suggestions...your going to need to post some charts of your entries and exits via the same charts your using to make your trade decisions. Last of all, you may want to spend some time reading all the past journals to see why the ones where traders say "I'm posting this journal to hold myself accountable"... why they are short-lived and no goals are ever reached. To be more frank...posting end-of-day results at a public forum probably won't hold you accountable to anything... until you start posting more than just end-of-day results (charts, trading plan, type of trader you are, brief commentary about each trade, goals et cetera). NihabaAshi
At the same time you say you want to be accountable, you describe quite a lot of discretion in your trading. The saying, "you can't have your cake and eat it too" comes to mind. Being accountable implies a set of rules or guidelines that you follow. As db said, these rules or guidelines usually come from some sort of work done prior to actually trading. Following, the accountability journal comes in when the trader is saying, "I can't follow my rules on my own, I need to be held accountable to do so." That said, do yo have a specific set of rules or guidelines that you are supposed to follow? I don't care what the method is. Accountability has nothing to do with the method, only that there is a method whose execution you are accountable for.
Not necessarily. The knee-jerk reaction of nearly everyone who responds to these journal entries is to "improve" the plan. But I see no need to address the plan at all until it's determined whether or not the journalist is able to execute the plan. If he isn't, then the best plan in the world isn't going to be of any help. Given the comments about "guts", the problem seems to lie in following the plan. This may be due to having tried to follow it and being punished for doing so when the plan resulted in a loss, therefore the reluctance to trust it. But there has to be something more than vague references to "feelings". Otherwise, any effort to change the plan will be pointless.
click play button on Linda interview and hear how she address this problem http://www.dtitrader.com/members/archive.asp
Relax DP, You yourself asked him what/why signal he used for his trade exit @ 1293. Same as asking what was was his exit strategy (signal), trading plan or any word close to representing what exactly is getting him out of a particular trade. Simply, if you don't see a need to address the plan...don't ask questions about what signals he's using. Also, I've read most (not all) of these journals and I think the most common question being first asked... what are your signals/plan/strategy? Then...once (if) the the poster explains exactly what he/she is trying to accomplish via an explained signal info (strategy or plan)... us traders reading his journal can spend more time analyzing his trades... instead of analyzing the questions being asked by others reading his journal. Yet, he did make something loud and clear... he's using this public journal to hold himself accountable for his trade decisions...his ability to execute his plan. Therefore, he's got something and he's trying to execute it...what it is exactly... I don't know and would like to know. Geeeshh...he's trading 8 contracts and I'm going to assume for awhile that he was succesfully trading prior with a lower number of contracts before moving up into the arena of 8 contracts. Heck...he's a first time poster...he could be more experience and more successful than either of us... and just didn't have a good trading day...while having too many of them rececently...causing him to start a public journal to see if he can shake things up a bit to get back on track. (I've seen this done before a few times by some seasoned traders...sometimes it worked and other times it didn't) Also...everybody should post their insights, advice, tips, questions, answers about his trades or help him to accomplish any journal goals... via his public journal. Right now after only one day of results...I'm not too concerned with the proper order of questions nor the types of advice. Geeeesh...I don't even know what kind of a trader he is...swing, position, scalper or what... I definetly can't go by his one day results so far in trying to figure that out... because I still can remember another journal in the past that got started where the trader posted what look like trades that completed themselves in less than 3 mins... and later I found out via asking him in pm that the poster was actually a position trader trying to hold trades with much longer duration... he just couldn't either execute his plan or reached his profit-target or got stopped out for a loss a lot faster than planned. Simply...we need more info about AFterburner. I'm just going to read his journal for awhile until I can figure out what's going on... if I have insights for him...I'll post it... if not...I'll go read something else. After this post...I myself will only address the journalist and not any other poster. Just my opinion. P.S. AFterburner if you have a plan (specific signals) and choose not to reveal it...this public journal will not hold you accountable for anything nor hold you accountable to anyone else. Some of us here probably can suggest other ways to accomplish your accountability goal. NihabaAshi
No, I asked him if he received one. That's distinct from asking what the signal was. At this point, I couldn't care less what the signal was. What is more germane is why, if there was one, he didn't follow it. And, yes, as I pointed out, the most common question is "what are your signals/plan/strategy?" But the plan is not always the problem. Since he made it clear that he was not following his own signals, that seemed to be a more pertinent subject than the plan itself. Relax yourself, Niha.
I had been successfully trading 15 contracts for several months, but decided to cut my size in half because for the previous two weeks I had been ignoring my system and consequently suffered a moderate drawdown. These were the first down weeks I've had since the beginning of April, and I'm really shaken up about it. Even though I am trying to revert back to my system, for some reason I am too fearful to do much of anything. As far as accountability goes, it is enough that I know that my trades will be posted to a public forum. That is really all the accountability I need right now. My intention for this journal was to help myself get back on track and then sustain it while slowly increasing my size back to normal.