Quiper emini journal

Hello all,

By now I have been just watching and reading, fighting trading on my own for more than 2 years. I have decided to try to join the discussion and share with my progress here.

I am trading emini Russell 2000. I am currently trading live, but overall I am not profitable. I have decide to keep trading live as I feel do not learn enough through simulator. I feel that with consistent live trading I am moving ahead, although I am paying “my tuition”. My account for emini trading is about 25K and I am trading usually 1, max. 2 contracts of TF. I am trading

I have tried to trade with many different timeframes and indicators, but non of them worked for me. So for now I ended trading only price on time based timeframes. I am not fixed to any default timeframe. I usually watch 5 minutes and trade on 2 minutes or 1 minutes depending on volatility.

My plan is to trade S/R levels. I basically track S/R levels on TF and watch how the price is reacting to the levels. I also watch other markets (ES, NQ) what they are doing in the same time. Most of the time I try to sell strong retracements and buy strong supports. Some entries are based on S/R breakouts, but I try to do this type of entry only in the situation I feel there is some strong directional movement. My plan is not 100% mechanical as I just never succeeded with any mechanical plan and – because I am not profitable – I am working every day on some improvements. Up-to-date my plan is about 70% systematic approach and 30% discretion.

The major purpose of my journal is to show that I am able to work hard and in systematic matter and maybe gain contact to some profitable trader/mentor that would be willing to help me to translate into fulltime profitable daytrading.

I will try to post all my trades here on daily basis. Please excuse level of my English as it is not my native language.

quiper

 

Trading 2010/10/26

Trade 1: Anticipating breakout of weak S/R to the upside. Market was trying to fill the gap. I was targeting pivot point at 709.2. Market loss momentum. Exited with 0,5 point.

Trade 2: Wrong assuming that market will break the S/R line. I got too exited by the red hummer just before my entry. No break follow trough. As soon I saw there is no any down momentum I killed the trade. What a pity I didn’t buy this S/R as this was the move to the pivot.

Trade 3: Tried to sell S/R (former support became resistance). But the volatility was so low. Got out on B/E.

Trade 4: Still believed in the S/R level, tried to sell it once again. But the volatility got even worse. I got out from the trade as there was really no momentum ad it seemed to me as pure gamble.
Stopped trading for the day.

Total profit for a day: 94 USD after commissions.

Well kind of nice start of the journal. My problem however is that my
average loosing day is usually 3-4 times bigger that this small profit. We will see if the journal will help me with the discipline.

 

second part of my trades:

 

2010/10/27

Another low volatility day. Was doing OK, but killed my discipline with last trade.

Was not “lucky” with trade management. Basically I picked the right place to enter, right direction, but than didn’t manage the trade to be a winner.

Trade 1 – I missed limit short entry at 703.5 S/R level. What a worse, I got into „chasing mode“ and entered short @ 702.4, very near second S/R level I was watching this morning session. I didn’t feel comfortable with the entry so I just exited the trade with +0.3 ticks.

Potential entry @ 15:16. Market retraced back to the S/R level. I was ready this time and had short limit @ 703.5. I even changed the limit to 703.4 priced touched the order several times, but with no fill.

Trade 2 – short at strong resistance @ 697.2. Market didn’t move anywhere for few minutes, other markets where rising (NQ, ES). Exited the position at my entry point. Two minutes later the market dropped down.

Trade 3 – Bought the same S/R that became support. Mismanaged the trade as I got distracted by phone. Exited with small loss -30 USD.

Trade 4 – Emotional short. This was a not good entry. I got out with a loss – 70 USD just to see the market to drop in my direction after I exited the trade.

Total P/L inc. commissions: -86 USD

 

afternoon trades:

 

Only second message was posted. Do not know what happened, so I repost the beginning of todays journal:

2010/10/27

Another low volatility day. Was doing OK, but killed my discipline with last trade.

Was not “lucky” with trade management. Basically I pick the right place to enter, right direction, but than didn’t manage the trade to be a winner.

Trade 1 – I missed limit short entry at 703.5 S/R level. What a worse, I got into „chasing mode“ and entered short @ 702.4, very near second S/R level I was watching this morning session. I didn’t feel comfortable with the entry so I just exited the trade with +0.3 ticks.

Potential entry @ 15:16. Market retraced back to the S/R level. I was ready this time and had short limit @ 703.5. I even changed the limit to 703.4 priced touched the order several times, but with no fill.

Trade 2 – short at strong resistance @ 697.2. Market didn’t move anywhere for few minutes, other markets where rising (NQ, ES). Exited the position at my entry point. Two minutes later the market dropped down.

Trade 3 – Bought the same S/R that became support. Mismanaged the trade as I got distracted by phone. Exited with small loss -30 USD.

Trade 4 – Emotional short. This was a not good entry. I got out with a loss – 70 USD just to see the market to drop in my direction after I exited the trade.

Total P/L inc. commissions: -86 USD

 

2010/10/28

Only one trade today. As I feel very tired by the end of this week, I will take the afternoon off live trading.

Markets had generally nice down direction but on such a low volume. When I look back on printed charts they look generally nice, but in realtime, it was pain to watch them. I had no signal in the morning down move, although I was tempted to short small S/R level at 707. Well I didn’t and I don’t mind as due to very low general volatility I didn’t had all the price confirmation I was expecting.

Trade 1 was a very low-risk short small double-top on pivot. Shorted the second touch of pivot area at 707.7. I got no heat at the trade, but I was about 20 minutes in the trade for 150 USD

To be honest I didn’t supposed market will have power to make new low on such a low volume and over the lunch. So my target was at blue area – I was aiming at 200 USD profit. But it really seemed that the market doesn’t have the power to get in the area, so I took profit of 150 USD after 20 minutes of waiting. Of course, the market started moving in the next few seconds. But that’s how it usually goes. I feel I am not performing well in such a low volatility environment and prefer when things are moving…

Will work on some stats tonight and looking forward for some nice trades tomorrow.

 

2010/10/29

Trade 1 – I was trying to buy overall weakness of TF. The low of the first pullback on TF was generally much deeper than the same pullback on other indexes. Entry on breakout of weak S/R resistance. I basically tried to shoot for some move before the markets will die again. The market did move a bit but I exited on B/E as there was not a momentum I was anticipating.

Trade 2 – Faded very strong S/R @ 702.5. Risked 50 USD, MFE on the trade was 90, I was targeting at least at pivot that would generate profit at least 150 USD with RRR 1:3. Stopped B/E

Trade 3 – Emotional second re-try of Trade 2. This was not good as the stop-loss was much higher (100 USD). I got out with a loss of -50 USD after I saw there is no momentum to the downside I was trading.

Trade 4 – Long the same S/R. Had limit @ 702.5, but market didn’t fill me, than moved the entry @ 702.6 and later to 702.7 where I was filled. Due to chasing I was working with stop 120 USD. After my entry, market moved down a bit and was sitting at an open loss of about 70 USD. I felt the situation was not good so waited for best point to exit the position. The other markets where slowly moving down and I was afraid of spike down that would take my main stop. I got out of the position with a loss of -60 USD.

Trade 5 – last attempt to trade the area. Market was very slow, ES and NQ touched their pivots from upsite and TF made volatility spike that I felt was just scalp for stops under last pivot. Got long @ 701.6 with stop 50 USD. Was targeting 704 area. How ever market stopped at the S/R level I was stacked the whole day (702.5), so I took what was on the table (80 USD) and stopped trading for a day.

Total P/L after commissions: -20 USD

Note: I got too married to one S/R level. 702.5 area was at the end the major S/R level for the time period watched, but the market was too choppy there. 5 trades was just too much for such low volatility trading period.

 

2010/11/1

Didn’t want to trade too much today due to the FED coming on Wednesday and because I was not sure if there is bank holiday in Europe or not (I saw there is a bank holiday in France). Thus I was assuming low volatility day.

Trade 1 - How every, I tried to short the market about 10 minutes after open. TF opened with gap up above the last swing high on 5 min TF. Then it traded bellow the swing and I shorted the restest @ 704.1. Had 40 USD MFE on this trade, was waiting for moving stop to B/E but the market turned and was testing the S/R level again. I saw some pretty strong green candles on YM and ES and thus I closed the position as soon as TF broke the S/R. Loss -20 USD.

Trade 2 – Long the level of yesterday swing high on retest (got long 705.2) Was hoping for profit target at 710, but the market was so slow It created MFE 200 USD in my favor and started to turn down. Well at certain point it was obvious it will at least retest the S/R level where I had my stop at B/E so I closed the trade for +100 USD.

Market did very nice retest of my blue S/R line, how ever it was one minute before the ISM report. I would not go into the position. Just for my note how the market did get into my potential PT..

Trade 3 - After that the market died again. The price action was so slow I thought I am done for today. Than markets started to drop and gained some volatility. I was watching TF to break down through the last swing high area again. So I did the same trade as in the morning – I shorted small double top @ 704.7. My target was pivot @ 701.6, but I am still working on my exits. A got out @ 703 were market paused. I got afraid by big warning – ES had power to do the new low of the day, YM not. This often tells me there is no enough momentum for big trade. So I took +170 USD and of course this time the market would go into my profit target.

P/L +238 USD

Of course, I am happy with any profit, but will have to work on my targets as I need to work on “buffer” when my loosing days will come. The situation would be better if I could trade more contracts and keep runners, but my long term results are not good enough to even think about it…

 

2010/11/02

Trade 1. Stupid, inpatient trade. I was watching 706 level as a S/R and waiting for break down. Well I was not patient enough and enter the trade before the breakout. And of course – I got some heat, panic and closed the trade just before the breakout. I was not OK with the trade because I knew I broke my rules. Loss -30 USD.

Trade 2 After the initial breakdown I was waiting for next S/R level I could short. Obvious S/R level formed at about 703.8. Shorted this one, took few ticks heat and finally got some profit. Was aiming at pivot @ 700.2, but there was such a low volatility again. I was watching Crude Oil that was in total chop, so I took wat was on the table. Still reasonable RRR. Profit +200 USD.

Stopped trading for the day as market are not doing anything.

Total P/L: +172 USD