I have to say that everyone has it. When you're trading with a bunch of other traders in a firm, we start chatting about the dumbest shit you can ever think of. When I was trading from home, I was in a chatroom(ET chat) chatting about the dumbest shit you can ever think of. There's nothing wrong, if you're "focused" all day... you'll end up burning yourself out. These are two different things: Alert / Focused. Relaxed / Phased out.
I feel that four pages a day is appropriate. I divide my log into several vertical parts. In the middle I make comments and on either side there is mostly facts. The right side is the trading stuff and on the left, I keep a more or less technical running tab. The day rolls along in about four moving parts and Midday. A page of about 16 rows suffices for each of the four moves. Since I trade the ES and use the YM as a leading indicator, the left portion of the log shows this parallel but slightly offset logging. I fill the major rows of a page in in advance since there is a sequence that unfolds. Another way to say it is that there are events that follow in an order that keeps repeatng. So the major rows that have major events are separated by interim rows that log the minor events in between. this approach is one where price change is important because the key result of price change is making money. I stay in the markets to do this. The logging is just done about every five minutes when I am I between annotations and executing. By having about 7 items for the YM and 6 items for the ES, I am able to comment when I get to the middle and I can look further down the sheet for the next upcoming major event in the sequence. I use 6 levels of making money on ES and they are stated in terms of ticks/minute. I use three full page different charts to have available for reference as to when the the various levels occur during the day. They are graphically illustrated. If I am in one range at a given time, I know what the migration will be to go to the next range. If a trending day hits at the open, then I know that the four moves will just be extensions of the trending activity. The bottom dimensio of these charts is done by bars numbers which corresponds to the row ID's on the left. On the right I do repeat bar #' as a convenience for tabbing trades by kind, market direction and contract level. Sometimes the contract volume is limited by one of the three charts mentioned above. i have agenerally comfortable feeling as myemotions are generated by only the consideration of gathering a successful data set on the left. I turn away from the screens to fillin the comments that are columns for analysis, decision making and action. Conclusion are jotted in the analysis column simply as beliefs that emerge into my consciousness by upwelling from my unconscious. they fill in autoatically and set me up to think about decisions. I only make five different decisions and because all of my data sets are comparitive (look at the row above and jot same or change effect) vectors (size and direction). the data is separated from the decsion by a stated belief (conclusion) so there is not emotion after the feeling of success in gathering data. I decide to hold moslty. That is an H on the row in the decision column. Many H's tell me I am making money on contracts that are in the market. other letters include R where I have to go further to the right in the log to note the results of the reverse in terms of price. I do not tab profits cummulatively but I often do tab the individual prifits to check against the rate in ticks/minute. W for wait, E for entry and X for exit are rarely used decisions. The market price volume relaionship is stated in terms of hold (continue) and change (reverse) so entry and exit trading is antithetical to how the market works. It is impractical for making money continually. Behavioral actions are listed as the trading stuff. I have a belief system and it handles my analysis and then decision making. My beliefs came from experience and watching the markets and I was told my beliefs by the market. Loggig is an effort that is conscious but by and away mot of the work of the mind is unconscious. the conscious to unconscious rate per second of mental data processing is 10,000 to 20,000,000 so you can see the unconscious is in charge of making money effectively and efficiently. The conclusions of analyss are automatic for me. If you look at the log as a collection of 3x5 cards, you can visualize the conscious and unconscious. A ball point dot per card is the conscious, the rest of the card is the unconscious data collected. A whole page of a log has many conscious marks on it. the amount of unconscious data is astounding. When I mentor, at first, it is too grueling for a peron in their 20's or 30's to be able to do it. They haven't worked mentally before so they have to take breaks and just share some of the trading. Gradually they snap into shape by gaining stamina and skills of the mind. It turns out to feel like sports memory after you reach a high level of making money. These levels are hard to explain but this is the way the market flows capital to people who want to take it. atdays end you add many other pages to the log. your annotations on two whol charts, the tick chartsfor the whole day on both markets. they are important because tey are annotated and set up for the next day. I do a 32 part preflight check for the next day as well. Often I am running the sweeps chart in several colors as the money velocity break points occur. This is not stuff that a person with an untrained mind can do easily. Recently at the Vegas Expo they had some live traing, I frightened a couple of the presenters by running ahead of the markets a few minutes as the didatic unfolded with audienc participation. I wasn't logging but just enjoying a relaxed routine of monitoring, analysis, decision making and not having to punch the trades. In one meeting the presenter asked me sort of out of the blue how many pages a day I logged. Then he asked how long I had been doing it and finally he asked if I would send him some logs. This makes for problems at the end of presentations as you might imagine. I'll be 74 next month lol.......
Thanks so much. This is a good place to look at the nitty gritty. Too bad that thread got closed and I got banned.
Hello Jack, If you don't mind, I have a few questions for you regarding your ES/YM logging spreadsheet. I'll understand if you decide that this thread is not the place to respond. When filling out the log, do you wait until the bar ends before entering a row? Related, do you log the ES & YM at the same time? Or since the YM leads, do you enter the YM columns potentially in the middle of an ES bar? From past posted logs, I figured out most of your abbreviations. However, there are a few that I dont' know. For MACD, does 'N' mean neutral and/or entwined? For the channel column, I assume this is where I write BO, FBO, EXP (expansion). Are there other codes for the channel column? For the Forms columns, I assume this is where I write FTP, FBP, SYM, FTT. I understand the concept of gaussians but I'm not sure what to exactly log in the Gaus column. If possible, would you mind describing how filling out the log fits in with performing sweeps? I'm trying to figure this out without "inventing" anything. I apologize for the long post and look forward to any feedback that you may have... spooz
Sitting on my duff for long periods wasn't working for me. I decided to get a recumbant bike to exercise on during the trading day. My trading station is set up so that I can ride when I like while still keeping an eye on the action. It actually helps to keep me focused...for what it's worth. I even managed to take off a few pounds.
If you are having problems focusing on the screen during the slow time, then put on a random 50 lot position. That is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat, and watching every tick in the market. I have found that a few breaks throughout the day are necessary to keep me focused and rest my eys, but I never take them when the market is really active. Between 8 and 11 PST, I take a few minutes here and there. To keep me abreast of what is going on, I have the squawk feed turned up, and my systems alert me with different audible sounds. Generally, you aren't missing much during that time, and it's best to sit on the sidelines, unless you have an edge the performs well within that type of choppy trendless market.
I just recognised (at 42) that I had ADD and eased out of daytrading except under ideal conditions. No more self recrimination. Books on trading discipline and finding the zone ceased to be relevent. There's a lot to be said for focussing on catching a few huge moves across a broad spectrum of stocks as opposed to trying to make up for undercapitalisation by trading small moves with futures type leverage. An option style strategy with stocks is sustainable, more consistent and you are less likely to give back 3 months profits in one day. It is well known that some people have to quit daytrading after a few years. I suspect that once the learning curve has flattened out if they are ADD they just can't focus as they need to even though they bhave bills to pay. Seperate to the above, don't forget that you can't catch moves that are created by someone whacking it (as many are). It has already happened before it has fully printed on your chart.
if there were ever a relation between two markets where one is always the leader then it would get arbed to death and therefore stop existing at the same moment. some people of course are not able to understand that.