Update for week 1 ending Aug 6, 2011 : Weekly Stats: 1. Week PL: -3k 2. Start Equity: 7k 3. End Equity: 4k 4. Maximum equity run-up: 8k 5. Max Win day as % of that day's start equity: 20% 6. Max Loss day as % of that day's start equity: -45% Below stats are from Journal start day: 1. Total PL: -3k 2. PF: 0.28 3. RoI: -40% 4. Max. DD: 50% 5. Current DD: 40% 6. # of winning days 44%, # of losing days 56% 7. Av. win day: 11% 8. Av. Loss day: -22%
Did you hear about Demo Account.. You can play demo till you prove you have a consistent edge then go real.
Thanks, Yes it was a pretty horrible way to start. My hope from this journal is that being organized, writing everything in black and white and in front of the world will force me to stay disciplined. I have few edges, its just a question of trading 'only' my edges. My problem is the 'highly leveraged' discretionary trades that destroy my account.
Update for week 2 ending Aug 13, 2011 : Biggest losing trade was the massive drop in crude oil, which caused me to lose 2k (40% drop) on Monday. I could trade only one contract because of small margin, and so I couldn't average in and make money on so many small rallies that happened within the downtrend on Monday. Lesson: I am going to stop trading futures till the time my account grows back to at least 8k, so I am going to trade only FX/bond ETFs till then. Risk control has improved, but will take time to show up. Till my account reaches a value of 4k, I have substantially cut-down the leverage, which means instead of usual 3-4 months, I might need 4-6 months to double my account. So, its going to be a very slow ride (and hopefully steady ride) for the next 4-6 months or so. Primarily, focusing on developing more strategies and lateron working on developing a portfolio of systematic strategies. Journal is going to be very boring for the next few months, with weekly moves of 100-500$ or so, so I will on a weekly basis write about the best trading opportunities that I see in the market for the next week or month. This week's best trade I see is: long usdjpy from current levels with staggered targets at 77.5 (couple of days), 78.5 (1-2 weeks) and (2weeks-1month time horizon target of 79.5). Best to enter on retraces around 76.2, 76.5, 76.8 and 77.2. Weekly Stats: 1. Week PL: -2k 2. Start Equity: 4k 3. End Equity: 2.3k 4. Maximum equity run-up: 4k 5. Max Win day as % of that day's start equity: 3% 6. Max Loss day as % of that day's start equity: -39% Below stats are from Journal start day: 1. Total PL: -5k 2. PF: 0.37 3. RoI: -70% 4. Max. DD: 73% 5. Current DD: 72% 6. # of winning days 50%, # of losing days 50% 7. Av. win day: 7% 8. Av. Loss day: -23%
Update for week 3 ending Aug 20, 2011 : 3rd consecutive losing week. Lost 160$ for the week - so dollar wise, it was the smallest loss for the last three weeks: 1st wk being 4k, 2nd wk being 2k and 3rd being 160$. However, I am dangerously close to falling under 2000$ minimum trading requirement. Over the last 10 days, I have cut down the risk substantially, and I am confident that I will be able to overcome this horrible start and go on to make new equity highs within next 6-8 months. The biggest problem would be if my account equity falls below 2000$. I have 4 open positions coming into this Monday. So, how these open positions pan out will determine whether I fall below 2000$ in my account. My last week call for an uptrend in USDJPY didn't pan out much. However, I was able to scalp it 3 times for a 30 pip profit. I don't have any high conviction trade view for this coming week. So, not much to say. A low conviction trade is to go long TBT at these levels (23.8) and aim for a 0.5-1 point up-move. Weekly Stats: 1. Week PL: -160$ 2. Start Equity: 2.3k 3. End Equity: 2.1k 4. Maximum equity run-up: 2.4k 5. Max Win day as % of that day's start equity: 5% 6. Max Loss day as % of that day's start equity: -12% Below stats are from Journal start day: 1. Total PL: -5k 2. PF: 0.37 3. RoI: -71% 4. Max. DD: 74% 5. Current DD: 74% 6. # of winning days 47%, # of losing days 53% 7. Av. win day: 6% 8. Av. Loss day: -17%
Why bother trading with such a small account? You should be working on funding the account and THOROUGHLY backtesting.
Did not post last week as account was below 2000$ with an open position (Short EURUSD) and I was very disappointed. Since now I am back above 2000, I will post week 4th and week 5th results. Update for week 4 ending Aug 27, 2011 : 4th consecutive losing week. Lost 600$ for the week - short EUR position at 1.434 which moved against me to 1.4550. Normally I would have exited the position at 30-50 pip, but this time I had no option but to sit on my hands since my account was below 2000. Had I exited, it would have meant no more margin trading for me. Long TBT call panned out but I booked only 30 cents of profit instead of 2 $ of profit per share. Weekly Stats: 1. Week PL: -600$ 2. Start Equity: 2.1k 3. End Equity: 1.6k 4. Maximum equity run-up: 2.2k 5. Max Win day as % of that day's start equity: 4% 6. Max Loss day as % of that day's start equity: -14% Below stats are from Journal start day: 1. Total PL: -6k 2. PF: 0.36 3. RoI: -79% 4. Max. DD: 81% 5. Current DD: 81% 6. # of winning days 42%, # of losing days 58% 7. Av. win day: 6% 8. Av. Loss day: -15%
Update for week 5 ending Sep 3, 2011 : Finally, 1st profitable week out of 5 weeks!! Closed my short euro position at 1.428. Other biggest trade of this week was shorting USDCHF for a quick 150$ scalp. Weekly Stats: 1. Week PL: +900$ 2. Start Equity: 1.6k 3. End Equity: 2.5k 4. Maximum equity run-up: 2.5k 5. Max Win day as % of that day's start equity: 20% 6. Max Loss day as % of that day's start equity: -3% Below stats are from Journal start day: 1. Total PL: -5k 2. PF: 0.46 3. RoI: -67% 4. Max. DD: 82% 5. Current DD: 70% 6. # of winning days 48%, # of losing days 52% 7. Av. win day: 8% 8. Av. Loss day: -14%
Man,i`d suggest you to buy Brit Pound,it set up for a take off after the hollidays.And let it run at least until 1,63-64 or something like that.It is also a 'season' for the british pound.