Ripley, why not post any P&L to make the thread a bit more useful for anyone viewing it. It's nice to know you don't have any disasters, but it makes no sense, and isn't even useful for yourself if you don't post your performance. Post some trades, make this thread worth something. I intend on sharing my P&L once I start my journal of my trading, maybe if you posted your trades and/or P&L, it could help others help you. How many trades do you average a day?
Trading is a BUSINESS.....the most successful traders treat it as such. Approach it, and treat it as a business and you are sure to get better results. Good luck on your quest. Mike
This is just a personal record for myself and I am not trying to entice anyone to view it. This is a record for me to keep myself on the game, and keep myself focused so that I can trade everyday with my goal ($1 mill) in my mind. I was short from 944 over the weekend, and took +100 pts yesterday. But that was in my swing trading account, not my day trading account. This is a record of my day trading. Long 922, out 933.. Short 943 out at 923.. it would really be time consuming, and boring for anyone to read my in & out and in & out kind of trading. It is not scalping. But, I do take a lot of trades every day. I average 50 trades per day. That is really great of you to do that in the future JMowery. But, in my case I don't think thats the best thing to do. It puts me in a bind and it is a promise that I have to keep everyday, and if I don't post it one day that people would assume that I had a bad day. My focus would then shift to trading to please people who read my journal rather than pursuing trading for the hell of trading. And I don't think the beginning stages of a million dollar quest isn't all that exciting. I promise I will post as I reach major milestones such as $100,000 $200,000 etc etc. And I promise to post my P/L for the whole year, but not for a single day because it would be a huge distraction for me.
Day 43 Trading is HARD... really really HARDer # of Disasters: 3 1) When you are going against the flow, you have to BAIL OUT when the move just isn't there. You have to trade to NOT LOSE and you have to take the appropriate action to limit losses to the bare minimum the very first chance you get. 2) Always be aware of SUPPORT & RESISTANCE regions. You have to bail out of a trade when there isn't much there, when statistically nothing is left on that trade. You have to trade the market, not your targets. You have to mend & bend with the market. 3) NEVER EVER EVER NEVEREVER move a STOP. Never again.
Dude, if you are having discipline problems, you do not 'deserve' to be making 50 trades a day on futs. I was shocked when i read that number. I use 'deserve' in the sense of allowing yourself to trade. Slow down, take stock, and 'earn' the right to take 50 trades per day. Take only 5 trades a day, if no mistakes, take 6 the start of following week. If mistakes, roll back one. (In a way I understand what you might be going through, I also had a discipline journal here at ET and it changed the course for me. Each day I had to drag butt up to the journal and type my results, if I acted like a winner or a loser that day.) Some of these disasters you say that PnL for the day was still green - well step up to the plate and become a better trader with a better PnL and no 'disasters'.
Day 44 FOCUS has to be there # of Disasters: 1 1) I shouldn't watch TV or be online when I am trading. I need to have that complete concentration on trading.. at all times even when I am eating lunch or whatnot, just FOCUS on TRADING for the whole day. You can watch TV or browse the net etc when the market is closed.
On one trade, I accidently took on more contracts than what I intended. A quick move against me, and I panicked and moved my stop. It took me out for a HUGE loss. Now on, on accidental trades, I am going to get out right when I realize that the trade was a mistake. Here I gave it a bit more time than what I should've given a flawed order placement.