(US open = 15:30) Serious off-day today. I completely screwed up the open which resulted in wasting too many bullets to get back into the game when the situation got clearer. Daily stop is reached, so game over for me for today. Final total for today: -11,25 (-2 commission for 8 trades) = -13,25 points net. (-8,4% for today). Tobo
In hindsight: The NDX closed the gap from the 2nd of Jan today and then backed off. An important clue that I missed earlier. Tobo
(US open = 15:30) Another day, another opportunity (while I tried to swallow my bad day from yesterday) It's not always easy to "reset" the mind after such an event, but I try. According to my homework, I was expecting downpressure after the open. So I faded the thrust up after the open. First trade went scratch. 2nd try went a lot better. In hindsight an early exit perhaps but nevertheless happy with today's result. Final total for today: +11,25 (-0,5 commission for 2 trades) = +10,75 points net. (+7,7% for today). I converted $2.000 to euro's. Since this account is ⬠based, I don't want the eurusd rate to influence the account. So I hope to be able to do this each Friday. Tobo
weekly P/L statement & summary: The first (5-day) week of the year has ended. Net result was +22,50 points. The good news is that I reached the weekly target of +15 points, a result with which I'm happy. The bad news is that I had a day were I reached the daily stop. An event like that should not become a weekly habit, that would be way too much. The good news (inside the bad news...) is that I committed to that stop and went for a walk outside. It saved me to live another day and to be able to start again the day after, which is important too. The account went just above $12k (eurusd = 1,3670). This was the threshold to go from 4 to 5 contracts traded. So next week the tradesize will be 5 contracts. Tobo
If you don't mind, I am curious about your rule of stopping trading for the day when your points goal is reached. (please disregard if you don't want to get in to it)
Thx for taking interest. There are different aspects to this. This "rule" is the result of some experiences I've had in the past. To elaborate a bit on this: - On many occacions, after a (US session) morning of trading, I was up, sometimes a lot even. After a break I would resume trading only to give everything back, sometimes even go negative for the day. This sort of event was really terrible for my moral so something had to be done about it. - I find trading a rather intense activity. But I suppose this is largely related to my style of trading. I need to be extremely focussed to make this work. When I try to keep this up for a complete trading session, it feels like too much energy was drained from me in a single day. And when I'm not focussed enough, accidents tend to happen. I'm maybe exaggerating a bit with the energy drain but this feels the best way to describe it. - And last but not least. It was never my idea to exchange a 9-to-5 job (or an 8-to-6 in my case) with another 9-to-5 one (=trading). It seems more interesting to spend less time and stress on making a living and more on other things in life. I think these were the most important elements that eventually led to the birth of that "rule". I hope this makes it a bit more clear. Tobo
Tobo-Fisher, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your journal. Although I am still paper trading, I have a weekly target of 10 points on the NQ. If I can keep that going for three months, then I will start live. So keep on letting us know how you are doing. It's inspiring for me -Beezer