Topsteptrader

Nazzdack, you sweet, sweet lovemuffin, I understand your fascination with me, but I am already spoken for, so not interested dating you. So would you mind stopping lying about me (how would you know it anyway?) or generally criticize me sweetheart, if you have a valid point against any of my observations, make it, so we can debate it. Otherwise STFU....

Or you know what? Too late, you go on my Ignore as a useless poster and stalker.....

 

I think you struck a nerve.

 

He's having a bad day in the ES with his $30K / 10-day.

 

My guess is you are probably making the same mistakes, and the easiest way to identify them is by writing down the trade (reason for entry/exit and target/stop).

You can raise your awareness level of the bad trades by writing in the journal and reviewing them daily, and of course it will also reinforce the positive trades.

Also, if you've been reading this thread then by now you have figured out the TRUE daily loss limit is based on the maximum allowable drawdown for the combine divided by the maximum allowable losing days.

If you go near the combine's maximum daily loss limit even ONCE, then you still have to make up for it, and it will be difficult to meet all of the parameters.

So the next best alternative is to aim for a scratch combine by making at least 1 tick net after commissions and getting a rollover.

 

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to give a one-hour presentation inside the TST intraday chatroom. It seems like the information given there was well received, had a lot of positive feedback from the members there.

I was given a free combine as a courtesy and appreciate the nice gesture. imo TST has always been a class act when it comes to customer service in all aspects.

Began said combine last Wednesday... six sessions ago with the intent to focus on ES primarily if not solely. Four of those six sessions have been absolutely dead-flat, go-nowhere untradeable non-events. Last Thursday had the opening bell plunge lower which was good for +$1400 gross at peak, gave back -$400 of that in the subsequent upwards chop later. Yesterday had decent range, but it was one of those gap, spike and drift-chop upwards tapes that I tossed the towel in early on.

Like Mav & I agreed to in this thread before... for limited-time performance mandates, results are heavily dependent on favorable market action.

Normal to high volatility? Good trading potential.

Dead flat chop? Nobody on earth with zero exceptions makes solid gains consistently in that.

 

So then yesterday while I sat staring at the screens, watching ES chop yet another 3-tick dead range for an hour, I said to myself "f(orget) this singular ES attempt. Let's dial up those CL charts and see if we can find any signs of life elsewhere than stocks"

By that time I'd missed some of the better CL oscillations but I did manage to catch some gains via 1 - 2 contract turns. Beats getting stops chopped mercilessly on 5-lot ES trades in terminally sideways tapes.

Today was weekly inventory day, and you know by now that CL tends to make at least one (if not more) sharp directional swings at/after 10:30am est. We were prepared for that, caught a little of the upside on a 2-lot and a little more of the downside on a 5-lot for roughly +$2,800 gross

 

In any event, six days of combine efforts leaves me with a 50% daily win rate, +$1,700 left to reach minimum profit target and of that we need +$1,100 in the ES.

Or in other words, a +5 point swing in the ES on a five-lot and we're good there. A few more dollars in the ES and/or CL on top of that and we're past +$3,000 target. Personally speaking I have the $5,000 mark in mind but will gladly settle for +$3,001 considering how comatose flat the ES has been. I can experience one more net-loss day of the remaining four.

Meet those two objectives... profit target and daily win rate of 55% and this combine is in the books. Four more sessions left to work with, next Monday 7/07 thru Thursday 7/10. It's a four-day weekend break between now and then, time to enjoy the summer sun before we concern ourselves with anything else

 

Monday 7/07 was the 7th day of combine trading efforts. And I emphasize the term “efforts” because it was one of those uber-dead range sessions again. Total S&P futures span was less than eight points overall, and about all of it was sideways chop.

Crude oil made one abrupt slam selloff lower, failed to fill my short attempt by about two cents from resting order, hit the daily lows minutes later and then strung sideways for remaining hours until the close.

Once you commit to trading a given session, once the first fill happens, you pretty much have to give it your absolute all-out effort to at the very least finish profitable to count towards average daily win/loss ratio. I tried my damndest to reach barely above breakeven for the day on a lot of turns, tons of trades stopped out at entry for scratch.

Matter of fact, this has been the overall story in ES for the entire combine effort. Most days have been no-range, directionless chop and the vast majority of trades have been scratched out for no gain or very slight loss. Add that all up thru seven days, and the total result was (-1932) including -$5 per turn working 5-lot orders.

As for Crude Oil efforts, steady as she goes. No real challenges there because CL has enough movement intraday for solid opportunity potential.

From a personal performance standpoint, I mis-traded the July 1st ES rally session. Should have booked at least +$1,000 there if not more. That, and one morning I booked +$510 in CL early… but forgot to switch the NT dom from sim to live combine account. So the $510 booked does not reflect in the total due to operator error.

I screwed up. It happens. I have done that before :eek:

 

Today we expected range expansion out of the ultra-dead congestion of yesterday. And so it came to pass. Just missed a 2-lot CL long from 103.45 and then again 103.58 which both scratched out par stops before the early spike-ramp to session highs. Caught enough of the reversal swing back down to call it a day in CL.

Was on the short side of ES all day. Caught one ride down on the first drop that went +5.25 points from blended entry on a 5-lot and snapped back up to take me out at +2.25 points. I tried to move the stop to +4.25pts in favor, muffed the order (superdome spasm) and price whipped back up from there.

Caught a second ride down for +2.25pts blended on 5-lot ES and that wrapped day #8. My fat-fingered trail stop flub would have added +$500 more to tonight’s resting balance, which would therefore exceed the $3,000 minimum required by $44 right now, tonight.

But we have two session left for that… only need +5pts on a 2-lot or +2pts on a 5-lot anywhere in those two sessions to exceed our goal. Total ES result thru eight sessions is (-456) including all $5 per turn costs. Total CL efforts stand at +$2,956 thru four sessions and that probably wraps up my CL trading completed.

The goal is to take the ES net-profitable and (likewise combine profit goal met) while finishing both remaining sessions net profitable, and stay out of any further chop.

Meet those two simple tasks, and this combine effort will be successfully passed. Two days remain. Let's see how it goes

 

1) Did you mix up your CL and ES P&L? :eek:
2) You have 2 days remaining to trade? Are you going to trade CL today, Wednesday, and next Wednesday again, for "The Report"?