Tradersaavy's Discipline Journal

Scalp 2 for the day.

Things really started cranking after 14:00.

A couple of 'almost' signals were there but, I guess the journal is helping cuz I didn't take the 'almost' signals as I have noted before that I have taken some of these.

Maybe it is the fact that I am trading from home now. No distractions at work. Hmmm. Don't know the answer but it doesn't matter. What matters is discipline.


Followed trading system perfectly again with this scalp trade.

There was a larger timeframe trade that occurred later in the day but I was not at my computer at the time. This will happen until August 7 when I officially trade for a living and have my 9:00 - 16:00 hours totally dedicated to trading.

I must take every trade for this system. Another area of discipline to work on is taking the signals where my gut says "don't take this one". Being that the system is countertrend there will be times where it looks crazy to go against the trend. However, discipline needs to take over and the trades need to be taken if a true signal is there.

 

TraderSavvy,

I also play guitar. I put audible alerts on my charts and play my guitar. It helps in many ways, mainly by distracting me from wanting to get into sub-optimal trades. I find that it's a good time to practice scales, fingerwork, and sight reading.

If I may make a suggestion, here's something I picked up somewhere. If you want to get into a sub-optimal trade, write down your opinion on a piece of paper, then throw the paper into the waste basket. It helps get it out of your system and then you can get back to the task of waiting for an optimal trades...and practicing your scales.

Nat

 

Hi Tradersaavy,

I think taking partials is certainly viable if you want to capture the bigger moves and you can still do it within the same timeframe you used to enter. You can take partials when price reaches your target at the “piercing of the band” as you refer to it and tighten your stop loss and just let the remaining lot(s) go the distance. You can even reuse your 20MA as your trailing stop. Just a thought.

Kermit

 

Very interesting.

This would definately be a release.

 

I do think that this could be a good alteration to the system .

I just need to take the time to back test it. I do all backtesting by hand because there are certain aspects of the signal that can not be coded. So, it's just a matter of time.

This may also improve the risk/reward ratio. Although the system has had a 72% + win rate so far, I'll never so no to an increase in R:R.

Thanks.

 

Just took a - 7 YM scalp.

Will post chart later.

Followed plan perfectly. Just didn't work out.

Felt myself looking for another quick trade after the losss.
I told myself that I was looking for another trade because they often set up again (in my system) right after a new low/high is made, but, in reality I was looking for a revenge trade. I probably would have taken one of those trades that 'almost' met the criteria for entry but this is what I am trying to correct.
I was conscious of this and thought about entering this into this journal and did not take another quick trade.

Maybe this journal is working.

 

When you backtest... for how many days back?

 

For the 1m chart trades, as far back as Esignal will give me intraday data. I like at least 4 months and from what I have seen now from a SLOW standpoint during summer months, this data must be during different times of the year.

For tick data backtesting it will need to be during different times of the year and at least 200 trades.

 

Here's the chart of the scalp trade. The only trade of the day for me.


I missed a 1m timeframe trade while doing something around the house. I am not trading totally fulltime yet and this will happen.
Why is it though that I always miss the winning trades ? Murphy's Law ?

On this scalp, which is from a 20 tick chart I am noticing something. The divergence is not there as I look back at it now on another computer. I know that it was there when I took the trade and I do remember it being a 'little' divergence. Not one that jumps out of the screen. Also, the 20ma cross is slightly off from the computer that I was using to trade with. I have double checked and all of the setting are identical on both computers. Hmmm.

It is probably something to do with tick data. I think that tick data is very subjective from the data providers.

This furthers the point of only taking very obvious set ups when taking tick scalp trades.

Plan was followed good with this trade but it just didn't work out.

 

TraderSaavy,

I don’t quite understand what you mean by that. In what way is tick data more subjective? Doesn’t it print exactly what took place as the trade price when it happens?

Do you have a minimum threshold criteria for what you define as a “divergence” such that if it is under that, it is not considered a divergence and if it surpasses that threshold – even by 1 tick (or 1 unit value), that it IS considered a valid divergence and therefore a valid signal for you to place a trade upon a 20MA cross?

Kermit