thanks for the chart and keeping this thread up to date. nice and patient way to trade...only a couple of setups per year i would imagine.
My guns weren't ready I just got back from my trip late last night and I just got up. (I'm on west coast time). I had a long ES trade that hit at 1206 (not posted in real time so please disregard). I will be rooting for your trade and hope to grab the next trade with you. Its nice to see a trade as I didn't realize you would be re-entering as many times as you did.
More than a couple, but true certainly requires patience. This is more of an experimental journal, I would like to prove to myself that it is possible to participate in larger moves using substantially smaller stops in practise, not in hindsight.
Welcome back. Yes, I thought I made it clear that this would require multiple entries, I am not a magician
Way to go JSS, fantastic entry! I'm glad to see you've kept this journal up to date. I've got a couple of long stock swing trades lined up for tomorrow morning, so hopefully this upwards move will last for another week or two. All sorts of different indicators and stat-arb sorts of studies have been pointing to a bounce for almost a week, so its long overdue (and therefore should be powerful!)
+447 points +$2,235 W -$170 L -$16 C -------------- +$2,049 Hi Tom, TY! All OK? Pretty good going if I may say so. Right, now the next step is to wait until the time daily histogram starts showing a weakening formation, this locked in gain will give me enough buffer to be wrong about 37 times assuming average stop is 11 points. If that happens, then I would be Gross b/e before commission costs. Since market long term remains bearish I think shorting will bring a bigger gain as that would be in line with a predominant trend. About 1500-2000 points would be my guess.
JSS, Did you get stopped out at +447, or did you decide to take profits there? I'm confused. Thanks, Jag
The plan was to take about 500 points, I don't trally trail stops, I just lock gains when I feel sufficient reward has been reached. So far this is just a bounce in a bear trend, so it is tricky, it's against the predominant trend. Even after 3 losses it worked out to be 13:1, which is excellent, way better than what Buy1Sell2 does using the width of initial stops that he does. This is equivalent to him using a 50 point stop in ES and locking 650 points. Don't forget that my stops are tiny. Some might say I pulled stop before time, but that's not relative, on this one I got what I wanted, the plan was to catch the big wave using small risk. When bearish signal will arrive & it will then hopefully I would be able to lock more profit, but I am away beginning till almost end of August, so I might miss the next formation.
Fantastic! I also use bigger stops but then I also look at how much heat I actually take on a trade (if I had stopped myself out at the extreme low). For example: Have a stop of 6 points (ES) but the worst of the trade was down -0.5 and then proceeded to make 35 points. Do you argue that this trade was 6:1 or 75:1 or a combination of both? I ask because I haven't made up my mind here either. I merely look at the extreme low in a trade as a way to slowly condense my stop and take on leverage. In reviewing my trades I've noticed that if the trade goes past 3pts my initial entry, I usually get stopped out. At some point, I may only trade with a stop of 4pts vs 6,10,15 that I sometimes use. I think this is how b1s2 looks at his trades as well.
ImPO you measure risk according to what it would have been, in that example -6 down, not -0.5 I've calculated 13:1 based on 3 losses, but if it was to be calculated on independent basis, then it's 40:1