MB-I respect your years of experience, and perhaps you are correct that my attempts may inconsequential. Failure is a possible outcome in any endeavor; however, to proceed with no plan imho is guaranteed disaster. For those who have pm'd me with their thoughts and inquiries. Please find attached the re-formatted version for your review. To activate (the simple) trade set-up sample drop down menus, you must first form lock the document.... (lock icon in forms toolbar) hwk
hwk, I have a sample Excel spreadsheet that I am using it to keep track of the Profit and Loss of the Trade History. I use it for the Tradestation, IB and TOS. I will copy and paste the trade detail from the account statement online and arrange them in the respective column format either on daily or weekly basis. The trade transaction detail such as date/time, buy/sell, quantity, trade price and commission are captured. There are two columns of information to translate the trade price into workout cell which will translate trade price into P&L. I later group the trade detail base on method or strategy by column and date. As a result, I will be able to tell on daily basis the P&L of the day, method and stategy. One spread tab is used for one month. With a new month, a new spread tab is created. The month net P&L summary and commission is captured at the top few rows of the sheet. There is a summary sheet that take the monthly sheet into the total, so at any time, you will know the net P&L inclusive of the commission. Even at the method and strategy level. Have a look to see whether it is good enough for your use. Chiu
Chiu Thank you very kindly for your contribution, I will gladly see how this may be incorporated into the trade/bus plan... The only correction I would like to make is that it is for "our" use... I look forward to your continued participation... hwk Anek, Thank you for the kind words.
I have just taken a look at your trading plan and my hat is off to all those who have contributed to it, especially you hwk and of course A. It will probably become a benchmark for all the newbies setting out on their journey. regards f9
HW, Here is my spreadsheet for keeping track of all business expenses. I'm sure you and others may already have a system for expenses, but just in case not, here it is. The top section is recurring, known, monthly expenses (rows can be added of course)...and the lower section is daily unexpected expenses. I created this when I was a realtor, but can easliy be adapted to a trading business...or any business. I am currently working on a trade log and will post that when complete.
HW, Here is a spreadsheet I use to monitor gap plays. I use this for stocks that gap up on news or earnings. Formulas are calculated based on price prior to news, opening price after news, and high and low price in relation to open. This spreadsheet helps me decide which gap plays to enter and helps me determine my target and stops. Let me know if you have any questions.
Great information!!!! Thanks Anek. hwk, thank you for the collection of "best practices". Just two comments of key Anek contributions. #1: I try to describe a trading system in a single sentence. Anek did this very well early in his thread with the post: "No 2 lower highs, no 2 lower lows, I'm staying put." No 2 higher highs, no 2 higher lows, I'm staying put" but if a double b or a double t then just one might do the trick" #2: You have a chapter on bias, but I think you should add a sentence on Anek's 'no news' during trading. It is clear in the IRC posts how strongly he feels about not receiving outside input during the day and focusing only on price action and I think this has contributed to his success. Thanks again everyone,