I've resisted creating a trading log for too long and now is the time to start. I've been inspired by the other futures.io (formerly BMT) members diligent and very thought provoking posts. I wanted to especially mention NJAMC thread "My hunt for the Automated Holy Grail" giving me new ideas for automated systems and VinceVirgil thread "CL Trades" for the detailed trade records and willingness to help others to learn and of course all the great work that Big Mike has put into this site.
I've been trading stocks in the market for 20 years, options for 4 years and started trading futures about a year ago. When I first started trading futures my ignorance allowed me to make trades much sooner than I should have. I've gotten to the point of a fear in trading that I need to overcome. So I've elected to resort back to sim trading until I've gotten consistent positive results. I've gotten really sloppy on the sim account because it wasn't real money. Doing that has gotten me into some very bad habits that I need to clean up. I'm hoping by tracking my trading activity I can learn from mistakes and feel confident if I do something really stupid, other futures.io (formerly BMT) members will let me know so I help continue learning and stay on track.
I work full time in a job that makes it really hard to watch charts. Being a programmer, I've also dreamed of the possibilities to automate my trades allowing me to historically test out criteria's for taking a trade. In a very short period of time, I've tried all sorts of ideas, indicators and money management techniques but I haven't found a strategy that I would run unattended.
What I'm currently planning on logging here are both my live data results from my automated trading and any manual trades I make. Because of my job, most days may only be bot trades. One of the strategies was jointly developed with the help of a successful futures trader. Although, I don't consider it finished I'll need to get permission from the trader to share ideas. I think by looking at the charts, it will pretty much show what I'm doing.
My Big Mike profile shows me with a intermediate trading experience. After reading as much as I can over the past months has made me realize how much I don't know. For example, I'm just starting to learn about price action trading.
I also want to develop for myself some form of scoring a trade setup. Here is my starting list of items to score: