Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I'm 34, from Hungary/England. I've been playing poker for a living for about 10 years. I got in touch with trading here and there through free and semi-cheap stuff but never made serious steps towards going live.
Recently I've met some great sources like futures.io and John Grady's Nobs and decided to dedicate 3-4 hours of my day to become a profitable trader.
Besides playing I'm also coaching poker players to get to know themselves and develope the best mindset for being profitable and enjoying life, so I'm really curious what I will experience about myself while learning the markets.
In this journal I will share my notes about the process.
If you are familiar with John Grady's stuff, there will be no surprises about the setup. I will use the Jigsaw DOM for monitoring the US treasuries and the E-mini. I have spent a little more than a month passively spectating the ladders to get a feel about what's going on.
I will use Topsteptrader's combine parameters to determine loss limits, drawdown, sizings, short term goals.
As I'm starting from scratch with almost no preconceptions I will keep it simple and don't plan to add anything else in the near future. I will continuously making notes about myself and see what I can find out through the process.
Milestone goal is to hit the combine target and after that either taking the 150k combine or going live with my own money. I will see.
All your comments and questions are more than welcome.
To evaluate my sessions and staying in the process I'm going to answer three simple questions.
1, What did I do well?
2, What did I learn?
3, What will I do better the next time?
Here are my main takeaways from the first week:
1, What (I assume) I did really well is cutting my losses really short and fast. My avarage losing trade lasted 1min 46sec and cost ($59,46) in avarage as opposed to my winners produced $98.69 in 5min 6sec on avarage.
I made fast exits when I realized any crucial missplay, like opening a trade close to news or bad sizing.
My best trades were really obvious. I joined a sweep with good timing or saw the tension at a certain level and got in front of the breakout. I knew exactly what I was looking for to stay in or exit the position. I could keep my stop tight and did not need to hope for anything just go with the action.
2, Mindset experiences:
in the beginningI experienced strong temptation to instantly get back into the market after a scratch or one-tick loser
after exiting a decent winner I instantly wanted to get back into the position because it seemed like it's moving further – although I had a good reason to exit
after a missed move I was eagerly looking for the opportunity to join the party
exciting means that I have no idea what's going to happen
boring trades are probably the best way to make money
sometimes I caught myself of hoping something will happen instead of reacting on what is really happening
Technical knowledge experiences:
when it seems like nothing is happening – actually nothing is happening
I have seen at least one or two really obvious opportunities every day – no need to take part in the guessing game when it's choppy
E-mini is really fast when it moves (compared to treasuries) so it's probably a good idea to set up a take profit target to catch the possible spike before it pulls back
exit decisions can (should?) also be based on R/R – can I make a decent reward from this point or should I just exit because the risk if the price turning against my position or nothing happening is bigger?
a big print does not necessarily means movement or entry sign
all I need is a good reason to enter and a good reason to exit – whatever happens after these decisions does not matter
3, This point can be considered as a trading plan.
I realized I'm not getting paid for being busy, I only take those obvious trades
After taking a trade I stand up for a minute and just honor myself with a minute of silent attention, let my toughts and feelings flow
Instead of looking for signs that justify my preconceptions, I pay attention on what's going on right now
I only have maximum one open position at any moment
If I'm "late to the party", I enjoy the ride from outside and learn as much as I can by spectating
I have a good reason to enter, I have an idea about: