TickTick 

What are you using to track this? Excel? Or a program? Looks good!

that looks like excel to me. you can have it make a graph and put it in your spreadsheet pretty easily. left column is his final balance and bottom is just number of days. you can do a lot more complex graphing and calculating in excel if you know how or care to learn.

TickTick 

What are you using to track this? Excel? Or a program? Looks good!

Just Excel, yes.

This is a great idea! You have inspired me during a time when I was getting a little discouraged with my trading ability. You have my vote.

ZachC 

This is a great idea! You have inspired me during a time when I was getting a little discouraged with my trading ability. You have my vote.

I have come across many discouraged traders over the years. I hope this journal will encourage them to try again with LESS RISK. I think "trading scared" is a much bigger factor in (poor) trading performance than most people realize. I have noticed a very BIG change in my attitude, and especially my willingness to take losses. Until you can take a loss like a champ and honestly say "It's just part of the game" like when you play blackjack or hi-lo or even baseball (best hitters strike out 6 of 10 times!!!) then you are trading TOO BIG.

One Micro E-Mini on a $1000 account is like one ES contract on a $10,000 account. It has been very helpful to think of things this way.

But you still have to honor all your rules.

I still have to fight the temptation to "load up" on contracts when my confidence is high. I am still often wrong, and I need to be improving as I go. This account is NOT the end goal! I need to get it to $5k and then I will try the NQ and YM again.

Success to you in your journey!


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Skid 

My cost to trade the micros round trip is 1.89 so I need 4 ticks just to break even and this is with having the life time licence. If I trade the minis its 3.66 but one tick covers this as one tick is 5 dollars. So you do get a better deal with trading the minis. 4 ticks in the micros. Profit = .11 cents. 1 tick in the minis Profit = 1.34 So for me to make 10 dollars I would need a 24 tick run in the micro, but in the mini I only need 3 ticks and would still make more than the micro making 24 ticks. So for me I'm trading the micros just till I get confident to switch to the minis. They are fun, your doing live trading, and you don't blowup an account real fast.

I guess you may have sort this out but,
IB is 0.94 round trip for 1 micro

sstheo 

I have come across many discouraged traders over the years. I hope this journal will encourage them to try again with LESS RISK. I think "trading scared" is a much bigger factor in (poor) trading performance than most people realize. I have noticed a very BIG change in my attitude, and especially my willingness to take losses. Until you can take a loss like a champ and honestly say "It's just part of the game" like when you play blackjack or hi-lo or even baseball (best hitters strike out 6 of 10 times!!!) then you are trading TOO BIG. One Micro E-Mini on a $1000 account is like one ES contract on a $10,000 account. It has been very helpful to think of things this way. But you still have to honor all your rules. I still have to fight the temptation to "load up" on contracts when my confidence is high. I am still often wrong, and I need to be improving as I go. This account is NOT the end goal! I need to get it to $5k and then I will try the NQ and YM again. Success to you in your journey! .

Great post buddy.. thanks.

Its doable but far from easy . This is asx 200 which moves similar to SPX .Drawdown is the enemy . Decade to get here

Ozquant 

Its doable but far from easy . This is asx 200 which moves similar to SPX .Drawdown is the enemy . Decade to get here

Is that decade paying off?

sstheo 

I have come across many discouraged traders over the years. I hope this journal will encourage them to try again with LESS RISK. I think "trading scared" is a much bigger factor in (poor) trading performance than most people realize. I have noticed a very BIG change in my attitude, and especially my willingness to take losses. Until you can take a loss like a champ and honestly say "It's just part of the game" like when you play blackjack or hi-lo or even baseball (best hitters strike out 6 of 10 times!!!) then you are trading TOO BIG. One Micro E-Mini on a $1000 account is like one ES contract on a $10,000 account. It has been very helpful to think of things this way. But you still have to honor all your rules. I still have to fight the temptation to "load up" on contracts when my confidence is high. I am still often wrong, and I need to be improving as I go. This account is NOT the end goal! I need to get it to $5k and then I will try the NQ and YM again. Success to you in your journey! .

No doubt, update after todays trading I hit a 5% return by sticking to my rules for the first time in I don't know how long. First positive day in weeks tbh. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

ZachC 

No doubt, update after todays trading I hit a 5% return by sticking to my rules for the first time in I don't know how long. First positive day in weeks tbh. Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Way to go! Following the rules allows you to trade "emotion-less" (not "emotion-free"!!) I hope you can keep it up. The 5% is not sustainable long term, but following your rules can be.




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