09/05/19

Today had an insane amount of opportunity. I got a little carried away. At one point I was up $165 before comissions. I caught myself over-trading and immediately ended the session, Unfortunately the last 30mins of trading I went for the jugular on a 3 lot short and got punished.



I need to be extra cautious in going all-in in such volatile conditions. If I get the urge to do something similar tomorrow and we continue to encounter this volatility, I will either enter a 2 lot, or scale in my position from a 1 lot.

Looking back at the session I had the direction correct, but failed to allow my positions to run. I think this is a product of being so shortstacked bankroll wise, I don't like being exposed to the markets for long periods of time right now. As I feel this is overall a good rationale, I'm not going to over analyse, but It certainly is true that it can cause missed opportunity.


10/05/19



took a single trade (2 lots) from 2878.25, closed 1 lot @ 2789.0 and the other @ 2880.75. I ended this session early to enjoy my weekend, but sadly this cost me a lot of opportunity, as I would have caught an uptrend which exhausted at 2893.0 at 8:30pm ,which is still before my latest allowed close.


Starting balance: $536.55
Ending balance: $592 (+55.45/ +9.67%)

Decided to start this back up.

I had given up on the idea of trading futures circa 2020, but have decided to give it another shot. I haven't been totally out of the game, just trading stocks and options instead.

as my time horizon and approach for trading futures will be entirely different to what I do there, I'm going to be trading sim for a while to get back on the horse.

Below is my plan.

 

Code

SIM ACCOUNT Bank Roll $3,000.00 capital exposure/trade up to 2% of net liq Target trade win % 45.00% Capital at Risk/trade $60.00 Risk Reward Ratio 1.7 to 1 Average *expected* return per trade $12.90 If we stick with the risk reward ratio we defined (without accounting for net liq growth), we expect to earn this over 1000 trades $12,900.00

the SIM account will end when I reach a balance of $5,000

After which, I'll start dipping my toe in with cash. This will take as long as it takes. I'm more worried about my process than the end result.

I'l aim to trade for a few hours during the monday session, as I'm not working on mondays.
For every other day, it'l be an hour here, and an hour there as time allows.

20/03/2023

Starting later than planned.

Levels of interest (as of session open) [Opening range is calc'd from first 15 mins]:

 

Code

VWAP 3rd Std Dev Upper: 12897.20 Regular Open: 12678.00 OR-Low: 12676.50 Pre-High: 12767.75 OR High: 12763.75 SMA100: 12389.47 Hourly VWAP: 12289.58 VWAP 3rd Std Dev Lower:11681.96

Plan:

nasdaq is in a strong uptrend for a while, and is pretty far above VWAP and the SMA100.



whereas the S&P has been underperforming relatively speaking, but has been recouping since march 14th.



As both are setting lower highs versus the previous session's opening range, I'm expecting a down day.

I will take trades around the points of interest with an expectation of mean reversion.
Other trades will be taken where a 9 or 13 , or combo print happens on TD Sequential. I have seperate ATM strategies to distinguish between these trades so I can see how they perform vs my other positions.

Finally, I'm trying to calibrate a 3 step auto trail today, so expect to get taken out of a few trades prematurely while I get something that feels right and fits my risk management plans.

Sadly got taken out of trade#1 by my trailing stops as expected, but at least the idea was solid.

TD Sequential long trade

Long @ 12618.50 for 3 MNQ contracts.
stop@ 12594.00, ( below a "1" signal bar from TD Sequential).
target@ 12658.75

Happy new year to everyone here at NexusFi.

I'm planning on giving this journal another stab.

A lot has changed since the first post.

namely:
-I got funded at a prop firm , made 17k in profits trading NQ, and failed to take a payout. (yes , I know, I was a total idiot.)
-am now consistently profitable trading stocks and options; (I made >50% returns in 2024, and >30% returns in previous years.)

I recognise that I'm standing in the way of my own success in some respects, and I want to do something about it. I've been considering aiming for a move into the industry in the future, (Geneva and Positive Equity both have offices here)

This year I want to:
-create a custom scaling plan and try to get my risk of ruin approaching ~0% in my funded accounts.
-take another stab at finishing Al Brook's Trading course. I feel like I may appreciate some of it a little more than I did a few years ago. I still have very mixed feelings about his content, in that it is quite subjective, but that's pretty par for the course.
-trade less , but trade better - It's too easy for me to stare at the charts all day. It encourages sloppiness , which I don't want.
-build tools for market analysis, a topic for later discussion.

Let's see what 2025 has in store for me.

KillerJukeBox 

Happy new year to everyone here at NexusFi. I'm planning on giving this journal another stab. A lot has changed since the first post. namely: -I got funded at a prop firm , made 17k in profits trading NQ, and failed to take a payout. (yes , I know, I was a total idiot.) -am now consistently profitable trading stocks and options; (I made >50% returns in 2024, and >30% returns in previous years.) I recognise that I'm standing in the way of my own success in some respects, and I want to do something about it. I've been considering aiming for a move into the industry in the future, (Geneva and Positive Equity both have offices here) This year I want to: -create a custom scaling plan and try to get my risk of ruin approaching ~0% in my funded accounts. -take another stab at finishing Al Brook's Trading course. I feel like I may appreciate some of it a little more than I did a few years ago. I still have very mixed feelings about his content, in that it is quite subjective, but that's pretty par for the course. -trade less , but trade better - It's too easy for me to stare at the charts all day. It encourages sloppiness , which I don't want. -build tools for market analysis, a topic for later discussion. Let's see what 2025 has in store for me.

I am curious, as to if you made 17K in profits, why did you fail to get a payout?

the 17k was across 3 accounts.
I was copy trading for the first time, and made a myriad of mistakes.

this did mean, for example, that a $2.5k loss on my charts was actually a $7.5k loss to the bottom line.

My trading style is quite aggressive, and this nuance wasn't something my mental game was ready for.

I tend to scale up as trades go in my favour and use part of those wins to scale up further than what my bankroll would otherwise allow.

the other mistakes were that I :
-traded while sick / tired.
-failed to scale down after losing trades
-became psychologically compromised, and started revenge trading.

all-in all very avoidable, and a painful lesson.

I need to focus on process over profits and keep my risk in check, and that's what my plan is here.

I expect I'l start journaling sometime next week.