Hi There,
I was supposed to do this over the weekend but things and reasons. I think I did great last week but have some issues with how I will report on my trades in this journal going forward. I had the intention to only post my ES trades here which would be my scalp trades but I am finding that my different futures trading strategies are blending and evolving with each other. In a perfect world, each strategy would be perfectly defined, separate, and easy to follow. I have tried so hard in the past to build something systematic; a set of If/Then statements that would erase all discretionary thought. You can imagine then how many strategies have ended up in my garbage. Now, I focus so much more on strategy and risk management. And the biggest part of risk management is not risk/reward size(as important that may be), it is psychological risks. The obsession with P&L, or chasing losers. I used to think I had good control of myself until I started trading. So bringing it back to my problem. I wanted to keep ES for scalping and MES/MNQ for swing type rotational trades but they all got mixed up. The lure of taking less risk on a trade or building into a trade makes the use of micros for all trade types very helpful. Also, I am finding that my scalp strategies and rotational types strategies compliment each other very well. There is now a lot of overlap and they pair nicely. Since this entire journal is about becoming a profitable trader, I don't see the issue of including all my futures trades here. I mentioned in one of my first posts that I do longer term investing with stocks/etfs and I must draw the line somewhere so I will not be including any of that in this because while I enjoy that type of macro investment, I don't wake up at the crack of dawn every morning and get excited about all the news articles I will be reading. I get excited about the charts and making predictions based on technical evaluation. So that's a long-winded way of saying I will be including all my short term futures trades in every update from now on. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(March 4-6 ) ES/MES/MNQ
1. Since last post=+796.64 with 33 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+1489.3 with 240 trades

Best Trade

March 5th at 0951-1230
607.52
After watching the entire overnight trade below Previous month's close at 6890, it became clear that sellers wanted to do some discovery. I had intended to build into the position more as price continued to fail breaking over PMC but I guess I got jumpy. I picked previous day's low as the target above PMC as the stop. I figured if after so much time ranging just below PMC, that if price was able to break PMC, then it would likely bring in other buyers and we wouldn't see lower prices for some time. The only thing I really did wrong was not build into the trade more. I also took profit a little bit early once we consolidated just above the PDL but this turned out to be wise as I am not sure I would have held on until friday when we came back to this area. I guess you could say I failed to notice the same type of trade build up around 6850 on friday.



ESH2026_2026-03-09_11-59-10_f21f4


MESH2026_2026-03-09_11-59-06_a3438

Hi There
This is my report for the first two days of the trading week. I think it is a mistake to expect any kind of consistent weekly pay from trading. This has been my subconscious hope/plan for some time now and I worry over not reaching this made up weekly goal. I must admit that a large part of this thinking comes from my desire to tell my family that I make x amount a week. This is dangerous. It is dangerous because I avoid risks and it is dangerous because I will inevitably have a week where I will have big losses. So than how can a trader measure success? Monthly, yearly? I am afraid I don't have an answer that would work for everyone. I will strive to measure my success by being able to pay my bills without having to do any other work.
As far as trading goes for this week so far, nothing exciting. I still struggle with sizing up and taking risks. I plan to do a treatise on my own fears and why I don't take more risks. I have gotten so good at reading price but yet there are still so many problems to overcome. Perhaps that is why I love trading. Thanks for listening

P&L Update(Mar 8-10) all MES this time
1. Since last post=(-29.86) with 5 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+1459.44 with 245 trades

Hi There
Again I failed to post my update on time. My well pump had some issues and I tend to like water. But still, I had time so I blame myself for being lazy. That is an interesting topic. How much time is enough? I had the great idea that I could work just 20-30 hours a week at trading and still make a living. And maybe one day, but the reality is that when you start a new career in your late 30s, you must work 3 times as hard to catch up. On wednesday the 3rd of march, I made a very rookie mistake. I set up a trade, planned it out, calculated my risk, and entered the trade on the ES instead of the MES. So I factored that I could risk losing around 200$ on the certain trade but instead, I lost 1000$. I watched an old video about volume profile with futurestrader71 and he mentioned something about making sure you don't see the amount you are up or down in real time because it will influence your thinking. Very wise advice but now I simply count the points automatically in my head and know how much I am up or down anyway. I must admit, it still helps to plan out trades in points instead of $. No biggie, I will bounce back. Also of note was that this past week was one of those weeks when price would hit my stop right on the mark and then turn right around and go in my favor. I don't care how long you have been trading, that just simply sucks. Also, I moved some of my money around. This whole time, I have been trading in a IRA account which gives me terrible margins. So I will take the tax hit and simply move a small amount over to AMP where I will be able to get 10x the leverage(when I deserve it) and not have to tie up so much of my investment account for margin. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(Mar 18-20)
1. Since last post=(-553.08) with 32 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+906.36 with 277 trades

Hi There
Doing an okay job at making back my mistake losses from last week. I say just okay because, I still fail to hold my trades long enough or scale in and out according to the plan. I babysit the trades and end up taking profit sooner than I should. And almost every time, price does end up going to my profit target. I don't really have any trades to share this week as I am ashamed of them. I watched another webinar from Futurestrader71 from 2012 I think. What a fount of knowledge all the old webinars are. The topic was about risk and fear. Perfect for me right now. One major theme with FT71 is not to focus on the $$ and instead focus on points and goal. Kind of ironic given that I journal twice a week about my profit. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(Mar 15-17) ES and MES
1. Since last post=+621.56 with 25 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+1527.92 with 302 trades

Just noticed that I reported on the wrong dates last post. Should be Mar 11-13

Hi There
Again with being late on my update. Got no excuse this time so I wont make one. It is strange too because since starting this journal, my trading has improved. So you would think that I would make sure I post on time. Anyway, did good for the rest of last week and made back my losses form teh week prior and then some. Still have the major problem of being afraid and not wanting to take risk. I'm not sure there is one solution to this but working through it very slowly over a long time period. I've got no real good example trades this time either. Thanks for listening

P&L Update(Mar 18-20)
1. Since last post=+301.83 with 31 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+1829.75 with 333 trades

FrankFrankie 

Hi There Again with being late on my update. Got no excuse this time so I wont make one. It is strange too because since starting this journal, my trading has improved. So you would think that I would make sure I post on time.

I often find that I start a journal trying to fix or reconcile mistakes. Once my trading improves I feel less compulsion to journal, which I guess is okay but only if you truly resolved the reason or problem for starting the journal in the first place.

If you find the need to rejournal again in the future, the fix is to continue to journal even after you return to normal. But I still dont see stopping the activity as a failure, just as you value it less .

jlabtrades 

I often find that I start a journal trying to fix or reconcile mistakes. Once my trading improves I feel less compulsion to journal, which I guess is okay but only if you truly resolved the reason or problem for starting the journal in the first place. If you find the need to rejournal again in the future, the fix is to continue to journal even after you return to normal. But I still dont see stopping the activity as a failure, just as you value it less .

I don't think I will ever stop making mistakes. The only hope is to make them rare and much less severe. I think it best to continue this journal until I am making a tidy sum of money per year. Lets put the sum at 300k per year. I think it would be neat to see the slow transition over time because sometimes progress does seem oh so slow. Thank you for your kind words and it is absolutely true that when the sun is shining, I don't bother to look for shelter. But its always needed.

Hi There,
On time this time and it is no coincidence. I took a good hit today. I decided to trade the ES with the same strategy I was using successfully on the MES. I couldn't have picked a worse day to start because today was a volatile mess and I was also a mess. I should have known that I was not in a good state of mind but I traded anyway. The best webinar I watched lately stated that when you are winning you just see things more clearly. And when you are losing, then it all looks so confusing. Well I started out with crap for brains today. There are some personal things going on in my home that mess with my comfort but that should not be an excuse. Perhaps some of it was also a kind of urgency to make money that was sitting in the back of my head. I don't really know how to explain it but its a terrible feeling that comes about every once in a while where I feel tense and find little joy in anything. That is enough complaining for now. I do still see the progress and know that I am getting somewhere. Its just never fast enough. Thanks for listening

P&L Update(Mar 22-24 )
1. Since last post=(-1430.97 with 33 trades
2. Since Journal Start=+398.78 with 366 trades

Hi There
I have just had my single biggest losing day(with futures) since starting with real money. It is strange because as a whole, my account ended up around break even last week due to many shorts I had/have on all the AI companies. But that does not matter. Making little to nothing after an entire 6 months of work is extremely depressing. I constantly tell myself that the work will pay off. This past week has had me doubt that seriously. It has had me question my entire ability. Maybe I don't have what it takes for this. That lasted all of a split second. I have done many different jobs and tried many different careers. None can compare to trading. I go to bed at night excited about work the next morning and wake up feeling like I found my calling. i will make this work or die of old age first.
Last week I let the animal take over. I let nature take control of my senses and thought that precedence was reason enough and that I would miss out if I quit. I was poisoned with greed and a pie in the sky type trade. I have a set of phrases or mantras that I require myself to read and understand daily and one of them is, "If you are pie in the sky, you have to convince me first." It means if I am thinking of a lofty trade setup where I focus moreso on the speculation than the technical aspects, I need to debate it with myself to avoid such things. Well last week was a week filled with trying to, "catch the bottom". Oh I caught the bottom all right. And what made it all worse was the revenge aspect of it. I was going to show the market. I had watched time and time again as the market made a V after every sharp drop and it was MY turn to cash in. I thought this behavior was behind me or that I would notice it and take a break. I have not acted like this in a long time and never this bad.
So what now? I continue to work and win it all back. And I continue this journal as the record of my progress. I will take this experience as the loss I needed to ramp up my work and risk. No more of trading a couple micros here and there for a handful of points just to keep my win rate up. I mean to trade and risk what needs to be risked. It is such a strange feeling to know you shouldn't be doing what you are doing but you do it anyway. I knew I was in the wrong head space to trade last week. I was in a sort of manic discomfort, couldn't breath easy, and was stressed about other things in my life. I told myself constantly to just take a break and the Iran conflict was the perfect excuse but father time is always my biggest pusher. I always feel like I am behind or running out of time. I really don't think the most successful people in the world think like that. I don't speak of an unhealthy ambition. It is endless worry that I wont have time to make my family proud of me. But, stress and worry are not right for trading or any career. I must remember that everyone will turn to dirt and eventually be forgotten no matter how rich they are or how many eating contests they won.. I am doing what I can and will try to do it without such worry. Thanks for listening and see you later this week

P&L Update(Mar 25-27)
1. Since last post=(-6897.8) with 67 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-6499.02) with 433 trades

In three weeks you've gone from being nearly $2,000 in profit (accrued over 8 weeks, and that's a great accomplishment) to being $6,500 in losses. You need to step back. Something is very wrong. I don't know if it's that you have no edge and just got lucky those first few weeks, or a complete lack of discipline took over, maybe both. Whatever you're doing, that's how people lose their life savings in the market.

Let me put it to you plainly: you are going to blow your account at this rate. A week ago you mentioned the goal of making "a tidy sum of money" each year, and came up with $300,000. Dude, I have a better chance of playing center field for the Cubs than that happening, given your performance. I think a fundamental change to your trading is needed. I will commend you for being honest and aware enough to even post this. That's a start. If you must trade live, only trade like 2 mes contracts. Risk 20 bucks a trade. Learn, go slow. Hope this helps.