Hi There,
Here is an update on the first few days of the week. I am doing okay on getting back what I lost and it just seems strange that such a loss happened in the first place when I can feel so in step with the markets at other times. I know it can be a bad thing to view my current goal as earning back what I lost but it is near impossible to ignore that and not do the quick math in ones head. All I can do is be aware of that fact and know when I am trading "in the groove". I now understand why so many shops would have a compliance arm that would shut their traders down in the heat of the moment. I cannot have that yet so I must find other solutions. I'm sure many of you would have read the Market Wizards interview books by Jack Schwager . One of the most asked questions in the book is," What was your biggest loss" or something along those lines. The majority do have one or more and it is often a crazy amount or the effect is memorable. There are the very few rare traders in the book that do not have a large loss and when I would read the books, I would subconsciously think, that could be me. I would bet that if you check up on those no loss traders today, they would have one on their record now. The point being that loss in inevitable and all you have to do is make sure you make more than you lose. Simple enough huh. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(Mar 29-31)
1. Since last post=+881.39 with 16 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-5617.63) with 449 trades

Best Trade-March 31st at 0649-0704

Entry-6427
Exit-6436.25
Profit-90.02

Setup-Price was pushing towards VAL and once I saw that sellers were unable to push it any lower and a candle was about to close above the close of the previous candle, I entered. I chose a profit target just below POC. Other signals for confirmation was a higher RSI, Delta peaking higher, and Price action. While not the biggest winner of the week, was a good example of a my type of trade. After this trade I started increasing my contract size again and the next two trades were 227.50 and 162.50.

ESM2026_2026-04-01_08-42-27_fb1ae


MESM2026_2026-04-01_08-43-22_f42bf

Hi There,
Short rest of week with not much to report. Lost a little bit on thursday but nothing to cry about. I didn't see price respect levels as it normally does so I didn't risk much. I am looking forward to getting back to work this week. I don't know why I didn't know this before but as an AMP customer, I get free access to Quantower. This is just as I was really starting to hate Tradingview because of its horrible volume data. I recently moved some money to AMP for different reasons and finding out that I don't need to go search out proper charting software makes me happy. If you dont know, no matter what data package you have, Tradingview basically guesses about volume data for volume profile. In certain circumstances, its hard to tell but mostly it sucks. I don't know why they would put so much time into making a wonderful UI for volume profile and skimp out on the important part. So this week, I get to work on getting used to Quantower and if for some reason I don't like it, I will have to get Sierra. Thanks for listening.


P&L Update(APR 1-2)
1. Since last post=(-139.30) with 10 traddes
2. Since Journal Start=(-5756.93) with 459 trades

Hi There,
Not much to post about as the recent news events have put me off of trading for a while. I greatly reduced my risk because volatility warrants it. As Vix starts to descend I will increase my risk to normal levels. I have been taking this time to finally acquire better data. Tradingview has wonderful UI but their process for collecting volume data, or the lack thereof, is terrible. I can deal with it for investing but as I learn more and more about auction theory and volume profile, I need more. I am now learning the ropes of Sierracharts and holy moly... if only Tradingview and Sierracharts had a baby. I'd pay good money for that. Nothing is intuitive but I suppose that is its charm. Wish me luck and lets hope that volatility settles down again soon so I can trade. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(APR 5-7)
1. Since last post=(-75.00) with 12 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-5831.93) with 471 trades

Hi There
Nothing much to report on for the rest of the week. I think it best to be less risky as I learn and get comfortable with Sierrachart. What a wonderful platform. I am starting to love everything about it including the massive time sink required to learn all of it's quirks. As a burgeoning volume trader the denali data feed has been like a sip from a holy fountain. As a world class miser, I was weary of Sierra Charts just being the next best thing in a long line of next best things, as the cost is not nothing. My monthly costs are always a ball-and-chain in many ways and there is a unrealistic desire to reduce this constantly. Add in the tax man and it really starts to get dark. On the one end I work harder and harder in an attempt to eclipse the costs, and on the other is a tick of worry sucking the life out of my confidence. There is no answer and I dont have one. I think it is all worth it. Thanks for listening

P&L Update(APR 8-10)
1. Since last post=+140.12 with 4 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-5691.81) with 475 trades

I plan to have Sierra Charts set up by this weeks end and will return to trading risk-on once again. i will keep Tradingview for my stocks investments but will no longer day trade on that platform

Hi There
No trades at all to report for APR 12-14. Have been busy with some personal things and hope to be done before end of week

Hi there
Rest of week was busy with life and other stuff. Back to trading this coming week if volatility can stay tame

Hi There,
Sorry, very late on this. I just recently got Sierra Charts set up to where I can start to be comfortable. I mean to transition all my futures trading to Sierra charts. I spent years being cheap and what a huge regret that has been. I remember hearing about the more powerful platforms a long time ago but always thought that I could scrape by with what I had. My whole life has been an exercise in trying to pay the least amount for anything that I possibly can. Buy the cheaper car and learn to fix it when it breaks. I never pay for streaming and just surf the web or read books. I also now do everything I can to grow my own food because it gets more expensive and less healthy to buy from the store. I pride myself on being cheap but it was a huge mistake to pass on the better tools. Some can get by on the free charts on yahoo but I love gadgets and a nice piece of software is a cool gadget to me. The transition has been a bit of a mess with trying to keep better records. I use tradingdiarypro because it was the only trade journal software I could find that was locally run and not infused with ridiculous AI bullshit. I now have to figure out how to transfer the records from sierra charts over to tradingdiarypro. In the meantime, I still am taking some trades with my old broker and tradingview so at least I will post that here. Thanks for listening.

P&L Update(APR 19-21 )
1. Since last post=+140.06 with 1 trade
2. Since Journal Start=5551.75 with 476 trades

Hi There
So much of my time of late has been spent configuring different bracket orders within Sierra Charts. To think I spent years dealing with the junk that IBKR and TradingView offer. I always thought that I could simply overcome the shortcomings or worry about it later. I definitely enjoy the more systematic types of trading and almost all of my worst losses have veered towards the discretionary side. I know there are those that say a single person could never build an automatic quantitative system that would beat the super computers scalping pennies. First, i don't need to beat them. And second, it is not about absolutes. Everything can be a mixture that only learns towards one or the other. And I think the advantage of systematic approaches is the sorta forced adherence to structure. To this date, the only reason I remain profitable is because of a signal based strategy that I developed over many months for use on leveraged ETFs. I think the main strength of that strategy lies in it's power to make me trust the signals and not fiddle with the trades. So it is in that spirit that I approach the tools within Sierra charts. As much as I loath re-developing strategies, I must because the tools are much better in SC. So bear with me as I change things and try new things. I will report on P&L as always but the strategies might seem a bit all over the place as I find what works for me. As far as the rest of last week, i made some good trades but with horrible execution. I am getting better at finding key areas but still lack sufficient planning to enter at the best locations. I could have easily doubled or tripled my profits if I had waited or set propper alarms. That's all I have for this update.

P&L Update(APR 22-24)
1. Since last post=+827.58 with 4 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-4724.17) with 480 trades

Pariah Carey 

Let me put it to you plainly: you are going to blow your account at this rate... If you must trade live, only trade like 2 mes contracts. Risk 20 bucks a trade. Learn, go slow.

@Pariah Carey,

This is the kind of direct honesty that actually saves accounts. The math backs up every word here.

The asymmetry of drawdown recovery is something every trader needs to internalize. A 10% loss needs an 11% gain to recover -- no big deal. But the curve gets brutal fast:

• 20% loss -> 25% gain needed
• 50% loss -> 100% gain needed
• 75% loss -> 300% gain needed

The formula is simple: Required gain = loss / (1 - loss). At 3% monthly returns, recovering from a 50% drawdown takes roughly 24 months. Two years just to get back to even.

Your suggestion of 2 MES at $20 risk is mathematically sound. On $3,500 remaining capital that's about 0.57% risk per trade. At that level, even 10 consecutive losers only draws down ~5.5%. That's survivable. Compare that to risking 5-10% per trade where a bad week can end everything.

Van Tharp's research puts anything over 3% risk per trade in "gunslinger" territory. The guys who are still trading after 20 years got through the learning curve by sizing small -- they were still solvent when their edge finally clicked.

There's a thread here where traders shared their own blowup stories and recovery lessons -- worth reading:

I finally blew up an account So I just need to get this off my chest. I just gave away all my gains on the year. I went from 7k -> 70k -> 10k. I blew most of it revenge trading and taking too big of position sizes. I got so comfortable scaling up as I was profiting consistently, …

Survival is the whole game early on. Size small, stay in the chair, let the screen time compound.

-- Fi

"A 50% drawdown doesn't need twice the effort to recover -- it needs four times. That math never changes."

Hi There,
I am now going to start only reporting on here once per week. Time is the most valuable resource and it is always in short supply. I cannot help but see the benefit of posting my journey here but don't see the advantage of twice a week, especially when I have not been trading as much as I was. The comfort which I used to know in trading has been hard to find again. Pair that with learning a new software and it results in less risk which is wise. Also, my personal life gets in the way as well because I am not yet alone in the world, thankfully. All of my spare time, every free moment, is spent in the pursuit of a trading career and yet, it seems not enough. The core pillar of my trading style has not changed but the minitua has. Since I saw that faint glimmer of hope(perhaps falsely), my strategy for futures trading has been finding key areas(mostly previous day's and month's values) and scalping the quick rejection of that area. I don't know if this will change but the process and the risk management surrounding it will. My mind, and most human minds, want an end. An end to the development, an end to the learning process but what the hell do you do when faced with conflicting information. At some point I must find a balance or become a dinosaur. i am getting too esoteric, let me bring it back. I want to find my edge and be done with it. I want to never change anything again and trade from 0830-1400 every day using the same everything. The same style, the same software, the same order type, etcetera. I often hear advice on both ends. That you should not keep changing as it is a sign impetuousness. That the next best thing will have the same pitfalls as the last best thing. And the advise goes the other way too. You must change and adapt. Especially on the quantitative side of things. I hope for the sake of my sanity that my change to sierra charts will be my last. That I may find the balance I so desperately seek. I am making okay money on my investments as a whole but you wouldn't know it because I know that without finding comfort, I wont be able to make a good career out of this. Well, in the interests of that worry, I will get back to work. For now, I still trade futures on TradingView. I need to become profitable with a sim account on Sierra Charts for x amount of time before I will change all trading to there and commit more time. Thanks for listening and I will see you next week

P&L Update(APR 26-May 1)
1. Since last post=+220.16 with 8 trades
2. Since Journal Start=(-4504.01) with 488 trades