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Been holding onto losing trades longer. I guess i figure if I hold onto losing trades longer means I will trade less and thus save money on commissions. This is leading to larger losing trades in the mean time. I guess either pay the market or pay the broker. At least I have a choice.
The MES has been really strong these past couple of weeks. MCL have been coming down, now with a 90 handle. I got my numbers from July and my profit was about equal to the commissions I paid. So the goal going forward is to reduce the number of trades and reduce my commissions/fees. Anyway here are the results from today:
Market|# Contracts| L/S| Entry Price|Exit Price| Profit/Loss
MES 1 S 4131.75 4134.75 -15
MES 1 S 4136.25 4136 1.25
MES 1 L 4115 4115 0
MES 1 S 4127.25 4128.25 -5
MES 1 S 4129 4129 0
MES 1 S 4130 4130 0
I am going to start doing less trading going forward. Last month I was trading 10-16 trades a day. I would like to cut my number of trades in half. At the same time I am going to try to maintain the same win rate and win sizes and loss sizes. To reduce the number of trades I am going to trade only when I see an opportunity. In other words I will only trade when the risk:reward is very favorable in my eyes. The risk:reward is favorable for me when price is hitting new highs or new lows. I have an edge when price is hitting new highs and new lows by trading long when price is hitting new lows and trading on the short side when prices are hitting new highs. My trading tends to excel in these situations. My account gets chopped up and eaten up when I place trades when price is in the middle of the daily market ranges.
I am going to continue fleshing out my strategy and approach to the futures markets going forward. Its very simple in my mind. The results of the trading day are made of two things, winning trades and losing trades. The majority of my attention is focused on losses. Reducing losses is the name of the game for me. If I can continue reducing losses I will likely be profitable. Profits also require some attention as well. I will hold onto a winning trade and use a trailing stop as a winning trade goes in my direction. A winning trade will be exited in only two situations: 1. When price hits my trailing stop or 2. When time runs out, at about 4:15pm since I won't hold trades over night. But back to the step by step actions of entering a trade. Entries of each trade require only little attention, as the edge in my system is most closely correlated to the exits of each trade. I will let you guys know more about my thoughts later.
Did not put on any trades today. I just didn't see any good setups. MCL was falling apart with an 88 handle now. MES was looking very strong these last two weeks. Maybe we are out of the woods and GDP will start expanding again.
5-Aug
Market|# Contracts| L/S| Entry Price| Exit Price| Profit/Loss
MES 1 S 4134 4135.5 -7.5
MES 1 S 4136.25 4136.25 0
MES 1 S 4135.75 4137.25 -7.5
MES 1 S 4142 4143.5 -7.5
Today I succeeded in putting on fewer trades. Im thinking I can save some commissions $$ if I trade less. Goal is to try to have the same size winners and losses as last month. Trades were all MES. MES is just to liquid and the tick size is friendly to my account. Goal is to eventually step up to the ES but I will probably be trading the MES for a while. In addition to putting on less trades everyday I will be limiting my trading to a $30 maximum daily loss. The idea here is to stay alive as long as possible, and be able to come back every day and be able to trade every day.
Instead of looking for big profit moves, I was mainly focused on trades that would result in smaller losses to protect my capital. The last week or so I have been taking trades with a focus on large profits and wasn't protecting my downside.
So these are my thoughts and goals for today. Monday I will be back on the grind, looking for trades that result in smaller losses. So far this month I have had 22 trades. 4 trades showing a profit and 18 trades showing a loss/breakeven.
As I think about my situation, I have been trading futures since March of 22. My overarching goal right now is to make sure my account survives so I can trade the next day. This is why I am implementing a 1% daily maximum loss limit. Facing reality, my account will not survive losing 2%,3%, and 4% in a single day. This is very exciting because this loss limit gives me control of the future.
I need to clarify something in my own mind. There are two parts of a trade, the entry and the exit. I put 99% of my energy into the exit. I really think very little about my entry, I could literally flip a coin to determine if I go short or long. The exit is where the magic is!