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Your journal reads more like a spreadsheet consisting of net profit. You should instead focus more on why you entered where you did, why you exited where you did, how you felt during the trade. These are the things that will help you learn.
I also highly encourage you to review the last two weeks of journal entries at the end of every week. The idea is to measure yourself and look to make sure you are not going in circles, but instead are making forward progress.
I suggest leaving all the statistics and such to a week-end summary, or just in your platform, etc, but to use the journal instead to talk about the "why". This will let you see patterns, your strengths, and weaknesses, and improve them. A screenshot is needed for this to provide the context of what you were seeing at the time.
Thanks for asking....Week was good. I m trying to decide what to do with journal, how it might help me etc. I'll keep you posted. Tell F16 I said hello
I appreciate your response to my thread. I have not responded till now bc I am unsure what my journal needs to have in it for me.
As far as why I take a trade, where its going etc, how I felt and so on. My chart is very clear, so this scalping setup is very easy for me to read in hindsight. I have evolved past being emotional yes I do take profits sooner as of late ie. trade posted I always have a final target and I trade in that direction but I trade to a safer target in recent times. Reason being Im no longer sitting here hrs on hrs my own choice(I still trade fulltime). I will eventually will come back to trading all day or night lol sometime soon but for now Life is Good(catching back up on time I lost learning about trading).
I agree with 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of your reply, but honestly I dont want to have to photo shop out my size etc everytime when posting a live trade in a trade in progress chart.
For me the journal was a way for me to have a visual record of my trades and interact with others. With this setup its sorta cut and dry so no one can really respond now I guess, If I do it like tiger's Spoo thread I could explain why its going to a certain target etc...so hummm next move?
Thoughts?and thx again for reply
1)trade +1.5 pts
remembered roll over update Ninja charts later today, wish this was automatic with Ninja
If you are trading micro's or 1-lot, you are being smart, and no one is going to make fun of you.
If you are trading big size, then yes people might question that (as would I) since you shouldn't be trading size until you are a consistently profitable trader. If you are afraid to show this, then it is because you can't come to grips with knowing you are trading bigger than you should be.
I've heard all the excuses before on not maintaining a journal or shots showing entries/exits, etc. Look, in the end, it is my opinion that struggling traders that are unwilling to do this are simply unwilling to do the work necessary to improve themselves. Trading is not for everyone, although few people would admit it to themselves - but their actions tell the full story.
So I encourage you to post everything and bear all, it is the best way to learn. You are anonymous on the forum and it's a friendly place, nothing to be afraid of...
Before I start I need to say I have liked you from your responses in nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) and the way you run your site...I needed to convey this because sometimes in a friendly discussion one side might take text in the wrong way. Its friendly from my side Im just going to express my views on the way I see things. Also in doing this it would help one to understand where another one is at meaning what level etc. Bc in kidding around when i started this journal the replies I got where not what I wanted so I revised and started over
No one is going to make fun of you- I used to trade IM with a few guys my age and older who worked at well know locations, each has 15years or more experience full time, all different styles one let price run to areas of confluences then trade on pullback/retrace for 2 pts or more,another would trade from a pt for hopefully 6 pts, so I have been beat on why did I take the trade etc and why, etc etc, so Im at a point as most get to I have np showing you why and taking criticism.
Showing size- Ur right way back when I started(yrs back) I was not trading correct contract size per account size. I was trading 20-30 ES contracts , liked TF and did farely well with but ES is where Im at bc of where I wanta be with my size at a later date. I see very few showing size and if memory serves me right Ive never seen you show it either But I have seen you reply to your dream retirement locations and homes in that region. So from this one could speculate size. I hope I made a point here
Do you need a mentor in order to be successful at trading?
I am speaking in generalities. I know that anything is possible, but in general, does a trader need someone to mentor them in order for …
this was one of my first responses of the few Ive made on nexusfi.com (formerly BMT), in your reply to me from ones actions, what do you mean? Maybe this is something Im not conveying bc of my personality in this journal or even when I ask a question of members or even you a few times. Maybe I just ask a question and see how people respond you can then read it from there, I might not know much but I do manage. I have been lucky to have met some great people and excellent traders here on nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) who I cant thank enough. If you look at my thanks given and received it says alot. Just bc Im not one of the outspoken and detailed in my methodological doesnt mean I dont understand it> Now since I m getting started with my peck and find fingers I throw IMO how I see things. Just bc one says they can trade and can explain all the reasons behind ones trade doesnt mean their a successful trader. The only way to know who is who is have a record board, size is irrelevant, style is irrelevant all that matters is profit loss. I have had alot of charts which all do, I still want to improve my charts which all do. We know why, when one has losses their setup needs tweaking and so on, anyone that tweaks is ok as long as they still trade well.I used to trade off bollingers loved the damn things but any indicator is a past shot of price, I m not saying anything new just feeling the need to clear the air sort of speaking. I trade with Price and areas to do business first(targets i call them) areas of confluences that line up, the more that line up duh stronger area is. I understand market rotation etc meaning I have other charts i use and haven't shown in my journal. But point is confluences that the majority trade to is where I want to be, duh nothing new again. My confluences areas are generated from pivots,vwap,custom pivots I use of my own research,vah,val,prior support/res, fibs,and TL. I used to make this stuff way more complicated than it is. MP and others line up with my confluences as well, I ve read ur comment before its amazing how many line up together.Hopefully this clears up where my targets are, and to trade to my target I use a chart that shows me market direction.
Now on to the good stuff,I am wrong on trades it happens there is no crystal ball to deterime where its going I sorta agree to disagree on the 50% rule, anytime I take a trade I say is it 50% or better then trade size accordingly .I 'll tell you what i would like to see a poll on is what percent of winning trades a trader has and what there R2R is. Ie. 1R to 4R with a 85% winning ration now this guy I'd watch. I dont think alot people actually get this, well ones that have traded for long long time do
In closing I will never show size unless you do if we all did this then nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) would have a competition on, bc IMO we all go into trading after having success in other arenas of business.So we re all competitive by nature this is the reason I feel having losing trades kills alot of people spirits and they start the non ending quest of the perfect chart.
Blah blah blah I have spent more time replying to you Mike than this whole journal to date. @ThatManFromTexas has had trophy wives he said Well I missing my trophy Gf's responding to u This is the part Ive been loving recently extra time for my daughter and recreation. I came up with this little tweaked setup on a return flight from Vegas 2 mths ago I wanted something like @creekboy had, he said he had a system you could sit down and enter whenever he wanted. So I use a small time frame in out enjoy life, I know you seen the spreadsheet trade for 2 pts a day
Hope this sheds a little more light, as always advice is always appreciated.
Rad
Mike I still dont get the whole journal deal noting why for myself a trade went the way it did ie. if i go to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and stump my toe I remember where this happened at and I dont do it again. Do most traders stump their toe over and over the same problem
Hope the dogs are well esp the new one,ttys
Also a newer trader please note what others have said here on nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) and what I said about losses have them move on, and never ending quest for the perfect chart. Dont waste your time as I did but find one that you like and tweak it, manage R2R and trade to trade well not for the money
Today when I opened up my pc I had to add in 12-12 contract as soon as it switched the time was 8:40est and by 8:41 a smart money buying program had kicked in-noted in blue circle, never buy at the top but I knew a chain of events would follow which I had targets to, so I traded accordingly to how I saw the buyers/sellers coming in. Also note its easy to look hindsight @ a chart and say oh i see why a person did that, but this hasnt happened live yet so a call was made to change direction ahead of chart forming because of market sentiment.anyhow rectangle box was big target and 40 was first lower I just traded as I saw it.
NOTE-THERE IS ALOT OF INFO IM NOT EXPLAINING BC IVE GOT TO RUN
was done for day at 10:17 start of day 8:40 plus +5pts Im off personal issue at school to deal with
2 Pts a day is my main goal as of lately and one can build their account but as my thread states you must manage Risk to Reward etc It takes understanding the market conditions and its rotation to achieve consistent profits, draw downs always must be considered. Please research and understand Risk to reward 1R to 1R/1Rto2R/1R to 3R/ and last what Im going for 1Rto4R-no Im not there yet but working on it soon when Market gets some volatility), always trade contract size per account capitol (this is key... this isnt a video game if you trade heavy and die,your DEAD!) and always achieve a higher trade % of winners. Until one can do these things successfully, you will FAIL. Sorry to be blunt.
When I went into trading as with any small business you have upfront capitol invested and as the business matures it starts it payback, so for me I paid the upfront cost to start my business. Looking back I recommend sim or demo mode and then work yourself into real money and learn to control the emotionally side of this game and if your lucky you'll only blow 1 account
It is not this simple. To think you can put on a 1 lot in week 1, and perform the same in week 9 trading a 20 lot is utterly ridiculous and what you showed no doubt came from some vendor site trying to sell you something and convince you of how easy it is. Mathematically it's that simple, but discretionary trading is not so much about mathematics as it is your own head. It's the dream we all have: turn $5K on Jan 1 into $42K by March 30. If you believe it is this easy, then you have very little understanding of proper risk control, and I encourage you to focus on how not to lose rather than how much you can make, at this point.
After reading this, I would like to rephrase the last sentence: with proper risk control, it is impossible to increase your account by 800% in 13 weeks. In other words, you will be risking way too much in order to shoot for that level of profit. You will blow up if you try, and it is not a question of if, but how soon. In week 9, trading a 20 lot with a 1 handle stop risks almost 5% of your account in one trade. You are betting 3-5% of your total account every time you trade that the market will go 8 ticks in your favor before it goes against you 3. What do you think the odds are there?