Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I trade journal can be a very effective way to improve ones trading. What I can suggest from my own experience is it is all about what you journal. I personally like to track how good I am following my gameplan kind of self measuring and make sure I do what I want to do. P&L then takes care of itself if your gameplan is to work out.
Lets take a look at my YM trades today. 1st:
I thought that we would continue to the downside as there was nothing to stop price. Neither ES nor NQ had made this same downswing to LOD, thus disqualifying this trade. I took it anyway because I thought I was smarter than the market. There was a valid long in ES simultaneously that would have been DQ'd by this YM divergence but still, not a good idea to trade either direction when your rules are triggering a long in one index and a short in another.
2nd:
AH! Very upset with how stubborn I was on this one. I entered with a limit instead of waiting for my setup because I thought for sure the confluence at this level would reverse the market and I could feel like a big shot having called the top. Oops. Ended up pulling my stop as price approached my 1R. Thankfully price reacted off of Friday's high and shot down. Stubborn as I am, I did not take advantage of this free pass the market gave me to exit a horrible trade AT A PROFIT! Stopped me out to the tick before reversing and giving me another out. Always close bad trades when the market graciously gives you the chance.
3rd:
The only YM trade that met my rules today. Kind of a quadruple top at Friday's high gave me confidence that the level had some motivated sellers protecting it. We broke structure to the downside and I took the next setup. Stop was small enough that I was able to take 3 contracts. Decided to take 2 contracts and give myself some more wiggle room. Entry was fairly accurate and the trade moved down. Aware of my greediness and crunched for time as I needed to get ready for my evening shift I trailed aggressive on the first leg down. If time had not been an issue I would have trailed one contract aggressively on the first swing down and the second aggressively on the second swing down.
OK Now lets see NQ.
1st:
It's difficult to see the level but less than 2 points above HOD was a significant level per my rules from last week in the NQ. In addition, ES and YM both had double topped. We got the break of structure and I took the entry. Price took off and I managed to take most of the downswing with aggressive trailing.
2nd:
Ego inflated from the above win, I reversed and went long with absolutely no setup. I am glad I had the presence of mind to not allow myself to pull my stop and only take a small loss on this stupid one.
Thoughts:
Today was a repeat of Friday. My first trade was impulsive and not a setup specified by my rules. This made me feel as if I was starting the day in a hole. My emotions took over and I began to trade to get out of the hole instead of trading my plan to win and take money out of the market. As could be expected when I throw my rules out the window, the second trade was also a loser and now I had dug my hole deeper. It was nearly quitting time (12:00) and I was feeling upset and unwilling to accept a losing day. I took a trade that by sheer luck went in my favor rapidly and dug me more than halfway out of the hole. Inflated with self-confidence and still recklessly abandoning my rules I entered another trade and gave back some of my previous trades gains in about 30 seconds. Time passed and I became more and more set on not walking away until I was break-even. Took another trade that sort of met my rules but was 2 hours past my trading time. Thankfully this trade also ran in my favor and got me all of the way out of the hole.
Both Friday and today should serve as a reminder to why my rules exist in the first place. Hopefully I recall these uncomfortable sessions in the coming weeks whenever I contemplate taking an extraneous trade.
If there is anything good to be said about today it is that I was able to climb out of the hole. My discretionary trading is improving as my understanding of the market improves. Coupling this with my tested set of rules should result in consistently profitable trading. (IF the monkey pulling the trigger can learn some patience and commitment!)
Results:
2 wins
3 losses
Small gain pre-commission and small loss post-commission. Pretty much a flat day by the end of it.
Self-Eval:
Entries: 2/5 40%
Exits: 4/5 80%
Total: 60%
No excuse to be anything less than 100%. Thanks to Wernersabel for the suggestion. Hold myself accountable to my rules and increase the rate of my progress!
Always good to know that you can dig yourself out of a hole, but even better to recognize the behaviour that led to the hole in the first place. Nice job @mtzimmer1.
sounds like you are starting to progress and seems like you have a working system in place. That is very positive! I would look at friday and yesterdays sessions as a base you start to work from. That is where you stand now and you want to reach 100% accuracy - of your own rules. Now may be you realized repetitive "mistrades" you tend to do. May be you can categorize them in some sort of way, makes evaluation easier. And may be you start to see clusters. Then you will be able to set your focus more precise.
I used to look at it the exat same way "digging myself a whole". But as I progress to follow my own rules I start to look at those "losers" differently because sometimes it simply does not go, it is a game of probability. So I start to see them as aquisition or cost of business. That helps me maintaining a positive mindset because I know when a trade finally goes in my favor I will be able to win "big". Seems like you can do that too. By the way, I am currently working on the exact same issue and realized I have a big tendency to cut my winners short. It progresses slowly because it is a matter of trust, but it progresses.
In addition, have you written down your gameplan on a piece of paper?
I do have the game plan written out. Reading it is one of my pre-session rituals from now on. Remind myself of the rules and positively reinforce why I should follow them!
Today I took zero trades but had 100% accuracy following my rules.
There was one grade B short setup that I passed on because NQ had double bottomed and I did not want to trade into that potential support. It ended up being a 2.5 R trade on both ES and YM. I had a good reason to pass the trade and that is all that matters.
In thinking about and reviewing the trade I passed on yesterday I've decided to create a system for qualifying trades that eliminates some of the discretion. To qualify a trade I will identify every reason TO take the trade as well as every reason to NOT take the trade. Reasons TO must be at least 2x the reasons to NOT. This is my starting point and I will refine it as I see fit. From now on each screenshot shared in this journal will include these lists of reasons.