Ok - so Monday I had a good day and called it bad. Today I had a bad day but I'm calling it good. I could see just from looking at the price action that it would be difficult to get any decent trades from these ticks.... but I tried anyway and proved myself right..

Walk of shame....
Date Symbol # Cont. Commission Per Tick Value Total Contracts Total Trades # of Ticks Total Commission Net P/L Day
10/7/2014 ES 1 $3.35 $12.50 2 2 -12 $6.70 -$156.70


Sorry - i didn't get the trades quick enough so I can't post times and amounts. The trades were -8 ticks and -4 ticks. See attached XLS for details.

So - today was winner winner again. I'm hoping to end the week positive. I'm finding the groove and it seems to be working. My system.... +4/-4 I usually say I MUST stick to - and on losing days I prove myself right.... see 9/30, 10/7 for good examples. however, if I had let my trade run today and not used a profit limit order I would have grabbed much more win. Regardless, I stuck to the plan and it worked perfectly.

2 trades for 4 ticks each. +$100

Date Symbol # Cont. Commission Per Tick Value Total Contracts Total Trades # of Ticks Total Commission Net P/L Day
10/8/2014 ES 1 $3.35 $12.50 2 2 8 $6.70 $93.30

trades:
Instrument Action Qty Price Time E/X
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1927.75 10/8/2014 9:11 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1928.75 10/8/2014 9:11 AM Exit
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1930.00 10/8/2014 9:12 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1931.00 10/8/2014 9:13 AM Exit

Today I took 3 trades, one great, one bad, and the third was great. So I ended up with a total of 4 ticks. The second trade went past my stop by 1 tick, then reversed. I'm going to go back and check my previous bad days for that scenario and check to see if I move my stop further out if that makes more winners, or worse losses. I'll post my results tonight when I'm done. Also - I've update the excel sheet for the Per Contract Minimums and Per Day Profit if you are interested in that.

Here is today:
Date Symbol # Cont. Commission Per Tick Value Total Contracts Total Trades # of Ticks Total Commission Net P/L Day
10/9/2014 ES 1 $3.35 $12.50 3 3 4 $10.05 $39.95

The trades:
Instrument Action Qty Price Time E/X
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1952.75 10/9/2014 9:01 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1953.75 10/9/2014 9:03 AM Exit
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1950.75 10/9/2014 9:07 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1951.75 10/9/2014 9:09 AM Exit
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1951.00 10/9/2014 9:11 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1950.00 10/9/2014 9:11 AM Exit

Checked all my bad trades from this week and last. Here are the results.

At a -4 stop:
9 bad trades for -36 ticks

At a -6 stop:
7 bad trades for -28 ticks - 2 winning trades at 8 ticks

The additional draw down would have been $25 for each additional trade for a total additional loss of $175.00
The additional gains from the two winning trades would have been $100.00 - No joy here...

At a -8 stop:
6 bad trades for -48 ticks - 3 winning trades at 12 ticks

The additional draw down would have been $50.00 for each additional trade for a total additional loss of $300
The additional gains from the 3 winning trades would have been $150.00 - Still no joy.

You can easily see the diminishing returns of further stops.

So - what if I would have traded with no stop at all??? Crazy talk - I know.
3 bad trades with large losses until the market reversed. I didn't calculate it. But - it shows me that ultimately my system was correct 6 additional times, however - when do you know what is going to turn? That is the ultimate question.

Thanks for reading....

Actually started trading real money today, pretty much for the first time in the Futures world. Good to see that the system still held up, though I would have been surprised if it didn't. I did get a little emotional and stopped my trades out at 2 ticks each. So - not a major win.... but money in the bank none-the-less....

Today's trades

Date Symbol # Cont. Commission Per Tick Value Total Contracts Total Trades # of Ticks Total Commission Net P/L Day
10/13/2014 ES 1 $3.35 $12.50 3 3 6 $10.05 $64.95



Instrument Action Qty Price Time E/X
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1897.50 10/13/2014 9:05 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1898.00 10/13/2014 9:05 AM Exit
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1896.75 10/13/2014 9:06 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1897.25 10/13/2014 9:06 AM Exit
ES 12-14 Sell 1 1895.25 10/13/2014 9:09 AM Entry
ES 12-14 Buy 1 1894.75 10/13/2014 9:09 AM Exit