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Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.
I added the RSI to my charts. That has helped me a lot. I'm also looking at market structure more.
I'm paper trading and it's going pretty good. I had the opinion before that paper trading didn't "work" for me. That was true but only because I didn't take it seriously. It feels different now though. I am paying attention to risk management even though it's a sim account.
I'm paying attention to high time frame setups but it's more challenging as they don't come around that often. I tried to get in CL at the swing low the other day. Opened a long and turned off the screen. Trade went my way but when I was sleeping I got stopped out by a few ticks. Would have been a big winner though as my setup was valid overall.
Trade management for long term trades is something I need to think about if I'm going to do that kind of thing. I think it's a problem worth spending time on because there's pretty good risk/reward in a lot of those trades.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Well, it's on. I am paper trading and enjoying it. The last few nights I started off by trading well but ended up overtrading. I am profitable on the sim account. I generally need more patience on both entries and exits. Leaning heavily on RSI, VWAP and market structure to do short term trades.
A very strong night paper trading. I took a short on the 6E that didn't work out and my stop was well placed.
Then I took a short on GC, on a retest of the HOD area, with my stop just above HOD. Looked like price exhaustion, it had visited -2SD and 2SD. I very patiently waited for my trade to work and added a contract. Closed out when RSI indicated temporary oversold condition.
Both trades are evidence that my skills are improving. I am using market structure, a couple of indicators (RSI and VWAP) and good risk management. The RSI helped with my exit on the gold trade.
Although the trading skills are coming along nicely, one thing is apparent. I need to quit Reddit, quit messing around so much, and take advantage of this moment in time. I have plenty of trading capital, a ton of time on my hands...but I am spending most of it on Reddit.
Another night of paper trading. The last two nights I ended up overtrading and last night I felt like an idiot because I took 4 or 5 dumb trades. But I continue to cut my losers. Tonight I thought GC might be oversold so I got into a long and worked the trade pretty well. Scaled in 2 contracts and held on top it (pretty easy with no retracements.
I am doing a lot better with trade location. The part that feels the best right now is that I am taking the paper trading so seriously. It could help keep me profitable when I go live.
I am at a 25% win rate for the last two days but still up $1500. The two winners I had really tipped the scales. I'm still wondering if I should concentrate on longer term trades as I might not be cut out for day trading or scalping.
Not a great night of paper trading. I got in a nice (early) short at session high on CL but it didn't work. My stop was too tight by a couple of ticks. That's a tough one. Withoug backtesting I'll never know the right area to place a stop in a situation like that.
I took two longs on CL and GC. I failed to notice all the instruments had sold off and I was fighting the market. I need to have better awareness of what time it is and which markets are open worldwide, when trading the overnight session.
Only took one paper trade tonight. Took a VWAP test on copper, targeting the range just below the high (which was actually a test of last night's high, to the tick). Once the trade had gone green by 5 ticks I pyramided 2 more contracts. Took one off a little early and closed the trade for 70 tick profit. I enjoy pyramiding more than scaling out of them. When a trade goes against me immediately there is less at stake, and the winners can be huge.
Two paper trades tonight. I took a long on CL that just sat there for 20-30 minutes. I closed it out for a partial stop of 4 ticks. I still need to remind myself not to fight the market. Everything selling off tonight. If I would have tried I'm sure I could have opened a decent short in something but I'm at work and can only keep one eye on the markets.
Ended up taking a short VWAP test on YM. My initial stop was too tight and I got wiggled out of the trade, but price moved in the right direction so I re-entered lower. Worked the trade pyramiding up to 4 contracts and took 200 ticks.
I'm learning from my mistakes, and my sim account is really profitable. Maybe another week or two of this and I will start live trading again.
Trade performance for the last week. Things look OK. My only concern about my new strategy of pyramiding into positions is that in periods of low market volatility there could be long dry spells. I could counter that by either sitting out these periods or by adding contracts earlier after forward excursion. There's two screenshots because it didn't include the excursion data on the first one.
Stats were thrown off because I am starting fresh and entered some trades just to test executions. There was no hijinks though, it was serious trading and I'm hoping to do at least one more profitable week paper trading and then go live.
I traded poorly tonight. Overtraded and pyramided too early. Costliest mistake was moving my stop *up* on a GC trade. Really humbled me. It would have been my best trade of the night as price turned on a dime as soon as I flattened out. The instinct to cut losers is good but it bit me this time.
It has been a putrid few days of trading. Bad entries, worse execution. A little revenge trading even. The only thing I have going for me is that I'm not moving my stoplosses.
I'm still full of gratitude, though. This feels like a great opportunity. The sim trading isn't going so well at the moment , but it is much better to lose $1,200 in a paper account than a real one. I'm going to get this. I feel like I have improved my trading more over the last two weeks than in the last two years.