blackgrey45 

I know, I should have been very content with a +$400 profit after almost two weeks of trading. I wanted to be up +$1k and that was a figure I had in my head. I gave all my hard work back today. I will just have to try again tomorrow and be happy with any profit really.

So maybe, it is your expectations that need better alignment with possible reality. My experience is that 75% of traders have no real goals, or unrealistic goals. This causes problems, so your $500/week goal is worth exploring...

First, where did $500/week even come from? What you made you conclude it was reasonably possible?

Second, let's say that $500/wk was the goal, and you felt it was reasonable and achievable (just for reference, that would be $5K per week, $260K per year in ES. Very few people out there are likely doing that with real money. Plenty will claim they are, of course).

What was the timeframe for reaching it? You gave yourself less than 2 weeks to get to that level. What if you had $800 after 9 days, would that have been enough? In other words, was there leeway, or was $1K over 2 weeks the bare minimum?

Finally, what is the plan now that Plan A was tossed out the window? Is there a Plan B, or are you retrying Plan A? If the latter, why do you think you'll stick to it this next time?


Sorry for the hard questions, if you do not appreciate them, just say so and I'll go away.

kevinkdog 

So maybe, it is your expectations that need better alignment with possible reality. My experience is that 75% of traders have no real goals, or unrealistic goals. This causes problems, so your $500/week goal is worth exploring... First, where did $500/week even come from? What you made you conclude it was reasonably possible? Second, let's say that $500/wk was the goal, and you felt it was reasonable and achievable (just for reference, that would be $5K per week, $260K per year in ES. Very few people out there are likely doing that with real money. Plenty will claim they are, of course). What was the timeframe for reaching it? You gave yourself less than 2 weeks to get to that level. What if you had $800 after 9 days, would that have been enough? In other words, was there leeway, or was $1K over 2 weeks the bare minimum? Finally, what is the plan now that Plan A was tossed out the window? Is there a Plan B, or are you retrying Plan A? If the latter, why do you think you'll stick to it this next time? Sorry for the hard questions, if you do not appreciate them, just say so and I'll go away.

I had a $1000 goal in my mind. I really pushed hard to reach the goal in two weeks and I tried to achieve it trading only 1 micro MES contract for each trade. I thought if I upped my contracts size I could reach my goal faster.

If I had $800 after two weeks I still would not have been happy. When I set a goal for myself I absolutely have to achieve it and breakthrough it. It is all or nothing and I was willing to sacrifice all of my gains to achieve the goal in my mind.

Going forward I will keep the same goal of $1000 in two weeks. I will try the same strategy, starting with 1 contract per trade then ramping up contract numbers as my profits go up.

blackgrey45 

I had a $1000 goal in my mind. I really pushed hard to reach the goal in two weeks and I tried to achieve it trading only 1 micro MES contract for each trade. I thought if I upped my contracts size I could reach my goal faster. If I had $800 after two weeks I still would not have been happy. When I set a goal for myself I absolutely have to achieve it and breakthrough it. It is all or nothing and I was willing to sacrifice all of my gains to achieve the goal in my mind. Going forward I will keep the same goal of $1000 in two weeks. I will try the same strategy, starting with 1 contract per trade then ramping up contract numbers as my profits go up.

I'll ask once more: where did $500/week even come from? What you made you conclude it was reasonably possible?

kevinkdog 

I'll ask once more: where did $500/week even come from? What you made you conclude it was reasonably possible?

I just had $1000 profit in my mind. It was a goal and I realize it was unrealistic. I do not know where it came from and can't explain why I had that number in my head. Had I achieved it I didn't have a plan after that.

blackgrey45 

I just had $1000 profit in my mind. It was a goal and I realize it was unrealistic. I do not know where it came from and can't explain why I had that number in my head. Had I achieved it I didn't have a plan after that.

You say it was unrealistic, yet you are keeping it?

I dunno, based on everything you've said (no tested edge, admittedly unrealistic goal, going off the rails before the 2 weeks was even over, no plan if goal was somehow achieved), it almost seems like part of you wants to lose/fail at this.

You definitely aren't doing yourself any favors with your actions, at least from what I see...

Good Luck, I wish you the best, I will not comment anymore.

I had a loss in my live futures account today of -$80.58. I was just chasing the market around and had no real plan and did not follow any kind of strategy. I will take a break from trading my live account for a little while and evaluate myself and my trading. I will continue trading in an eval with a prop firm so all I have to lose is 30 bucks per month if/when I fail.

kevinkdog 

You say it was unrealistic, yet you are keeping it? I dunno, based on everything you've said (no tested edge, admittedly unrealistic goal, going off the rails before the 2 weeks was even over, no plan if goal was somehow achieved), it almost seems like part of you wants to lose/fail at this. You definitely aren't doing yourself any favors with your actions, at least from what I see... Good Luck, I wish you the best, I will not comment anymore.

Well, I just don't know what to say. You are probably right with your comments in the fact that part of me wants to fail. I do appreciate the time you put into this journal in the past few weeks and your input. Like I said in my previous post I will be taking a little break from trading my live account to think about the topics you had mentioned.

Thank you again.

I traded a prop firm eval account today. MES was the market. 1 contract each trade. 19 total trades. 15 winning trades and 4 losing trades. Total profit for the day was $433.75.

My plan is to continue trading prop firm eval accounts until I can pass one. If I pass one I will evaluate and move on from there. But plans can change with me and nothing is set in stone. I have to pass an evaluation first.

I may trade my live account again sometime next week. I want to take a rest from live trading for a few days and give my brain a break.

Continued today with the prop firm eval. Today was very frustrating. The market made the move higher and traded in a tight range for much of the day. This was very tough for me and I lost a large percentage of early profits. I typically don't do well when the market is grinding higher as there is just not much room for error. Profit today was +$33.75. I hope you traded well and have a great weekend. Thanks for reading.

Traded my live futures account today. I looked at my winning periods of the past and tried to replicate that trading style today. It worked out well. +$307.57 profit today. Market was MES and 1 contract per trade. 28 trades with 100% win rate. I know it is extremely hard to believe that I did 28 round turns and every trade was a winner but that is what happened. I was definitely in tune with the market today. But there were some trades that I took heat on. I will try to take it one day and one trade at a time. The main things that haunted me in the past was trading too big and not taking profits. I will be doing manual labor tomorrow so I will miss FOMC which is probably a good thing. Be back to trading Thursday. Hopefully my luck continues because it feels really good to win.