^A quick question in between, is making profits harder in the afternoons compared to the morning session?

lightsun47 

^A quick question in between, is making profits harder in the afternoons compared to the morning session?

I think there is more risk in the morning because there is more volatility. Afternoons have more established trends and less volatile. I would say profits are easier in the afternoon.

I just need to remember I can accomplish anything if I put in the hard work. Trading represents about 2% of what I am working hard for in this life. I won't say what my main focus/goals are but I just will not give up.

Just popping in to say that I'm glad your losses have been reduced and I'm also glad that you're trying out prop firms as a way to reduce the amount of money you lose. I really think you should work on a different strategy, something that involves this much loss for this many weeks/months/years is probably not working. An 8 tick stop is very tight. If you're scalping, you'll need a very high win rate, which I haven't seen over the months.

Have you tried incorporating statistics? I find that's a great starting point.

canadianpotato 

Just popping in to say that I'm glad your losses have been reduced and I'm also glad that you're trying out prop firms as a way to reduce the amount of money you lose. I really think you should work on a different strategy, something that involves this much loss for this many weeks/months/years is probably not working. An 8 tick stop is very tight. If you're scalping, you'll need a very high win rate, which I haven't seen over the months. Have you tried incorporating statistics? I find that's a great starting point.

Thanks for your input. Yes I am thinking about various strategies. Unfortunately for my bank account I like strategies that lose money and are the most entertaining for me. I really enjoy holding onto a loss for as long as I can stand in there and exiting when the pain is too great. I also like counter trend strategies where I buy lows and sell highs which is also another money losing strategy. One of these days I will have to get serious about whether or not I want to stop losing money. For now I am enjoying this game and having fun posting here about my trading journey. I hope my path can bring some entertainment to those that read my journal. Or maybe my journal can represent something to be avoided as well.

Thanks again for reading.

So I only have $100 in my trading account. So I am going to save up again before I start trading again. Probably start trading again when I have $400 in my account. That will be enough to absorb the equity swings trading one contract of the micros.

I hope everyone is having fun trading. I already miss it and can't wait to start up again.

Strategy when I get back to it: buy lows, sell highs, hold a loss until its painful, take quick profits. When I do buy the lows I ask myself "is this the low of the day" and "can the market move lower?"

Edit: Well so much for not trading, I took one end of day trade.

Time 3:46pm, MES, 1 contract Long @4600.25, Exit 4602.25, +$10

Trades tonight

Plan: buy lows/sell highs, exit losses

8:19pm, M6E, Long @1.1021, Exit 1.1019, -$2.50
8:43pm, M6E, Long @1.1019, Exit 1.1023, +$5.00

Trades today

Plan: buy low of the day, sell high of the day

9:39am, M6E, Long @1.0976, Exit 1.0975, -$1.25
10:01am, M6E, Long @1.0966, Exit 1.0972, +$7.50

I am still working out what to do with a loss. If I trade by emotions I want to just hold onto a loss as long as possible to see it potentially turn around. If I trade with my head I would set a hard stop and honor it no matter what. Do I trade with emotions or with my head? Trading with my emotions is a lot more fun but the risk of losing everything is high. Trading with my head and setting a hard stop hurts and is no fun and trading becomes a chore instead of entertainment. There are a couple of examples where buying lows without an exit plan would have lost everything. One example is when oil went into the negative 30s during the pandemic. Another example is when the ES lost 10% during the flash crash of May 2010. Both examples would have lost me everything using my strategy.

Today I traded the Euro FX. I bought the euro as it made new lows at 1.0966. I had no exit plan other than to get out when there was too much pain for me to handle. The market went 23 ticks against me. Not a huge amount but the euro could have sold off a lot more with the downgrade from the rating agency last night. How long will I keep pushing my luck? I don't know I guess one day I will learn my lesson when I take a large loss.

I am going to focus on crude oil going forward. I've been trading MES and M6E the last couple of days in addition to MCL and feel I am spreading myself thin across the three markets.

Plan: Buy lows of the day, sell highs of the day, set a mental stop and honor it. The price action in between the low and high of the day doesn't really interest me and I will be focusing on fading highs and lows(mean reversion and counter trend trades). Fading big moves in crude (like today where crude was down +2%) is dangerous and I should probably use a stop and get out of losses. I just keep thinking back to the day when oil went negative during the pandemic. Fading the down move that day without a stop would have lost all the money. So its imperative to use a stop, at the very least a mental stop but I need discipline to honor the mental stop.