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ZachC's First Futures account: My Trade Journey


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  #1 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11

Ok since this is my first go at futures I am going to keep things very simple until I get into a groove.
I trade while I am at work during the day. I work in an IT office so interruptions are unavoidable. I will note if any trades are affected by this in my daily journal.

Account: $1,000
Brokerage: TastyWorks
Charting: ThinkOrSwim

Trade Rules:
Product: /MES
Time Frame: Mon - Friday | 9:30am to 11:30am
Intraday trades only, the account will be flat after 11:30 am
Size: 1 Contract (for now)
Entry Rules: TTM_Pivot, TTM_SQZ, $TIKSP
First trades placed after the open auction is completed
Market Guidance: Provided by $TIKSP indicating market extremes, volume profile, and vwap
Exit: 3 Point Stop | Trend Reversal with confirming SQZ

I am looking for feedback to advance my trade plan and ultimately become a well structured trader. I like building systems and I look forward to sharing them with everyone.


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  #3 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11


Here is today's Journal. I will be on the road tomorrow so my next update will be on Monday the 15th

Lots of Vol in the market today provided a few decent trends. I could have done much better with my entries today. My last exit was spot on, however.

Journal Entry


Chart with Entry and Exit


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  #4 (permalink)
 
NW Trader's Avatar
 NW Trader 
Seattle WA/USA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Broker: NinjaTrader
Trading: CL, YM, ES
Posts: 305 since Sep 2018
Thanks Given: 495
Thanks Received: 1,084

I'm certainly no market wizard, but your results today look very good! Must be on the right path.


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  #5 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11


NW Trader View Post
I'm certainly no market wizard, but your results today look very good! Must be on the right path.

Thanks! I sure hope so.


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  #6 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11

Sure was a boring day in MES. I was only able to place one trade that met my criteria during my trading hours.

Critiques for Today
  • I need to work on how I am going to deal with interruptions and patience while making these trades at work.
  • I need to start planning my targets a little better. Since I am only trading 1 lots I don't have the ability to scale out so I need to make every trade count. If I could plan better resting orders I might have a better chance to deal with interruptions and not miss out on the meat of the move. It will also help me with my patience which was an issue today.
  • My account can support another 1 lot I may consider adding this after a get more trades in.
  • Patience caused me to give up 2pts. I know that the probability of the price retracing to the POC and bouncing down is pretty high yet I pulled the trigger a little early.

P/L Today: $11
Daily Return: 1.13%
P/L YTD: $24
Yearly Return: 1.84%





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  #7 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11

We opened the day in range and in Chop with low volume.
After watching a few bars I decided that I would skip today and wait for a better setup.


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  #8 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11

It's about time the market decided to pick a direction and it seems that the market has decided to take a negative outlook to the future rate cuts from the FED. I realized that I could keep taking teaspoons of value from the market but on the flip side I am trying to forward test the strategy live and the more trades I make the better I can gauge my setup.

So I added another 1k so I could comfortable add another contract and start scaling out of trades. My target will be to generate enough $$ to add one more contract so that I can have a runner position. This position would have done quite well today, unfortunately, capital is always a constraint.

Daily Trade Chart


Daily P/L


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  #9 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
Legendary Recovering Method Hopper
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TOS
Broker: TD Ameritrade
Trading: Equities, Treasuries, Gold
Posts: 840 since Dec 2018
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Thanks Received: 1,918

Best of luck to you! Adhere to the plan and you'll do very well. Seems like a sound system you have developed.


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  #10 (permalink)
 
ZachC's Avatar
 ZachC 
Pennsylvania
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TradeStation
Broker: Tradestation
Trading: Micro ES and Micro YM
Posts: 17 since Jun 2019
Thanks Given: 13
Thanks Received: 11


Yikes well, today was a humbling day. I have come off my 4-day winning streak with a loss and a trade I should never have taken.

Trade 1:
I was looking for a short trend down to test the overnight low before bouncing back up to test the overnight high and subsequently try to go long when everyone starts to buy the dip. I was able to enter in at a reasonable price although I could have waited a little longer to take a short closer to the overnight high I grabbed my position a few ticks low.

Trade 2:
This trade should never have happened. I was busy switching screens back to my work screen to take care of people coming into my office as well as phone calls etc. I quickly noticed that my stop had not been breached yet, but we were continuing to test the overnight high, so I made an executive trading decision to add to my short position without checking my indicators or a larger time frame. Bad move only about 5 minutes later was I stopped out of my first position and another ten after that I closed the trade due to the volume of work here in the office.

Lessons Learned
  1. If I am committed to trading two contracts I need to trade two contracts consistently.
  2. I need to start checking higher time frames to see if my analysis of the market is still valid.
  3. No more adding to losing trades
  4. If I am getting busy and I can't focus on trading, and my position is underwater but not stopped out I will cut my losses and trade another day.

Chart:


P/L:


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Last Updated on July 21, 2019


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