Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Tuglife's trading journal. Focused on profitability.
Pretty short day. Took 2 trades...scratched one, got ran over on the second one. Thought I was trading a pullback. I was wrong. Limit down.
I missed the setup that I worked really hard on last week. Would have been good for 5 points.
I'm kind of scratching my head. I need to work on my patience, that's for sure. I only have one more day to trade until I go back to work for three weeks. After tomorrow I will take a live trading break for a week at least. I'm trying to keep my chin up but it's demoralizing. I think my patience was improving for a short while but I've backslid.
I also think I've been overestimating my ability, and learned not to be afraid to guess. Very bad habits to be sure.
I might need to go back to one contract. With 2, my risk management dictates that my stop is 20 ticks max, and if I hit that I'm done for the day.
On a positive note, I've figured out a few things I can do that might help.
1. Rules it is. I *watch* the market for the first hour. First trade better look pretty good in hindsight too, or interval will increase.
2.Also, it is evident there are gaps in my skillset. I am going to take the time to read a price action book. Something by Al Brooks to be sure.
3. Discipline must be brought into other areas of my life. I started today by buying healthier groceries. Jesus if I could exercise a little that would be *huge*. I've wanted to do this forever.
Well I've been at work for 2 weeks and have only been watching the market. I did take one trade today. A bad one that went against me right away. The good news is that I watched the market all morning...didn't jump right in.
My discipline has been pretty good overall. Diet is going well, and I'm working hard. I get plenty of exercise on the job, but I have *never* been able to get going with cardio exercise. This remains a goal.
I have a co-worker who trades futures. He's profitable and has been helping me out with some fundamentals. Not just chartwork, but risk management, psychology etc.
After a month off trading (and no real studying because work was busy) I started trading again.
Crazy day today. I made 3 trades and was up about 50 points. Then some crazy switch flipped inside me and I decided to abandon my risk management and trade five contracts instead of the two I'm supposed to. Lost my gains and more.
A *very disappointing* limit down for the day. The idea of quitting looks very appealing at the moment. I'm working on fixing this but keep repeating the same mistakes. Easily my most frustrating day I've had.
Friday I was limit up after 3 trades. I definitely benefitted from the size of the rotations.
Sunday night limit down. I was guessing, didn't have very good trade location. I also violated my rule about turning the screen off after being limit down. I didn't lose any extra money but put myself in the penalty box today because of this bad behaviour.
Wow, almost a month between posts. I have been very busy with my "day job" and also the internet service where I have been working was not trustworthy enough to trade.
Traded yesterday. A decent entry into the big spike down, then I watched a 15 point positive excursion evaporate. Two more (less good) trades left me limit down.
Today I had 5 trades, 3 of them with decent entries. Order management was good, discipline was good. I was short (again) on a pullback during the move down after lunch. Shorted right at the VWAP. One of the most skillful trades I've had in awhile. It was a two contract trade -- took one contract off and let the other one run. After the excursion ran pretty good I started with a 7 point trailing stop then switched to a 3 point trail after the move appeared to be losing steam. Limit up for the day and screen off.
On the discipline front, I am finally losing weight through intermittent fasting. I have made a bet on a website regarding my weight loss. I have 6 months to lose 40 pounds (with video verified weigh ins). I wagered $600 at 2:1 odds that I will lose 40 pounds in 6 months. I am halfway there after one month. My discipline will allow me to win this money and lose the weight!
I did not trade well today. Woke up late and missed the morning gap fill. I had one good entry but did a poor job managing it. I think maybe starting the session with losing trades creates a fearful mindset.
Wow, time flies. I have been working a lot of overtime at my day job. Nevertheless, I am back trading. I've been working on discipline in my daily life, and it is paying off. I have lost 25 pounds on the "snake diet" which utilizes prolonged fasting to reach weight loss and health goals. Look it up on Youtube! Warning: The inventor of the Snake Diet (Cole) has a NSFW mouth.
I traded the last 3 days. I have started to employ a mean reversion strategy, using the VWAP and split volume profile. It's going well. A particular area of focus is to maximize positive excursion. I've been doing a lot of watching and waiting, and confidently entering trades when I get the right setup.
I have made a few micro gold trades, and have charts up for MNQ and MYM. Can't afford to trade the bigger indexes because the stops need to be so huge.
It feels like I have improved a lot in the six months since I started trading.
It was just you. Title is "Focused on Profitability."
Thanks for stopping by.
I have had a revelation in the last few days. I have always had higher timeframe charts up, but they haven't been doing a lot of good. So I threw up a VWAP on an hourly chart starting on September 1. Aha moment. I've seen my future, and it involves a lot less scalping tics.
OK day today, but missed a good opportunity. I shorted the MYM late last night, and stayed in the trade like 9 hours. After lunch I convinced myself that the market would continue to be rangebound. Closed my position for a profit, turned off the screen, and no less than 10 minutes later all the indexes broke down. I was *very* tired, so there probably were clues that I missed.
I don't exactly know what took me so long to figure this out, but I am now going to trade with a daily, weekly, and monthly chart open. My main setup is mean reversion and I think i can avoid getting run over so much with the bigger picture in mind. Profits should be better with a higher timeframe as guidance.
Here's what the new setup looks like. When I am getting ready to place a trade I'll open up a Jigsaw DOM.