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Was trying similar paper trading to reach funded account years back in TST without success. With the Covid19 and working from home era decided to give my trading attempt another shot...
Joined E2T 25K mini Gauntlet last week. And already "successfully" blew up the account. So now it's my 2nd attempt...
I'm still refreshing my memory with volume profile and market profile while trying to use the tape for order execution. But the biggest challenge I have is still getting the time to concentrate and execute to the best of my ability.
In this journal I'll share the path in my 2nd attempt, and hopefully this time would be different and I'll succeed reaching funded account. I'm trading the ES only. Single contract at a time, which will allow me some room for my stop loss, so the trade won't be whipsawed.
Now for the Gauntlet progress...
First 2 days went OK, and I'm up 300$ total.
This is in spite few cases of trades during distraction, which I can't avoid but should learn at least not trade, as I'm never successful on trades that executed during distraction times.
I'll start recording the screen in order to share some good and bad trades I've made.
For now, few of my bad trades:
- Entered a trade without good handle of the platform, which didn't include the bracket. Had much wider stop than I intended to.
- Entered a short position based on price action (saw a potential resistance), but unfortunately the entry was exactly at the VPOC. Trade went nowhere and I got stopped out.
- Entered a trade when my young son was in the office, which wasn't executed with clear focus as I should. Every trade should be done with full focus!
Bottom line, although the bad trades, I did have few good ones as well, which reached my price target and I'm still positive. Won't be easy, but still got a chance...
Tomorrow, day 3, I have 3 hours in which I could trade without distractions which is great. Hope to catch some good trades
What a bloodbath today
Didn't trade good. Had one trade that could reverse it all, shorting ear the top of the day, but exited prematurely, and missed a huge move.
Lost 250$, after good start, and I'm almost back to square one. Feels a long way to go to the 1750 profit target mark.
Besides that, didn't see much good trades. Overall noticed that there wasn't much low volume nodes during the hours I traded, but I still traded as if I'm forced to do that...
Need to be more patient.
Tomorrow another day. Tonight I'll review some footprint videos online, sleep well and be ready with full focus tomorrow.
Was OK day. 3 trades.
Trade 1 went in my direction, but didn't go anywhere and exited at break even.
Trade 2 - waited for price to reach low volume node to short. Trade went well and almost reached the profit target.
Trade 3 - waited for price to reach low volume node to short again... This time although the entry was higher than trade #2, I tightened the stop loss upfront. Was hit by fast stop run, and got stopped out in a second. ES reversed right away and exceeded my profit target. Was pissed. Didn't find another good opportunity again today.
At least I'm back to be profitable on the path to the profit goal. Today's gain - ~110$
Day 5.
Yesterday I did analysis of the account so far. Was shocked to notice that half of the gross profit we spent on commissions. Decided to limit number of trades from now on.
Had only 2 trades today. Both were short at low volume node at 2 different levels. Both times I saw weakness at the footprint which confirmed my trade direction. In both cases I moved my stop loss to +1R and got stopped out. On top of that I've avoided pulling the trigger where I saw the footprint didn't support my hypothesis and saved 1R loss. Overall good day.
I implemented the patience, and not over trading today, which prevented from losing all profits to commissions.
Back on track to reach the Gauntlet goals. Looking forward to day 6!
Day 6 was a losing day
One trade went with my direction and I was at above +1R profit. I wanted to "let it ride", especially since I saw a strength at the bid, however buyers came in and not only erased all the profits, I ended up with -1R loss on this trade.
Ended the day at -1.5R loss - about 150$.
Learned not to let profits vanish and raise stop all the time.
Thinking to increase to 2 lots at some point if profit doesn't progress fast enough, but not quite yet.
Day 7.
Didn't trade well. Been over trading. Gross gain was 100, but net gain less than 50 due to commissions.
One trade today could be so great, but I tightened my stop prematurely, and missed huge move in my direction.
Need to be more patient tomorrow with more concentration and discipline.
Day 8.
Most profitable day so far, and I feel I could do better. 2 trades I took, I took small profits, before ES moved huge in the direction I planned. From other hand I did have cases of taking small profit before ES reversed completely, so no one really knows where it will go (at least not me lol)...
Overall, I think I start developing more sense for the footprint.
I missed one trade which offered huge risk/reward setup - shorting test around 2912.
I did anticipate ES to break below 2900, and shorted on small re-test, but had a narrow stop and got stopped out.
For tomorrow, need to keep the patience and once I develop enough profit for the day (over 150), be less conservative about trailing stops, and "let it ride".
I'm 1250$ away from the profit target. Need to keep a pace of average 180$ a day to make it by day 15. This is still doable!
Lost more than half of the profits today. Didn't trade well at all. Was actually 100$ up for the day, which makes the loss even worse. Stopped trading after less than one hour.
Reasons for the bad day:
- Day started too good. Was up 100$. And got over confident that I know how to beat the market. Market showed me otherwise... Never under estimate the market!
- Tried using tighter stop loss from the get-go to control my risk. Was stopped out fast, before large move by the market. I know there is a balance here, but I went too far to the conservative side, and ironically lost much more this way (and also more commissions).
- This one the most important of all - I didn't have good night sleep. Slept 5 hours last night. I need minimum 7. Wasn't sharp and made mistakes as a result.
The only good thing I did today was shut down ninjatrader and call it a day fast. Tomorrow is another day. Considering to bump up my lot size to 2 contracts, in order to have a chance to reach my goals. Will do that if required starting next week.
Day 10 was short and sweet. Could trade for about 30 minutes due to super busy day work. But earned 100$ today, so back to some profitability. 5 days left. 1400$ away from my goal. Need to make 300 a day to reach the target in the 15 days. Good thing that there is no time limit to reach the final goal, but I will consider trading 2 contracts instead of one starting next week.
Best day so far!
Feel I have some edge on the market. Just need to keep being focused and I can really make it.
Started recording video of my trades for future learnings. Can capture only one screen unfortunately, but still I think it helps.
Here I'm going to share a trade I made. Which didn't end up well, but I think I did the right thing...
Entered at 2841.50. Price broke through resistance at 2840, and test failed.
Saw bullish footprint as well when hitting the trigger.
(pasted screenshot)
ES did continue up in my trade direction for 4 ticks. But... Something changed in the next minute and I got stopped out
I did raise my stop a bit by 4 ticks so damage wasn't full risk. Irony is that if I had a wider stop (increase my original stop of 8 ticks to 12), I could have a very nice up run. But, from other hand, we're talking about risk to reward as well. I plan to increase trade size to 2 contracts. Can't afford 12 ticks stop loss. Re-entered the long trade and made up for it
(pasted screenshot)
Although I lost in this example, I'm pretty happy from this trade. Traded by my plan, and pulled the trigger at reasonable time.
Besides that, datafeed was horrific today. I missed one good trade due to that, and also didn't have a chance to raise my stop and made less profit than I should in another trade. With all those issues, day ended up with 425$ gross profit, and 360$ net after omissions. Can't complain.
(pasted screenshot)
1050$ away from profit target. Got 4 days left for 15 days minimum of trading. I feel I can make it if I'm focusing!