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jlabtrades apex prop firm and personal trading journal
Swings and misses all day. mentally frustrated and exhausted from trading and working my day job (which has increased intensity this week). I'm treating myself to a relaxing time at the golf range to reset for a good weekend
week recap
Got my account to almost net 0 on the week, which is okay but disappointing
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Felt off in the morning, then things started clicking later on in the day for me. Overall uneventful except for letting a few positions close right before they move 2x profit what I took, but I always be happy with little green over little red
Just bounced around all day today, and of course had to place a trailing stop on a trade while I had to attend a work meeting, only to get stopped and we rally for a cool 20 points on ES. This was a tough trade to come back to, but I have to respect the trailing stop I entered.
You should be thankful those losing trades did not reverse. All that (hoping) will do is solidify bad habits until you've blown-out your account.
Perhaps (to start) give yourself a rule of no trades held longer than XX minutes, win or lose (and/or if winners hit target). Follow this rule until you can exit without hesitation or reservation. If you break the rule, you are done trading for the day. If you cannot follow this rule (or whatever rules you create), you are risking your own integrity. If you can't trust yourself, you will never become a successful trader. As you gain confidence, build and adjust your rules accordingly.
If you need an additional incentive to keep your rule(s), consider donating to one of the vilest (legal) organizations you can think of an amount of $100+ for each infraction. Write the check and put it in front of you when you trade. If you cannot cash this check, then do not trade.
Remember to give yourself a break, though. You are not and will not be perfect. But if you are breaking your rules more than once or twice per week, make the donation.
I also suggest you trade the micros and drop down to just one contract. It appears you are trading two, if I am not mistaken. If it's two because you're scaling out, consider putting scaling on-hold until you have successfully addressed hanging on to trades which aren't working.
Remember, your primary goal is to build skills. The money comes later. Do not spend more financial and psychological capital than is necessary. Make sure you can survive.
Ending on a positive note, at least you are not a gambler! Good job on the updates and keep them coming!
Hey thanks for the response and feedback! It never easy showing the loss days or even the losing weeks, and I honestly just wanted to do a quick post to get the transparency here, but some background may help provide some explanation.
I usually like to take shorter term and scalpy trades. If I don’t get the move I wanted, I usually try to wait and hold until my risk target. I dont like micros because of the impact of my scalping nature and the commissions eating away from my profits.
I don’t really like the idea of a sole time base profits or loss target, I prefer to trade based on technical candlestick patterns in combination of volume price action.
Interesting idea of a penalty check to an organization I loathe, thats quite the idea I haven’t thought of before.
I sometimes trade 2 if it’s a higher conviction play so I can scale, but I prefer smaller sizes for now so I can let my trades breathe a bit and not be worried with a trade getting close to my stop. But in the Tradovate charts i usually showing the total contracts is in+out so 1 trade is 2 “contracts” in the images
I’ll be sure to keep updating here on my journey. I usually only trade in the morning and work my day job during the day. some of the odd days I am able to trade during normal market hours or the close (I do like playing MOC trades). I also have some MFF, TopStep, and Apex funded prop firm accounts - but I decided to keep these posts focused on my personal accounts since I feel thats a better reflection of truer trades than simulated money in a prop firm
Scalping is fine, and holding is fine, but it's a good idea to set a time limit for trades which aren't working. Consider the opportunity cost. If you're tied up in a trade which hasn't worked, you won't in the best position to take advantage of the next trade. If you want to hold on to your trades longer then trade on a higher timeframe. Learning how to scratch a trade is a valuable skill.
Take note that many traders behave like trend traders, but they say they are scalpers; they take a scalp trade, but they hold so long it turns into a directional trade. Of course, for those self-proclaimed scalpers the trade is usually moving/trending in the wrong direction.
You are focused on the money. Focus instead on building skills.
Trade whatever brings you satisfaction. What does your plan say when the volume, candlestick, and price action combination you trade never reappears? This is where you get out based on time.
Consider closing down all but one account. It can be difficult to become consistent with so many varying rules to follow between prop firms and your individual trading account.
I am actually working on trying to move from scalping to a longer trend trader, which is where my holding for longer is coming from - and also my scaling to more contracts, so I can exit at my original profit, then set a stop at that price and let a runner go for more of the move
I hear what you're saying on skill vs money, but in my personal account I am trying to focus on money, which is why I tend to scalp more in it, and focus on higher conviction plays. I use the prop firms to hone my skill is a somewhat more realistic pressure environment compared to a pure simulation. I have the multiple accounts due to just buying an eval when are on a decent deal from a company I like, and yeah their rules are all slightly different, but I've been playing them long enough I'm aware of the rules in each.
What does your plan say when the volume, candlestick, and price action combination you trade never reappears?
I'm not following this question, do you mean what is the "move" I was looking for never happens, therefore Im stuck in a bad trade? To that I would say thats not really how I trade. I get into a trade when the "setup" I like appears, and then have a profit target in place. If the move seems to losing the original momentum then I take the profit. If it seems the move could continue I would move my limit profit order.
To your point, maybe instead of trying the longer scalp>trend trades in the personal I should let them work more in my prop firm accounts.
A little frustrating at different points during the day, and I took profit and then the move when extra, but I was only trading one contract today so I couldn't scale and let a runner try for more
Worst trade of the day was 2 hours after open, I got on the wrong side of a run to new high of day, but had a good stop already in place that I let play out. This trade got to me though and I took a break for a while before even looking at the charts again, and decided to go back to focusing on shorter scalps to secure smaller profits. Ultimately I would like to return to my larger entries and scaling at profit and letting a runner go with a stop at initial exit, but I want to gain my market confidence back again before I attempt that
If felt like an uneventful day and I seemed to be out of sync with the market as well today.
I did some more reflecting on my trading issues over this year and I feel that my problem is that
1) I'm trying to scale up so i was taking big orders on entry and trying to scale plus runner
and 2) I also moved my initial scale out, so i was taking more Ls with more size
I need to reduce my initial scale profit if i want to try the runner
or increase my initial scale profit target with only 1 con to dial that in. Essentially I changed 2 things at once when you should only experiment on one thing and get it right before moving onto something else
