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I started trading Forex over 20 years ago, then I met a trader who taught me an Emini futures trading method and i switched. The method is very successful, but then the markets became faster, wilder and manual trading was very difficult and now it works only on British pound futures 6B. With a software development background i continue making several systems (not methods) based on several techniques, the strategies worked with some market conditions, then the market changes and the strategy starts making more losers than winners and this year, a customer requested a grid system for ninjatrader, we all know the broker takes the orders First input first output (FIFO) and the customer did not wanted to pay for the job, so i realized that this grid system was very good if it is used in semi automatic mode, not 100% automatic, this means, me as trader must make the market analysis on day trading to define a direction (not trend because this is for daily trades, no position trading) after make the analysis for up or down direction i started using this tool in live, and found that if your system or method has a 50-50 probability then with this grid tool you increase the odds almost 80-20, if my analysis was wrong and i made a mistake in the market direction then with the grid i am able to recover on a market retracement. So this journal is based on this grid tool. Anyone is welcome to ask questions and participate in this journal.
I will follow the Oracle suggestion to include the win/loss & expectancy ratio, as this is a new tool i will start the ratio when i started this trading journal and i will update each trading day the result of the ratio:
Instrument Micro NQ (MNQ)
Trading days: 24
Profitable days: 23
Lossing days: 1
Total profit usd: $7,164.68 Win/loss ratio: 96%
Avg win: $334.36
Avg loss: $(525.50)
Expectancy: $342.32
Expectancy = (Win rate x Average win) - ((1 - Win rate) x Average loss)
Date Account Profit/loss usd
09/26/23 EA $5.18
09/27/23 EA $400.00
09/28/23 EA $900.00
09/29/23 EA $200.00
10/02/23 PA $320.00
10/12/23 EA $(525.50)
10/16/23 EA $320.00
10/17/23 PA $516.50
10/18/23 PA $585.50
10/19/23 PA $240.00
10/20/23 PA $209.00
10/23/23 PA $118.50
10/24/23 PA $398.00
10/26/23 PA $598.00
10/27/23 PA $332.00
10/30/23 PA $621.00
10/31/23 PA $465.00
11/01/23 PA $134.00
11/02/23 PA $228.00
11/03/23 PA $201.00
11/06/23 PA $229.50
11/07/23 PA $244.00
11/08/23 PA $24.50
11/09/23 PA $400.50
Daily journal migrated to another site. Will not be updating this one any longer.
when the market is trending strong, wait for broke demand/supply zones confirmation, today i expected a reverse in the demand (support) level and the market was strong going down... this was a learning day, fortunately went out BE
28/Sep/2023
Started trading at the open 8.00 EST - Ended at 11.00 EST +900usd in profit
Switched my chart to a renko based bars with percent movement for a new bar (50%) nothing special, i like Renko charts because them reduce the noice on manual trading.
Blue lines are levels that i see from the left side chart price reaction, this is, the price touched and rejected, or crossed and switched from support to resistance or resistance to support, this levels are very significant on the right side of the chart (current price action). The HH/LL/LH/HL swing indicator is the same we can get over here in nexusfi ellite member section
The PriceActionSwing indicator for NinjaTrader 8.0 calculates swings in different ways and visualizes them. It shows swing information like the swing length, duration, volume and many more. It contains a lot of features and it is useable in the Market …
shared by dorshden with a small adjustment to see the volume % and value from previous up swing vs current up swing, this helps me to see divergences in the volume of each swings.
Now, the day was ranging and this market conditions is almost the perfect storm for a grid. in the pictures attached are some of today executions.
First trade
Then went out for 30-40 minutes (driving to my daughter school). Before start driving my 2022 car check engine light went On, how's that possible??? anyway later will make the call to the agency to check what's going on.
The resume trading letting the grid make its magic, as the market showed signs to be in range i just taked the counter direction approach to enable/disable the grid.
29/Sep/2023
Started trading at 8.30 EST - Ended at 11.00 EST +200usd in profit
News day. So i took only one trade before PMI because i saw a volume divergence at resistance level with price momentum going down. Direction sell grid and collected profit.
Then paused any trading decision and only watched the market until the PMI news was released. After the news release i executed 2 times the grid on sell direction until reached the profit goal for the current evaluation account with $200usd profit.
(Additional to the levels i see at current renko chart) The trading direction after news was down based on M15 chart price action at POC volume profile level (additional to the blue lines i take the Volume profile POC, high value area, low value area and high/low volume nodes as price reaction levels ) and the overall day at trading time had an up direction and after the news there was no big movements so the market started ranging so i decided a sell direction approach (for me this market condition was riskier to go long at the top of the current market).
And the trading day was over for me on this grid system. This Monday will start trading with the new Performance Account so it will start fresh at 50k and we will see if the grid system continues helping me to make consistent profits.
New Performance Account for this journal is ready. Unfortunately from the end of day last friday i get an error message when i try to open ninjatrader platform:
Same Friday calling to NT Support i never got a response, all representatives busy. Then i got the email from NT Support asking me my phone number (15 hrs CST) but never got the call. So lets see if this Monday the issue is solved. So this things i must take with calm.
2/Oct/2023
Started trading 8.30 and ended 10:30 EST +320usd profit
As i can't login to NinjaTrader platform i used a contingency plan.
As the issue is with the login credentials because for a reason i dont know NT locked my account (support will call me at 11.00 CST) and fortunately i always save previous versions, then to dont affect my trading day i took the next contingency steps:
(Before the steps) i always have a contingency plan, this is:
- Internet connection
+ Provider 1
+ Provider 2
+ Cell phone (hotspot where my cell phone is a wifi modem)
- Desktop crash
+ Production desktop <- This is my main trading desktop
+ Development desktop
+ Laptop <- this one helped me today
+ VPS server (i cancelled it because realized the provider was sharing (with other VPS services) the RAM memory of the server i bought and i was having issues with performance)
- Energy light off
+ No break system
+ Solar panels & battery backup
- Climate or medical emergency
Broker app on my phone to monitor and close all positions / orders
Ok, so i wasn't able to login on my 3 desktops, then i removed lates NT version from the laptop and installed the version 8.0.27
Then i installed the minimum indicators and the Tool i use for the grid management.
And that's it, back to business in contingency for now.
Ok, first sell direction grid trade was a pullback at support level (now resistance) that was tested at overnight and collect some profit. Here i used the pause exit button so i collect more profit. After saw the price was near the M15 previous support level i changes the grid direction to buy.
After collect more profit in the buy direction i reversed the grid direction to Sell
The market moved faster at this time and reversed to buy direction and i did not paused or closed the sell grid so here i was in the WRONG market direction, but then the grid magic helped me to exit with a nice small profit for the day.
And that's all for the grid system trading day. Remember, we must always think on the worse scenario for contingency plans, or just stay out of the market.
Login issue was fixed in a minute after NinjaTrader support call. The lock was because i login simultaneously to the platform from my production and my development desktops. Fortunately one less issue.
Will be out of the markets for 5/7 days (must take care of some family tasks at mother's house) so i will resume this journal next week.
12/Oct/2023 $525.50usd loss - Trading with doubts - afraid
Notes:
+ Dark theme on NT 8 desktop related to the account i am trading.
+ I renamed my grid tool from Tool010 to CTTool010 and made some improvements on the exit orders management and added new features as anchored stop loss.
Today i am back to usual activities. And unfocused from trading so i need to be aligned with the market. I know i can't trade the real account Performance account, if i do for sure i will run into bigger losses because i have not the current market feeling. I am mentally dealigned with the market.
What can i do today? i will trade an evaluation account (or a simulation account). If i end the day winning then iam back, if i end the day losing, then i must do my mental reharsement and check if I am broking my own rules, or i am overtrading, or if I am not in a good mental state.
And guess what, as soon as i took the first trade, i realized my hands was closed and tense, i started feeling afraid, with doubts in the direction i took, is it right? is it wrong? and this feeling of been afraid made me switch from buy grid to sell grid, back and forth, 5 times with big consequences, a big loss of usd$525.50.
So i stopped trading for today. Trading with doubts and been afraid is the worst mental state, is an account killer and for now I am glad i did it on en evaluation account.
What i will do next is to run the playback, and play with the grid tool following the price action over the price key levels.
No trading day just watched the market and played with the playback training myself.
My body still tense. Ended the day with a more confident mental state.
One of the best advice a trader give to me "be sure you can continue trading tomorrow, so keep your account safe, don't trade if you are not ready to trade". All have a great weekend!
