29 turning 30. 11 years of trading. First profiting year Journal 1

9/1 -$11,415
Balance: $36,911

Ha....... it actually wasn't that bad at first. It was actually good. The 2 positions I left overnight were doing bad but I woke up at like 12am PST and daytraded. By the time the markets were about to open I was up like 1K. At one point during the night I remember seeing $51,000 on my balance and thinking "I finally broke $50K".
Market opened and NG started lower, which was a big possibility so I wasn't worried. I was so confident it would rise up throughout the day and end the day maybe 6-7% positive and I was thinking to myself today may be a +$10K day. The sudden movement the other way short time after markets opened. Hm that is strange. and the rest of the day... I just did not expect it. At 4.605 mark I was thinking of changing my positions from short to buy because I expected a rise coming but I thought it would be a small pullback before it goes lower again so I decided to play it "safe" and did not exit my short positions. Well that pullback was bigger than expected and I just got owned by NG today.
Taking out 5K from my current position, I can see I'm back to where I was for the balance between 8/11 and 8/12. Lost 3 weeks of my life. FML. I hate drinking alcohol but I'm drinking a little and had some pizza just now. Damn....
And MRNA is going higher just as I expected. F....... shoulda just kept my 2 positions in NG and play around with MRNA instead. I was just so confident of NG and just as I had all my trading life, the biggest losses comes when I feel the most confident in a trade. .....

Just skimmed over your journal. NG is a very dangerous instrument, and you mastered it in order to get back to stocks. I have traded it, back in early 2014, at 20-30 contracts a clip, and it was very difficult. Those 10:30am numbers on Thursday were simply too wild for me. I stopped trading it in 2017 (for good). There are better options out there. There is this cool thread that is getting me interested in stocks again, which I found by following @TrailerParkTed:

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/gbas-2021-stock-phantasma.354298/

Forget about NG. Mastering NG should give you the confidence to focus on stocks exclusively, which are an easier instrument.

@Dustin is another trader doing stocks as well. I would follow him.

My advice to you is to take a break after this loss. Go into cash, and restart on Monday, September 13th. Take this time to FULLY disconnect. Grab a burger, eat pizza, go to a park, go to a dive bar, drink cheap wine & watch "Making a Murderer"/"Dexter"/"Money Heist" (ALL of it, with Chinese take-out), BUT cleanse yourself from ANYTHING market-related. Don't even log back in here, until that Monday.

Then restart trading, and assess your performance weekly. See how many consecutive positive weeks you can create.
 
@themickey What a coincidence you posted that photo! I have ran that corner many times (Estafeta). I enclose 2 photos. I am the guy with black hair, right next to the bull (still mesmerized by the dude standing on the pole, while I am next to the bull).

Sometimes, it's not self-inflicted pain, it's just being a bad ass motherfucker :)

I guess it's what I enjoy (and what I am)...
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"@Overnight You can mess around with stocks all you want, but you gotta' have a serious plan for futures. Going back to 1 should not mean "2 or 3." Sheesh."

Ya have to allow self inflicted pain, it's what they enjoy.
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9/2 -$2,512
Balance: $34,399

didn't do anything today. Just holding in NG. I still believe it is going to go down.

that 4.70 looks like a good long term level to hold. It's the possible brief spike that you got to watch out for. Good luck

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9/3 -$3,666
balance: $30,733
for the week: -$16,599

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha just riding ng still. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
gonna wait till opening on monday until i decide to quit or not…. or jump off a bridge

so back to the balance as 8/6. not sure whats more amazing. making 16k in a month or losing it all in 3 days.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
 
9/3 -$3,666
balance: $30,733
for the week: -$16,599

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha just riding ng still. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
gonna wait till opening on monday until i decide to quit or not…. or jump off a bridge

so back to the balance as 8/6. not sure whats more amazing. making 16k in a month or losing it all in 3 days.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

If you think it's painful now, wait until you have to roll it to maintain your position in it.

I do not mean to make light of your predicament, but for crying' out loud, we warned you about this possibility. If you choose to not take a step back and heed the cautions from more seasoned futures traders, it is your own fault. Energy futures un-hedged can be a dangerous pool to swim in.

If you CAN survive the roll, then historically you should be OK by next spring. But you have to roll into the proper contract month. In my estimation, it would be the March or April contract. Good sweet spot for drops, so long as you can maintain the performance bond.
 
9/3 -$3,666
balance: $30,733
for the week: -$16,599

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha just riding ng still. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
gonna wait till opening on monday until i decide to quit or not…. or jump off a bridge

so back to the balance as 8/6. not sure whats more amazing. making 16k in a month or losing it all in 3 days.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

wabu,

You Long or Short ?

How many contracts and you holding NG over the weekend ?

wrbtrader
 
wabu,

You Long or Short ?

How many contracts and you holding NG over the weekend ?

wrbtrader

Best I can tell, he is short 2 contracts in November at ~4.4xx

It's about 2000 ticks above his entry at current print of ~4.6xx.

Without the details one cannot know, but that is my guesstimation.
 
You seem to be doing very well lately, but, some of your comments and thoughts seems to indicate that there may be a fair bit of gambling going on. Luck goes both ways. Just as you can gamble and have bad luck, you can gamble and have good luck, too.

It would suck if you put yourself in a position that could eradicate your gains and then some in one single trade. Try to avoid that. :)

From last Friday...

You should not jump off a bridge, OP. Trading is just a game, but it can bring out the worst of emotions in us - particularly when we trade with too high leverage and end up losing.

If you search this journal for the word feel/feeling, it turns up way too many posts. Over 2 pages worth of posts.

You still have a good chunk of money. Forget about the 50K you had. They're gone. I know the irrational feeling of trying to want to make back what you had, but that's not trading. You know it yourself. Only way to shake it off is to take a break.

If you continue you like you're doing right now odds favour you blowing up the rest of the account, too. 30K is a lot of money for many people. And it's certainly a very nice amount of money to start building an account into a larger account. Don't throw it away.

But
, you need a methodology and a plan. From what you've written so far, I don't get the feeling you really have a plan or methodology, but it may be that you just didn't share it?

Most I see is posts about feeling this, feeling that or that you can't believe the market is going this or that way.

Personally, I day trade ES. I know it very well. I know what it does most of the time. However, once in a while the unlikely or the rare happen. The same goes for all or most markets. Once in a while something really unexpected happens. And if you're on the wrong side of the market then and won't take a loss, you're toast. An experienced trader should pretty much NEVER be surprised by what the market does at any moment. If so, he's simply not experienced enough to be playing in the market and more study is needed.

You may very well not listen to this, but either way, I wish you luck.
 
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