Originally posted by TSaimoto
It's WDGann... or formerly known as in here...
If I'm gonna start a journal, I don't wanna hide myself with a past figure...
Still, I'm still thinking...
Kiss of Death... maybe if I start getting bored... I still have a question to the current experience traders who write journals... any good experience out of this?
What would be a good kind of journal? What kind of journal do most of you want? If I am to do this... (Again... If I am) it should be fun... that's why I respect Aphie for putting fun in this business... j/k Aphie...
TSaimoto (formerly WDGann),
There are different types of Journals. I think you should figure out what type of Journal you want to produce instead of what your viewers (readers) may want.
For example...you could do a Trade Journal based on realtime trading. Actually there will be a few minutes delay (takes time to log onto ET and post trades).
Another type of Journal (most common here) is to post the End-of-Day results. Doing such will allow you to provide some in-depth info about particular trades and do some self-psychoanalysis.
The latter above is becoming more popular here.
If your goal is to discuss particular strategies or trade setups...you'll obviously need to post screen charts of whats on your monitor...
instead of posting one chart image of all your trades (misleading)...post several charts of each trade as it looked at the time of the trade (more revealing).
If your goal is to post results while not wanting to reveal any info about your discretionary or mechanical system (you'll probably get more flack if you do this)...you'll be better off posting your entries and exits in realtime as fast as possible....
or else most will think your system is bogus.
If your goal is to be entertaining...your journal could be susceptible to easily getting off-track from trading.
If your doing more than +10 trades per trading day...best to just post a screen shot of your daily brokers trade execution statement unless you prefer doing a lot of writing.
Not all but many that start journals are newbie traders or struggling traders (not yet able to make a living at trading).
The few that are posting journals and making a living in this market are doing it for education purpose or to prove a point. I'm assuming their the ones getting the most private messages from viewers of the Journal threads.
Make sure you post your initial message as a good introduction info to include the following:
1. If these are real money trades or paper trades
2. Discretionary trades or mechanical trades
3. Total years of trading experience and years of experience in trading the particular market instrument your journal is concentrating on
4. Let us know if this is about trading or self-discovery or a little of both
5. Let us know if your trying to teach or learn or both
6. Discuss the basis of your trading methodology
7. Post your starting trading capitol and do some sort'uv daily or weekly update on your total Profit/Loss or Winners/Losers or both.
8. Discuss a little about your trading hardware (broker, realtime data provider and anything else you think is important)
Note: You probably can do several of the above via updating your ET member profile.
Doing the above...hopefully...will prevent a lot of questions or private messages
unless your bored and have a lot of extra time to post messages because your a swing trader that holds positions for several days
Remember this...it's your journal and you can post anyway you want.
Thus, don't worry about what others want because you won't be able to make everybody happy and there will always be a few outspoken ones not happy with something about your journal.
Last of all...I'm being a tad bit opinionated about this...be careful about taking trading advice from others not able to make money in this market.
P.S. A good method in growing your # of posts is to reply often with a few words only per posts...don't do it during the trading day or else ET folks will figure out your really not trading
Sincerely,
M.A. Perry
(a.ka. NihabaAshi)