A Trading Journal by Fortissimus

Today trading went well for me and CL was is beast mode which always helps. I only placed two trades, one winner, and one breakeven. My winner was a monster. My break even trade involved 3 adds as the position went in my favor, but I just could not get another leg like I wanted. If it would have, my reward would have been 10x or more what I typically risk in one trading session with CL. Maybe next time. Finished +204 ticks

Was I prepared to trade today? I was prepared today and felt good about it.

Did I patiently wait for opportunities that follow my entry criteria? I thought I may have been a bit early on my short, but the idea was right. I was not really fond of the trade and it made me feel uncomfortable, but it worked out nicely after it started to drop. My long trade later in the day was well executed on the couple entries.

Did I trail my stop adequately after entry and play good defense? My first trade, the short, I did a great job trailing my stop. Once again, when it drops like that, it is not that difficult to trail after the trade confirms. My long campaign that I started later on was a very liberal play that involved me surrendering okay profits for extreme profits. Therefore, I think setting my stop at BE on the trade was perfectly fine.

Did I aggressively press my winners? Most definitely...

Did I appropriately add to my winners? I think so... Sure, the trade did not do exactly what I wanted, but if it would have, profits would have been absurd for the day.

Did I follow my daily money management plan? Yes, everything was cut and dry today.

Was I in complete control of myself today and did I have a champion's mindset? Yes, complete control and I felt like today went rather flawless.

I think I may be done trading for the rest of the week. With Thanksgiving coming up, I really don't know if trading is worth my time. I have not been paying too much to NQ because of the holiday. I don't really want to force the issue at this point.
 

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Just took a short on 6b @ 1.5794, Stop @ 1.5811. I will be holding this for a few days more than likely unless I stop out soon.
 

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Stopped out of 6b short @ 1.5811 in the middle of the night, 4 ticks slippage, geesh.. -17 ticks on the swing trade, small loss.

I just started experimenting with holding contracts overnight and for multiple days the past two months and have had decent results so far. I am still learning what works mechanically and what I am able to deal with psychologically. I have always focused on day trading in the past and realized back in early October that I need to start to develop my medium term (swing 3-5 days, maybe longer if I am lucky) and longer term (investing) games.

With this trade, I had the right idea since 6b is much lower when I got up for the morning, but my timing was just a little off because I was too early on my entry. They snatched my stop and took it down without me. Oh well...

One thing that bothered my head about this trade was not being able to adjust my stop because I was sleeping. I was up +18 ticks at one point, nothing substantial, and I would have tightened my stop more if I would have been awake. In the future, I don't want to hold a position while I am sleeping if I have not removed all risk(BE or better on my stop). It just makes me fee uneasy, that is all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fortissimus
 
Just a thought.... you might try grading yourself at the end of the day. It is similar to what you are doing now, but just another added metric. Add them all up, and assign a grade.

In the past I have also measured things about myself, and kept track of them to see if there is any connection to my trading. An example is how much sleep did I get the night before? Important, because we naturally take on more risk when we are tired.

Some ideas. And good luck on your combine! I love how you are pressing your winners.
 
Yukoner said:
Just a thought.... you might try grading yourself at the end of the day. It is similar to what you are doing now, but just another added metric. Add them all up, and assign a grade.

In the past I have also measured things about myself, and kept track of them to see if there is any connection to my trading. An example is how much sleep did I get the night before? Important, because we naturally take on more risk when we are tired.

Some ideas. And good luck on your combine! I love how you are pressing your winners.
More...

Thanks for visiting my journal! You know, I think it might be a good idea to give myself a grade each day I daytrade CL. Hopefully I can get on the honor roll with my trading. lol

Interesting that you mention naturally taking on more risk when we are tired. I never really thought about it, but it makes complete sense. I work wacky hours at my full time job, so I always need to be mindful of that fact. It could save me on numerous occasions in the future.

I am not going to get too wound up about the combine. I don't care if I don't pass the combine, I just want to make sure I follow my basic rules and have self control. If I do this, I should pass it.

Thanks again for stopping by my journal experiment and the helpful hints.
 
Seems like we are at a major area of significance in CL for the day. Which side is going to win the game of tug-of-war? I am putting my chips on the bulls.
 
Fortissimus said:
Seems like we are at a major area of significance in CL for the day. Which side is going to win the game of tug-of-war? I am putting my chips on the bulls.
More...
They took all my chips! lol The other side won, that area of significance seems to be the top so far for today.
 
jas_in_hbca said:
The CL trade-of-the-day so far has been Patience. At least for me.

Good trading to you.
More...
Patience would have been better for me today. Or if I would have just shorted when price was at that key level that I mentioned. Was playing the news fade trade and it just did not work out today. My theory was wrong, I lost small today, I must move on, tomorrow is a new day:). I hope your patience paid off and you jumped on the short side.

Good trading to you too.
 
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