...And They Have a Plan. (Live.)

[Overnight]

Been a bit, yah. Stopped trading, then took a 10-day vacation. Screenshots of progress from where trading was last left off, at trade number 6 on the pic. As one can see, the spread worked...

But I hate the coulda' would shoulda' nonsense in my head about when I was long NQ a month ago. 5917!!!! And look where it is now. *sniffs* I gotta' get out of that trap, it is messing up my head. As Jimi Hendrix sang, "There must be some kind of way outta here, Said the joker to the thief. There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief..." (Listen to above video background music...)

So here's a current "naked" open position I have at the moment. It is on March NQ, so I have some time for it to hit target, and won't get a margin call unless NQ drops about 3000 points or so. I do not see that happening in 6 months. In the meanwhile, there are bits I could do to build the account. Just gonna' let that position sit and stew. I'm just looking for a ~20 point target. What is so bad about that?

 

[Overnight]

Got impatient with the NQ long because it seemed to stall so closed it early.

One trade all week. Whoopie.

My biggest problem at the moment is the severe dislike of staring at the charts all morning looking for entries. I've fallen into "fire-and-forget" mode. I am so burned out on it all that I am losing perspective about day and positioning. I'm fried. I thought the vacation was going to help, but all I keep thinking is "Why didn't I just go long and sit on it?" And the answer that keeps coming back to me is this North Korea shit, and the potential correction that "is supposed to be coming."

And I keep losing sight of other instruments. Like HO, great example. Great entries all week, huge movement. But I just can't stand sitting in the cave of boredom anymore. Maybe I should try listening to music or something. Aroma therapy candles? Marijuana?

Melt? Zzzzz.

 

[Overnight]

K, latest update...

Here's the cumulative from the previous post...

I did a spread on a NQ long because two days ago I went in long, right at the evening peak. The thing went against me a couple hundred bux, so tried to cover the potential down move because I thought it could be a minor correction. It worked. That short you see went down to $1,200 profit, and could not figure where to get out. When it went back up 20 points I exited for the $850. I missed the rest of the cycling it has been doing since then, because I am a scaredy cat. I could have reversed the short and captured the retrace up, and then could have reversed the long to recapture the offset. Alas, I am not ready to mess with the equity indexes in this fashion. There is too much weighing on my mind about this whole tax plan nonsense in December which pundits are saying is now priced in.


Here is my current naked long, if you will, on March 2018...

I also wanted to make mention of something I found disconcerting. It was in a different thread, but the basic theme was that all journals are fake sim money and thus have no value. The whole reason I started this thing was because I wanted to show that it is really possible to make money in the markets. I had provided proof early on in the thread that this is not a fake journal. This is the real deal, to be addressed in a moment.

I also recall Xela mentioning that she found journals without discussion about entries and exits of little value to the community.

I agree with Xela on that point, but I hope that she and others realize that this is not a strategic journal, in that sense. This has always been a journal to give others out there hope that yes, you too can make money in these markets. It is a difficult trek, but not impossible. I am trying to inspire others that all is not lost. I hate this whole idea of the "95% of all traders lose their shirt when starting." It does not have to be that way.

Prudence, risk management and understanding the instruments you are trying to trade...That is KEY.

It is NOT, as Rikshaw likes to put it, "so easy a caveman can do it." It takes a bit more. But it IS possible to make money here!

Anyways...As further proof that this is not a shit-fake trading journal, I post the following...

This is a NinjaTrader summary screen of executions. Anyone who uses Ninja can verify that what I say is true. See the "A" column on the right? That is the account column. The "9" is the live account, and the "S" a sim account.

Notice the ID and order ID columns. See how the sim account trades are just a bunch of hexadecimal garbage, but the live trades are a string of real numbers? It's live, dudes, and we have a plan!

The above is the latest trade screen for the last few months, a summary if you will of the actual trades. If you have any questions, just look back to the previous journal entries! I try to tie them together in a chronological string.

And here is the total summary for the year thus far...

I think I broke my back, I'll never jump again. Red lines through all my lateral structural members. Ow!

 

[Overnight]

Had to put in an update for this ugly "converse average down" technique I've been working on, which I used in CL. It is tougher in NQ because there are only 2 months to work with, not many many months like energies.

I tried to "average down" by catching a large drop on the front month. It is failing, because NQ decided to drop another 60 points today from the original forward position. Bugger!

 

[Overnight]

Closed them out this morn and am done for the week. Continuing the cumulative from the closed trade on the 19th...

Saw a possibility on Monday evening with NQ opening very close to low on the calendar day, so took it for an anticipated rise during Asian session. Watched it cycle the next morning and got out around second touch of daily high. Went in same afternoon long with what looked like a decent trend break near the middle of daily range and shut down. Then came Wednesday and the unrealized drawdowns as posted above. At one point the two positions were down ~$3,100 combined but the overall drop seemed a bit too severe to be sustained for long.

Vindication came today due mostly I suspect to the great earnings reported yesterday evening. Today I was really tempted to try and set the targets to positive what the max drawdowns were negative, but felt that might have been pushing it.

Needless to say, they actually did just that this morning. December went up just under $2,000, and March went up just over $1,000 from the entries. Targets were ~20 points shy on each contract of that idea, but big deal, I got out with a decent week considering it was just 3 trades.

 

[Overnight]

So which is better? Star Trek, or BSG? Hehe.

OK, unfair test. The pie-eating contest bit from Breaking Bad is funny though.

 

[Overnight]

I said I was going to stay out this week, but could not resist taking a position on what some are calling a X-Mas rally possibility. Now that the GOP tax plan shit is public, Hmmm. Do I nab profits now, or wait for "the Friday rally"? I can get out now for ~$520. That is a safe play.

Well, let's see how far I can stomach the temptation to pull out.

 

[Overnight]

An hour later, my mind kept going on about it and decided to play it safe so closed out. Am happy with the results, as YM has been a bit shaky all day today.

I did not anticipate such a great rise in NQ today however, after the 10:00 AM ET dip. Friday rallies seem commonplace, and sacrosanct. When do we draw the line on them? This bull market has balls bigger than the Charging Bull on Bowling Green in Manhattan.

 

[Overnight]

Have not updated since 09/03 because I have an ugly open position I am working. Took a few fliers in the meanwhile. Will update when I get these yucky longs closed out.

I also need to rethink how much risk I can take without putting off my broker. I am being so bloody conservative it might be hindering my progress. But my broker takes priority, not me. I must think of them before me, but also think of us as a team? It's weird in my head. But hell, I'm still here, and so is the broker.

 

[algofy]

Good journal goofy.