Clowns ES Daytrading Journal

I have been finding typing while trading getting a little bit time consuming. I would love to keep this journal alive but this new problem with my damn wrist killing me and tingling fingers - i don't want to cause chronic pain in the future.

I am proposing to other experienced traders of the ES that if they wish to join me then we can consider creating a room where we can communicate via headset (a lot faster and will allow me to concentrate on market without typing).

Feel free to PM me if you are interested - looking for some reasonably experienced traders who have at least been trading the ES a year or more.
I will make sure that i continue with the journal as i have been doing but may reduce intraday posts until i shake of this damn pain in my wrists. Will still try to post as close to real time as i can entries or exits.

Just 2 or 3 traders would be great to share some analysis and thoughts with during the day.

Good weekend to all.

If anyone knows of decent trading room where i can have the same features then please feel free to PM me.

Any traders interested in sharing some views and insights with me during the trading day please PM me. Thanks in advance.
 
Quote from Specterx:

Sorry about the wrist issue Clown, I certainly hope you can continue the journal as I very much enjoy reading it :)
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Hey Specx glad you like it i will continue the journal, it would be nice to have some more discussion and posts from some of the lurkers - sometimes i if feels it just me rambling on :D

I have been doing some analysis for Monday and i think it might be a good trading opportunity.

I am going to put my neck out and say that i will be looking to get long as soon as i can at a favourable price. The potential for a massive rally to retrace all the way back to 1360 is their.

Funny if the whole thing comes crashing down on Monday now that i have posted this :D
 
I guess that I could be called one of those 'lurkers'.

If it appears that we are reluctant to weigh in with our opinions it is probably due to the fact that we do not want to interrupt or influence YOUR journal.

Rest assured that people are reading and appreciating your posts. We are all pulling for you!!
 
Quote from ESclown:

Here is an update of the performance since inception of this journal.

15th: +$287.50
16th: +$150.00
19th: +$825.00
20th: +225.00
21st: +$1100.00
22nd: - $75.00
25th: +$913.50
26th: +$827.00
27th: -$471.10
28th: +$437.40
29th: +$483.70

Total: +$4703.00

I am very pleased with the results thus far. Fantastic month and on my $50,000 day trade account means: 9.4% return this month.

Did not break the rule of trading more than 1 contract which is what i am happiest it about. Lets hope March will be another strong month.
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Clown, great job, really. I can't for the life of me understand why you haven't increased the contract size as your profits have grown. You are really letting a lot of money slip through your fingers with the current money management system.
 
Quote from ESclown:

Hey Specx glad you like it i will continue the journal, it would be nice to have some more discussion and posts from some of the lurkers - sometimes i if feels it just me rambling on :D

I have been doing some analysis for Monday and i think it might be a good trading opportunity.

I am going to put my neck out and say that i will be looking to get long as soon as i can at a favourable price. The potential for a massive rally to retrace all the way back to 1360 is their.

Funny if the whole thing comes crashing down on Monday now that i have posted this :D
More...

FWIW I also think that there will be a retrace either to ~1348 or ~1357.
 
Quote from SWhiting:

I guess that I could be called one of those 'lurkers'.

If it appears that we are reluctant to weigh in with our opinions it is probably due to the fact that we do not want to interrupt or influence YOUR journal.

Rest assured that people are reading and appreciating your posts. We are all pulling for you!!
More...

Hey SWhiting thanks for the words of support. Just to get it straight i did not mean any dis-respect by calling the lurkers to post more as i have lurked threads for a long time myself before starting this journal. I understand this is my journal and when i started this it was simply to jot down my trades and reasons for the trades.

However, i feel now i would appreciate some more interaction with other users - trading is going well but certain criticisms of many of my trades could be made.

Again i am all for learning, if anyone would like to know why i have chosen i particular trade i will be willing to divulge what i had seen. Hopefully, i can provide some newbies with some ideas to help them along their journey as others have done for me when i was first starting out.

Again i appreciate the kind words and thank you for your support. Lets hope we can keep going, keep learning and trading better and smarter than before.

Please feel free to share any comments or your own particular trades along as reasons of either your daily thoughts or intraday thoughts for the trades taken. I do not mind other users using this journal to note their own trading process. I would hopefully like readers to get more involved with the journal so we can provide some support for new traders. I know we have a lot of community threads and particular merits and thanks goes to the AHG thread but would be nice to give users different ideas on how money can be made trading as opportunities and ways to make money in the market are near infinite.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to share anything you would like on the trading process or your own trading process.
 
Quote from allenhobbs:

Clown, great job, really. I can't for the life of me understand why you haven't increased the contract size as your profits have grown. You are really letting a lot of money slip through your fingers with the current money management system.
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Thanks mate, i have many reasons for not increasing size as of late.

Firstly i did start this journal and noted that i will only trade 1 contract per $30,000 of capital. The reason for this was because i have in the past had great months and then increased size and had a complete catastrophe giving back a whole months gain in one day.

I found it uncomfortable trading more than 4 contracts at a time. I realised my own trading and analysis suffered as a result, maybe because i was still finding my feet i should have waited or tried to be more consistent before increasing size.

I have had a good month, but i really believe in consistency in this game. Unlike many i have some rather different reasons for trading right now. I know this may sound strange but i truthfully am not trading for the money right now - i simply want to be able to play the game consistently and prove that i have strategies with an edge. I have money to pay my bills and other expenses so my complete focus is on becoming a very consistent trader on the ES.

If i do get my capital above $60,000 this month in my day-trade account i will still be reluctant to increase size. A couple of months for me is not enough data to realise whether i have been lucky or i am actually onto something.

Again this may sound strange but i believe in the very long term approach - i expect to be trading for 20-30 years to come so i want to stay in this game and pay my way (through all my costly mistakes and errors) to learn a profitable way to play this game.

Hopefully if i can stay consistent then i will start to focus on the money and increase size, not only will i have the confidence in my positions due to the fact i know i have a profitable method.

I hope reader don't read this and think i have no 'balls' or that i am a very risk-averse person. The complete opposite is actually true; it's just now i am conditioning my mind to be risk-averse - i want to limit losses as much as possible and focus on defence. I did start trading all gun blazing with my George Soros style :D and i knocked out some big winning days - but that was simply gambling! I have learnt the hard way and now believe a slow consistent approach is probably better in the long run for a day-trader.

Good trading to you my friend.
 
You are correct that keeping a public journal will have a positive psychological impact on keeping with your discipline. It is unfortunate that typing is becoming a problem but there are several items you can try to ergonomically adjust. Have you tried different chairs, different seating heights, different keyboards, etc? You could try just calling out the live trades to minimize typing then later, when you have time, use voice recognition software to post longer analysis.

You are also correct in just using one contract until you are confident in your methodology. You don't have to look through too many posts to find one when you are chastising yourself. Consistently profitable traders often refer to a time in their trading development where they "get it" or it "clicks". That doesn't mean they won't make mistakes or need to keep learning, but they have a new level of confidence. Don't push your trading size until you know it is the right time.

No one knows how long this volatility will last, but there are plenty of good entries if you wait for them. Life will change dramatically for new traders if we go back to a 10 to 12 level on the VIX, but until then there is no need to go out of your way looking for trades.
 
Quote from ESclown:

Thanks mate, i have many reasons for not increasing size as of late.

Firstly i did start this journal and noted that i will only trade 1 contract per $30,000 of capital. The reason for this was because i have in the past had great months and then increased size and had a complete catastrophe giving back a whole months gain in one day.

I found it uncomfortable trading more than 4 contracts at a time. I realised my own trading and analysis suffered as a result, maybe because i was still finding my feet i should have waited or tried to be more consistent before increasing size.

I have had a good month, but i really believe in consistency in this game. Unlike many i have some rather different reasons for trading right now. I know this may sound strange but i truthfully am not trading for the money right now - i simply want to be able to play the game consistently and prove that i have strategies with an edge. I have money to pay my bills and other expenses so my complete focus is on becoming a very consistent trader on the ES.

If i do get my capital above $60,000 this month in my day-trade account i will still be reluctant to increase size. A couple of months for me is not enough data to realise whether i have been lucky or i am actually onto something.

Again this may sound strange but i believe in the very long term approach - i expect to be trading for 20-30 years to come so i want to stay in this game and pay my way (through all my costly mistakes and errors) to learn a profitable way to play this game.

Hopefully if i can stay consistent then i will start to focus on the money and increase size, not only will i have the confidence in my positions due to the fact i know i have a profitable method.

I hope reader don't read this and think i have no 'balls' or that i am a very risk-averse person. The complete opposite is actually true; it's just now i am conditioning my mind to be risk-averse - i want to limit losses as much as possible and focus on defence. I did start trading all gun blazing with my George Soros style :D and i knocked out some big winning days - but that was simply gambling! I have learnt the hard way and now believe a slow consistent approach is probably better in the long run for a day-trader.

Good trading to you my friend.
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Good answer. No argument from me either. Build confidence in the methods, be consistent and disciplined and the money will be there for the taking.

Personally, I would lower the margin to $10K once you are ready to increase size. If you can win consistently, then money management is the Holy Grail to making a fantastic living in this business.
 
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