Consistency is my goal

[mastacoli71]

Week ending 2/3/12:

+5300

Month ending Jan 2012:

+55,900

Total draw for Jan 2012:

50k

Profitable days in Jan:

17 out of 22 retail, 16 out of 22 prop

No complaints about January. Certainly not expected given my past performance with decreasing market volatility. This is more in line of what I am looking for as far as consistency.

This past week was a little disappointing but still positive. I went long volatility which cost me about 4k over the last 2 days. I hedged this getting longer the market which minimized the damage. Still not happy that I stayed stubborn into jobs # Friday with the vol; this is what normally happens when i don't stick to my plan.

Still keeping my guard up. I know all runs come to an end but this time when it does I am prepared with better risk control.

 

[mastacoli71]

Monthly PL Prop

 

[mastacoli71]

Monthly PL Retail

 

[mastacoli71]

Quote from jayjay121:

please, please dont take this the wrong way as i mean no harm but i do believe in brutal honesty.


I dont feel you are actually a good trader, i feel you may have got lucky in the good times (2008), but most traders good and bad made money then. You only have to backtest a terrible system and i can guarantee it made money in 2008.

So my point is before you lose your gains you made, start a fresh and start trying to develop systems based on longivity not one crazy period in time.

Damn, you are so lucky to have started your trading that year, It is easy in hindsight but i often feel if only i too would have started my trading career that year id be rich!




kind regards,

Pretty presumptuous of you but hey your entitled to your opinion. Sure 2008 was a good year. Guys I traded with hit it out of the park (20 of them to be exact). Myself and 2 others are the only ones left out of that group. Since u sound like you are a stat guy given your backtesting comment I'll let u crunch the numbers on the success rate. Oh and guess how many of the survivors backtest their strategies? Zero, again I will let you crunch the numbers. One is up 90k for Jan and the other 20k. I think you know where I stand on your comments.

Doesn't matter when one starts their trading career. You either have the ability to trade or you don't.

 

[mastacoli71]

Week ending 2/10/12:

-2200

All good runs come to and end. This was bound to happen especially with the method I use to trade pairs. Had one pair that pushed out $4. Still manageable, story has not changed in either stock, and it is hitting a good technical level. Times like this is where you have to believe in your system.

I did take some risk off due to this. All part of my plan; I want to minimize the losses. See what happens next.

 

[mastacoli71]

Monday, 2/13/12 pl:

-7000

I posted this to keep myself honest. This is the single biggest losing day for me this year. I reduced risk quite a bit to reset and get back on track. In the past I would add risk so big change for me. We will see what the rest of the week brings.

Not sure I buy into this market optimism but never the less been reducing short exposure accept for volatility and the EurUsd.

 

[mastacoli71]

Week ending 2/18/12:

-10200

All started on Monday with the big down day. Reducing risk helped and actually got back to break even on Wednesday before getting run over once again Thursday. My short bias is absolutely killing me right now along with staying stubborn with it at the wrong times. This whole week wreaks of not following my rules and trading plan.

I know I sound negative in this post but it hard not to get down on myself after my performance the last 2 weeks. Learn from mistakes, apply it to next week, and move on.

I finally funded the separate futures account with $5k. I trade 3 contracts / trade most of the time. Went 1 for 2...85.9 - 276.6 = -190.7. As mentioned previously, if I blow this account out, I will not refund it. Acct bal: = 4809.3.

 

[gmst]

Quote from mastacoli71:

Week ending 2/18/12:

I finally funded the separate futures account with $5k. I trade 3 contracts / trade most of the time. Went 1 for 2...85.9 - 276.6 = -190.7. As mentioned previously, if I blow this account out, I will not refund it. Acct bal: = 4809.3.

just trade 1 contract in your futures account - not 3, not at all.

if you want to trade 2 contracts to allow for scalein/out, then put in2-3k more in your futures account.

I think its a fantastic decision to open a separate account for futures trading. You will be able to build skills in it without wrecking your main account. Good luck.

 

[mastacoli71]

Quote from gmst:

just trade 1 contract in your futures account - not 3, not at all.

if you want to trade 2 contracts to allow for scalein/out, then put in2-3k more in your futures account.

I think its a fantastic decision to open a separate account for futures trading. You will be able to build skills in it without wrecking your main account. Good luck.

Appreciate the feedback gmst. The strategy I am trading does not add to losers. Stop out on any trade at 1-2 pts. Scale out on winners. Not all trades are 3 contracts, depends on the setup. No positions held outside of cash market hours.

 

[mastacoli71]

Quote from mastacoli71:

Week ending 2/18/12:

-10200

All started on Monday with the big down day. Reducing risk helped and actually got back to break even on Wednesday before getting run over once again Thursday. My short bias is absolutely killing me right now along with staying stubborn with it at the wrong times. This whole week wreaks of not following my rules and trading plan.

I know I sound negative in this post but it hard not to get down on myself after my performance the last 2 weeks. Learn from mistakes, apply it to next week, and move on.

I finally funded the separate futures account with $5k. I trade 3 contracts / trade most of the time. Went 1 for 2...85.9 - 276.6 = -190.7. As mentioned previously, if I blow this account out, I will not refund it. Acct bal: = 4809.3.

Fudged the weekly calc above by 800. Keeping the record straight it should be:

-9400

Still sucks but at least not 5 figs...