I usually post negative, absurd, even depressing content so why not throw some excitement into the mix just for balance? I've also been writing and reading nonstop for weeks so I will enjoy pecking all of it out...I put this in the Journal sub as this is about to be novel length lol.
Disclaimer: Honestly I know this will look, to many of you, what seems to be some peanut account nobody trying to lecture but i promise you I am humble and know this is only the beginning. Just wanting to share some positive experiences that might help someone struggling.
I Think for the first time since i started in june 2019 I am trading out of skill and not hope, and winning by design not accident. It's really kind of crazy the night and day difference to only a month ago.
Starting Tuesday, (monday i traded demo), I traded my live account at AMP which had a $4,881 balance. Friday I ended at $10,076.
I entered the Energy trading contest posted here by Cannon 3-4 weeks ago. Prior to this I had not traded at all for ~4 months. I was unable to make money trading micro futures using a rudimentary system and essentially reached the breaking point of failure. So I saw the competition and thought it would be the perfect way to get back into trading. I ended up doing pretty bad, the account was down to around $92k at the end as i threw some hail marries the final day for the contest's sake...but it allowed me to trade some size and with almost obsessive effort I made some critical changes.
So during the contest, i developed and scrapped 1 complete system and modified the second beyond recognition as it was improved. The first had semi-refined, clearly defined entry, exit, and stop signals (the best/most creative i had done up to that time)..."body breaker" lol. The system was ass and i used zero PA BUT, What i did that was supremely beneficial was study the move more than my trade using performance metrics. Example:
which morphed into this:
I started inventing more creative performance metrics to track:
like this
and this
So anyway, What this forced me to do was focus on the move. How do I capture the entire move...not 20% of it. My original system had zero value...my entries were super sucker class, placing me in mid-late move most of the time And was scrapped immediately. My stops and exits both had some potential but have since been replaced.
I started to focus on liquidity/volatility/price movement when the move happens as well as how to create an accurate as possible directional bias so as to be positioned AS THE MOVE HAPPENS, often just before. NOT after it moves a point+ and there is a retracement... I Always need to strive for before the first big daily move happens as this gives me instant play room to scale into.
Obviously this might sound stupid to some of you as it is not suited for all types of trading...but day trading crude futures I will not be convinced otherwise by anything except my account balance.
Currently my system essentially has a handful of bias signals, an extremely refined stop based on aggressiveness of movement more than a set place...my stops have become much tighter compared to weeks ago BUT, I have way more trades taking place. I will enter and exit on a doji multiple times in a few minutes until it jumps in my favor -> then scale in with an additional unit almost immediately with that momentum. Losing trades are minutes long now while my winning trades can span over an hour.
I am now entering and exiting with zero hesitation based on price action alone...with directional bias coming from past study of movement behavior as well as a series of indicators (that, believe it or not are extremely helpful if used for what they are: derivatives/secondary). Friday alone i grew my account from $6,482 -> $10,076 and I had zero losing days last week...I did make some mistakes this week and it still gets frustrating when you get stopped out of 4+ entries. I see plenty of room for improvement and will continue to hone this baby into a full blown symphony.
The two most important things are 1) that I am actually enjoying the work. Even when I was losing the contest i was still happy because of the rapid progress. It's become an obsession. and 2) This is a product of my own creativity. My own effort and work that is authentically myself.
P.S. the current system can be purchased for only 10 installments of $100,000.
Disclaimer: Honestly I know this will look, to many of you, what seems to be some peanut account nobody trying to lecture but i promise you I am humble and know this is only the beginning. Just wanting to share some positive experiences that might help someone struggling.
I Think for the first time since i started in june 2019 I am trading out of skill and not hope, and winning by design not accident. It's really kind of crazy the night and day difference to only a month ago.
Starting Tuesday, (monday i traded demo), I traded my live account at AMP which had a $4,881 balance. Friday I ended at $10,076.
I entered the Energy trading contest posted here by Cannon 3-4 weeks ago. Prior to this I had not traded at all for ~4 months. I was unable to make money trading micro futures using a rudimentary system and essentially reached the breaking point of failure. So I saw the competition and thought it would be the perfect way to get back into trading. I ended up doing pretty bad, the account was down to around $92k at the end as i threw some hail marries the final day for the contest's sake...but it allowed me to trade some size and with almost obsessive effort I made some critical changes.
So during the contest, i developed and scrapped 1 complete system and modified the second beyond recognition as it was improved. The first had semi-refined, clearly defined entry, exit, and stop signals (the best/most creative i had done up to that time)..."body breaker" lol. The system was ass and i used zero PA BUT, What i did that was supremely beneficial was study the move more than my trade using performance metrics. Example:
which morphed into this:
I started inventing more creative performance metrics to track:
like this
and this
So anyway, What this forced me to do was focus on the move. How do I capture the entire move...not 20% of it. My original system had zero value...my entries were super sucker class, placing me in mid-late move most of the time And was scrapped immediately. My stops and exits both had some potential but have since been replaced.
I started to focus on liquidity/volatility/price movement when the move happens as well as how to create an accurate as possible directional bias so as to be positioned AS THE MOVE HAPPENS, often just before. NOT after it moves a point+ and there is a retracement... I Always need to strive for before the first big daily move happens as this gives me instant play room to scale into.
Obviously this might sound stupid to some of you as it is not suited for all types of trading...but day trading crude futures I will not be convinced otherwise by anything except my account balance.
Currently my system essentially has a handful of bias signals, an extremely refined stop based on aggressiveness of movement more than a set place...my stops have become much tighter compared to weeks ago BUT, I have way more trades taking place. I will enter and exit on a doji multiple times in a few minutes until it jumps in my favor -> then scale in with an additional unit almost immediately with that momentum. Losing trades are minutes long now while my winning trades can span over an hour.
I am now entering and exiting with zero hesitation based on price action alone...with directional bias coming from past study of movement behavior as well as a series of indicators (that, believe it or not are extremely helpful if used for what they are: derivatives/secondary). Friday alone i grew my account from $6,482 -> $10,076 and I had zero losing days last week...I did make some mistakes this week and it still gets frustrating when you get stopped out of 4+ entries. I see plenty of room for improvement and will continue to hone this baby into a full blown symphony.
The two most important things are 1) that I am actually enjoying the work. Even when I was losing the contest i was still happy because of the rapid progress. It's become an obsession. and 2) This is a product of my own creativity. My own effort and work that is authentically myself.
P.S. the current system can be purchased for only 10 installments of $100,000.
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