E-mini Rookie Trading Journal

bronks, like sean jaun mentioned, you have three losses for $1980, which is a big chunk of your account equity. And as any professional trader will tell you, the name of the game is preserving your capital.

Question to ask yourself, what was I thinking that didn't allow me to take quick losses on those trades?? Two were almost back to back. Waiting for the market to turn around?? Managing the trade to take a smaller loss?? Distracted for whatever reason??

I've been guilty on all three accounts, and then some.

Someone passed that tip to me, and I pass it on.

Good for you for posting, keep it up.

ps. as for the market proving your trades correct right away, as opposed to waiting for it to prove your trade wrong, gold nugget
 
His trade list is kind of confusing. I believe the actual gain/loss is the difference between consecutive totals. Thus the first trade is 400-430 for a net of -$30 not a gain of $400 followed by a loss of $430. Why they do it that way I have no idea.
 
bronks,

Would like to know more about your money management...Seems to me that there is no stop in your style...

I think you should try to limit your losses to no more than 5-10 pts. Unfortunately I have no idea what your chart timeframe is so I don't know if that will fit but when I see some 400$ loss on a 5000$ it is 8% loss ... It is far too much!

A NQ colleague
 
Guys please take a closer look at his trading statement. His biggest loss on Friday was I think about 2 or 3 points. The way the statement is written you have to look at each line as 1 side of a trade and not a complete trade. He looks like his stops are about 2-3 points max, for scalping that is fine. I personally prefer to mix up my trading a bit and let me share what I have found.

For the NQ, if scalping, keep no more than a 2 to 2.5 point stop and you will do much better if scalping into a wider move and with the trend. I personally mix up my trading and take 2-4 "trend" moves, either continuation or reversal. In addition I will also scalp about 3-4 times. In reviewing my trades over the past 6 months I have found that the scalping does little more than keep me amused while waiting for that trend move. In other words my scalping is near breakeven while my intraday trend plays are far more successful.

" Why then continue to scalp if you see this? "

Scalping intraday keeps me focused and I will rarely scalp when I see one of my core setups forming, instead i will only scalp when in a specific strongly bound range.

For the trend moves I am looking for 6-12 moves with stops of
4-6 points. I keep my ave loss to about 4 points ( reduce stop as trade goes in my favor and rarely take a full 6 point stop ) and my ave gain to about 7 points. This allows me to be about 50% right and do fine.

20 trades a week at 50% = 70 points in gains and 40 in losses netting an ave of 30 points a week. My scalping either adds 10 or takes away 10 from this total.

Just my take on mini trading.

AllenZ
 
I forgot to mention that when I scalp I will generally reduce my size by about 50% and move back to regular size when taking a core setup. This allows me to scalp for amusement ( and sometimes profit ) during ranges to stay focused and at same time work on my scalping techniques. If I could get my overall scalping performance more in line with my general performance I would be able to increase weekly profit goals by about 30% so worth working on.

I would like to say something on risk also, if looking for trend moves keep risk per trade to 1-2% of account and when scalping keep daily risk to about 2-4% of account this will keep you in the game longer. Emini traders I find come into the game with poor risk management and easily get torched. ( leverage kills, respect it )

My 2 cents

AllenZ
 
Originally posted by easyrider
His trade list is kind of confusing. I believe the actual gain/loss is the difference between consecutive totals. Thus the first trade is 400-430 for a net of -$30 not a gain of $400 followed by a loss of $430. Why they do it that way I have no idea.
More...

--> in IB's statements every single futures trade is matched with the settlement price at the end of the day.

check the following link for settlement data of the NQ:

http://www.cme.com/httpwrapper.cfm?....html&beginAfterRE=<body>&endBeforeRE=</body>
 
Commissions are 4.80$ RT and you can see them at the end after the future profit.

OK I saw my mistake (IB statement with settlement price).

Indeed now I see this guy is a scalper with 1 to 2.5 pt profit each time.
 
Allen Z.

I've always admired the way you let it all hang out. Your method shows very well how you can have lots of losing days but still come out ahead. I think it is a great object lesson in how to exploit a small edge and an illustration that losses are part of the game. Check out his performance: http://www.realitytrader.com/index-records.htm

ps: I have no afilliation with this site other than having been a member in the past.
 
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