ES day trading journal - my final attempt

hurricane_sh said:
Handle, my biggest problem is that I have little discipline or determination to cut losses. When the price moves against me on a trendy day, I may suffer a huge loss. When trading a down trend reversal, I enter at the second bottom to expect a double bottom, if it doesn't move as expected, I don't have stop loss order, sometimes I even add more lots instead of closing my positions.

I'm ashamed to say that I still pretty much trade based on feel.

As my first step, I need to enforce my rules strictly, cap my max loss per trade and max loss per day.
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Please stop trading and put all your efforts into finding someone to trade with in person (that sits at your desk with you) that will "force" you to follow your risk management rules and that knows your trading plan so that they can notify you for things like:

1) Do not add more contracts to a losing position

2) Always use a stop order due to the fact you're a losing trader with a serious discipline problem

3) Tuition trading isn't good for a losing trader

Seriously, professional traders (e.g. institutional) have a compliant office that enforces whatever rules they have designated for their traders. In contrast, us retail traders are on our own...no such thing as someone sitting down with us to "force" use to follow the risk management rules. Therefore, you need to find someone to "force" it on you until one day you're able to follow your risk management rules on a consistent basis. Think about this carefully, you're trading against professional traders and algorithms involving the Emini ES futures...they have all kinds of auto rules and compliant departments. What do you have ?

You can sit here all day and write down rules of things you must do and never to do but there's no way for you to "force" yourself to follow them. In contrast, someone sitting there in your office can act as that real voice that can notify you when you're messing up again or remind you what you're suppose to do in particular losing trade situations prior to it getting worst.

Look at the cost of hiring someone over those 4 losing trading days. Lets say $10 - $15 dollars per hour...you could have had profitable trading days or at the minimum a small losing day.

Put an add up at your local libraries, local colleges and join a club to get this started. Until then...do not take another trade because mentally you're not ready to do this correctly on a consistent basis.

P.S. I did this when I had trading problems many years ago...one of the best trading business decisions I every made. The guy I found was someone from a local trading software club that I was a member. At that time I traded the mornings only and he had a part-time job in the afternoon. I am a day trader and he was a swing trader...perfect compliment in our schedule and he had an "under the table" job that he didn't have to report as income (no taxes).

P.S.S. Hopefully you have not been trying to trade from work.
 
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hurricane_sh said:
I entered the market with $26K in Feb this year, traded stocks for a few months and started trading es since May 11. A few weeks later I began to trade es exclusively.

I had some bad trading habits, and didn't follow my rules either, as a result I lost almost half of my precious capital in the past week, 4 losing days in a row:

09/09/2016: -9444 - I couldn't see this in my worst dream.
09/12/2016: -2542
09/13/2016: -481
09/14/2016: -343

That's 12,558 in total out of 25,726, 48.8% loss. I wouldn't make drastic changes unless it really really hurts. I decided to give it one last shot with new trading methods and new rules.

Some of my basic rules:
  1. Trade one contract only.
  2. Both stop loss and profit target are two points, must be attached to a new order. Max loss of one trade is around $100. Stop loss order can be slightly adjusted if there is a major resistance/support level nearby.
  3. Max loss per day is $300, shouldn't be more than $350 under any circumstances.
  4. If the profit reached $200, max allowed retracement is $100.
  5. Follow the trend, trade break-outs. Never bet on tops and bottoms.
My daily profit target is $120, this is the minimal amount for me to survive. I have about $700 monthly income from my previous career. I withdraw $2K per month. I can't afford to lose.

I use IB and Button Trader.
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Frankly, you are relatively a new trader and you sounded like one. You should demo trade first, once you are profitable then you trade with real money.

You will lose all your money and by the time you realise, it's already too late.

Demo first.
 
wrbtrader said:
Please stop trading and put all your efforts into finding someone to trade with in person (that sits at your desk with you) that will "force" you to follow your risk management rules and that knows your trading plan so that they can notify you for things like:

1) Do not add more contracts to a losing position
...
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I will definitely follow my rules strictly this time, I'm determined. If I couldn't abide by my rules after the huge loss, then the trading business is not for me. I trade full time.
 
hurricane_sh said:
The market seems too choppy for 2 point stop loss. I would have some good trades if I don't have the 2-point stop loss rule. But this is the change I must make.
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Whatever we traders use for a stop loss, it's mostly subjective. Suggest that when you place your trade/bet, you immediately place a stop order. That is, you've predetermined how much you're willing to risk that your bet was correct and the decision of where to stop is no longer in your hands.
 
Short term trading is much more difficult than longer term positions. Technicals seem to work better on longer term time frames.

I recommend trading stocks over futures. I feel like the ES in the short term is mostly noise. Whenever I traded ES intraday it felt like pure gambling not trading. Look through a longer term lens.

My 2 cents. Here is one for you, I bought NGVC yesterday. I think it doubles within 9 months or I hope at least.

Very few people are good at intraday in my opinion.
 
hurricane_sh said:
That's 12,558 in total out of 25,726, 48.8% loss.
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It's not easy to add much to WRBtrader's excellent post, above, but clearly you've learned that your position-sizing was hugely inappropriate to your account balance, anyway.


hurricane_sh said:
Both stop loss and profit target are two points
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I can't help wondering whether you really appreciate the extent to which this type of scalping is stacking the deck against yourself?


hurricane_sh said:
I can't afford to lose.
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For myself, I certainly wouldn't be trading at all, in that case (apart from maybe on demo); but I wish you every success in your attempt to join the infinitessimally small proportion of traders who have ever succeeded under those circumstances.
 
Suggestions on how to improve my trading performance is welcome, but please don't tell me to stop trading or find a new job, that's not something I want to hear on a trading forum. I don't think anyone should ever give such opinions to anyone on a trading forum, it's annoying to say the least.
 
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this is for the guy that started the thread . I left you a message on your profile . these threads can occasionally be unhealthy. you come here for support and they ll kick you when you re down. 100 bucks a day is not that tuff to do with what you have . Your determination and resolve shall be your surf board dude
 
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