FPM (Follow the Plan Man!)
- Thread starter deaddog
- Start date
There you have it Boys and Girls;
I wonât be around much in April so Iâll put this Journal to bed for a while.
Did recording my trades in real time help? A wee bit as I was not tempted to give my trades that âlittle more wiggle roomâ.
It also gave the journal a bit more credibility. In real time itâs hard to hide your mistakes. Iâve always been a little suspect of those who post after the fact.
I believe the strategies have a slight edge. If, and itâs a big if, you follow the plan.
One thing I have started to do is to take any closed trades off my screen. They are over and I want to remain completely unemotional about them. No need to pat myself on the back for being so smart or beat myself up for being so dumb if I executed the trade as planned.
The risk per trade was usually calculated at around $100 per trade. I was prepared for double that because of my stop loss method of letting the price go by the calculated stop temporarily. Part of the plan I may have to rethink.
Target was usually set at a minimum of 3 times risk.
Stop is moved to Breakeven if price gets a ¼ way to target.
The results after 21 trades:
10 Wins Averaging $183
9 Loses Averaging $102
2 Break even @ $4
( If a stop is moved to BE it is usually place just above entry price; covers commission and slippage)
And what does this mean?
Well with a 10k account if you are willing to risk 1% per trade you might make $ 81 per day or a tad over 10 bucks an hour.
If you trade 200 days per year; thatâs 16K in earnings. Of course thereâs about 1200 a year in ongoing expenses. Plus a few grand for your initial set-up. Still itâs as good as a minimum wage job.
If you fund your account with a little more (like 100K) things look pretty good.
However these results are only for a couple weeks and projecting them out over a year is downright silly;
The Secret:
Build yourself a plan and Follow the Plan Man!!!
I wonât be around much in April so Iâll put this Journal to bed for a while.
Did recording my trades in real time help? A wee bit as I was not tempted to give my trades that âlittle more wiggle roomâ.
It also gave the journal a bit more credibility. In real time itâs hard to hide your mistakes. Iâve always been a little suspect of those who post after the fact.
I believe the strategies have a slight edge. If, and itâs a big if, you follow the plan.
One thing I have started to do is to take any closed trades off my screen. They are over and I want to remain completely unemotional about them. No need to pat myself on the back for being so smart or beat myself up for being so dumb if I executed the trade as planned.
The risk per trade was usually calculated at around $100 per trade. I was prepared for double that because of my stop loss method of letting the price go by the calculated stop temporarily. Part of the plan I may have to rethink.
Target was usually set at a minimum of 3 times risk.
Stop is moved to Breakeven if price gets a ¼ way to target.
The results after 21 trades:
10 Wins Averaging $183
9 Loses Averaging $102
2 Break even @ $4
( If a stop is moved to BE it is usually place just above entry price; covers commission and slippage)
And what does this mean?
Well with a 10k account if you are willing to risk 1% per trade you might make $ 81 per day or a tad over 10 bucks an hour.
If you trade 200 days per year; thatâs 16K in earnings. Of course thereâs about 1200 a year in ongoing expenses. Plus a few grand for your initial set-up. Still itâs as good as a minimum wage job.
If you fund your account with a little more (like 100K) things look pretty good.
However these results are only for a couple weeks and projecting them out over a year is downright silly;
The Secret:
Build yourself a plan and Follow the Plan Man!!!
Results for April : 20 Trades.
7 Wins averaging $339 (35%)
11 losses averaging $ 119 (55%)
2 Break even @ $12 (10%)
I am adjusting the Plan slightly. I hope to eliminate both the Fear and Greed parts of the plan. After reviewing the results for the last full year I found that I would have been slightly better off to take hard stops and exit when I hit my initial target.
The original plan called for letting stops penetrate the calculated stop and then setting a hard stop below that bar if it closed below the calculated stop. This was to protect me from getting shook out of a position on spikes down. (Fear of missing a move)
This did work on occasion but it cost me more than it saved over the last year.
The original Plan called for setting a trailing stop as the price approached the target in an attempt to catch any big moves. (Greed) A review of the last year showed that taking the target would have netted more profit than the trailing stop method.
The adjusted Plan is to set hard stops and hard profit targets. The method for dealing with opening gaps remains the same.
I am considering some sort of method for re-entering a trade once I have exited according to plan. (Still the Fear and Greed operating, donât like to miss a move.) The objective is to lose less in a shakeout and to remain involved in the big moves while reducing my risk.
Weâll see how thing go in May as I
Follow the Plan Man
7 Wins averaging $339 (35%)
11 losses averaging $ 119 (55%)
2 Break even @ $12 (10%)
I am adjusting the Plan slightly. I hope to eliminate both the Fear and Greed parts of the plan. After reviewing the results for the last full year I found that I would have been slightly better off to take hard stops and exit when I hit my initial target.
The original plan called for letting stops penetrate the calculated stop and then setting a hard stop below that bar if it closed below the calculated stop. This was to protect me from getting shook out of a position on spikes down. (Fear of missing a move)
This did work on occasion but it cost me more than it saved over the last year.
The original Plan called for setting a trailing stop as the price approached the target in an attempt to catch any big moves. (Greed) A review of the last year showed that taking the target would have netted more profit than the trailing stop method.
The adjusted Plan is to set hard stops and hard profit targets. The method for dealing with opening gaps remains the same.
I am considering some sort of method for re-entering a trade once I have exited according to plan. (Still the Fear and Greed operating, donât like to miss a move.) The objective is to lose less in a shakeout and to remain involved in the big moves while reducing my risk.
Weâll see how thing go in May as I
Follow the Plan Man