Half way through life and not close to being consistent

gamblingman said:
I hit the magic 40 a couple of month ago and things are not where I thought I'd be at that time. Married with kids (at least that's working as far as I know), broke 190 pounds for the first time in my life and after having a terrible trading year last year this year isn't looking much better.

I'm starting this journal as a motivational tool and hope that over the next 7 month I'm 20 pounds lighter, in better shape and have collected 80k via my trading.

The last eight trading days have been brutal to my P&L and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that my main position is short the market. I typically trade a lot of options but with low volatility I reduce my size so right now we're in single digit contract territory.

Good luck to you all, it's rough out there !!
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Well, 40's is the "new 30's" and 30's is the 20's etc. What's so old about 40 anyways? When "44 is just starting "patchwork"" like in the movie "10" with Dudley Moore and Bo Derek?

These days 40 is fairly "young". You can still move around and build muscle. The Tom "cruzer" still acts like he's in his 30's. albeit with a robot frame. I think we should be so lucky as to not be one of those poor folks 60 and over who just started to learn how to trade instead of trusting those scam IRA's, former corporate pensions and funds. Maybe better to have started trading in the 30's with some other main career or job path, rather than just getting into trading at 19. Ironically being a wage slave for part of life may be something that is not to be missed than the goal of everyone wanting to "retire early".

I'm 30lbs over where you're at and yeah, I used to be 190 to 200, then broke over last year, but I don't fret too much about it (always planning to get back to 0 fat; yeah we all do until we drive by all the fast food on the blocks, or otherwise only eat bean sprouts a few times a week for sustenance) knowing that once I do get there, the strength built to carry that weight will feel that much better when back to 150 like a long overdue haircut.
 
Tough trading week again. Down 11k this week.
As the first 6 month of trading wind down this year, I'm basically where I started the year (current profit is about 4k which is a daily P&L swing). Good news is that I'm not down yet while the market is going completely against me, bad news is that this rally may go on much longer. I'm having issues sleeping and I am way too moody lately, all serious signs that I'm too much leveraged. I have learned several things on the thread so far, one is that I'm taking too much risk the other one that my market opinion dominates my trading too much. Trying to change things over the next several month while beating my head against the wall. Chatted with two other traders who are way more relaxed and less focused on maximum gains, both of them are doing much better than me trying to force things. Let's see if I can execute on my plan, there's still 6 month left to make money this year.
 
If you go back a couple of posts, and see, what would have happened had you cut your position where you were? You would not be break even, if you had cut the loss.

You remind me of when I unintentionally trade counter trend. My biggest drawdown this year occurred because of counter trend trading, even with quick exits. I put in my trading plan, no consecutive same direction trades in order to try to prevent it. Until you stop that you will have a hard time making money.

I also saw you talking about fundamentals. Even with 100% accurate analysis (impossible), the market does not move because of fundamentals. Though that's not the major issue, if you studied the way price moves just a little, you could prevent a lot of your losses.

But don't take it from me.... I only make money almost every day I trade now :cool:
 
"Tough trading week again. Down 11k this week. "

Why don't you elaborate a bit, provide some details, how many trades, which instruments, duration of trades etc ?

This is supposed to be a trading 'journal' after all.
 
Mo06 said:
"Tough trading week again. Down 11k this week. "

Why don't you elaborate a bit, provide some details, how many trades, which instruments, duration of trades etc ?

This is supposed to be a trading 'journal' after all.
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I'm not sure it'll be that helpful but here you go.
108 trades this week 80 of which were from automated trades. Manual trades were some rolls from previous positions some net new. biggest single equity loser was in IRM (automated trade), most discretionary trades were in SPX, SPY and ES. Most of these trades are several weeks, shortest (non daytrade) trade this week was 3 days in WAG after earnings (Wed-Fri).
 
108 trades.... wow.

I did 26, and that's a busy week for me.

I suggest identfying what is working and what is not, then doing more of the former, whilst eliminating the latter.

Good luck.
 
Since you don't seem to have a methodology that you believe in as of yet how can you trade 108 times in a week? Don't you think that's trading insanity? Why not bring the ction down by 80 or even 90% and find a trade that works for you consistently?


gamblingman said:
I'm not sure it'll be that helpful but here you go.
108 trades this week 80 of which were from automated trades. Manual trades were some rolls from previous positions some net new. biggest single equity loser was in IRM (automated trade), most discretionary trades were in SPX, SPY and ES. Most of these trades are several weeks, shortest (non daytrade) trade this week was 3 days in WAG after earnings (Wed-Fri).
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"Since you don't seem to have a methodology that you believe in as of yet how can you trade 108 times in a week? Don't you think that's trading insanity? Why not bring the ction down by 80 or even 90% and find a trade that works for you consistently?"

That's a good point.

Although I think the majority of those 108 trades are non discretionary.

Can you tell us which type of trade contirbutes more to your % profit, discretionary or non-discretionary ?
 
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