Originally posted by x-or
I looked into your numbers. Your stats are :
% = 74
Average Win = 0.87
Average Loss = -2.17
Average holding Time Win = 3:30
Average holding Time Loss = 6:17
Gross Profit = 75.0
commission = 806.4
Net Profit = -731.4
Your % is very good but doesn't serve you much. You should focus on you P/L ratio instead. May be :
- use hard stops (to limit your max loss & decrease your av. loss). Your % will decrease a bit but not too much if your stop value is well chosen (you should have a good idea). Don't worry, ave win will grow with time.
- average points/holding time for losers are well above those for winners : let your winner run a little longer (about 1'00 or 2'00 more is enough to increase the ave. win by a few 0.1 pts).
- decrease the number of your trades (quality over quantity). You'll pay less in commission. And it helps keeping your % high.
Another thought :
If you have made only 10 trades max daily (as you chose doing it at first), you were net positive (+233.5) and with 4 trades max you were (+169.6)
Ok, that's only about 20 $ a day but... you have room for improvement.
It reminds me something I read in an old post : "first of all, you have to prepare yourself emotionally for a small win.. "
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=36277
Hope it helps.
Good luck.
Hi x-or,
Thank you for the time to go thorough some (all) of my trades and your advice. This is by far the best reply to my journal to date.
1. Hard stops. I reviewed my trading from friday, and noticed that if I would have used a 1.0 or 1.5 pts stop loss, I would have been better off. Early during trading the 1.0 pt was fine, since trading was pretty smooth. Later on things were more "choppy" and the 1.5 pt stop was a better selection.
2. Target. During Thursday/Friday I settled for a 0.5 pt target. However again reviewing my trading, on almost every trade it would have been possible to make atleast another 0.5 pt.
3. Number of trades. You are absolutely right. I'm not sure why. Could it be because I'm getting tired or is it because trading is getting choppy late during the day? I'm not sure. Will try to limit number of trades, but right now this is not my top priority.
I'm not concerned if I only do 20$ per day. Even with a 2000$ account that's actually 1%. If I could do that day in and day out I would be satisfied. However in order to deal with larger occasional drawdowns, I probably need to make a little bit more than that per day.
Once again, x-or, thanks. It really helped/forced me to think things through.
/JT
Entry: Mostly intuitive. If the future drops/rises like 1 or 2 points in a short time (< 1 minute) I might get in on the opposite side.
Price: Most times I place my buy long orders at bid, and wait to be filled (and the reversed). However if there is a large momentum I might like to get filled right away.
Exit: Stop-loss 1.5 pts. Place order quickly, so I will be first in line (to be filled) as soon as possible.
Profit target: 1 pts, unless there is a big momentum in my direction. Place order quickly, so I will be first in line (to be filled) as soon as possible.
