Keeping Records

New month and new start (sort of) after learning a lot in the past 2 months. I made 2 trades today for a gain of $12. I lost 34 on the first one and made 46 on the second one. One of the filters that I had added was not to take the long signal, when the NQ makes a 30 min low, but ES does not. I was tempted to take few set-ups where NQ made a 30 min low but ES didn't. but stayed on the side and it was a good decision. I would have been stopped out on those. But it's old habit, I got tired of waiting and took one such trade that resulted in a loss. Finally I got a set-up that met all the criterias and made a profit.

Looking back at my trades from last 2 months, I would have made few hundred dollars had I just traded the right set-up. This month I am going to follow it. In order to be more disciplined, I enrolled in an MMA class. This forces me to be disciplined in all aspects of my life like eating right, getting enough sleep, and following their teachings and techniques.
 

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Trailing stops?????

I went long at 10.39 at 30.75 and exited at 12.01 at 32.25 for a gain of 26. My initial stop was 28.25 and target at 38.75.

I have been using the previous 30 min low as a trailing stop and I got stopped out and the market went higher. I have been going through the other charts and I think I have found a better trailing stop to suit my personality.
 
Friday and Week update,

So far this month I have done really good, not in terms of money necessarily but just being patient and waiting for the right set-up.

I had 6 trades for a net gain of 101. I had 4 winners and 2 losers, among which one loss was an accident that cost me $34.

My entries were right at the correct time and my stops were still 2 pts. only. The only problem is that I have been using trailing stops that usually gets me out before I get my 8 points. Had I left the stop and target, where it was I would have met my target on 2 trades for a gain of 16 pts. (Thursday's trade and today's first trade), instead of 5 points. The other two would still have been profitable. I have noticed that the last half hour is fairly volatile and have decided to exit any position at 12.30.

Lesson: Wait for the right set-up, put a stop and put a target and DO NOT touch it.
 

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Last week I had decided that I was going to put my stop and target and leave it. This past weeekend I went back and looked at my charts and found that once the 30 min bar closes above the last 30 min bar, it is okay to trail the stop but not before that. Today I had 1 trade for a gain of $51. Had I left the stop and target as it was, it would have resulted in a loss of 2 pts.

My entry was 58.25, stop 56.25 and target 66.25. I got out at 61, and NQ went down 7 pts. after that.
 

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Last week I had 9 trades for a gain of $109 after commmissions. There were 5 wins and 4 losses. I have had few weeks where I have made about $100 per week, even though my % wins were higher than % losses. After last week I had to rethink my target. $109 on 9 trades is about 0.6 points per trade, I would have done better if I had 1 pt. target and 2 point stop. My target would have been met in 8 trades.

I went back and looked at my trades and noticed that 90% of my winning trades went up 5-6 points, so this week I decided to lower my target to 5.25 points which gives me a gain of $101 after commissions. Similarly I trail my stop as the market moves in my favor. Once the price's low and close is above 3.25 points from my entry, I trail my stop to +2 points.

In the last 2 days, I had 6 trades with 1 loss and 5 wins for a gain of $316 after commissions. I still made a mistake on not exiting on 1 trade after I got my 5.25 points and gave up 3.5 points, but overall I think I am going on the right direction.
 

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Another week but same story. Start strong and slowly give up the gains and finish the week with a little over 100. I have noticed that when I trade based on my feel, I tend to do much better. I still have rules and set-ups but the entry is random after the rules are met. The way I see this is that I am making some money while learning the craft so I can't complain.
 
-4 for the week including commissions on 11 trades, so I paid 44 on commissions and made 40 on my trades.

I am still having issues pulling the trigger. Yesterday and today, I got long signsal but thought that the market had gone up too much and didn't buy. Finally when I bought, I got stopped out.

I need to sit down and figure-out exactly what I want to do. Even though I am net profitable since I started trading live, I seem to miss the big moves. Sometimes I feel that I may have some psychological issues which are keeping me from pulling the trigger. I am starting to think that maybe I do not really want this. Although I am spending a lot of time reading and analyzing charts, I am not putting the same effort on my personal life. I enrolled in an MMA class, took 1 class and stopped going. I had said that I was not going to go out on weekdays and I am still going out. I'm going to the bookstore to find some information on Personal Developement and will have a concrete plan this weekend. I am tired of being just good enough.

Any suggestions on books or articles that you guys recommend?
 
Quote from garage sale:

Any suggestions on books or articles that you guys recommend?
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I can't remember WHO talked about it (Tharp etc) but what is your dominate sensory mode? Most chart traders (setup) see the setup, look at the confirmations then take the trade. YOU can't interrupt that sequence with the THINKING part (what if the market is too extended etc) and hesitate.

SEE > FEELS GOOD INSIDE > ACT. (You have to keep it that simple of a routine (process). YOU do not THINK about the what if? YOU think the what IF when the market is closed and you are reviewing your trade setup etc.
Just thoughts.....
 
Quote from garage sale:

I am still having issues pulling the trigger. Yesterday and today, I got long signsal but thought that the market had gone up too much and didn't buy. Finally when I bought, I got stopped out.
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Trust your first intuition. You have a long signal, it's a long signal. Price has no ceiling or floor, except the ones our thoughts try to put in place based on how far price has gone up to that point.

Another idea is to determine the price that would trigger a long or short signal and place your order well in advance so price itself pulls the trigger for you. If you do this and price starts getting close to where your order is and you think "Maybe I should pull the order," double the size of the order. :D
 
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