Little Lex's YM Daytrading Journal

Regarding increased size...
Unlike the conventional wisdom that is so rampant on ET, increasing size, in your case Lex a 100% increase of contracts, does not mean increase your risk by 100%. In fact, your risk should go down due to the additional strategies trading multiple contracts affords over a single contract. Without getting into exit strategy, just try this... your single contract risk you said was $45. So with 2 contracts, use a risk of $70, not $90.

I'll point out the obvious... You've given the trade an additional 5 YM pts of wiggle room. At the same time you've increased total profit expectancy, assuming a 20 YM pt move (aka $100) from 1:2.2 (risk 45 to gain 100) to 1:2.85 (risk 70 to gain 100x2) and your per contract risk is reduced 2 YM pts (aka 45x1 reduced to 35x2) for a 22% risk reduction. If you are scalping for a handful of YM pts this clearly does not apply. Nonetheless, that my friend is how you make increased size work for you instead of against you.

As for overtrading...
I don't know what that is. Either you have solid reasoning and risk management when entering a trade or you are just playing a video game. Playing a video game is overtrading.

Good trades to you
Osorico :)
 
Quote from zx12:

Little Lex,
as Wies says papertrading may be the way to go, at least for a few weeks! I know it does not directly deal with the emotions. But, you could separate your strategy from your emotions ie. if you can papertrade consistently with profits, you then know for sure it is your emotions & not your base strategy! I tend to think if you were papertrading only you would still be having problems. Good luck!
More...



You are making a good point zx12. However I know from my past results that my strategy is profitable when applied correctly. It could certainly be improved and there are certainly better ones out there. But my strategy is decent and therefore my main focus has to be on controlling my emotions.

Despite this I may follow your recommendation and start paper trading if I am unable to make any improvements.

Have a good week-end,

LL
 
Excellent day for me! I guess all the work I did during the week-end was well worth it. I was patient today and had a very good trade selection. Trade management could have been better though.

After last week's results I was thinking about writing my CV and looking for job openings. But now I think I am back on track in my quest to become a profitable trader.

After all the reading, testing and writing over the week-end I regained my confidence. Today's trading session was a lot of fun. Actually I think trading is more fun when you are profitable, don't you think?

Hope you guys had a good day as well,

LL
 
Interesting day today. It was a good training session to learn fading all those peaks.

I am very pleased with my trade selection. Trade management was again the main problem. In a choppy day like today I suppose it is better to take profits earlier. I let 2 profitable trades (+-15) being stopped out at my initial stop (-15). In an optimal world I would have taken 30 points out of those trades instead of losing 30. Those 60 points make or break a trading day for me. Also I should have trailed the stop tighter but I didn't...

It was still a good day and I am confident that I am on the right path.

LL
 
Hi guys,

that's it for me for this week and next week. Unfortunately I won't be trading because I have to go on vacation :cool:

I will not take my laptop so there is no chance I will be trading. I will take some trading books though so that at least I can prepare myself for when I get back.

As you all know I have been trading since January. I have been improving my results every month until I fell into a slump in mid-may. I feel like I am on the track to recovery but my results still aren't great.

What I am currently focusing on is avoiding the bad trades. In order to improve in that area I am using a new journal where all trade setups are identified so that I find it easier to avoid the losers in the future.

After my vacation I will set myself a new goal - profitability over a 6 week period. Hope this time it works out better than last time.

Talk to you guys later,

LL
 
Hi everybody,

I'm back with a nice tan after a week of vacation. And I am ready for my final challenge here on ET. My goal is to be profitable during the period from now until end of July (28 trading days).

The only way I will be able to reach this goal is by maintaining discipline at all times. My main focus will be on avoiding taking bad trades. This has been a problem for me, especially when my daily balance was negative. Avoid the losers and the winners take care of themselves. Also I must avoid big losing days. I have therefore decided to lower my maximum daily loss to 200 USD.

In order to make sure that I am maintaining discipline at all times I am starting a new very detailed trade journal (including rating myself for discipline). This should help me in making sure that I am not repeating my mistakes.

Also I think it is very helpful for me to start the trading day with a mental preparation during which I will go over my trading rules etc.

And last but not least I have decided that I will stop trading immediately if I find myself losing discipline during the trading day.

Good trading to you,

LL
 
In my eyes today's trading was choppy and in a narrow range. Therefore I took only 5 trades and took my winners (too) early. All 5 trades were short scalps of peaks.

Number of trades: 5
Points: 15
Result: 55
 
Today I have to give myself the worst possible rating for discipline. I started out well but then I got stopped out of a position which turned my balance into negative. I then started trading cowboy-style. My loss even exceeded my daily maximum.

I really need to understand that a small loss is better than a large loss. I am currently unable to stay calm and focused when my balance is negative.


Trading result today: -223

Cumulative result after 2 days: - 168
 
Quiet day for me as I was concentrating on maintaining discipline and refraining from cowboy style trading. Overall I made 8 trades and broke even for the day after commission.

As always I started out well but lost my focus later in the session. I stopped trading before the rate decision so I missed the downtrend at the end of the session.

Trading result today: 0

Cumulative result after 3 days: - 168

LL
 
Good evening,

today I was satisfied with my discipline. Trade management could have been better though. Unfortunately I could only trade for a limited time today which is a shame because I think trending markets are much easier to trade. Well anyway I am pleased that my cumulative loss is now below 100$. I am now more confident that I will be able to turn things around.


Trading result today: +76

Cumulative result after 4 days: - 92

LL
 
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