Loxley's Simulated Trade Journal

L

Loxley

Well, I'm taking my first baby steps (or would that be more like crawling?) by actively trading in a simulated account.

www.e-mini.com 's pfgBEST is the simulator I'm using... it's the front end that they use commercially, I think, just in demo mode.

I've got 50 grand to play with... but I'm only trading one E-mini contract at a time, since that'll be all I'm able to afford anyway when I start out.

So, how am I doing? My first day of trading the Nasdaq E-mini NQ3M...

9 trades.
7 wins.
2 losses.
100 dollars to the good, less (I think) 63 bucks in commissions. So, 37 dollars call it. All without having a CLUE what I'm doing. Today is the day of the big patriotic war rally (will it continue tomorrow?), but since I don't know what I'm doing, I didn't really utilize the upward trend. Instead, I just waited for the price to cycle back down to around its support level, and sold it as soon as it went a point or two over that. Nobody ever went broke taking profits, I heard somewhere. And since my life's ambition is to be no more than a lowly cockroach of a scalper, I reckon it's a viable strategy for now.

I've never traded anything before today. It was a hoot! It was also so criminally obcenely easy that I felt dirty afterwards. I've got to learn more about what I'm doing, rather than just using The Force.

Goal for tomorrow: Make a hundred bucks AFTER commissions, AND make at least 20 trades. I need more experience doing order entry. It's only playmoney anyway, and I've only got it till April 15. :)

Loxley
 
Quote from Loxley:




Goal for tomorrow: Make a hundred bucks AFTER commissions, AND make at least 20 trades. I need more experience doing order entry. It's only playmoney anyway, and I've only got it till April 15. :)

Loxley [/B]
More...

No, what you need is more experience making intelligent entries and exits. Being clueless and making play money is a dangerous combination. All that's likely to do is reinforce bad behavior. You need to find some discernible edge, and use that to become consistently profitable. Its kind of like the old saying, "don't mistake brains for a bull market"
 
No, I'm serious. :) I'm still learning the user interface. I literally need to understand what all these buttons do before I worry about doing something smart with them. Crawl-walk-run. I'll be learning tapereading or candlestick analysis or something to substitute The Force soon enough. I'll probably ask for suggestions on that in another thread in a few days.

I want to be good, not lucky.

Loxley

EDIT: And, uh... what is "slippage?"
 
Quote from Loxley:

No, I'm serious. :) I'm still learning the user interface. I literally need to understand what all these buttons do before I worry about doing something smart with them. Crawl-walk-run. I'll be learning tapereading or candlestick analysis or something to substitute The Force soon enough. I'll probably ask for suggestions on that in another thread in a few days.

I want to be good, not lucky.

Loxley
More...

Loxley...nice start.

I agree...traders that are new to trading should concentrate on learning the execution platform their planning on using...

after they get use to that (should take a few days) then they can start concentrating on trade setups...the trading methology stuff.

Good luck and make sure you read all the info here at EliteTrader.com about intraday Japanese Candlesticks and tape reading (time and sales and/or market depth)...

Time & Sales is a difficult aspect to apply to the Eminis...you need to already have a good understanding of how the market flows throughout the intraday cycle to make some use out of T&S info.

Also, don't ever let anybody tell you that Japanese Candlesticks are not reliable for intraday trading.

After you start having trouble with intraday application of candlesticks (you will)...you know where to find me...

but only after you crash and burn a few times on your own while using them :cool:

Last of all...I highly recommend you post charts here to reflect your trades especially via the charts you used to make your trades.

ET's "Attach File" mechanism (below...to the left when you make a post) is handy for one chart.

If you want to link to multiple charts in one message post...

try http://www.ttrader.com/mycharts/index.php

NihabaAshi
 
http://www.ttrader.com/mycharts/display.php?p=10553&u=loxley&a=Loxley\'s Charts&id=475

There aren't any timestamps I'm afraid, but all trades were after 11 AM and before Noon-thirty Eastern. Read this from bottom to top.

Bought Sold Market Fill Price
1 NQM3 1068 (last trade of the day)
1 NQM3 1067
1 NQM3 1067
1 NQM3 1065.5
1 NQM3 1071 (Doh!)
1 NQM3 1071.5
1 NQM3 1072.5 (Whoo!)
1 NQM3 1072
1 NQM3 1072 (... making ten bucks)
1 NQM3 1072.5 (I experiment with shorting)
1 NQM3 1071 (whoohoo! $20 more!)
1 NQM3 1070
1 NQM3 1065 (a loss)
1 NQM3 1066
1 NQM3 1066.5 (a push)
1 NQM3 1066.5
1 NQM3 1068 (seconds later I made $40!)
1 NQM3 1066 (I hesitantly place my first order!)
 
Well, I sort of met my goals for the day. I executed 20 trades. I worked on entering STOP orders and LIMIT orders. I learned to watch my "quantity of contracts" field to make sure it was set to one. I learned to make sure the SELL option was selected when I pushed the button instead of the BUY button. I learned to buy at market and then enter a SELL STOP a few points below, and a SELL LIMIT a few points above.

Mistakes made doing the above cost me almost exactly $1000 dollars of my simulation account. I rethunk my plan to call my broker and have him lower my account to the actual levels I'll be trading with later... I might need the extra bucks to learn with. I can always adjust the account level when I do a dress rehearsal.

I'll post the chart http://www.ttrader.com/mycharts/display.php?p=10582&u=loxley&a=Loxley\'s Charts&id=475 but the actual trades themselves are too ghastly to share; I wanted to try certain things, and if I had a position open, I just closed it (profit be hanged) so I could practice order entry.

I got Lycos's realtime charts purchased and working. I had been following a ten-minute-delayed chart, thinking it might give me some clue what's happening in the present.

I learned that my commission rate is going to be 12 bucks roundtrip. That means that the 100 bucks I made Monday was offset by 108 bucks in commissions. Thieves! But I shall worry about finding a cheaper broker (or attempting to get a better rate from my existing one) later. No reason not to use up the entirety of my 30 day simulated account, after all.

Goals for tomorrow:

1. Practice buy at market, then set sell stop and sell limit below and above the purchase price, respectively. Five such trades should be enough practice.

2. Do the same thing, but for short sells. I suspect it would be a sell at market, followed by a buy limit and a buy stop set below and above the selling price of the shorted contract. Five should be enough practice as well.

3. Enter some limit buy orders. I noticed several times I was eyeballing the market price, and would enter a buy at market order, and my order would fill a half to a whole point higher than I had intended. I think with a limit buy order, I *will* get the contract at the price I requested, or not at all. Correct? Five of these, I reckon.

4. Try and do the same thing for shorting contracts if possible.


5. Not worry about losing my play money during steps 1-4. I've got 50 grand in the account: it's more important that I learn what I'm doing.

6. Make 10 winning or pushing trades.

Loxley
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top