Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal

[~~~]

Quote from Matcha:



I have just tasted how brutal the reality is. It makes me realized I have wasted so much time and money in my life. Now I had to work extra hard to pursue my goals. My first priority is not going to be playing and shopping although fashion has always been my life... Now trading is also my life

To make avg$100 a day consistently by the end of the year was my this year's goal-in live account. If I could achieve this goal, I can definitely live with that for now. I do have $10K for trading YM only.
You are funny about target and macy's. hehe. Not too favor of macy's, hehe.

My goal in sim is to achieve more than 50% win rate, profitable 4 weeks in a row, trade with eyes closed, nail 100points a week then I can go live. I am prepared to take 50% discount of the above result in live account. If it's worse than that, I am going back to sim.

Matcha .. it's ok! You are still very young, so it's ok to made all kind of mistakes when you are young. When i was young.. i was extremely foolish and naive ..the brutal reality made me a strong and wise person. Sweetie, it's okay to love fashion.. just don't be like Carrie Bradshaw who spent 40K on manolo blahniks but no $ to put down as deposit for her NYC apt lol Good !!! trading is your priority now and when you made lots of $$$$.. you can go shopping in tiffany, gucci or chanel like a queen ..

I am not a day trader so my strategy of trading is different... You have one good man, Bolimomo as Sifu and NoDoji is a day-trader, you can learn much from them.

 

[PatientOperator]

Quote from Matcha:

Hi, PO.
Just curious, yesterday when you traded, Have you looked at 15 min chart, 30 min chart and 60 min chart at all?
Have you read Boli and Algo's posts here? I put lots of thoughts on to it. Now I am staring at 60min, 30min 15 min chart. And I am also reading Marcel's book about Time Frames. I think my over trading and getting out trade too soon is highly related to ignore larger time frame-the big picture. If you look at 15 min chart yesterday, there is no reason we should get out of the trade, even we are out the trade, we should continue to go long, not short. The only thing to hold me back not to go long is the 6/29 sell off, but I should still continue go long because the bull was so strong.
On page 90, he specified that large time frame can keep you out of over trading. Then he gave an example of using moving average on both time frame to confirm the trade. If moving average crossed 60 min chart to send long signal, on 5 min chart, you should only go long and look for moving average crosss on 5 min chart. Exit at another MA cross. For sure there are a lot details we need to look for while trading. Now I am staring at the historical chart, this approach works extremely well in trending days. Range days can be a little tricky though.

Hi Matcha,

Yes, I use 4 time frames for my trading - 30, 5, 3 & 1 min charts. I guess yesterday and most other times, I got tempted by the signals in the 1 & 3 minutes charts. Thanks for pointing out page 90 on Marcel's book. He is a major proponent (like Boli and other "sifu"s on this thread) on using multiple time frames. On his trading rules on page 327 - he listed "Look at higher timeframe". And on his takes to becoming a HP trader (on page 227), his number 1 rule is to use multiple time frames, then trade with the trend and then wait for pullbacks. I will re-read Chapter 5 on using multiple time frames. Thanks for the tip.

I guess I couldn't resist the temptation of those "easy" signals in the smaller timeframes especially after I had a "loss" trade and wanted to go after another trade to get even. Oh! I probably need to re-read his Chapter 17 on The Dangers of Overtrading.

This is a great thread that I can learn from all those who have make a contribution. Thank you everyone!

--po

 

[~~~]

Quote from Matcha:



Over trading stopped me to go live. Fear of blowing stopped me too...

Okie .. looking at your report-card, you must continue sim trading for another 2 or 3 mths .. start with 10k capital(SIM account).. if your sim trading net profit $800 a mth continuouslly 2 or 3 mths..go to live trading. If net profit less than $800 go back to sim trading.

If account goes up, "Slowly" increase your contract size, if great opportunity rises, you gotta whack the market but must put "STOP!!". If your account goes down to $5500. Stop trading live and goes back to sim trading again.

Honey, don't let "Fear" overwhelmed you, we must not let "Fear" controls us but we must also have excellent "Self-control". When we are wrong, we're wrong.. must "Cut"/Stop loss is So Important!!! If you have good "Self-control/Self Discipline .. you won't blow out your account. Have confidence in yourself.

Trading in the year of tiger is not for the faint hearted.. so they said! But we are dragons not afraid of tiger lol ( Just joking!)

 

[Bolimomo]

Quote from Matcha:


Today’s PnL: +$46, 8trades, 38% winrate.

Here is another Boli's one tip a day for you. Oh... this is my second one. Making up for AWOL. Glad this one is timely.

Note: yesterday Dow had a big, bullish run. +300 for the day. Very bullish in any measure.

So today I would expect it (normally) would be in range. My typical range expectation is between (PP to R0.5) and R1 after a big bull day. It probably won't shoot above R1 because:
1) The market needs some rest.
2) Yesterday being a large-range day, today's R1 would be significantly higher than PP. If it reaches R1, then most likely it would come back towards PP. If it reaches PP, then most likely it would bounce back towards R1. Today shouldn't be too bearish. So the "break down" has a high chance of failing.

Result: Down up may be 100 or so max... then came back down to 0 or so (not quite PP)... and then bounced back up to R1 or so.

Remember this is "after a big bullish day". Back to back +300 days are rare. If it happens, it could be the starting of a new leg upward in a higher time-frame. And the converse is true for "after a big bearish day"... the range expectation would be between (PP to S0.5) and S1. Probably won't break below S1.

 

[~~~]

Quote from PatientOperator:



This is a great thread that I can learn from all those who have make a contribution. Thank you everyone!

--po

hmmm... one lovely girl (mat) and one polite young man (po) .. i like this this threat too.. all the forumers in Matcha's thread are nice and friendly

 

[slamburger]

Since everyone is cashing in on advice, I suppose I will as well. Perhaps you should try and simplify your trading? I find the more rules that I add, the worse my trading gets. This is of course, 100% my opinion.

Sooo, for instance, try trading using only a 3 minute chart. Mark big swing lows/highs as the day progresses. When price reaches these points again, look for a price pattern like my favorite 1-2-3.

Then make up some rules to manage these trades. I personally like getting to break even as quickly as possible, but thats because of my risk tolerance. Also scaling out helps ease my pain.

Here is a recent chart. Again, this is all my opinion and in fact I do not even trade exactly in this manner. This is just an IDEA that may or may not help you. Good luck!

 

[PatientOperator]

Quote from ~~~:

hmmm... one lovely girl (mat) and one polite young man (po) .. i like this this threat too.. all the forumers in Matcha's thread are nice and friendly

Hi ~~~,

You made me flush.

I concur with you 100% that everyone on this thread are nice and friendly. It all started with Matcha and all of her genuineness and openness in her journal. It is contagious!!!

Thanks for your sharing of your experience and your encouragement.

--po

 

[Matcha]

Made productive and proficient trades today. Only 4 trades. Not a very profitable day but market has been trading in a tight trading range, so I can’t complain that much from today’s market. Looking at large time frame does keep me out of troubles. Keep me out of over trade behavior. All the trades today are long; even we are in a tight trading range.

So easy to analyze today’s trades, only 4 trades. I remember clearly what my thoughts are behind pulling the triggers.

TRADE A: Break out pull back trade, price broke YTD high and mid pivot point then pull back. Took profits at the R1 level
Entry: 10098
Exit: 10128
30Pts

Then price pulled back formed a base for almost 3.5 hours. I waited for the breakout pullback trade again.

TRADE B: Breakout pull back.
Stopped out for only 6Pts profit didn’t go back in because it’s already 12:50PST.
10 minutes away from market closes.

Today’s PnL, +$160, 4 trades, 75% winrate. I like today’s result. But as Richard Dennis said:” Don’t be misled by the day-to-day fluctuations in your equity. Focus on whether what you are doing is right not on the random nature of any single trade’s outcome.” By looking at bigger picture today is something I did right. Next week, I am going to keep working on playing multi-time frames well to increase quality of the trades and decrease # of trades.

Weekly result:
PnL: $471
Winrate: 51%
#of trades per day:10
Mistakes: 6
Cost of mistakes: -$214
Comment: Learning to get familiar with looking at multiple time frames to reduce #of trades and hold positions longer.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

 

[Matcha]

Quote from Bolimomo:

I like you as if you were my daughter. But don't turn me into a Mom! I am a guy! LOL

Just "Boli" will do if you want to speed things up.

Thank you for thinking that! Sifu!

 

[Matcha]

Quote from Bolimomo:

What happened there in early May? Did you "crash" too on May 6, 2010 - the flash crash day?

Yes, May 6th. I was very greedy and thought I could take advantage of the crash get a few $$$. Even though the matrix and the chart were not in sync. Then I had no stop in place. When I decided to place stops, the system wouldn't accept it.

I learned the lesson, when something is acting out. it's acting out. Only fools would "catch fish in mudy water"-chinese saying-"Hun Shui Mo Yu". Then catch dead poisoned fish.