Maverick74 and marketsurfer's TopstepTrader Combine (daily trade reports and journal)

Quote from austinp:

I don't have a screen capture program on this particular computer, but CL alone would be >$159,000 and ZS alone is < (-$4000)

That includes the CL day from +$3,100 to -$2,900 just before most recent +$10,200 run-up off that low. So overall, I put $15,000+ in the CL account over eight sessions, disregarding capital management decisions afterwards.

Bottom line is shooting for +$2,000 daily and accepting the overages such as today's $4,400 and that prior $3,100 off the start would easily reach profit objective goals.

Without churning so much trying to make up for ZS losses, CL % win would be well above 50%

Basically with ZS I stuck with dead tapes and tried to pull something out of nothing due to time restrictions and deadlines. My schedule is such that this program has to wrap up by next Tuesday, so I hit ZS hard inside of dead-chop days.

Traded it in scale-in fashion enough to know that I'm content to work one symbol at a time and leave it at that. Trying to juggle multiple symbols and charts has been counter-productive... cost me big-time additional gains in CL while I wasted my time foundering elsewhere.

What is your AVG win % on both?

Winner and loser duration?

Avg winner and avg lower?

I'm just curious to see how your numbers are adding up with the big p&l swings you take.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

What is your AVG win % on both?

Winner and loser duration?

Avg winner and avg lower?

I'm just curious to see how your numbers are adding up with the big p&l swings you take.

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Almost all of my trade entries are scales... 2 and then 3 in, sometimes another 5 in and then all 5 or 10 out for loss or gain. I generally lose small and win big in both block size and cumulative cents combined. The only reason for wide equity swings was trying to shoot the lights out and hit +$12k in ten days. Truth is, that's easier than I first thought when managing proper trade size.

Today for example I never traded larger than 5s at a time. Had I nixed the ZS mess and focused on CL with 5 and 10 lots down, would have easily been a +$8k to +$10k day.

But today was nothing extraordinary in CL... it does that all the time. Plenty of similar days ahead, and better too
 

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Quote from austinp:

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Almost all of my trade entries are scales... 2 and then 3 in, sometimes another 5 in and then all 5 or 10 out for loss or gain. I generally lose small and win big in both block size and cumulative cents combined. The only reason for wide equity swings was trying to shoot the lights out and hit +$12k in ten days. Truth is, that's easier than I first thought when managing proper trade size.

Today for example I never traded larger than 5s at a time. Had I nixed the ZS mess and focused on CL with 5 and 10 lots down, would have easily been a +$8k to +$10k day.

But today was nothing extraordinary in CL... it does that all the time. Plenty of similar days ahead, and better too

Those numbers are solid. Good job.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Those numbers are solid. Good job.

I can do much better... starting with keeping more, churning less and avoiding big givebacks.

The idea of a profit objective and deadline threw me for a loop at first... looking back, I can see it greatly affected me when I felt pressured to come from behind after the first-day ZS draw. In reality, I grossly underperformed here so far. But that's how it went, nobody is ever completely happy with their trading. We always have something or other to stew about :eek:
 
Quote from londonkid:

I reckon if you do an 'expanded flow sheet' of every parameter and just trade CL you have a great chance of smashing up the market. It just surprised me that you obviously put a lot of effort into getting the job done but overlooked the 'detail'. Sun tzu. Battles are won before the fighting begins and all that.

I apologize for the way I responded to your earlier posts. Thought about it later on, you didn't deserve to be snapped at. Needless to say I was pissed at myself and your posts were in the way.

You were right about the preparations. Most of the onlookers here pass thru and think, "ah... it's just sim. how hard can that be?"

Truth is, my real trading efforts thru this time have been much easier than the combine. Trade enough turns to hit the $$ mark per day and cease. That approach created seven wins and one loss session of eight. Not unusual with CL.

Meanwhile, trying to hard and splitting my attention in the combine under-performed those same, side-by-side results. I actually "worked" much harder in the combine than I did real $$ efforts. Part of it was the unfamiliar platform, part of it was two symbols in the new platform, part of it was trying to outperform, part of it was advancing age and too many years in this game on my part :p

So anyways, you were right about the poor preparations. I assumed I knew enough about many things there when in fact there was a lot for me to know that I did not. Won't happen again, shouldn't have happened to begin with.
 
Update: I've received numerous emails from ET addresses asking all manner of questions about where my progress stands in the combine, etc.

Basically I need to accomplish the following two critera in the next two sessions traded:

+3,636 or greater added gains in ZS specifically

+6,926 or greater added gains overall

If I meet = exceed both of those objectives, I'll have met all criteria for passing the combine parameters. So I'm not looking any further ahead than the trading session on Monday, and then again on Tuesday.
 
Quote from austinp:
----Update: I've received....
----Basically....
----the next two sessions....
---- +3,636 or greater added gains in ZS specifically
---- +6,926 or greater added gains overall
----If I meet....
----I'm not looking any further ahead than....
1) When does your Combine expire? :confused:
2) FWIW.....consider waiting until Wednesday, the 24th AND 31st, to trade-out crude oil when the weekly report comes out for maximum expected volatility and trend persistence. :cool:
3) You could benefit from end-of-the-month window-dressing during the last five days of October with crude oil. Soybeans could be dragged along "in sympathy" too. :)
4) Could you wait until November's monthly USDA report to finish-out soybeans? :D
 
Is anyone able to sign up for this specfic program? With the same parameters?
Or is it a every now and again kind of thing?
seadog
 
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