Quote from Baywolf:
Really, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but I guess it must be a big deal judging from how vocal some are. I'll just keep it in the 2010 PnL journal. BTW, someone asked where the successful traders on ET are; check the 2010 PnL journal. All the winners are updating there. It's shameless bragging and they keep it positive attitude.
well, here's an explanation of the "big deal", so to speak
regardless how many turns you average per day and/or pts targeted for profit, a couple of things remain constant.
over the course of time, your win-rate will be something between 50% and near 60% if you are really skilled and picky. You will not have a higher win-rate per trade than 60% over time... probably lower than that.
so during the natural win-lose, give-take of trading thru each day, your overall results would bellcurve like other top traders:
#1: a few days would be golden. you can do no wrong. huge gains, near 100% win rate
#2: most day will be give/take where you wind up with a handful of ES pts in the end
#3: a few days would be leaden. you cant do anything right, make a lot of mistakes, end up in the hole a fair bit
that's the reality of this profession. that's how the bellcurve shapes out.
you will experience the give-take, give-take process just like everyone else... except for those majority stuck in the give-take, give-give, take-give, give-give-give-give stage.
during that daily ride, you will deal with all sorts of natural human emotions that negatively impact performance. ever wonder why the really big ES traders don't trade 200-lots balls to the walls all day long? Because the inefficiency of emini markets is brief and fleeting most days over time.
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fwiw: the blotters in P&L thread that shows a $$ amount and ES symbol means nothing. actually, a little bit less than nothing. That can easily be sim traded or backwards traded in hindsight "replay" mode of many platforms.
those who show a blotter with ES (or other emini) trades with time & sales stamp that also prove something other than sim-mode are of merit. That, or copy of an actual broker statement minus the acct numbers.
In other words, something that shows definite proof it ain't sim, or you might as well assume it is simulated replay and go from there.