My goal this month is $5,000 net profit

My guess SV is that you have optimized your sell stop and what it has done is placed right where historically it will make the most sense... the problem is that you may have also optimized the stops on the wrong trades. The problem here is you will always have a few more wrong trades (stops being hit) which is going to reduce your P&L by a serious number. My advice (for what its worth) is to far fewer trades and make the trades you execute more robust. Build the average dollar per trade number as high as you can and be able to sustain the losses that will always be there.

Once you have worked out your sys, the number one thing you have to do is test going forward in real time. This will give you a window into what short comings your system has and what adjustments you have to make.
 
Quote from increasenow:

Sir...honestly, what do you think about switching to trading the ES with your $5,000...seriously
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Not sure why you think I have $5K?
If you are concerned with am0ount of money I allocated for testing strategy look this thread...I even attached the equity curv.
But I'll review ES...it's always been of interest to trade futures
 
Quote from SuperVolatility:

Well here is the problem with winning trades...I enter a trade then it moves in my direction UP and then I set a stop-limit sell order if it drops few ticks below certain level sell and 80% of the time it has been jumping around like that...it'll come down just enough to take my order...perhaps dropp a bit more but then it trends up as I have projected...as I said...I cam getting cought in the middle of temporary down turn...perhaps I should not set such stop limits when I am in the money but I risk giving up whatever gains I already made...so go figure.
For loosing trades when it moves against me I some room...and room keeps growoing before I cut it.
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ok employ a larger stop. this mean fewer trades. but ensure that the risk reward is 2:1 at least. I hope u get back into positive territory b4 end of month.
 
Sounds like you have beat yourself up a lot over the breaking of your rules. I have also beat myself up for the same thing and would guess most here have at one time done the same

I think the fact that your posting it shows your owning your mistakes and you can avoid them.

Some things I would suggest, Have you written down your rules? If so are they there in front of you when you trade? Put your entry rules in stone and then find a way to feel GOOD about NOT entering a trade that doesnt meet the rules but you would have otherwise entered.

A saying that helped me was this "trading is like a NO CALL baseball game" you can sit and camp out until the PERFECT pitch comes in. Plus there is nothing worse then missing a GOOD trade because your all wrapped up worrying about a trade your in thats a loser whenyou shouldnt have been in it in the first place.

Another thing that I would humble suggest is to forget about the$5000 goal for a while. IMHO your not at that stage yet.
If you were my friend or neighbor I would suggest based on what you said to have a goal of "one month of trades that ONLY fit your trading plan" this includes entries and exits. Let the chips fall were they may and let the market tell you what your trading plan is worth per month instead of you trying to tell the market what its worth.

I would also humbly suggest posting every trade and the reason for the trade. You may find that if you post the reasons for your entries and your posting all your entries that you dont have a reason and then you will in fact not make that entry.

Other than that i wish you the best of results.
 
spent the weekend playing with TradeStation tuitorials, I like what I see. I regret not starting with TradeStation long time ago..spent all this time with IB. Not blaming the broker but did not know there are so many strategy testing and bells and whisles out there...but I was stuck with Trader Work Station....

I'll update with any progress I make with my new platform.
 
Quote from SuperVolatility:
but I was stuck with Trader Work Station....
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Huh ? Sounds like you just fell off the proverbial "turnip truck" !!
Everyone knows TWS is just an order entry platform.....whereas Tradestation is at a whole different level.
HELLO !
 
Quote from syswizard:

Huh ? Sounds like you just fell off the proverbial "turnip truck" !!
Everyone knows TWS is just an order entry platform.....whereas Tradestation is at a whole different level.
HELLO !
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:D
 
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