My Journal of Trading Mistakes and...

Quote from jack hershey:


That money is being offered and IT IS THERE for the TAKING.

You need to get it in gear.
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Jack,

I sent you a PM with my trades of ES yesterday. 16 trades are winners, zero losers, plus a few breakevens. Total profit is 10 pts, average profit per trade is only 0.625 (that's all I can do right now). Those trades have time (hour/minute/second) attached, you should be able see what strategy I am using, please comment.
 
Quote from 4DTrader:

Jack,

I sent you a PM with my trades of ES yesterday. 16 trades are winners, zero losers, plus a few breakevens. Total profit is 10 pts, average profit per trade is only 0.625 (that's all I can do right now). Those trades have time (hour/minute/second) attached, you should be able see what strategy I am using, please comment.
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Thanks; I sent acknowledgement

I will get back to you.
 
lilduckling, I couldn't agree with you more. How is exiting for profit too early a mistake? When I enter a trade I do the same thing on each and every trade. In the morning I take profits like a fool. If the market offers me money I do the foolish thing and take it. In the afternoon I take a partial and move the stop to b/e. If it gets hit, it gets hit. So what. What happens after I take a profit is totally meaningless. Now, if I let winners run in the AM and take them quickly in the PM then I am trading against my trading plan, which is a big mistake.

To the OP.....if your trading plan says take profits at +3 points, for example, and you do, and the market flys another 20 points giving you zero additional points you made a PERFECT trade. Plan the trade, trade the plan. Your job as a trader is as simple as this: Go out there and collect points. It is not your job to land a whale, just a few small fish. Good Fishing!

Quote from lilduckling:

_exited too early is not a mistake.why do u say exiting too early was a mistake?_ Had the price shortly thereafter gone against the trade severly..... it wouldnt've been a mistake would it? it would if been "exellent trade... got out just in time...." , # 6, 8, and 9 are mistakes... as far as the others go, you cant and wont be able to be in every trade that looks good. When a lion sees a herd of zebras running by, it does it think "darn missed a good one, missed another... and another.." no, it focuses on one animal after it scanned the herd... picked out the weakes... or youngest... slowest... giving itself the highest odds for a kill. Same as what you should be doing when looking to enter a trade.theres no such thing as.... darm... i missed the awesome price movement... whats the price.... so what if the DOW makes a 200 point move.. what is it moving into????? thats what you watch... your wins are not made in huge moves ... its made in small most likely ones. Is the price running up right into resistance while on a down trend...etc??Forget about what you "missed" ... study what most people will likely do when the price nears a certain area or point.What are the affecting sectors or imdustries doing?Then take into account the geo-political atmosphere... its just some of the things that increase your odds BECAUSE..... you can be sure...... that if a trade looks really_ really good on its own... its most likely someone on the other side that wants you to buy or sell.Finally... as far as not getting out on your stop and "not getting killed this time" its not the shark that gets you.... its the paranas.Have a hard stop... that way if its hit.. your out... no matter what.(and for the most part the price will reverse after it hits your stop) THe road is hard my friend......
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I like the idea of this thread and I hope it helps you out. Surely you are braver than many on ET if you keep it going. One thing to remember though, its something my grandfather used to always say to me on the farm. It would go something like this.

Grandpa: "God damn it Brandon!"
Brandon: "I'm sorry Gramps, it was a mistake"
Granpa: "Youve done it three times now, if you do it once or twice its a mistake, past that its a fuck up. If you do it again I'm gonna paddle your ass" (and he would...so I did not fuck up much)

Anyway..good luck.
 
4D, you are talking about a dilemma I faced many years ago. Do I sit there and wait days for a trade to setup and pass up all the decent ones in the meantime or do I take every opportunity the market offers? Here's how I solved this dilemma.

By nature, I'm a fairly impatient person so I had to incorporate that into my trading plan. No way could I sit there for days and not trade. Heck, I was in cash for 2 hours today and I was getting the shakes LOL. Anyway, what I did was 1, position size and 2, trade two accounts.

If I come across a setup that is good but not great I will hit it with a 1/4 position. If I stop out on that and it turns into a very good setup I will hit it with a 1/2 position. And, if it turns into a great setup, then you can probably imagine I will hit it with a full position. In addition to this I will average into a position if I think the market is just giving me noise. This way I don't get tagged. On top of all this I have a second account that stays in cash until I get that "Ah ha" moment. I'm sure you've been through a situation where you think you got a great trigger and it just needed "a little more time" when you get that, "Ah ha, this is it" feeling. When I get that feeling I trigger in the second account. The second account has a 99% win rate because it stays in cash for days at a time until I get that "can't miss" moment.

I could never understand why a trader would put 5 contracts, for example, on each and ever trigger because all triggers are NOT created equal. Some have higher probabilities than others so they require more attention and more size. Put a 1 lot on the so-so ones if you have to and go with whatever you're comfortable with on the super setups. Money Management is the most neglected, yet the most powerful tool a trader has. Lose small, win big.

So now the question is: Do you have the patience to wait and wait and wait for "that" setup you know you can knock out? If not then you have to position size.

Quote from 4DTrader:

Still changing method, the current method has medium high probability, though there is a high-probability method that I can use, but it takes a lot of patience and leaves some decent opportunites on the table. This high-probability method will almost guarantee that I am a profitable trader, but I need action and right now choose the medium-high probability method.

About today's mistake:

First trade went against me, left it to develop into a 25.50 points loss, huge loss. Well, the usual mistake: did not exit.
The same mistake was repeated for a 10.25 points loss.
Aslo entry rule was not followed, a few sloppy trades.

Changed into a different intrument. Scored 15 success trades vs 2 failure trades, however, the second of the failure trades cost 10.75 points, that wiped out all of the win points: 9.00. Cause: failure to exit a short position during the end of the day rally after GM's better-than-expected numbers were released.

Will do a little more thinking tonight.
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Random entry is death. That's the conclusion I draw after a number of tests on random entry today. Random entry is brutal, it should never be considered as an entry strategy. Anyone saying random entry is ok should be shot!

Today I lost patience, plus the usual mistake of failing to exit. Now I put the patience back into the plan. Like building a car from scratch, I am putting together all the important components, one at a time. I guess I installed the radiator today.

Hopefully, I will stop posting on this thread in one week, not because I won't make any mistake, but because mistakes will be corrected and won't cause serious damage, and I will be on my way to make consistent money.
 
I don't have many mistakes to report, basically the same mistakes repeated every day. I realize those mistakes will be with me as long as I trade. Therefore, I am now closing this thread.
 
You may only need 2 points a day 4DTrader, but the greed will still be inside of you. :)

FWIW - At the end of a session, I like to look at how many pips I took relative to the range; rather than worrying about some arbitrary number as my target. I am happy getting between 30-40% of the total range (high - low of the pair) for the time I was trading.

Edit: Just read your last post - best of luck to you.
 
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