My Life as a Trader...

A tad bit better today, but I really need to breakout in terms of profit.

+1.00 on 6cts, but I traded partial contracts due to my performance yesterday, so the actual number of points taken from the markets was higher, just on reduced contracts.

I seem to be getting hurt the most when the market starts going into a trend mode. For example, after this morning's ES breakout above 1112.25, I attempted buying the pullback. This did not materialize as I expected it to and I took a couple losses in a row. The good news is that all of these losses was less than 1 point each. Anywhere from -0.25 to -0.75.

The best trade of the day really occurred within 30minutes of the open, and that was to simply buy in anticipation of running short stops above 1112.25.

Tomorrow will prove to be another day. I'll spend the rest of the day researching and reviewing my trading strategy. I suspect that just a couple solid and successful trades will give me a good +5.00 day.

Cheers! Sell 'em high, buy 'em low, take their money, bash their nose.

Best,

DayStructure
-2.25/+40.00
 
have you been able to profitably test your trading on paper before going to real money or was it straight to real money?
 
First, If you were a long time user and contributor, why would you create a journal with an alias? No logical reason to use an alias unless you were previously banned or run out.

You said” 1. My current stake is just under $10,000. 2. -4.50 points today. I keep a trading journal which I track every single one of my trades and have found the reason for today's loss was: a. I had 7 trades. All of which were losers, primarily because I was utilizing a strategy that is not part of my trading plan. I generally do not speculate on breakouts or buy/sell within 1-point of the highs/lows. Today I was really expecting the high of 1012.25 to be touched and breached. This obviously did not occur and I got really jammed on these trades. b. Discipline. I have a written trading plan and it is one that I follow. I deviated today and really paid the price. c. Patience. Almost every single successful trader that I have ever met and spent time with have all suggested patience as part of their success. Generally, I am a very patient trader, but something with definitely off today. I felt in the morning when I woke up to prepare. d. Sleep. I couldn't sleep last night and had only rested for about 2 hours before starting my day. This is not a good way to go. Ever have one of those trading days which you say to yourself, "Damn, I should have just stayed in bed." Well, today was one of them for me. Recognizing that trading has its distribution of gains and losses is key. Today's loss was not necessary but it certainly serves as a reminder to always trade with the plan and to maintain course.”

Do you see a pattern here? I do. No discipline. Not following your plan and so on. If you have really been trading 10 years you haven’t learned much in that time if these are the mistakes you are still making. Not trying to be negative but you should print off that post, read it and be honest with yourself. Is there anything positive in it from a trader’s perspective other than maybe having a plan? It reeks of newbie, not 10 yr veteran IMHO. Best of luck if this is for real but I have my doubts.

Good trading

BM
 
Quote from Big Money:

First, If you were a long time user and contributor, why would you create a journal with an alias? No logical reason to use an alias unless you were previously banned or run out.

Do you see a pattern here? I do. No discipline. Not following your plan and so on. If you have really been trading 10 years you haven’t learned much in that time if these are the mistakes you are still making. Not trying to be negative but you should print off that post, read it and be honest with yourself. Is there anything positive in it from a trader’s perspective other than maybe having a plan? It reeks of newbie, not 10 yr veteran IMHO. Best of luck if this is for real but I have my doubts.

Good trading

BM
More...

BM,

Trading has been an incredibly pleasurable experience as well as a painful one. Painful in that it is full of self-discovery and acceptance. Commitment and discipline has always been an issue of mine since I was young, so naturally it leaks out in my trading every so often. This is an area that I am continuously working on.

If I had the discipline and proper commitment when things were "fluid" then I would have adverted disaster and would not be humbly posting my story for the world to read. This is a story my friend, a unique story that you have the privilege of following.

Trading requires a continuous amount of energy and learning. This is part of the business and I accept it.

I have a goal and I have a trading plan to achieve the goal. I hope you will be joining me at Mastros in a few months. :)

Cheers and thanks for the comment.

Best,

DayStructure
 
+1.00

I maintained my trading plan today and performed slightly better. I am still using a reduced number of contracts (2cts), so the actual points captured is higher.

I was seriously considering taking the short position in to the end of the day, but didn't quite get the balls to do it. I'm not sure why because the setup was there and there was definitely momentum to get things moving. Goldman was a seller and other houses started coming in below 1107.00.

Additionally, I had prior analyzed that if the ES could sell off from 1110.00 and maintain below 1108.50 that it is likely for an eod selloff. Even after all of this time, I am still finding myself having issues with trade conviction. I will go over this tonight to improve myself for tomorrow.

It's time to breakout!

Sell 'em high, buy 'em low, take their money, bash their nose.

Best,

DayStructure
-1.25/+40.00
 
the biggest reason why you don't make no$money$ in trading is because you trade the S&P500 futures.
Here you are attacking SP500 futures when it moves 0.20% to 0.30% and you go in a celerbration move where in the grand scheme of things, it was just noise, and it could have went either way. If you traded in stocks, you'd have an inkling of chance, but knowing stocks have a PDT 25k mininum,
You should go back to working or burgerflippin to build up a 50k capital or go prop.


IN conclusion, you are trading noise.
Almost Random noise in a 0.10-> 0.30% range

IN comparions, a Noise trader is equivalent to a can collector /recycler with $10k in savings, yes you might be able to pickup a few cans here and there, but You will never make any money.

-------------

the way I see your thought process in your after trades is complete newbie * 50 , how do you even have these thoughts of "not knowing when to trade" after 10 years of experience?
you either never improved or never made money, in reality
you made this journal to give yourself motivation to make something out of the $9k and dwindling capital you have left.

Get a job, trade some trending stocks.
Not an index which moves 0.10-> 0.30 all day, when I traded ANF which moved 2-3% nicely.
 
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