NoDoji's Day Trading Log

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NoDoji

Head back to stock trading, you were doing well no?

Forget ES for now. It is a hard task-master.

Reading a few of your entries sounds very much like: thought about taking the ES entry but I didn't then I castigated myself for several hours for not following the 'perfect' entry. (Isn't it always perfect after the fact!) Now that my confidence was dented/shot, then I looked at stock XYZ which I know backwards and forwards and thought about entering a short but didn't then 5 hours later it had dropped a dollar.

I am not putting words in your mouth, this is the gist of what I have from reading entries lately. My interpretation could be wrong. An apology if this is the case.

Find people that resonate with you and are doing things right: Stick with them (RW?).
Go back to your baseline of what was working before.
Put down the books and get your head right.
Trading has nothing to do with fighter pilots or Red Baron snoopy comic strips or overconfidence.
 
I totally agree with you. whether stocks or futures are the same thing. I normally just trade those obvious ones or typical setups do not try to trade news. I done with trading pretty early around 10:00am,neted 2.0k+ from FNM, I sut down my computer around that time, "early bird eats earth worm". normally I will fade the news (buy on the remor and sell the news).

I do not like trading ES, I like to trade sweet crude.


Quote from NoDoji:

I find ES leaves chart footprints exactly like any stock does. I believe I read it well. The trades I didn't take today were all fine and went in my favor, and the opening trade I did take was against my better judgment.

I have a live witness who heard me say "I don't think I'm gonna trade until the news is out today." "Why not?" he asked, making feel very guilty. Followed a little while later by me saying, "OK I'm taking the short signal even though I'm sure it's gonna trade in a range and it's at the bottom of the channel."

Now I know I need to be aggressive, BUT I think "Trade your plan" comes above all. :D
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nodoji, if you really want to be agressive. just think like that:
if the market shoots from 1000 to 1038, and if you did not do any thing, (suppose you have a short position just around 1000), you know how much you are in paper loss, or vice versa, es dropped from 1038 to 1000, and you did not do anything, but you have a long position at 1037, how much paper loss you accumulated!

this reflection will help you be agressive. since neo one wants loss!
 
Made $ 100 trading the es today. I am a more of a late day trader so missed the reports.

I already stated and I have seen other traders that go flat until AFTER the report comes out.

I see no reason for you to be trading before a report, you are gambling not trading. There is no leaking of news before a report, just some people gambling on what they think the report will say. I do speculate on biotech stocks, but the risk vs reward of being right is much higher than betting on an economic report, and sometimes I have more information from doctors on what they think about the drug.


Also, another problem is that you are letting a previous trade that you got stopped out on cause you not to pull the triggers on your later trades. The purpose of the stop is to get us out of the trade when we make a mistake. You realized what your mistake was, you wrote it in this journal, so you should have no fear on taking the next trade.

Lets say we do 3 trades today, all with 1 to 1 risk vs reward. Lose on 1, and win on 2, is still a positive day.
 
or did you cut loss accordingly? in those cases, you did not.

but do not push yourself too hard. markets most time are in no decision zone or too much noises there (or confusion signals), particularly day trading.
 
since Es has too much noises (3 point /less movement) or confusion signals, a 3-point stop loss is not proper to catch major intra-day ES move like 10 or 20 points move, you must give the market time to filter out those noises.



Quote from trader_david:

or did you cut loss accordingly? in those cases, you did not.

but do not push yourself too hard. markets most time are in no decision zone or too much noises there (or confusion signals), particularly day trading.
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Quote from trader_david:

ES is hard to trade, too many competitors.
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Actually, the the main reason why its so hard is because you're trading an index, and the spread kind of sucks also.
 
Quote from satchel:

NoDoji

Head back to stock trading, you were doing well no?

Forget ES for now. It is a hard task-master.

Go back to your baseline of what was working before.
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Stocks, ES, no matter, my max loss per trade is the same, my strategies are the same.

What was working before worked until it didn't. I had a very high comfort level with my strategy at the time and so I had no hesitation putting on the trades. But that style of trading made me overly comfortable and lacking in risk management.

I will no longer hold positions through very deep drawdowns only to take a $100 profit or loss and be so happy to be out of it. A trader I know just recently endured a $30K drawdown on a day trade to eventually exit the trade at a $1700 loss. He said he's used to that kind of thing because his win rate is high and he often makes that much on trades. This style may work for many because the home runs can be fantastic, but my account cannot bear that risk, so I have to be far more careful now. What worked for me earlier this year worked by way of the market's overall trend, but was not a safe way for me to trade.

I learned an unbelievable amount of "good stuff" since returning from my vacation last May, but haven't yet made any of it "my own". It took me several months late last year to find a strategy that I was comfortable with and worked for me earlier this year. I'll still utilize that strategy at times, but I need time to absorb a few new strats and have confidence with them. So I'm taking a time out from advice, ideas, etc. and just letting it all settle in.

I took a break from soccer this summer and then I guest played with my old team a few weeks ago. I was worried I would play badly because of taking time off, but I scored 2 goals and came within a hair of putting in 2 more.

Often a break is a very good thing.
 
Quote from ang_99:

Actually, the the main reason why its so hard is because you're trading an index, and the spread kind of sucks also.
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ES bid and ask are 12.50 apart per car. If I trade 1000 shares of a stock that's about the same as the tightest spread you can get (.01 cent).

What I found from my sim and paper trading experience with ES is that I get very strong entry prices when I anticipate the price at which I want enter the trade and have my order ready at that level.

Quote from trader_david:

since Es has too much noises (3 point /less movement) or confusion signals, a 3-point stop loss is not proper to catch major intra-day ES move like 10 or 20 points move, you must give the market time to filter out those noises.
More...

I've found that ES moves very smoothly actually (other than news jumps) and a 3 pt stop is far more than enough to filter out noise. I've been using a 2 pt stop when I trade, but would be comfortable with a 3 pt in some instances.
 
Have a good vacation. I would recommend to avoid stress when you get back, for 1st day just sim trade until you build back up your confidence in your system. Treat sim as if it was real, 1 contract for es or whatever you would do in real life, with your real stops and targets. You can also set yourself set amount that you will stop trading for the day say $ 400.

After that start small, for stocks just 100 to 200 shares, for es just 1 contract.

If you want I can be in a trading room with you for a few days, and call out a few trades, just let me know how to login.

I am starting to have more confidence in my trades lately now that I usually know how much I will lose or win per trade. For your 1st real trade, determine how much you are willingly to lose on that trade, make sure you are willing to accept that loss so it will not come as a surprise and cause an emotional reaction.

Make sure you have reasons for entering the trade, stop, and profit. If it goes bad, review what went wrong. For example did you chase...

Trading is like fishing, you need to have the patience to wait for a good setup and the discipline to take the trade and take the stop or profit.

You can be like a robot in taking the setup, but part of the setup can be an if statement that says if report, don't trade, that can be part of your trading plan.

I make updates to my trading plan when I learn something new.
 
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