NQ Paper Trade Journal
- Thread starter A2x2
- Start date
2016-10-07 Summary
Daily P&L: -3.25 (2 trades, 1 loser, 1 winner)
Trade Summary
Trade 1: Right call.. bad execution! A familiar story with me.. once again too trigger happy when I should have let the range develop and entered long closer to the bottom of the range before the run up (4838 to 4840) [-5.75]
Trade 2: Scalped the pullback. Did not hesitant to exit once the market slowed down and took profits. [+2.50]
I find myself getting more emotional now than ever. Even compared to when I was live. The only good aspect of this is I'm taking this paper trade 100% serious, as opposed to prior times when I would non-nonchalantly take losses and remind myself that I'd act differently when I go live. Rough week.. Nice to have a couple days off to reflect and review.
Things to (continue to) focus on:
-More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop)
-Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan
-Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop)
-Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day
-Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?)
Weekly P&L: -27.50
Daily P&L: -3.25 (2 trades, 1 loser, 1 winner)
Trade Summary
Trade 1: Right call.. bad execution! A familiar story with me.. once again too trigger happy when I should have let the range develop and entered long closer to the bottom of the range before the run up (4838 to 4840) [-5.75]
Trade 2: Scalped the pullback. Did not hesitant to exit once the market slowed down and took profits. [+2.50]
I find myself getting more emotional now than ever. Even compared to when I was live. The only good aspect of this is I'm taking this paper trade 100% serious, as opposed to prior times when I would non-nonchalantly take losses and remind myself that I'd act differently when I go live. Rough week.. Nice to have a couple days off to reflect and review.
Things to (continue to) focus on:
-More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop)
-Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan
-Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop)
-Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day
-Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?)
Weekly P&L: -27.50
Attachments
If I may ask. I started a thread in relation to daytrading the ES with 10 contracts, with a view to discussing some trading methods with some experienced ES daytraders. A few posters joined in, but to date not one of them has posted a chart showing live trade details. The question I have for you is, why do you not post a chart showing the entries and exits? I know you are sim trading so the trades will not be automatically showing on your charts like my live trades were, but the main question is why no charts being posted. It seems to be very common on this site and I don't know why?
Let me see if I can help you a little bit. Can you see the advantage of using a chart instead of posting a load of text? If you really want some constructive criticism, then stop posting your details during trading hours, concentrate on trading and then post the chart after market closes with the details marked up. Your first trade for today was a disaster from the start. What exactly was your criteria for entering, why did you place a stop at LOD, and why did you move your stop to get stopped out above LOD to see the market moving back up a bit and not reacting?
Thanks for the reply! Going forward I will be posting the charts with my entries and exits as I do see the value as you mentioned. The reason why I initially posted the text was because initially I wasn't using the IB sim trading, and was going to use the live trade platform and just write out the trades in the journal. However, now that I have gone back to using IB's sim platform your suggestion makes complete sense.
2016-10-10 Summary
Daily P&L: +0.25 (1 trades, 1 break-even)
Trade Summary
Trade 1: Entered long on the pullback and thought the market would continue to rally all day. Moved stop-loss to break-even to protect principal and possibly enter long again at close to the bottom of the range (4891.50), however it did not decline far enough before I removed my order.
Things to (continue to) focus on:
-More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop)
-Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan
-Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop)
-Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day
-Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?)
Daily P&L: +0.25 (1 trades, 1 break-even)
Trade Summary
Trade 1: Entered long on the pullback and thought the market would continue to rally all day. Moved stop-loss to break-even to protect principal and possibly enter long again at close to the bottom of the range (4891.50), however it did not decline far enough before I removed my order.
Things to (continue to) focus on:
-More patience on the trade set up (wait longer until I take the 1st trade, for the range and chart patterns to develop)
-Need to mentally visualize potential chart formations both to the upside and downside (anything can happen), and strategize my game plan
-Protect profits (do not hesitate to exit and take profits at current levels when market is exhibiting signs of slowing down / utilize time stop)
-Okay to miss entry and not make a single trade for the day
-Always keep the overall trend in mind (will it trend or will it range?)
