Oh No, NOT Another S&P EMini journal...

When I started the new smaller account at the beginning of this month, my goal for this month was 10 % return on capital. As of right now, my net profit for the month is $2155.50. I have accomplished my goal in 10 trading days.

I am not sure that I will stop trading for the rest of the month, but I will take trades very selectively. If anything compelling comes up, I will trade, but otherwise I might just preserve my capital and profits, and wait for opportunities next month.
 
Excellent work. Whilst I understand your thinking on stopping trading after achieving your goal I have found that consistency is achieved after 'time spent in the market with positions on'. So the question really is why stop at 10%, just redefine the goal? You are trading well, keep it rolling and continue to sharpen your saw.

I say this because in 1996 we used to stop trading as soon as we had a good month registered in fear of losing profits we now had locked in. Then we realized we were living in the future and our inner thinking was worried about future losses! No place for a traders mind to be.

We came back to NOW and traded all through the month and had some record months and very few drawdown ones.

Now I trade all through the month except when I want a break. That is different.

Just something for you to think about.
 
Quote from KRSNA:

Excellent work. Whilst I understand your thinking on stopping trading after achieving your goal I have found that consistency is achieved after 'time spent in the market with positions on'. So the question really is why stop at 10%, just redefine the goal? You are trading well, keep it rolling and continue to sharpen your saw.

Now I trade all through the month except when I want a break. That is different. Just something for you to think about.
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As usual, you are always insightful and helpful. THANKS.
Definitely food for thought, as you said.

Bear in mind, I did not say that I will definitely STOP trading for the rest of the month, even though it might turn out to be so. All I want to do for the rest of the month is be very stringent in picking my trades. If none fits the criteria, then there might very well be no trades. But I will be at the job every trading day.

My becoming more selective in trades after a (10%) "modest goal" was based on past experience. I used to have very "large" goals for the month and put myself under pressure to perform. That made me 'overtrade" and some times pick not-so-low-hanging fruit. That unnecessarily risked my trading capital. As you know, that is NOT A GOOD THING TO DO. So I am taking this time, after meeting a modest goal, to learn to sit back and wait for the trades to come to me. I need this training. I see this as one of my flaws.
 
Mr Krsna
I have to agree as short term traders,we can not be in the past & fear the un known.better to throw the constant same size lot dice with every oppurtunity market gives.You have survived since 1996 to make a living in this game... impressive.
iam trading since 1998.
 
Yes KRSNA is bang on the money IMO also, if your system generates another signal after your daily goal has been reached, why not take that call? But, I suspect, as you have mentioned earlier, that you do not have an edge (simplistic definition here) so that means to me that you do not entirely trust your system. Could that be the case here?
 
Quote from romik:

Yes KRSNA is bang on the money IMO also, if your system generates another signal after your daily goal has been reached, why not take that call? But, I suspect, as you have mentioned earlier, that you do not have an edge (simplistic definition here) so that means to me that you do not entirely trust your system. Could that be the case here?
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NO, that is NOT the case. Just because I said I do not have an EDGE does not mean that I do not have a system or that I do not follow my system, or that I do not trust my system. I am aware that NO SYSTEM is perfect. I am happy with my trading system, rules, and my results. I DO NOT CONSIDER MOST STRATEGIES an "edge". It is just a problem of definition, not of trust.

BUT I DO APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTS. THEY HELP ME THINK WITH GREATER FOCSUS.
 
Quote from goodday:

All I want to do for the rest of the month is be very stringent in picking my trades. If none fits the criteria, then there might very well be no trades. But I will be at the job every trading day.

My becoming more selective in trades after a (10%) "modest goal" was based on past experience. I used to have very "large" goals for the month and put myself under pressure to perform. That made me 'overtrade" and some times pick not-so-low-hanging fruit. That unnecessarily risked my trading capital. As you know, that is NOT A GOOD THING TO DO. So I am taking this time, after meeting a modest goal, to learn to sit back and wait for the trades to come to me. I need this training. I see this as one of my flaws.
More...

Let me throw this at you Goodday. I personally never set a goal as a percentage return. I am a trader not an investor. I work for tick profits. I look for ticks per day and average ticks per trade. A percentage goal could be reached due to some big fruit dropping into my lap. Windfall profits are just a bonus. Like I just got a big fast windfall being long the euro a few minutes ago. That's a bonus. My day to day trading is plain old consistency.

As a day trader a good goal to have might be maybe 5-10-20 ticks a day per lot.

I know every time I place a trade I will make '10.59' ticks per trade, win, lose or breakeven. Some of those are big bonus ones of 80+ ticks others are 3 ticks but the loss is never greater than 10 ticks.

In another 1000 trades I'll bet my average trade will be within 2 ticks of 10.59. It just never changes after a big enough sample is produced. Once consistency has arrived.

If you spend time analyzing your results you will see that consistency in ticks per trade is perhaps a worthwhile goal to add.

More thinking for you...
 
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