scalp's scalping journal

S

scalp

Hi all!
I started trading around 12 month ago.
I tried to develop a trend following method but I failed. I used around 2pt stop in the ES and tried to reach 3 - 5 points gain. But I was to often caught in the mess. I had a lot of breakeven stops and also got whipped out too often before the real move occurred.

Two month ago I started to trade a counter trend scalping method with very tight stop (avg. stop inc. commissions is 0.6 points) and go for the quick profit before a wiggle comes in (avg. winner is around 0.9 points inc. commissions).
My winning % is around 60%.

So far so good but I`m still not satisfied with my trading.

I only get around 6 signals a day.
My average daily gain is only 2 points inc. comm.
I do much better when the volume is low. So I rarely take a trade in the first hour of trading.
My method works def. best when trading the ES.
I know people trading the momentum in the first 30min very very smart and taking as much points out of the market as I do in a week.

I always tell to myself that 2 points a day is MUCH better than losing. If its true that around 90 of 100 traders fail to get profitable I maybe just be Mr. 91 but thats still great.

Last week was very typical for my trading (bit more trades than usual) I got +14 points with 39 trades. (So around +10 points after comm)

My main target with this journal is to get assistance by experienced trades in order to reach a higher level of psychological skill and satisfaction.

I will shortly describe my trading method here and any comment is very welcome:

60min and 15min chart for the bigger picture.
Just one moving average for trend (34ema but could be a another period too) and volume.

3min charts for the signals:
volume, 21 and 55 ema for trend and targets (supp and res), bollinger Bands for the range
William Blaus double smoothed stochastic for oversold/overbought/sideways readings
Fast stochastic for divergence signals

1min chart for finetuning of the entry
price action and volume only

1min Tick indicator chart for divergences and extreme readings
just price action

I will enter a trade only on extreme readings of the DSS. When oversold/overbought conditions are reached I will wait for a divergence setup with the fast stochastic. Than I switch down to the 1min chart and watch for these two reversal setups:

http://www.dacharts.com/2b.htm
http://www.dacharts.com/123.htm

I first one is much more reliable IMO.
Best played with a pivot area, market sup/res, fibonacci sup/res in the back.

When I´m in stop is 1 point max. When I get a print of +0.5 points I trail stop to -0.5 points. When + 0.75 is printed I trail stop to breakeven.
I usually go out 1 or 2 ticks ahead of the next sup/res to get a quick fill.

Thats it.

I will start this journal tomorrow and will not focus on the trades itself but on my inner feelings.
 
I would just to give you my thoughts:

You average 2 points a day. That's $100 per day per contract. Let's say you trade two contracts with a $10'000 account. (Total Margin would be arround $3600). And lets say you trade 40 weeks per year 5 days per week. That's 200 Days per year.

200x2x100 = $40'000 + starting = 50'000 Total Account value at the end of a one year period. (not included that you could trade more contracts if you increase in value).

that would be a 500% performance in one year. When you start those 40'000 don't seem much at the beginning but it's all about consitency and account value growth. I know it's very boring and there is no excitement involved - but that is what trading is.
 
scalper, plz take it from me, not an experienced or successful trader. you're doing great! you're not losing; moreover you're winning. you're in the elite! you've made it! if you wanna try other methods, papertrade them first; but don't fix it if it aint broken and keep grinding out those profits (and increase size).
 
SCALP.... at the risk of sounding repetitiveif you can in fact average 40 points per month in all types of market conditions, i repeat ALL types of market conditions your only objective should be to gradually build to a level of 5-10 contracts somewhere towards the end of 2 years. if you are profitable $1 , you are in the top 10 % of futures traders . BEST OF LUCK.
 
scalp,

I pretty much seem to have done what you did. Only difference is that by the time I found out the trend is not my friend I had already been scared away from the ES, so I'm trading stocks now. That's easier, because I have the ES to lead me. Other than that, I think you are OK and I think you know you are.
 
Hi all!
Thx for the encouraging comments.

I decided to :

- not any longer care about any kind of performance posted anywhere. Its not about beating anybody or reaching any kind of performance. My first target is to be profitable. Not more and not less.

- ignore any kind of other method at first. I will trade the same setup day in and day out as long as it works and I´m bored to death. I will try to build up my account and increase the number of contracts I trade.

Today was quite good for me. I had a an eraly, very profitable setup but I was by the doctor so I missed it :)
I missed another one short after the chicago news. I was a bit scared by the volumen and nutty action and decided to let it go.

Ther rest of the day played out nice for me:

+2.25, +0.5, +0.25, -0.5, +0.75, +1.0 = 3.65 after comm.

I left some at the table but well this could pay out in the future.

thx all and have a nice weekend
 
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