SniperDaytrader´s journal
- Thread starter SniperDaytrader
- Start date
Thanx bud 
February 18, 2015 Sitting on my hands
On days like today, you have to ask yourself a simple question: ¨Do you really have to trade?'' If your answer is yes, you are in a wrong business. We have FOMC (Federal Open Market Cometee) meeting at 13:00 US CST. That means everybody is playing World War I, sitting in their trenches doing nothing and waiting for the enemy to do the first step. This results in low volume and volatility. Low volume enviroment is the realm of market makers and quants and their algorithms. It is much easier for them to move the market wherever they want because they don't have to fight so many traders. This means higher risk for us - retail traders. On the other hand the volatility is also lower, which means low potential for each trade. Summa summarum it means you have to risk more for lesser profit. The best position in such a market is sitting on your hands.
I was well aware of the situation so my approach was to take only low-risk trades. If I was not able to get into a trade by risking 4 or 5 ticks I would simply let it go.
T1 When I see low volume I try to concentrate more on the market structure. This was a perfect example. I entered in fade with my limit order waiting below the market. It resulted in low-risk trade with 2 ticks heat. In this volatility I am happy even for +9 ticks.
T2 I tweeted 5min before that 4376.50 is interesting price level for me to go long. Market went down, touched exactly this price level and I saw bears trying to push lower without any luck. So I went long. After few secs I saw that bulls have no interest in pushing the market higher so I killed the position at +3
Then I almost felt asleep by watching the market so I decided to stop trading for today. I reached just 50% of my PDP (perfect daily target) today, but I am satisfied.
On days like today, you have to ask yourself a simple question: ¨Do you really have to trade?'' If your answer is yes, you are in a wrong business. We have FOMC (Federal Open Market Cometee) meeting at 13:00 US CST. That means everybody is playing World War I, sitting in their trenches doing nothing and waiting for the enemy to do the first step. This results in low volume and volatility. Low volume enviroment is the realm of market makers and quants and their algorithms. It is much easier for them to move the market wherever they want because they don't have to fight so many traders. This means higher risk for us - retail traders. On the other hand the volatility is also lower, which means low potential for each trade. Summa summarum it means you have to risk more for lesser profit. The best position in such a market is sitting on your hands.
I was well aware of the situation so my approach was to take only low-risk trades. If I was not able to get into a trade by risking 4 or 5 ticks I would simply let it go.
T1 When I see low volume I try to concentrate more on the market structure. This was a perfect example. I entered in fade with my limit order waiting below the market. It resulted in low-risk trade with 2 ticks heat. In this volatility I am happy even for +9 ticks.
T2 I tweeted 5min before that 4376.50 is interesting price level for me to go long. Market went down, touched exactly this price level and I saw bears trying to push lower without any luck. So I went long. After few secs I saw that bulls have no interest in pushing the market higher so I killed the position at +3
Then I almost felt asleep by watching the market so I decided to stop trading for today. I reached just 50% of my PDP (perfect daily target) today, but I am satisfied.
, generally like to hit it in 2hours tops.Well done, Turveyd
Well done, Turveyd
Missed it big time yesterday, full day +$19.20 LOL
The ultimate challenge
For the last couple of weeks I kept testing my trading strategy on the SIM account. I was tweaking the settings, changing the software setups, testing different entry timing tactics and trade management rules. But most importantly I was trying to become confident while trading. My trading become more and more calm, resulting in less trades with higher win% ratio.
I started the final testing stage on January 7, 2015. This is the final statistics and equity since then:
The red marks indicate end of the week, the black ones the daily outcome. Just from a quick look at the equity you can see an uptrend but also improvement since the last 2 weeks ($1.190,92 mark). Drawdowns are more shallow, there are less losers and less trades in general resulting in steeper equity.
I challenged myself to reach 80% win ratio with 20 trades before I go live. Today I fulfilled it. Statistics of the last 20 trades:
In addition I feel very confident and... well I would like to write ready, but I am not sure I would ever feel 100% ready for live trading. But I feel as ready as possible. So, starting from tomorrow I will trade from my live account trying to fulfill my ultimate challenge.
Conditions
Starting capital: $6.533
Instruments: e-mini Nasdaq, e-mini DowJones
Max. contracts: 1
Timeframe: no limit, but I expect to reach the goal in 6-8 weeks
Goal 1: $8.000 cumulative profit ($1.467 profit), which equals 22.46% ROI
Max. drawdown: $1.000 (reaching it would mean fail in this challenge)
After fulfilling the first goal I am planning to start trading with multiple contracts for higher profits.
By the end of this challenge I should be able to answer these questions:
1. Is it possible to start trading with relatively small trading account and become consistantly profitable?
2. How long does it take to become consistantly profitable?
3. How great is the psychological influence on trading while transition from SIM to LIVE account? (by comparing the LIVE and SIM results)
For the record - this is not my firts transition from SIM to LIVE so I already have some experience with LIVE trading. If you are transitioning from SIM to LIVE for the first time, your experience might differ from mine.
I pledge to publish all of my results here with all profits or losses plus everything what I will learned on the way. I hope I will be able to post daily, but even if I don't I will make full disclosure results overview with all great but also bad trades at least on weekly basis.
Let the journey begin!
For the last couple of weeks I kept testing my trading strategy on the SIM account. I was tweaking the settings, changing the software setups, testing different entry timing tactics and trade management rules. But most importantly I was trying to become confident while trading. My trading become more and more calm, resulting in less trades with higher win% ratio.I started the final testing stage on January 7, 2015. This is the final statistics and equity since then:
The red marks indicate end of the week, the black ones the daily outcome. Just from a quick look at the equity you can see an uptrend but also improvement since the last 2 weeks ($1.190,92 mark). Drawdowns are more shallow, there are less losers and less trades in general resulting in steeper equity.
I challenged myself to reach 80% win ratio with 20 trades before I go live. Today I fulfilled it. Statistics of the last 20 trades:
In addition I feel very confident and... well I would like to write ready, but I am not sure I would ever feel 100% ready for live trading. But I feel as ready as possible. So, starting from tomorrow I will trade from my live account trying to fulfill my ultimate challenge.
Conditions
Starting capital: $6.533
Instruments: e-mini Nasdaq, e-mini DowJones
Max. contracts: 1
Timeframe: no limit, but I expect to reach the goal in 6-8 weeks
Goal 1: $8.000 cumulative profit ($1.467 profit), which equals 22.46% ROI
Max. drawdown: $1.000 (reaching it would mean fail in this challenge)
After fulfilling the first goal I am planning to start trading with multiple contracts for higher profits.
By the end of this challenge I should be able to answer these questions:
1. Is it possible to start trading with relatively small trading account and become consistantly profitable?
2. How long does it take to become consistantly profitable?
3. How great is the psychological influence on trading while transition from SIM to LIVE account? (by comparing the LIVE and SIM results)
For the record - this is not my firts transition from SIM to LIVE so I already have some experience with LIVE trading. If you are transitioning from SIM to LIVE for the first time, your experience might differ from mine.
I pledge to publish all of my results here with all profits or losses plus everything what I will learned on the way. I hope I will be able to post daily, but even if I don't I will make full disclosure results overview with all great but also bad trades at least on weekly basis.
Let the journey begin!
1. YES no issues at all, it's not about your account value, but your skills.
2. You might already be, took me YEARS and YEARS, but mainly messing around so who knows.
3. Totally kills me, no point doing a Sim for me, but you might trade it the same, only 1 way to find out!
Your chart is more consistent than mine and I'm live and make $300 average per day, sometimes $20, sometimes $600, so you should in theory be fine.
It's only money, don't lose to much sleep over it, always find/make more, go kick it's ass!
p.s. try to have fun, if your not enjoying it, you'll never stick at it.
2. You might already be, took me YEARS and YEARS, but mainly messing around so who knows.
3. Totally kills me, no point doing a Sim for me, but you might trade it the same, only 1 way to find out!
Your chart is more consistent than mine and I'm live and make $300 average per day, sometimes $20, sometimes $600, so you should in theory be fine.
It's only money, don't lose to much sleep over it, always find/make more, go kick it's ass!
p.s. try to have fun, if your not enjoying it, you'll never stick at it.
Hey Turveyd,
thanx for the support. It means a lot. I hope I will be able to kick some ass this time
As to fun - this is my biggest fortune and curse at the same time. I am somehow pulled to the markets everytime. I tried to quit several times but for me it is like drug for junkie. If it wouldn't be so much fun, I would be already out of the business.
So I got just 2 options: I either succeed or die trying
Good trading to you!
SDT
thanx for the support. It means a lot. I hope I will be able to kick some ass this time
As to fun - this is my biggest fortune and curse at the same time. I am somehow pulled to the markets everytime. I tried to quit several times but for me it is like drug for junkie. If it wouldn't be so much fun, I would be already out of the business.
So I got just 2 options: I either succeed or die trying
Good trading to you!
SDT
Hey Turveyd,
thanx for the support. It means a lot. I hope I will be able to kick some ass this time
As to fun - this is my biggest fortune and curse at the same time. I am somehow pulled to the markets everytime. I tried to quit several times but for me it is like drug for junkie. If it wouldn't be so much fun, I would be already out of the business.
So I got just 2 options: I either succeed or die trying
Good trading to you!
SDT
Hey I'm in the make a wage a good wage or die trying plan aswell, I've got till the end of April to grow my account enough to support a wage or starve lol