Hey all, I figured I'd use this journal to start documenting my trading activities. I already keep a very detailed journal breaking my trades down by every statistic you could imagine, but I'm thinking that posting publicly will benefit me in a few substantial ways.
1. It will force aknowledgement of whatever my current trading situation really is in. I've noticed in many areas of my life that physically writing something out or verbally saying something makes me much more aware of whatever the issue is rather than just having it happen. Almost like the theology of confession. For example, for a competitive person like me, its real hard verbally telling a collegue I'm down a grand on the week, and that action shakes me a lot more than just that number in red on a screen. It probably works the same when you're knocking the cover off the ball as well, but i'm guessing its not nearly as helpful. In my trading, pats on the back aren't so good, they make you cocky.
2. It will add another layer of accountability. If I break my one of my rules, point it out to me; call me on it. If I am getting a big head, knock me down a level.
3. Hopefully, more fresh, independent, and unbiased sets of eyes might be taking a look at my trades; and through that, they might catch something I am missing or am not realizing.
FYI - A little bit on my trading style:
I trade intraday, hoping to average around 4-8 setups a day (I'm higher than that in reality, and am working on being selective).
I trade mainly the ER2 but will occasionally take a setup or two on other contracts (Euro, Yen, etc...).
I trade two types of setups, volatility breakouts and S/R breakouts, and my most profitable trades by far come when both those criteria are present.
I have a relatively small account, so I trade 1 contract at a time, and rarely will get fully pyramided up to my self defined maxholding, which is 3 contracts.
Long term goal: Become a PM and head up a futures strategy for my current employer (I'm currently a trader/analyst for a family office - they have no exposure to futures, so I'm restricted to trading soley futures in my own account and am free to do so during market hours when our firms trade flow is low).
Hope you all enjoy, and introduce yourself if you like. I'd love to hear from you guys and make this all collaborative and such. Have a good one.
-- Tarwater
1. It will force aknowledgement of whatever my current trading situation really is in. I've noticed in many areas of my life that physically writing something out or verbally saying something makes me much more aware of whatever the issue is rather than just having it happen. Almost like the theology of confession. For example, for a competitive person like me, its real hard verbally telling a collegue I'm down a grand on the week, and that action shakes me a lot more than just that number in red on a screen. It probably works the same when you're knocking the cover off the ball as well, but i'm guessing its not nearly as helpful. In my trading, pats on the back aren't so good, they make you cocky.
2. It will add another layer of accountability. If I break my one of my rules, point it out to me; call me on it. If I am getting a big head, knock me down a level.
3. Hopefully, more fresh, independent, and unbiased sets of eyes might be taking a look at my trades; and through that, they might catch something I am missing or am not realizing.
FYI - A little bit on my trading style:
I trade intraday, hoping to average around 4-8 setups a day (I'm higher than that in reality, and am working on being selective).
I trade mainly the ER2 but will occasionally take a setup or two on other contracts (Euro, Yen, etc...).
I trade two types of setups, volatility breakouts and S/R breakouts, and my most profitable trades by far come when both those criteria are present.
I have a relatively small account, so I trade 1 contract at a time, and rarely will get fully pyramided up to my self defined maxholding, which is 3 contracts.
Long term goal: Become a PM and head up a futures strategy for my current employer (I'm currently a trader/analyst for a family office - they have no exposure to futures, so I'm restricted to trading soley futures in my own account and am free to do so during market hours when our firms trade flow is low).
Hope you all enjoy, and introduce yourself if you like. I'd love to hear from you guys and make this all collaborative and such. Have a good one.
-- Tarwater