The Evolution of an E-mini Trader
- Thread starter Huios
- Start date
8 trades, 1 winner, 4 losers, 3 b/e for -8 pts
All papertrades. Definately a different kind of trading today than I am used to.
Synopsis: Initial stop 4 pts. When 4 pts profit reached, stop moved to b/e plus a tick. After b/e, using a trailing stop to capture any gain. Entries based on price movement with confirmation.
After the first few trades, I ended up exiting several trades by reversing. Actually ended up doing this on 4 out of the last 5 trades. Not sure if this is a habit I want to get into on a regular basis. Any veterans care to comment on reversing trades?
The reason for reversing was when there was no follow thru after entering, and a signal in the opposite direction occurred. This happened on my first trade, 2 bars after entry, and I did not reverse. It was also my biggest loss of the day, -4 pts.
Time in trades: ave time in trades was 38 minutes. Three of them were 70 min, 70 min, and 80 min. To me that is a huge amount of time. 2 of those trades were b/e, and were also the trades that had 3.75 (T3) and 3.5 (T5) pt gains. The other long trade was a -3.5 that was reversed (T6).
This new entry needs some fine tuning, but I like it. The exits need some work, now that I am staying in the market longer, and not getting shaked out so soon. Any of you veterans care to share some exit stuff?
Watching me using large stops was kind of funny. Lot's of psychology going in the 6" between my ears.
Have a good weekend.
H
All papertrades. Definately a different kind of trading today than I am used to.
Synopsis: Initial stop 4 pts. When 4 pts profit reached, stop moved to b/e plus a tick. After b/e, using a trailing stop to capture any gain. Entries based on price movement with confirmation.
After the first few trades, I ended up exiting several trades by reversing. Actually ended up doing this on 4 out of the last 5 trades. Not sure if this is a habit I want to get into on a regular basis. Any veterans care to comment on reversing trades?
The reason for reversing was when there was no follow thru after entering, and a signal in the opposite direction occurred. This happened on my first trade, 2 bars after entry, and I did not reverse. It was also my biggest loss of the day, -4 pts.
Time in trades: ave time in trades was 38 minutes. Three of them were 70 min, 70 min, and 80 min. To me that is a huge amount of time. 2 of those trades were b/e, and were also the trades that had 3.75 (T3) and 3.5 (T5) pt gains. The other long trade was a -3.5 that was reversed (T6).
This new entry needs some fine tuning, but I like it. The exits need some work, now that I am staying in the market longer, and not getting shaked out so soon. Any of you veterans care to share some exit stuff?
Watching me using large stops was kind of funny. Lot's of psychology going in the 6" between my ears.
Have a good weekend.
H
Huios,
I will repeat something I have said before and others have also said. Keep it Simple. Stick to your plan.
You are chopping and changing things again and again. The only thing this does is confuse, and it sounds like you are confused. If you have discipline and patience most methods will work. How many times in the past did you say if you did this and this it would have worked. Lots
And now you are changing again. Seems to me like you are going around in circles. Stick with one method and use discipline and patience. As far as I can see discipline is your only problem not your original methods.
Cheers
I will repeat something I have said before and others have also said. Keep it Simple. Stick to your plan.
You are chopping and changing things again and again. The only thing this does is confuse, and it sounds like you are confused. If you have discipline and patience most methods will work. How many times in the past did you say if you did this and this it would have worked. Lots
And now you are changing again. Seems to me like you are going around in circles. Stick with one method and use discipline and patience. As far as I can see discipline is your only problem not your original methods.
Cheers
I agree with Dizzyspell that you need to stick to one method long enough to see if it works but I also know that is easier said than done. It took me two years plus to find my niche. Its just not that easy to find a method that agrees with your personality and you have to go through a lot of heartache and headache to get there.
I am not disagreeing with you two at all. My basic premise is still entering on pullbacks of the prevailing intraday trend, with the goal of capturing 3-5 min points per trade.
I've never done this before, and find myself and my beliefs "evolving" as I knew they would. ie 1 min to 3 min to 5 min charts to decrease the noise. modifying my entries slightly due to seeing the market with "evolving" eyes and trading larger time frame, trying to stay in the market a little longer to let my winners run longer, using wider stops to give the trade more room.
My biggest problem as I see it. The discipline to follow the system (dizzy rising up and pumping his fist shouting "Yes, Yes, Yes"), ie take the trade.
Looking back over yesterdays chart, I believe I was only out of the market 12-16 bars. Maybe that is a way to not miss my entries, stay in the market all day, and just reverse trades. <jk>
The old grey bearded one (my perception) who gently reminded me to write down what I learned, hit the nail on the head. Write down what I learn, so I can refer back to the lessons learned. Initially that is what this journal was for, but I find I do not go back and re-read this book as often as I like.
I look at trading as a process. And the process is always changing. Granted, this last week has seen many little tweaks all at once, new time frame, modified entries, modifies exits, and maybe that was not the way to go. I will look at that this weekend and re-evaluate, but the biggest change has been in me.
Thanks for the contibutions you two make in this journal. They do not go un-noticed.
H <----- look'n for his niche
I've never done this before, and find myself and my beliefs "evolving" as I knew they would. ie 1 min to 3 min to 5 min charts to decrease the noise. modifying my entries slightly due to seeing the market with "evolving" eyes and trading larger time frame, trying to stay in the market a little longer to let my winners run longer, using wider stops to give the trade more room.
My biggest problem as I see it. The discipline to follow the system (dizzy rising up and pumping his fist shouting "Yes, Yes, Yes"), ie take the trade.
Looking back over yesterdays chart, I believe I was only out of the market 12-16 bars. Maybe that is a way to not miss my entries, stay in the market all day, and just reverse trades. <jk>
The old grey bearded one (my perception) who gently reminded me to write down what I learned, hit the nail on the head. Write down what I learn, so I can refer back to the lessons learned. Initially that is what this journal was for, but I find I do not go back and re-read this book as often as I like.
I look at trading as a process. And the process is always changing. Granted, this last week has seen many little tweaks all at once, new time frame, modified entries, modifies exits, and maybe that was not the way to go. I will look at that this weekend and re-evaluate, but the biggest change has been in me.
Thanks for the contibutions you two make in this journal. They do not go un-noticed.
H <----- look'n for his niche
hey huios,
i think, theres nothing wrong with playing around, doing this + that...the learning process is not that straight + have no linear progress anyway...going more in circles...i think it is critical to recall or recieve the "right" information in the "right" moment in that process, otherwise this information will not get you anywhere...thats one problem, ideally you have to store all information that you recieve from outside + from your own playing around and practicing and recall it in the right moment...
trading
i think, theres nothing wrong with playing around, doing this + that...the learning process is not that straight + have no linear progress anyway...going more in circles...i think it is critical to recall or recieve the "right" information in the "right" moment in that process, otherwise this information will not get you anywhere...thats one problem, ideally you have to store all information that you recieve from outside + from your own playing around and practicing and recall it in the right moment...
tradingHardcash and Huios,
You have both missed my point. Hardcash there is nothing wrong with playing around as you call it as long as its on a simulator or on paper. Why play around with real money. That will only work if you have deep pockets and an understanding wife.
Once you have a method that fits your personality and works to some degree then trade it and only it. You will never now if it works or not if you keep changing it. If you want to chop and change do it on paper or subscribe to Ensign software and then you can playback and simulate your trades in real time.
You have to be consistent. Huios it sounds to me like you think I am a hard son of a bitch but I am just trying to save you alot of heartache which we all go thru when trying to become fulltime traders. Remember me for this statement and nothing else " Use close stops, be consistent and trade with discipline" Thats all you need to know to be successful in this industry.
You know my opinion on stops. I think 4pt stops are suicide. You don't need stops that big if you are consistent on your entry. One more thing to remember, If you cannot scratch a trade thats not working you are history.
Cheers
You have both missed my point. Hardcash there is nothing wrong with playing around as you call it as long as its on a simulator or on paper. Why play around with real money. That will only work if you have deep pockets and an understanding wife.
Once you have a method that fits your personality and works to some degree then trade it and only it. You will never now if it works or not if you keep changing it. If you want to chop and change do it on paper or subscribe to Ensign software and then you can playback and simulate your trades in real time.
You have to be consistent. Huios it sounds to me like you think I am a hard son of a bitch but I am just trying to save you alot of heartache which we all go thru when trying to become fulltime traders. Remember me for this statement and nothing else " Use close stops, be consistent and trade with discipline" Thats all you need to know to be successful in this industry.
You know my opinion on stops. I think 4pt stops are suicide. You don't need stops that big if you are consistent on your entry. One more thing to remember, If you cannot scratch a trade thats not working you are history.
Cheers
I just finished a period of papertrading. After a couple of years of banging my head on the wall I decided to get out for awhile and test some strategies. . Things went very well on paper but as soon as I went back to cash I started having problems again. Trading is 95% emotional in my opinion and papertrading will not get you through that part of it. The papertrading did convince me that I have a valid methodology and after a couple of weeks of the same old shit I finally started to get things under control and now I am sticking to the system like glue. In retrospect it was probably the best thing I could have done.
p.s. I have doubts that there is any way to bring the emotions under control other than long painful experience. Diz, if you have got it down this quickly you are an exception to the rule.
p.s. I have doubts that there is any way to bring the emotions under control other than long painful experience. Diz, if you have got it down this quickly you are an exception to the rule.