To demonstrate profitable trading in real time, I chronicled the past ten sessions of CL activity in YouTube for posterity. The results are as graphed above: six profitable sessions, four unprofitable, profit days bigger than loss days.
Gross $$ results for the two-week stretch were +$2,150 working one or two CL contracts in this account with risk-loss on stops never greater than -$100 (plus potential slippage) at any time.
The same overall management approach could instead use 2 and 2 CL contracts or 4 and 4 or 5 and 5 or 10 and 10 CL contracts, results would be similar (some slippage) multiplied.
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Finished the month of January with +415 cents CL and +30 index points ES. I personally consider ANY degree of net profitable a success. So would 90+ percent of all active traders around the world who finished this month, unprofitable.
I consider +20pts ES and +200 cents CL to be good results, with +40pts ES and +500 cents CL (or greater) to be a real solid month. So by my own standards of self-measure, it was a good but not great month.
Overall, CL price action has been very staccato and congestive past the first two sessions in January, while stock index markets have begun to expand. I could have personally performed better by working ES more aggressively instead of slanting efforts heavier towards CL. And I could have definitely improved bottom-line performance by holding most trades longer for much greater profits potential beyond the actual exits.
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The main reason I post here is to set records straight for traders who are serious about creating their own success. Starting this month I'll begin a thread with the intent to teach a lot of "little things" thru a year-long chronicle of actual trading. If we can keep it mostly on track and mostly positive, I think we can work together and learn a bunch of good stuff from each other, including me.
I'll attempt to profile a year in the life of a futures trader, including lots of mistakes, no shortage of unprofitable trades and unprofitable sessions along the way. In other words, the weekly grind in reality.
But that's all part of our chosen profession. Profits and losses. Balancing the two so that in the end, net profits prevail.
