brownsfan019

That's me - I'm that guy. It's funny b/c when I go out to dinner, meet up w/ friends, poker games, etc. people ask how the market did that day or that week and I honestly have no clue unless the local news was carrying a story. As far as I am concerned, I'm done no later than 12pm EST and whatever happens the rest of the day happens. As for my knowledge, I'm clueless. :rofl: That's also an easy way to get people from constantly asking you questions about the markets. When you tell them 2 or 3 times that you don't know and don't care, they get the point.

3-17-09 Better today.

REMINDER: ACCOUNT SIZE IS IRRELEVANT IN THIS THREAD. Hell, I'm just showing an account that trades 1 little contract, so size does not matter. Who else wants to join us? Firewalker maybe....

Welcome to the thread Bill! You're a college student and trading? WOW!! Impressive IMO. You are so far ahead of the game you probably don't even realize it. What I would have done to at least be studying charts while in school. Good to have you here!

Can I vote - I don't care? Good question and something the EOD traders can discuss, but as a pure intraday trader, I honestly could care less whether it's at a bottom or just bouncing a little. As long as the market is moving intraday, I'm happy.

Good luck w/ the new area Rob! I have not purchased the book previously, but may take a look. Found it on Amazon for anyone interested. Do you know if the author will be joining the forum?

Walter - glad to hear the system selling biz is working for you. The forum is quiet w/o your posts to at least get conversation going! Too bad you can't post here b/c I'd love to see how you are doing! I very well could send some funds over to be managed if you are doing good!

Very true dae. Actually, in reality there's very few days where there isn't opportunities to make money. The issue for me is just doing it every day. BTW - great day today for you! Regardless of being sim, that's a nice day trading. I hope whatever you are doing is working better.

Is a case of the Mondays an acceptable excuse? :doh: What a wasted day, not even close to what should have been. Not good start to week. Kick it back in gear on Tue!!!

Good to see ya Walter! You should join us over in this thread and show us how the system is doing! I'm sure you'll put me to shame, but will give me something to shoot for!

Interesting discussion here. My opinion is that you trade your system and disregard any monetary goals. Reason being that on days where you are just killing it, you need to kill it to the fullest extent. Now, that does not mean trading all day as your 'system' may say to trade a few hours and be done (which is what I do now). My system says to trade from 8am-Noon and that's it. With that said, having reachable goals is not a terrible idea, esp in the beginning. If you go into the day wanting to make $xxx per day to start, then I could see a lot of merit in that initially. But as time progresses I think the more experienced trader can realize more gains by not capping. The other side of the coin here is if you limit your upside do you also limit your downside? Is it $xxx either way? Now if someone were to say no cap on the downside, but a cap on the upside, I'd say you're crazy and just a matter of time before you blow up.

FYI - amount of posts here is NOT a requirement to post in this thread. If you can post on the forum, you can post here too! So feel free to join us here and that post count will go up every day!

Fedeo - good points. As you can see, almost all of my trades here are placed on the Bonds. While I watch the ES and NQ (and sometimes place a trade there), most trades are placed on the bonds. I would suggest placing all trades on one side of the market (bonds or indexes) until you got a firm handle on that. And by then you might not even want or need to trade on the other side. For me that has meant placing trades on the bonds, with a focus on the ZB contract. Reason is that for my trading it moves the most and can reach my profit targets much easier than the ZN or ZF most days. But I use the ZN or ZF to trade from, just place the trades on the ZB.

Many reasons to trade multiple accounts... trading for myself in multiple accounts (retirement and non-retirement funds, can't mix them), trading for family and/or friends, etc.

Bruce, My methodology is not necessarily laid out in one thread; however, I moderate the candlestick corner and much is there. Feel free to poke around and ask questions there if you'd like.

3/9/2009 37.5 3/10/2009 265.63 3/11/2009 46.88 3/12/2009 218.75 3/13/2009 484.38 1053.14 Not a bad week but should have been better. Previous week was +1312.51 which gives us a running blotter of +2365.65 over 2 weeks. Per week average: +$1182.83 It's not great, but not bad. If I can focus like I did today every day, then we should blow those numbers out of the water. :applaud:

3-13-09 Nice day. Planned the work and worked the plan much better today. Good way to end week and hopefully carryover into Monday.

No problem! In the p/l thread I'm trying to keep the trading to 1-2 contracts to watch the p/l closer on that account. The nice thing about trading bonds is that you can trade 1 and still get some decent profit potential out of it IMO.

Good idea taking Fri to settle in. No need to push it on a Fri. You should stop by this thread JB if you want to join the fun!

Depends on a variety of factors.

Ok on the small account today. On another account I got whipped around a bit there in the mid-morning. Part of the problem was missing a nice trade there, which in the end puts the day at a good result. Better today, but not great. One more day left this week to get a decent result and then we take the weekend to refocus.

There's a 3 yr note coming: http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/interest-rates/3-year-us-treasury-notes.html So currently the 3 main ones are the ZB, ZN and ZF. This new note could add another market to trade if volume can grab onto it.

Ryan - I have the very same problem at times and is part of the reason I started this thread. Here's some ideas: 1) Depending on your markets being traded, you may need to find your personal sweet spot. What I mean is that while the market is basically open 24/7 (and a focus from 930am-4pm) there's a lot of hours in there to trade. Unless you program your system, you cannot possibly sustain long periods of trading and focus IMO. So instead of trying to force a square peg in a round hole, take a step back and see WHEN you trade your BEST. Then, focus on that timeframe as your starting point. I'll give the best example I can think of right now - I used to be the guy that wanted to trade 8am-415pm on the ES. Wanted to take every trade I saw and make $10k+ per day like it was nothing. Honest to God. At some point I realized that I personally cannot sit and trade from 8am-415pm, Mon-Fri. Not only do I lack the focus, but I'm pretty sure I have some sort of case of ADD where during slow times my mind wanders like you wouldn't believe. The internet is a marvelous place to get lost and kill hours of time. Finally one day I just took a step back and said - ENOUGH. I PROVED that I cannot trade all day, every day. Once you've proved to yourself that you cannot do that, find what works for you. We are conditioned from a young age that a 'full work day' consists of working at least 9am-5pm per day, if not longer. Our brain is conditioned to believe you must work longer and harder to make more money.... Well, I found out the long and expensive way that belief does not hold true in trading. While there are some machines & people that can do it, I can't! What this meant for my trading was focusing on the AM (8am-noon) and that's it. And from there I narrowed my primary trading choice to bonds that have some great moves in the AM and some days can easily create a great day by 10am or sooner. As a matter of fact, I was just mentioning in the TL chat room on Tue morning w/ another bond trader (we were only 2 in room) that my day had pretty much been done before the index guys even showed up. 2) Once you've found your sweet spot, then it's a matter of doing it in the allotted time. I still have issues with this and today's post showed that. I wish I could give you the magical formula to keep you focused, but I am still looking for it myself. 3) From there you can argue that only working the charts during your allotted timeframe is what you should be doing. Whether you only have the charts going or not, you need to work on developing a focus during the timeframe that you have available. I try to tell myself that I only have 4 hours per day to do my job, so I better do it good. That works most days. 4) The purpose of the P/L thread is to create accountability. You need to make yourself accountable to someone or something. For me, using a public forum is an added motivation to get the job done as I had hit a rut w/ just going through the motions. If you are married, get your wife involved. If not, then find someone or some avenue where you know you have to tell them how you did today. I'd welcome you to our P/L thread and YOU post what YOU want. It can be as simple as - Plan followed: Y/N. What you post is up to you. But get accountable somewhere. In the end, it's something some of us battle with and it's not easy. I've actually considered doing more research on the subject to see what else is out there to help in this area - whether being exercises, supplements, etc. I haven't done it yet though... just not focused enough I guess.

Difference is that you followed your plan and I did not. Still the hardest thing for me at times is either taking all the trades or keeping the focus to do so.

Poor performance today on this account. Not sure if it was lack of focus or what but this was way below what the result should have been and is unacceptable. Note - in addition to tracking how I did, I also track what I should have done (meaning following the plan 100%). Today was a terrible day in that regards. :crap: :doh: