NoviceTrader1

I have an account with OEC, and I wanted to access a consolidated trading statement basically showing PnL, trading statistics etc. going back to my accounts inception. I contacted customer service and they werent very helpful, any ideas?

read through my thread, I am no shill. I mistakenly logged into an old account. Never mind the reference to the blog...As i continue with this thread my trading approach will be apparent to anyone following.

I seem to have posted under my other username, apologies...I will continue this log under this username. Sorry for the Confusion!

I have been on a hiatus from trading for the past few weeks, and I have been focusing on school and getting other things together in my life. I am looking to land an internship for the summer, hopefully at a trading firm, IB, or something related to that. I did complete an internship at a small local financial advisory firm last summer. Does anyone think that adding my futures P/L to my resume would be a good idea? I started my account at $5,000 last year...Started 2010 at about 3300, and now I am sitting around $4000. I think it would show that I have put in some time into trading on my own, and that I am willing to put in work into the endeavor, any ideas?

For the past 2 days: P/L: -387 Balance: 4033 I have come to a realization today, the days that I am profitable I only make a few trades. There are about 4-5 trades with certain characteristics, that work consistently. I spent some time today and put these trades and their characteristics on paper. I am going to stick to making these trades and see how everything goes in the next couple weeks.

P/L: -496 Balance 4420 I made a very stupid mistake today, I cutoff my trading after reaching my daily loss at ~$200, but I forgot to close out a long position in wheat. My daily loss more than doubled as a result. Rest assured, that this will not happen again.

P/L: +443 Balance: 4916 Today was a relatively good day as far as execution, I did miss one trade because of a lack of focus. I tend to start surfing the net and doing non-related trading activities when the market is quiet or is moving my way. I will be definitely be getting some rest and recreation this weekend, so it should be a blast! Have a great weekend!

I may move this log to the P/L thread in this forum, it seems as if it will be a better place for this.

P/L: -77 Balance: 4472 Choppy day in all grains...Made two trades...stopped out of one, and cut the other at break-even.

No trading today...but I will finish this week strong and trade Thursday and Friday!

P/L: +897 Balance: 4,549 Ill have to be quick as I have to cut the trading day short to study...Today was a good day trading soybeans. I had a good P/L day, but I am finding more and more and that focusing on execution rather than P/L is the key to success!

Took two trades today, one was profitable and the other was not. Nothing much else to add...off to study and will be back at it tomorrow.

That bar is within the opening trading range, if you observe any soybean, wheat, or corn chart...you will notice that these "bars" don't usually play any meaningful roles as pivot points...especially on trend days.

I appreciate your input, but this log is more for myself than anything. I am using it as a tool for commitment and a way to look at my mistakes. I am well aware as to how these markets trade, and I am continually refining my technique and my trading strategy. I trade breaks, and this is the strategy I will be trading as long as I see fit. If you have any suggestions as to how to differentiate between real and false breaks or S/R it would be appreciated, other than that thanks.

P/L: -188.92 Account Balance: 3348.84 I didn't get a chance to trade yesterday as I was studying for a mid-term(fun times)...I have to take a mid-term in a couple hours and need to do a little last minute studying so I will make this log quick. I had a chance to trade for a few hours this morning, and It was a down day. I'm essentially flat on my account for the last two weeks. I took 3 trades today, all three were losers, one I cut short and the other two I was stopped out. If you look at the trades, I entered an advanced order a tick above/below where I see S/R established. I usually enter a couple ticks away from S/R to make sure I don't get caught in any false breaks...this strategy would have kept me out of these trades. I am attaching 1 and 5 min charts of the individual trades. My observation is that the consistency is the key for trading these markets, I have to trade my strategy and stick around for those days where price action is more tradeable. The ability to distinguish a day with choppy action, and one with established ranges and breaks is also key. I was only able to trade for 3 days this week, and 2 days last week. I will have to make a commitment to trading these markets day in and out and stay disciplined.

I have midterms next week so that may interfere with my log slightly, I will try to get in as many trading days as I can throughout the next week or so. P/L: -190(don't have the exact numbers in front of me) I had a rough trading day, I found myself making mistakes and becoming impatient and making bad trades. Looking back, I should have been profitAble today. I won't be posting any screenshots as I don't have the time and I know the mistakes I made. I will take this as a learning experience and move forward.

Thanks, I appreciate it

That is great man, glad to see you have some goals set for yourself. As long as you put your mind to it, you can achieve it my friend. Even with the rise of algorithmic trading, there are opportunities to be found and exploited. Swing trading is definitely a viable alternative to day trading. My next venture will actually be swing trading equities, I will start pursuing this when I reach a certain balance in my account.

Thanks for the insight. One thing that I would note, is that every market tends to be unique. From my experience grains tend to break on low volume, high volume, and everything in between. I have seen many breaks happen on low volume and on normal order flow...I think this will be evident as i continue to update this log. On both trades I entered by judging support and resistance levels through the DOM(depth of market) and volume by price.

P/L: -147 Account balance: 3715 Today was a limited opportunity day, at least for somebody with my trading style. I did make two trades, I was stopped out of both of them. The first trade was made after a break of a coiled range, the second trade was made after the failed break with the reversal. Both breakouts were false, and eventually reversed. As far as I can see, both trades were relatively good, and I would make them again in a similar situation...if anyone has any comments it would be appreciated.

It's also good to see someone my age pursuing a similar goal as mine! I am in university and will be graduating at the end of the year. My intermediate-term is goal is to build up a solid P/L and get in at a prop firm over the summer. After I graduate, the sky's the limit. What are your goals as a trader, would you like to pursue a career in the field?

P/L: +251.80 Account balance: 3,862 Today was a decent day as far as trading opportunities in Grains. Wheat had little volatility, while Soybeans had a good trend day. Most of my trades were profitable, with some break-even to small loss trades. I am finding that I am prematurely moving my stops, and this is turning profitable trades into break-evens or small losses. This is something that I will be aware of and try to remedy. Here is an example of a small fade trade where I moved my stop to break even, and ended up getting out at break-even instead of allowing room for the trade to work.

These are the trades mentioned in the above post. Also attached is my current account value.

Here are some other trades, made in Soybeans a couple of days back. I exited these trades, after they look to be consolidating, or they violate my stops. I enter my stops by observing volume by price, and determining support and resistance by volume at individual prices.