AbeSmith

Hey mate. You're right about the overtrading. I'm trying to improve on that. Thanks for the good advice. Take care.

Thanks for the advice Torero.

Well, now that I look at it again there is one point that I got wrong. So it is closer to 34 or perhaps 33. And the reason I said 23 before was that I misread Trade #6, which is actually +18, not +8.

Hey Brownsfan. Thanks for the software recommendation. I'm sorry but it seems I added it up wrong. it is a total of 35 points, not 23. So 35 times 5 is 175, minus 63.90 is 111.1. I could have sworn though that I saw the total summary in my account statement after my trades completed it said 101 and some change. But now that field is empty in my paper account summary and I'm not sure if there is going to be an account statement for it. But yeah, 35 points. And yeah, it seems I'm doing something very close to scalping now. Is that right? As I explained to Gary, I'm a taking my paper account very seriously and I'm having very low risk tolerance right now. But overtime as I'm able to recognize the market better I will have more confidence to take better longer lasting setups.

Hey Notouch. Like I explained to Gary I missed the big move because I was away from my computer. Commission is 4.26 per round trip, so times 15 that is $64 commission.

Hey Gary. My methodology for getting into trades is still in development. But I tend to look for reversals, preferably on the side of the market sentiment. So today mostly I looked for shorts in setups where the price was reversing down from a temporary up hump. I like to wait for at least 1 5 minute candle print in the direction of the trend I'm seeking. So most of today, after I see a red 5 minute candle print after a green hump then I go short. I did some longs later in the day because there was a reversal with higher highs and higher lows. I also look for setups near pivot points. I have a tendancy to look for dips, reversals, and such things, so I tend to enter a position on directional changes. I'm having difficulty though following trends, like let's say three red candles in a row. Like, buying high and selling higher. There's alot of money in that also I guess. The reason I missed the middle of the day was because I had some other things to do. There was also a nice head a shoulder drop after trade 11, around 10:10AM C.T. that I noticed but entered the wrong command after researching head and shoulder on Google to make sure it was the right pattern, so I missed my prefered entry and didn't get further involved. So I would have liked to play some of those setups during the middle of the trading day but unfortunately I was away from my computer. Remember trading is about letting probabilities play out, not about being right all the time. If you don't let your trades work themselves out then the probabilities cannot play out. This is so true. I also have noticed that I'm doing alot of trades and they are very short trades and that they miss the chunk of the gains. The longest trade today was about 3 minutes. Many of them were only a few seconds. I think it is because I'm new of course, and have low risk tolerance, even to see my P&L drop $27 makes me scared. So this is forcing me to look at setups where I can get a near perfect short term entry, but as soon as I see the gains diminish a few ticks then I tend to bail out. So basically I'm doing soft trail stops alot of the time. I don't have confidence in the setups I'm taking because I'm very new and don't have a clear long term picture of the market and how these setups play out over time, so it's difficult for me to understand the long term probabilities enough to be able to tolerate wider potential losses. But I think with time, the more I get a clearer picture of how the markets move I will have more understanding and then be able to tolerate longer setups and wider stops. Right now though I'm really trying to be conscious of my daily gains, to try at least have positive days, if not very profitable, even though it's only paper trading. And I must admit that although soft stops are a bit crude, I do enjoy being able to jump on a trade quickly and get out quickly with market orders and it fits my short term trading style. I may try to do some firm stops to see how it is, but I'm sure over time if firm stop is the better strategy then it will play itself out during my paper trading.

And I didn't notice any other fees.

Hey Tony. I checked my statement and it seems to me that 2.13 is the cost for 1 contract/per side.

Today was a very down day for the stock market, and the first official day that I started paper trading. Today was also the first day I decided to change my charting from Interactive Brokers to Sierra Chart, and also today I found the 5 minute candle chart to be to my liking. I had a total of 15 roundtrips today. And a total of 23 points gained, which added up to $101 fake bucks after commission. I started my trading shortly after the open. You can see my trades in the chart. All trades are labeled with S or B, followed by a number which designates the order of the trade, from 1 to 15. If S is above B then it was a short. If B is above S then it was a long. The gain or loss is recorded below it with + or – followed by the number of points gained or lost. I’m also posting my executions which has all the exact times and positions of the trades. You are probably not interested in this, and I hope you don't feel I expect you to look at them. But in case you are interested here they are. It is very labor intensive to record all these trades on a chart, but it also helps me to review the trades. Today I continued using the mental stops. Not sure if mental stop is the right word. Is it soft stop instead, or flexible stop? Regarding mental stops, I feel it has its down side, like: 1. Potential to be swayed by emotion, lose your trading plan, get hopeful, and lose more money than you would have lost if you had a firm stop in place. 2. Potential to lose a lot of money by accident if you take your eye away from the screen or if your computer or internet brakes down. 3. Also, your hand eye coordination is not as quick as a computer, so in situation where the price moves quickly a human will have a longer reaction time than a computer. But the advantage of a mental stops is: 1. It is very flexible. You can enter a trade in seconds and if the market behaves a certain way that might require you to change your strategy quickly, for example from a firm stop to a trailing stop, then all you have to do is decide on those changes and execute. With a firm stop you may not have time to change your strategy if it needs changing. Several times today I got a bad feeling about my position and decided to change to a trailing stop to at least lock in the gains I made. This turned some potential losses into profit, but also turned some profits into less profit or slight losses. Also, today, although CNBC was on the whole time, I found myself less distracted by it, and enjoyed the up to date market info and analysis. But it was not a boring day either. It was almost panicky. So to sum it up, today my trading developed a bit more. I found myself to be tighter with my money and less willing to take a beating. So my trades tended to be very short in duration and I was very quick to pull the trigger if the market misbehaved.

That's very cool Brownsfan. 34 points on the ES is alot more money than than YM if I understand correctly. It would be nice to see your entry and exits, even an execution list would be nice if you don't want to go through the labor of charts. But I do respect your decision to keep it private. Anyways, good job. Hope you have more good days like this.:beer: But a good trader like you probably doesn't hope. He is confident in his abilities. Right?

Wow Gary. I'm very impressed by your meaningful post. It makes excellent sense. :bow down:

Thanks Cooter. I will keep that in mind. I will do paper trading from now on and if the firm stop proves to be better then I will have no choice but to adopt it.

You are so right Dogpile. I need to stop trading. It was truely self destructive and I see that now. Thank you.

Wow, Raul. Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful analysis of my trading and instructions. As Paul pointed out so thoughtfully, I need to stop trading with real money and learn with my paper account until I'm able to be profitable consistently. I will print out your excellent post and study it. It is a true gem. Thanks again.

Yes, Paul. I think you're right. I need to stop trading with real money.

Please refer to my reply to Brownsfan. :cry:

Things sound very simple when you're making money I guess. :cry:

So, let me see if I'm understanding this, the YM moves based on people buying and selling the YM. But when the YM doesn't go in tune with the Dow, then arbitragers step in and buy or sell to keep the YM in line with the Dow.

Thanks Blu-Ray. That helps plenty.

Hello folks. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I've been wondering, how is YM calculated? I know it represents the Dow, but I don't know the details and can't seem to find it anywhere. I guess I'm wondering, how is it calculated? What are the factors that make it move one way or another?

That is so true Brownsfan.

Thanks Tin for sharing your trading plan. I have printed it out and will study it carefully. You seem to be very knowledgable about trading. I know you're a beginner but I'm very impressed by your technical knowledge and dedication to rational trading. That's so true. Why worry? It is very irration to worry. And I find myself to be less worried than usual. I know I lost alot of money today, but I feel that worrying will only interfer with keeping a cool head. Thanks so much for the advice.

Thanks Walter. It's very nice to hear you positive comments.

Those are some awesome quotes. I think what you say about news and short term trading is true, because I've heard it before from other knowledgable people. But I can't help but to wonder, let's say I'm in a postion and then there is a huge move one way or another. What if that move is due to a major stock in the Dow reporting earnings? How will that stock affect the YM? If it has a significant impact on the YM then isn't it better for me to be aware of the timing of that earnings news and be prepared to not necessarily trade based on that news, but at least get out of a losing position before the stops are breached?

Thanks Raul. That's very nice of you. I would love to participate.