Jonbig04's Log

[atto 20]

Im not really supposed to post charts up of my trading.

Not supposed to? Care to elaborate?

 

edit: Whoops, didn't see the next page. That makes sense.

[jonbig04 10]

No trading today I'm working out a discrepancy in my rules, I put together some stats for the month though.

 

Monthly sum up. (trading 3 contracts, point are an average of the 3)

 

Week 1 (10/27-10/31)

+34

 

Week 2 (11/3-11/7)

+29.25

 

Week 3 (11/10-11/14)

+15

 

Week 4 (11/17-11/21)

+26

 

Total points for the month

104

 

Weekly Average

26

 

Total trades

33

 

Accuracy

30%

 

In looking back over the past month, I know I could have been more points if I was more flexible. If my trading wasnt so structured and rule based. But thats cool. Because I can honestly say my performance will be consistent, sim or cash. And thats the point of all this anyways.

Edited November 21, 2008 by jonbig04

[jonbig04 10]

Oops for some reason these stats didnt make it in:

 

Largest win

36

 

Largest loss

-4

[taracent 10]

Good Blog so far. Tough road to keep on your game and training yourself. Keep it up.

[jonbig04 10]

Good Blog so far. Tough road to keep on your game and training yourself. Keep it up.

 

Thanks Tara. I have a good teacher

[jonbig04 10]

Last week I had some trouble with conflicting signals within my rules. It really wasn't that big of a deal, but it was making it impossible for me to follow my rules like a robot, so I had to work on them. In doing so I discovered a fundamental problem which was also causing me to take some stupid ass trades. I worked on them all day from square 1 and the result was great. I backtested everything of course (not very hard to do, just time consuming...I was able to do it while watching/listening to football). Anyways things are simpler now and there is NO room for my potentially (especially while in cash) damaging interpretation of somewhat ambiguous rules. This makes discipline easier. On top of that, through backtesting I yielded a lot more points with these rules, that's of course a good thing. I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with. These rules are an overhaul, but the basic concept remains the same, I don't want to give the impression that I'm going to change everything, just changed and simplified my approach.

 

Soon I'm going to begin work on a strategy for range/choppy days too. Not sure exactly how its going to work yet, but I'll be dealing with very small stops, as small as 3 or 4 NQ ticks.

[jonbig04 10]

New rules FTW!

 

Took one trade at around 10:00EST.

 

Long of course.

 

+15, +30, +50

 

+31.5AVG for the day.

[jonbig04 10]

I suppose its worth mentioning that the average R/R on that last trade was 1:10.5

[hanz 10]

your results are in ticks or points...?

[jonbig04 10]

I trade NQ and deal in points. No scalping for me.

[jonbig04 10]

-3 for the day. Missed everything else. Stupid. Went long and immediately saw an 8 point again with 10 minutes to go in the day. It wasn't to be.

[jonbig04 10]

oops! missed a day, -9. annoying for such a good trend day. I missed fill by a few ticks on a long in the early morning. Blah. Oh well.

 

+22.5 for the week.

 

BTW since this is my journal I can say that IMHO:

 

Accuracy is irrelevant and indicators are pointless and usually harmful

[jonbig04 10]

0 trades today

 

 

 

For some reason this message has to be at least 20 characters.

[jonbig04 10]

bad luck today, Thats the only way I know how to put it.

 

Took a long in the early morning that I thought was gonna be awesome...held it for hours. Damn lunch reversals.

 

+15 -3 -3

 

All was well though, after all I can do just as well in a downtrend as an uptrend...right?!?! This downtrend seemed fierce. I wanted in badly and I thought I had missed it and was all upset but I waited it it did give me an entrance, but once again, patience proved its worth...well almost. I shorted the same area where I was stopped and thought I was good to go on the nice down trend ride.

 

-3 -3 -3

 

Price then proceeded up quite a bit and I tried a long, but i t was not to be as it went 5 points past my stop before tearing upwards. Oh well.

 

-3 -3 -3

 

Day total, -3

[jonbig04 10]

long in the morning, closed it out during lunch and went short. Got stopped by the lunch goonies just before the large drop. Bastards.

 

+20 for the day

[jonbig04 10]

+17 for week. Obviously very conservative as I didnt trade on the killer days of thursday and friday. Goal met, that's all that matters right now.

[jonbig04 10]

Shorted early in the morning, was quickly stopped

-3 -3 -3

 

Long in the afternoon. My targets are at my discretion as long as I meet the minimum r/r requirements. My target 2 would have normally been at +30 (10x stop) but I placed it at +28 (1 point above required (9x) as 1237 was potential R. Its a good thing, price dropped like a rock from there, sold last car at EOD.

 

+15 +28 +13.25 (18.75avg)

 

+15.75AVG for the day.

[jonbig04 10]

Man I bit the big one today. Missed all of the up move as per my rules. Took a few more shots, including a short that was stopped b/c of the lunch bastards stinking the PA up. and a long that got to +10 before crapping out. 3 trades, all losers. 1 was so-so, the others were pretty precise...just not meant to be! Oh well, much more trading left in the week!

 

-9 for the day

[jonbig04 10]

I never really thought I could have 2 big losing days in a row. I was all pissed. Well ok, I still am... but it just probabilities I guess.Today was the most frustrating day to date. I had to get very unlucky to have 6 losers in a row (today and yesterday), but i've also gotten very lucky. So F it. I followed my rules. All is fine. I am very close to my goal and I can't break or lose discipline now...I won't. I am now negative on the week, -2.25. Who cares, 2 whole trading days left. I am taking this day and officially saying. Who cares, thats trading, and moving on. its also kind of great that this week I have had 6 losers and 1 winner, and Im only slightly negative. Haha.

 

-9 for the day

NEEXXXXTTTTT!

[brownsfan019 17]

This is good for your progress. Anyone can be a great trader when it seems you can't be wrong, what separates those that continuously make money are the ones that realize there will be down days and it's just part of doing business.

 

I'll give you an example from today from my personal trading - the day started off rough w/ the EC giving me some losses (start trading it around 8am EST). And then the ES proceeded to give me 6 losers in a row. Ouch.

 

The EC then proceeded to provide some nice winners to end the day +287; the ES ended down -$221 and my saving grace today was the ZN at +713.

 

While not the best day by any stretch, to end the day up at $779/ct, I'll take it.

 

But the ONLY reason why this worked in the end was that I didn't give up after 6 ES losses (as the last ES traded provided +5.75), the EC ended up positive and the 'easy' market today happened to be the ZN for me.

 

It's funny how the mind operates as it's easy to look at the end result of +779/ct for the day and be happy, but it wasn't anything but easy...

 

Keep it up and stay focused.

 

=========

 

Side question - have you considered trading multiple markets that are not identical to the NQ? As I mentioned, the EC (Euro) and ZN (bonds) are good options to consider in the mix. Sometimes putting all your eggs in one market can be dangerous if that one market is just not working for you.

[jonbig04 10]

Thats so true. I have faith in my system and thats what matters. So I had some bad luck, shit happens. It's frustrating...I'm not going to lie, but at the end when i'm done throwing things and curing, I just laugh because I know my system. Will continue in other thread...

[jonbig04 10]

Hmmmm. I've never though about trading those 2, I am looking at other options though. Thanks:cool:

[jonbig04 10]

Missed log yesterday because I didn't take any trades...though not for lack of trying. I started today at -2.25 for the week, a far cry from my 15-25 point goal. It wasn't over yet though. I placed all targets at minimum R/R requirements for the first time ever. The last car was such a tough hold because I only needed it to be +14 to meet my goal. It went all the way down to +5 an back up and then back down. I so badly wanted to just close it at +14 and meet my goal, rather then have it drop and me lose this week and the last 2 weeks. But I didn't. I waited in what was the toughest hold of my life.I sold the last car near EOD, but because it looked as if 1205 as flipping to R. It didnt flip, I didnt short and I got the trade and the goal. Pulled that shit out at the last minute! Whew. What a tough week. Maybe next week will be nicer.

 

I took a long at 10:00AM, sold near EOD.

 

+13.5, +27, +26

 

+19.75 for the week

 

Goal met for 7 weeks straight. 1 to go. Price action FTW!

[jonbig04 10]

tough day for me today. Shorted in the AM. Was happy because I caught the small move to the tick, no heat at all, but it came back to stop me anyway.

 

Tried a long in the afternoon. Chopped around for hours and got to +11 or so before coming back and stopping me.

 

-6 for the day.

[jonbig04 10]

+0, stayed out for FOMC