Trader P/L 2009

[brownsfan019 17]

9-30-09: +$234.37

 

Profit, yes.

 

According to plan, no.

 

Shoulda been more...

[brownsfan019 17]

10/1/09: +$485.62

 

Better but not perfect.

[brownsfan019 17]

10/1/09 update: +$648.12

 

Thought I was done and then then ZS just gave me a gift I could not refuse.

[brownsfan019 17]

I hope me posting has not scared others off... this is OPEN TO ANYONE - LIVE OR SIM.

 

I'd rather it not be my own posting each day so come on, come all.

[BrianNC 10]

Sim trading. Here are two trades, one from this morning about 3am and one at the open. Just looking for 1 pt on each trade. Target hit on both. My goal is to take my point or two out of the market and increase profit by the number of contracts traded.

[Grey1 10]

I am new to this BB and this is my todays P/L as seen on the link ( Over $1000)

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/106/100-mechanical-trading-possible-5831-8.html#post76806

 

I have posted my P/L for 2 or 3 month on another BB day in day out ,,, I donot know what is the point of posting it any way because it is not educational but here we go any way

 

Grey1

[thalestrader 14]

My goal is to take my point or two out of the market and increase profit by the number of contracts traded.

 

Why?

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Dinerotrader 10]

YRCW -$0.06/share or 1%

 

I wanted to short today but I had to use my account that I can't short in so I had to look for a long. Risk reward looked good but I took the trade just before the lunch slow down which was a poor decision.

 

Dinero

[BrianNC 10]

Why?

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

I have a hard time coming up with extended targets. And then when I do go for an extended target, sometimes I get it, but then other times because it didn't hit the target, I end up giving all the profits back, when I could have had at least 1 pt. So I guess there is some fear of loss of gained profit.

 

Using s/r for entries as I have seen you do, and really learning that part from you, I have picked some great entries, got my 1 pt, and seen the target move much further in my favor after I take my 1 pt. Especially the last couple of days. I was in the beginning of that drop yesterday almost right at the top, but only got 1 pt out of it. Same for that trade today. I took my 1 pt, but the move ended up being at least 5 pts.

[Dinerotrader 10]

Follow up post on my results.

 

I just keep stewing about the fact that I messed up my entry and stop on this one. The bounce off support was anticipated but I executed poorly. This is one of those trades from which I will derive some type of rule for future trades. It is hard to post such a bad trade but exposing wounds seems to keep me more accountable next time to not do that same thing.

 

[brownsfan019 17]

I am new to this BB and this is my todays P/L as seen on the link ( Over $1000)

 

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/106/100-mechanical-trading-possible-5831-8.html#post76806

 

I have posted my P/L for 2 or 3 month on another BB day in day out ,,, I donot know what is the point of posting it any way because it is not educational but here we go any way

 

Grey1

 

There are quite a few reasons to post grey1:

 

FOR YOU

Create a place where you are accountable

Get feedback on your trades, progress, etc

If you do want to post charts, you will probably get feedback on these as well

Occasionally you'll get a PM from a new person that says 'Thanks, you've give me some ideas or given me drive to do this'

 

FOR OTHERS

Show those new to trading it can in fact be done

Show that there's many ways to make money in trading (by seeing a variety of blotters from people posting here)

 

 

There's no requirements to post here but it would be nice to get a few of us doing this regularly again. I was and then took a break fro the forums and starting it back up again.

[bathrobe 10]

Missed the sell off and scalped the end of day

[MightyMouse 12]

10/1/09 update: +$648.12

 

Thought I was done and then then ZS just gave me a gift I could not refuse.

 

Brownfan,

 

You are a machine! When was the last time you had a losing day?

 

MM

[bathrobe 10]

Something I noticed that I would like to clear up from all my posts is it always lists that I took between 30 and 90 trades a day, this is not the case as I rarely take more than one actual trade. My trades are all broken up into different sizes and I enter at different prices as to not have one large order just sitting in the dom. Also, most days I have an net profit but also a gross loss, I did not place a separate trade that was a losing trade, part of my position was exited at a loss, but the majority was exited with a profit.

[brownsfan019 17]

Brownfan,

 

You are a machine! When was the last time you had a losing day?

 

MM

 

So far so good since I came back from summer break. My strategy is simple, esp on a smaller account - keep intraday losses small, keep profits larger and try to have more winners than losers. That's the basics of it at least. There's some more risk mgmt parameters in place, but that's an entire post on it's own.

 

As you'll note if you look at the blotters, I do not focus on 1 market. I have a prime setup that I'm simply looking to exploit over a variety of futures markets. At most I will have 3 trades in a market and a good day is more like 2 setups. Since I know my ideal trading setup is 2 winners in a market, I've chosen to open up my markets traded to include bonds, currencies (although currently on hold), oil, gold, indexes, and grains. Now my ideal day looks like 1-2 trades per market x 6 or so markets.

 

I also don't trade all day. That was also a losing battle for me. I try to get the charts shut off by 12pm EST at the latest. I don't know what happens the rest of the day and I don't care. If I can make $500-$1000/day per contract on this account, that's exactly where I want to be.

 

It's taken awhile to get to this point - to know that:

1) There's no need to trade all day (and it's actually very counter-productive for me)

2) There's no need to focus on just 1 market and feel like you have to trade in that 1 market you are watching

3) There's no need to have many different setups if you find 1 solid, reliable, consistent performer

 

Now I'll say this - this week has been FAR from perfect. I track what I did vs. what the system produced. So at this point I should have had a much better week than what was posted, so it's very possible a losing day will hurt more than it should. And that's my issue - overriding the system out of fear.

[MightyMouse 12]

So far so good since I came back from summer break. My strategy is simple, esp on a smaller account - keep intraday losses small, keep profits larger and try to have more winners than losers. That's the basics of it at least. There's some more risk mgmt parameters in place, but that's an entire post on it's own.

 

As you'll note if you look at the blotters, I do not focus on 1 market. I have a prime setup that I'm simply looking to exploit over a variety of futures markets. At most I will have 3 trades in a market and a good day is more like 2 setups. Since I know my ideal trading setup is 2 winners in a market, I've chosen to open up my markets traded to include bonds, currencies (although currently on hold), oil, gold, indexes, and grains. Now my ideal day looks like 1-2 trades per market x 6 or so markets.

 

I also don't trade all day. That was also a losing battle for me. I try to get the charts shut off by 12pm EST at the latest. I don't know what happens the rest of the day and I don't care. If I can make $500-$1000/day per contract on this account, that's exactly where I want to be.

 

It's taken awhile to get to this point - to know that:

1) There's no need to trade all day (and it's actually very counter-productive for me)

2) There's no need to focus on just 1 market and feel like you have to trade in that 1 market you are watching

3) There's no need to have many different setups if you find 1 solid, reliable, consistent performer

 

Now I'll say this - this week has been FAR from perfect. I track what I did vs. what the system produced. So at this point I should have had a much better week than what was posted, so it's very possible a losing day will hurt more than it should. And that's my issue - overriding the system out of fear.

 

 

That's great and your method seems to produce lots of winning days. I was wondering when was the last time you had a day that either all of your trades lost or your net equity position was off for the day. Have you had a losing day?

[brownsfan019 17]

That's great and your method seems to produce lots of winning days. I was wondering when was the last time you had a day that either all of your trades lost or your net equity position was off for the day. Have you had a losing day?

 

Go back through the thread and you'll see plenty of losing days. Of course I have losing days. lol. While there's good volatility, I should see good results. When this volatility dies, I will have to revisit profit targets.

 

With that said, I'm typically on target to "win" about 4 out of 5 days. Keep in mind that a win can be as small as +$1 as long as it's +. This week was nothing to write home about in terms of the $ wins. Thurs was a target day but others were not.

 

And rarely do I see all trades in all markets lose. That's the point of trading different, uncorrelated markets. This week, ZS has been great to trade and saved my ass a few days. Check blotters to see what I am talking about. For now, the trades seem easier on the ZS but that's subject to change in a heartbeat, which is why I trade others as well.

 

If you want to see a smoother equity curve, I would strongly recommend trading multiple markets and ones that are uncorrelated to the indexes.

 

Will you be joining us here MM? Be nice to get some new people posting in the thread.

Edited October 2, 2009 by brownsfan019

[BrianNC 10]

Sim trading. Decided to try for a higher profit target than my one point on the emini sp due to thalestrader asking me why I only went for one point, as I know he goes for larger profit targets, and that was the reason for asking me the question.

 

The chart is a 1 hour chart so I can see the overall picture. The ellipse at the first dashed red line is the consolidation right around a previous low back on 9/14 which is an area of support. So before I went to bed I put in a sell stop 1023.25, two ticks below the current low at the time of 1023.25. Profit target was the next major support from 9/9 seen at the second red dashed line at about 1015. I actually had a 5 pt profit target set in NinjaTrader for when the trade triggered.

 

Got up this morning, looked at the chart, and immediately thought the trade worked out great, profit target hit. Only problem was I had a random 10 tick stop and the trade went 15 ticks against me and stopped me out before it turned around and hit what was my profit target. So I had the trade called right, but didn't have enough room in my stop. My stop is arbitrary. I even thought about putting it above a previous swing high, but I believe it would have been about a 5 pt stop which I wasn't comfortable with, but in hindsight would have kept me in the trade until my profit target was reached. With the 2.5 pt stop I have a ratio of 2/1 of win to loss. If I had put in a 5 pt stop, that loss ratio would have been greater than the win. Comments are appreciated.

[Grey1 10]

a nice start for the day as seen in the point of entry and the P/L up $800 first basket trade

[bathrobe 10]

Shorted failure of short term resistance, exited at short term support. P/L reflects years of obsession, dedication, education and blowing up in the beginning 3 times.

[brownsfan019 17]

I think someone requested a down day for me... here you go Mr. Mouse. Enjoy!

10-2-09: -$186.87

 

I'm ok w/ the day other than the CL. Wow did I fucker that one up good.

 

Scenario: was short the CL and up over $600/ct. I guess some greed took over and I was shooting for about $800/ct in profits. And it looked like it might get there too - and I thought, wow the TL guys are going to love this. Well, price quickly snapped back and I covered to cover the loss from the first trade.

 

It happens I guess, let it be on a Fri.

[Grey1 10]

a nice start for the day as seen in the point of entry and the P/L up $800 first basket trade

 

one more trade all entry and exit and P/L seen

total win for the day $1100 . no sweat just MATHSSSSSSSSSSSSSS 2+2=5

[daedalus 10]

 

It's taken awhile to get to this point - to know that:

1) There's no need to trade all day (and it's actually very counter-productive for me)

2) There's no need to focus on just 1 market and feel like you have to trade in that 1 market you are watching

3) There's no need to have many different setups if you find 1 solid, reliable, consistent performer

 

Some of the wisest words ever spoken.

 

While I still trade most of the day, what I have to agree 110% is this: Trade that one reliable setup in your arsenal and just exploit it on as many markets as you can. Its a hell of a lot easier than trying to trade every setup known to man on one market. It keeps things simple, it allows you to truly spot those exceptional setups, and doesn't force you to force your trades on one market/timeframe because you are monitoring so many that you almost always catch something worth having!

[MightyMouse 12]

I think someone requested a down day for me... here you go Mr. Mouse. Enjoy!

10-2-09: -$186.87

 

I'm ok w/ the day other than the CL. Wow did I fucker that one up good.

 

Scenario: was short the CL and up over $600/ct. I guess some greed took over and I was shooting for about $800/ct in profits. And it looked like it might get there too - and I thought, wow the TL guys are going to love this. Well, price quickly snapped back and I covered to cover the loss from the first trade.

 

It happens I guess, let it be on a Fri.

 

 

I didn't ask for you to do it today. Showing me a day in the past would hae been good enough.

[brownsfan019 17]

I didn't ask for you to do it today. Showing me a day in the past would hae been good enough.

 

Well, it wasn't the plan, trust me.