Organizing All My Data????

[LaReindeer 10]

Besides the day to day challenges of managing my emotions, I find it very frustrating to organize all the data.

I currently keep a thought journal document on google drive, and a trade log excel in google drive.

I have a set of rules in a document.

I am not real happy with this system but it works right now.

 

Then comes the earnings, vix , news, etc.

Does anyone else have a system or method of keeping track of all this info so it is handy?

 

Right now it feels like herding cats and there is always a stray to find a home for,lol.

 

Thanks

[Feng 10]

Hi LaReindeer:

 

Let's see what you listed:

1) I currently keep a thought journal document on google drive,

2) and a trade log excel in google drive.

3) I have a set of rules in a document.

4) Then comes the earnings, vix , news, etc.

--------------

It's a lot of information to carry. For sure. What I do is keep my thought journal and comments in my excel file where I log my trades and daily balance changes.

I write rules and then work them until I've more or less internalized them. Then I don't need the doc as much.

About 4)—is this information on your holdings that related to your plan of action? Are they just part of the noise of information about a stock/company/options. What I do is have one or two ideas I'm exploring and use a charting service like stockcharts.com to annotate my chart with lines and comments related to what I'm studying. Right now, for example, I am interested in trading patterns and options prices around quarterly conference calls. So, I'll note when the call is scheduled and other facts using the text box or comment annotation tool. I started their paid service last year, but I think you can annotate a chart for free, just can't save it for later except as a screen shot.

 

Also sometimes I put on my chart are comments on why and when I enter my position and any trends or dates I want to keep an eye on.

 

I pretty much ignore short interest, vix, analyst estimates, sunspots, moon phases, whether Mercury is in retrograde, and most articles and commentators except as a means of making up my own mind. Had a vivid experience of this last summer when Kramer said to sell a stock I was seriously long on. It dropped two days. in a row, by a lot. I see in my notes I disagreed with Mr. Kramer, and held firm. It quickly recovered and proved to be a great trade for me.

 

What do you need to know and how to you need to have it organized so your trading plan is effective? What can you let flow by you because it is not substantially related to how you want to trade?

 

Feng

[LaReindeer 10]

Hi Feng:

Thanks for that. I keep my news and info to a minimum because it is just noise and clouds my thinking. But every once in a while I start feeling guilty like I am missing out on something really important and need to keep track of more indicators, like the vix, market sentiment, etc.

I will spend a little more time today and look at my trading style, needs etc, maybe I don't need a whole lot more data, just more clarity on what is in place right now.

 

Thanks again

L

[Feng 10]

You know, LaReindeer, you bring up something that's interesting. I have no consistent way to look for that important piece of information. In fact, I actively don't want a consistent way, but to allow information to flow to me randomly.

 

For a while I had access to the WSJ because the prior occupants at my office left with time on the subscription. I read practically every page and it led to some interesting trades. But then the subscription ended.

 

So now I use the news feed on Finviz. It is organized in 2 ways, one by time and the other by source. I look at both ways it's organized. Mostly at random, allowing myself the fun of looking at only the headline and first sentence or delving deeper as I feel moved.

 

I also get articles keyed to my watchlist at Seeking Alpha. This is more consistent, yet random depending on when the pieces are published. If was from one of these that I first learned about mortgage re-investment trusts (mREITs). One of the hedge fund leaders I study, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, has bought into one and I felt it would behoove me to check it out as well. Still couldn't explain it to a middle schooler, but my shares keep advancing.

 

Trade well,

 

Feng

[LaReindeer 10]

  Feng said:

You know, LaReindeer, you bring up something that's interesting. I have no consistent way to look for that important piece of information. In fact, I actively don't want a consistent way, but to allow information to flow to me randomly.

 

For a while I had access to the WSJ because the prior occupants at my office left with time on the subscription. I read practically every page and it led to some interesting trades. But then the subscription ended.

 

So now I use the news feed on Finviz. It is organized in 2 ways, one by time and the other by source. I look at both ways it's organized. Mostly at random, allowing myself the fun of looking at only the headline and first sentence or delving deeper as I feel moved.

 

I also get articles keyed to my watchlist at Seeking Alpha. This is more consistent, yet random depending on when the pieces are published. If was from one of these that I first learned about mortgage re-investment trusts (mREITs). One of the hedge fund leaders I study, Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, has bought into one and I felt it would behoove me to check it out as well. Still couldn't explain it to a middle schooler, but my shares keep advancing.

 

Trade well,

 

Feng

 

Interesting I just started using Seeking Alpha, and rather like the info that comes in. It is brief and I only read about 25% of it in depth but I do find it useful.

I am currently on a 20 disciplined trade plan with one stock, so my focus is very narrow with nothing more than price and volume for indicators. It is tough as hell and very simple at the same time. I just completed trade 10 and have trade 11 on. The market takes on a whole different look when you get that tight of binders.

The object of the trades is to improve my confidence, discipline and beat the stupidity out of myself, lol.:bang head:

Thanks again

[Feng 10]

Hi LaRd,

 

Quote: "I am currently on a 20 disciplined trade plan with one stock, so my focus is very narrow with nothing more than price and volume for indicators. It is tough as hell and very simple at the same time. I just completed trade 10 and have trade 11 on. The market takes on a whole different look when you get that tight of binders.

The object of the trades is to improve my confidence, discipline and beat the stupidity out of myself, lol."

 

Are you keeping charts by hand, as well, because of that tight focus?

 

I am finding getting a handle on discipline difficult as well. I say to myself, fade in with a few trades, fade out with a few. I imagine it, and what did I do this morning? On a whim sold off all my shares of IMMR at once.

 

I think this means I have an older belief buried behind my conscious thoughts. So, I'm going digging for what it, or they, may be and show them exit from my thought patterns.

 

Feng

[LaReindeer 10]

  Feng said:

Hi LaRd,

 

 

 

Are you keeping charts by hand, as well, because of that tight focus?

 

I am finding getting a handle on discipline difficult as well. I say to myself, fade in with a few trades, fade out with a few. I imagine it, and what did I do this morning? On a whim sold off all my shares of IMMR at once.

 

I think this means I have an older belief buried behind my conscious thoughts. So, I'm going digging for what it, or they, may be and show them exit from my thought patterns.

 

Feng

 

I'm not sure what you mean by keeping charts by hand. I do keep screen shots with my levels recorded, trades I took and what I what thinking or feeling, on a daily basis.

 

I so hear you on the discipline, I use an array of tools to cope with this:

meditation

EFT

and sometimes just stopping what I am doing and letting go, quitting, not literally but mentally to break the obsessive search for the answer, trying to figure it all out.

When I do this I make the best decisions, so I also practice this in the rest of my life too. Nothing like practicing without risking money.

 

L

[arvo 10]

  LaReindeer said:

Does anyone else have a system or method of keeping track of all this info so it is handy?

 

Right now it feels like herding cats and there is always a stray to find a home for,lol.

 

 

Hi,

 

after trial and error in the course of a few months, I have arrived at this routine, tied to a complete "audit trail":

 

- A folder with my life goals, trading goals, trading plan and trading rules, which takes 10-15 minutes to read (and occasionally ammend as new ideas emerge, by replacing the relevant pages with updated versions).

- Then I open MyFxBook, where every trade is logged automatically from my trading platform. The first thing I check before trading is important news times and take note on a simple post-it note and stick to my screen. I don't care what the expectations or fundamentals are, just need to know the news times.

- Then I trade, based purely on price action, on 5 min TF. After entering trades, I just tag them on MyFxBook with the setup tag (just two mouse clicks) for subsequent automatic analysis (trades are logged automatically by an EA plugin).

- I also keep a working log of price action for the day, bar-by-bar, in a simple word document. It is just a working doc to help me verbalise my thoughts in writing, keep focused and take notes as market plays out, I don't need it afterwards, b/c these notes lose their value very quickly due to the short TF. Next day I just continue writing on the top of the same doc and practically never revisit the old notes.

- After finishing trading, I have a routine I picked up from Pristine Trading as recommended on this site: print out all trades on paper, write each trade's setup on top, mark entry and exit points and evaluate it with hindsight vis-a-vis strategy and price action (mark actual entry/exit in green and ideal entry/exit in red). Write GOOD or BAD on each trade, note the reason for any BAD, and put it in the respective folders for whenever is your review/study time. Also, print an account statement and put it in the Accounts folder. Day closed.

 

So basically, the tools are:

- Four beautifully looking premium physical folders: goals/plan/rules as a constant daily reminder, good trades folder, bad trades folder, daily account statements folder (as day trader, my goal is to finish each day with a profit, so I put green dividers for profitable days and red for loss days to give me a visual clue on performance). They're alwas on a shelf at hand.

- MyFxBook for news, logging and subsequent analysis of setup performance - as feedback on my trading goals/strategies.

- The working Word doc for bar-by-bar notes, but it doesn't need to be revisited, it's just a tool to keep me focused as I trade, couldn't care less about it :missy:.

 

I find this system very easy to maintain. The morning routine is 15 minutes and the paperwork at the end of the day is 10-15 mins. The logging is part of my trading activity, I wouldn't call it paperwork.

 

BTW, does anyone know any other tool like FXBook that could take in exports from the platform (whether live or uploaded)? I'm thinking of changing my broker to a non MT4, but am dreading the prospect of having to log everything manually, trade by trade, into a simple excel spreadsheet...

 

BR

 

Arvo

[LaReindeer 10]

  arvo said:

Hi,

 

 

 

- A folder with my life goals, trading goals, trading plan and trading rules, which takes 10-15 minutes to read (and occasionally amend as new ideas emerge, by replacing the relevant pages with updated versions).

- Then I open MyFxBook, where every trade is logged automatically from my trading platform. The first thing I check before trading is important news times and take note on a simple post-it note and stick to my screen. I don't care what the expectations or fundamentals are, just need to know the news times.

 

 

Arvo

 

Arvo,

I like the separate folders idea, I will probably make that an online version as I have to be away a lot. Every thing I do must be transportable.

I like that MyFxBook, do you know of anything like that for stocks?

I use screen shots for my end of day trades and notes but I might just add a scoring system to that.

 

Thanks

L

[arvo 10]

  LaReindeer said:

I like that MyFxBook, do you know of anything like that for stocks?

L

 

MyFxBook is a fantastic tool, it amazes me nobody had thought of it before. You just tag your trades with setup/strategy tags and then you can run detailed analytics to evaluate your performance on each setup/strategy, get the Sharpe ratio, growth and profit curves, profit factor, expectancy in pips and dollars, win/loss counts, etc etc. The only problem is it works only with the MT4 platform, which is a bucket shop platform and sometimes does not work as expected, whether by accident or design... (I suspect the latter a lot :frustrated:).

 

I guess there should be some analytical software that could take in simple excel exports, which all platforms allow, but I'm not aware of it yet. I think TradingJournalSpreadsheet.com could be a good tool, but I doubt it allows imports. When you do a lot of trades intraday, manual logging would be very time-consuming.

 

If anyone knows any such soft, please let us know.

 

BR

 

arvo

[LaReindeer 10]

  arvo said:

MyFxBook is a fantastic tool, it amazes me nobody had thought of it before. You just tag your trades with setup/strategy tags and then you can run detailed analytics to evaluate your performance on each setup/strategy, get the Sharpe ratio, growth and profit curves, profit factor, expectancy in pips and dollars, win/loss counts, etc etc. The only problem is it works only with the MT4 platform, which is a bucket shop platform and sometimes does not work as expected, whether by accident or design... (I suspect the latter a lot :frustrated:).

 

I guess there should be some analytical software that could take in simple excel exports, which all platforms allow, but I'm not aware of it yet. I think TradingJournalSpreadsheet.com could be a good tool, but I doubt it allows imports. When you do a lot of trades intraday, manual logging would be very time-consuming.

 

If anyone knows any such soft, please let us know.

 

 

 

BR

 

arvo

 

Hi Arvo,

So I went and checked out the TradingJournalSpreadsheet.com looks like a really good program. I will do a little research this weekend on the pros and cons.

At this point in time I do not have a huge amount of trades to record so filling in a trading record by hand is no problem.

 

Thanks

L