New Trader Journal

[hailchaser2 185]

My Goals......

Link to thread about 1%v2% profits/day.

 

[hailchaser2 185]

I didn't do a journal entry Yesterday because I was not ready to talk about the failure of my first day back in a live account. I thought I was ready to control the psychological problems of over trading and revenge trading, but they reared their ugly heads again.

I got my account activated 5 minutes before the open, I should have immediately switched to DEMO for day one, but the excitement of finally trading live again pushed that thought away and I went in guns blazing. I didn't do any screen shots because there were not many technical entries or trades. It ended up being over 130 tickets. -$306.52 before commissions, -$454.67 after commissions. That is a -9.12% hit to my account on Day 1.

Rules Followed 2/7

Last night I emailed CMEG to set my total daily loss realized + unrealized to $100.

I also forgave myself for making such a huge psychological error. The hard daily stop will obviously keep me from doing this again, but I should be able to control it myself.  I must fix that issue, anytime my first 5-10 minutes goes poorly, I lose my cool.

I will get better.

[hailchaser2 185]

Tuesday, I started the day with a much better mind frame than Yesterday. +$121.75 +2.6% (+$102.25 +2.25% After Commissions)

Rules Followed 5/7 (4. weekly loss is over 300, but I traded live anyway, 5. Traded 2 BreakOuts which are not listed in my acceptable strategies at this point, I might add them because I am confident in reading L2 action around resistance/support levels)

Trade One 5 Min Orb: entered with very little risk just below VWAP, almost added to trade at retest of VWAP 9:55 but I decided against it. Put a .13 Trailing Stop in because I was tired of watching the trade. I should have stuck with it, it never tested VWAP again, and fell another .60 cents.

Trade 2 Reverse To VWAP: Brian called this possible reversal out in the chat, I expected it to get to VWAP after not broke the MA, engulfed the 1 MIN and passed the high of the previous 5 MIN. It shot up and I took a 1/4 partial, made a hotkey mistake and took another 1/2 partial instead of hitting the BE hotkey.  Then the pattern failed and stopped my remaining out at BE.

Trade 3 BreakOut over 200MA on 5 MIN: This was another good idea, but I made the exact same HotKey mistake that I made on Trade2 to take my big partial way too soon.

Trade 4 Daily Level BreakOut: Roku was strong all morning and was hanging out at a Daily level I marked in the pre-market. L2 showed big Sellers at the ASK (1052,600). I entered at the break and took some good partials, no HotKey mistakes this time.

 

Trade Log: I'm not sure why some are SMAT one some are LAMP, I thought they were all supposed to be LAMP. I messaged CMEG about this.

Later in the day I was tempted to make more trades but Rule 7. Lock Montage after reaching goal!

So I switched to Sim and messed around, lost 1,300. I probably shouldn't even screw around like that in Sim anymore, it could make bad habits.

Edited February 13, 2020 by hailchaser2
Updated PnL After commissions posted

[hailchaser2 185]

Wednesday, I only had 15 minutes to trade before I had to leave to help some friends make some coozies. I probably shouldn't have even logged on Knowing I had prior commitments. -$84.00,  -1.8% (-$95.89 -2.07% After Commissions)

Rules 5/7 again: 4. NO 6. NO

Trade 1 & 2 MU

I was watching for 5 min ORB again, I was switching between a few stocks the first 5 minutes. I didn't see anything I liked. I moved MU to my trading window. I was too late, I chased the trade. Took a couple partials and then got stopped out .05 below my stop loss somehow. Maybe it just dropped too fast? My entry should have been earlier in the candle or even at the prior candle near the VWAP, my risk could have been about .08 cents. Forced another long try above a daily level break out, almost immediately got stopped out for loss.

 

 

Trade 3

Again I entered a trade way too late. This entry should have been one of the tests at VWAP.

 

 

The entries I missed are very easy to see now. I need to concentrate on entering near VWAP to keep tight stop losses, that would also help my BE stop not get triggered so easily later in the trade. I will be able to handle the normal pull backs.

Edited February 14, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Thursday, another day of massive over trading, 128 tickets, 8 different stocks (3 both ways). I'm not even sure how to do a detailed recap when I had so many trades. I didn't take the time to screen shot any of the trades. I only took a snapshot of my trade list. I ended up green, but am very disappointed in how I traded. +134.87 +2.9% (+32.90 +0.7% After Commissions)

I did successfully use the DAS mobile app to exit some trades I was in. Had to leave the house and go to a Valentine's Day party at my daughter's school. They were both small shares of winning trades I was still holding. 

[hailchaser2 185]

Friday, another terrible day for me. Started decent, then overtraded again. I MUST start following my Rule 5 (use dimes to stop over trading).

-$103 -2.3% (Will Update After Commissions)

Rules 2/7

I have found that when I get stopped out at BE after some gains, I get frustrated that I didn't profit more, I am angry at the market for not continuing in my favor. It really affects me when I only get one or two partials. I have to stop letting that effect my emotions. I must accept that it is a normal thing for the market to change directions. 

This TSLA was actually a good idea, ABCD at the VWAP. I am happy about this one, it just didn't work out.

 

Trade 1,3,4 on NVDA are all examples of one partial, then stopped out at BE.

 

How do you deal with the frustration of one partial then stopped at BE? Or how did you keep this from happening as often? Better entries would help I'm sure.

[hailchaser2 185]

1 hour ago, peterB said:

if you do the partial t the right place then a stop at BE is normal to happen. part of the game. if you regret it than you should have not been in that trade or should have do all out instead of partialling.

man you need to get together, what you do is not trading

Thanks, I think about 20% or my trades this week were ok. The other 80% were just trying to get lucky.

But that’s why I’m here, trying to learn and get better. Week two will be better. Using this thread as an accountability tool.

Its not easy to publicly admit I was an idiot 4 out of 5 trading days last week.

[hailchaser2 185]

Goals for this week.

1. Trade Well

2. Do Not Over Trade: if I break my rule of no more than 5 trades, I must stop trading, then trade in Sim the next day, and each day after that until  I can keep my trades to 5 or less.

Yes, I changed my rule from 4 dimes/trades per day to 5.

[hailchaser2 185]

4 hours ago, peterB said:

you need more detailed rules like:

1. take 5min ORB, 15min ORB - now it is clear what you want to trade

2. after 3 trades evaluate - now it is clear you want to stop and think on what is next

3. take maximum another 3 trades as ABCD or VWAP bounce - now you know how you want to trade next.

4. max daily loss $30 or 3 red trades or target $60 stop trading- now you know when to stop trading

 

My rules were posted at the bottom of first page of this thread. They are similar to what you suggested except for the re-evaluate.

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Another terrible day. Hit my max loss again. -$108. 

Rules followed 6/7
 

Trades 1,2,3 MU

1st trade was a good 5MinOrb took 1/4 partial quick, then another 1/4 when it hit my pre-market level $56.62. It bounced, I was stopped out .03 above BE. My stop was set at BE but got filled above. 

2nd trade: I saw it fail above VWAP the prior candle. Set a .20 stop loss which would give a bit of room above VWAP. Again got stopped out past my stop loss .04 above.  I should have set the stop closer to VWAP. My hot keys are currently .05,.10,.20...if I had a .15 I would have used it here.

3rd trade: A revenge trade, I convinced myself the 200SMA would push the stock back down, but I know that 1min moving averages are not as strong as 5min, I should have known not to take this trade.

I should have known after the big wick on second 5min candle that the stock was primed to pop over VWAP. I’m also going to start taking 1/2 partials instead of 1/4 partials. Maybe that will help my emotions when I get BE stop.

Trade 4:

If I would have been watching this earlier I probably would have gotten a better entry. I chased this one up.

 

 

For the next 6 trading days I will be in a competition on a different platform. I don’t know if I will even logon to my CMEG account or not.

I will still do recaps for the competition trading.

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Wednesday

 

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Thursday, still making useless physiological errors. Trying to force the market to do what I want instead of just taking advantage of opportunities that are presented to me.

A few good trades, but wiped out by undisciplined trades again.

Change will happen, but not without me changing my focus and discipline.

 

AMD tried long HoD first grade, flipped to short 2x.

 

below is the big short trade continued form above.

 

tried to forage a reversal to VWAP, this was not trading, it was just clicking and hoping.

Pics below, 2 more tries at getting reversal that wasn’t happening......dumb
 

 

 

I totally forgot about my first trade this morning, I was just reviewing trade pics in my phone and saw this. I was concentrating on L2 and trying to time my entry perfect.  I was waiting for the two big bids to start being eaten up. I did time it perfect, sent order fractions of a second before it broke below 30. Then wondered why my order didn’t go through. SSR!!!!! It ran down to 29.14 without me. I didn’t want to try and enter after my screw up. So I was disciplined at least once today.

 

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Friday, another bad day.

I can’t wait for Monday and a fresh start. Patience and Discipline next week.

Also, I will not even have $AMD on any of my screens or watch list.

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Revamped my HotKeys last night and this morning. Now I have a file that has my old HotKeys I’ve been using, and a file for Kyles $ risk HotKeys.

I never had double click to trade activated because I was afraid it was actually double click and the trade happened, I didn’t realize it’s just double click loads the trading montage with the price.

[hailchaser2 185]

This week I am working on my problem of over trading. In the past (SIM), I used 4 dimes to limit my trades. If I made a trade, I took a dime away. This helped me be more selective of which trades I entered.

Since going live I have completely ignored my dimes.

Today I took some quarters and modified them to help me remember why I began this journey. My end goal is to stop traveling for work and be home for my family.

 

I will no longer “shoot from the hip” and get in any trade that looks promising. I will not survive if I continue to do the same haphazard trading I did in the first two weeks. 
 

Week 3: Patience and Discipline

I will also be using Chartlog starting tomorrow.