New Trader Journal

[hailchaser2 185]

The last two days in PCT BootCamp have been a blur of Open not working out. Then spendind the rest of the day trading BullShit setups trying to "get back" the money lost.....which we all now almost never works out. 

 

 

[hailchaser2 185]

 

I took time this weekend to make some adjustments for my trading after the Open, I didn't have written TradeBook or plans. I made playbooks for Parabolic Pullbacks and Mountain Passes, I also made a DaS layout that was just for observing my 6 stocks on watchlist. There is no montage to trade or anything else, just 6 1 minute charts. This will keep me from entering trades that don't meet the criteria of my ne TradeBooks. It worked very well today. I also recorded some affirmations this weekend that I have been meaning to do since Crede's last success webinar. The app I used is called I Am That I Am. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tntp45 53]

Looking Good !

[Christopher 129]

Where you at stud

 

[hailchaser2 185]

I am back.....I couldn't find the time to post here while I was in the Peak Capital Bootcamp. It finished mid December and I have not traded since then. I did not do well enough to earn a spot with the firm, but the experience did a lot to help my trading progress. When I get some extra time I will post some of what I have developed during the BootCamp.  

 

The disappointing part is I could not stay away from trades outside of my TradeBook. I don't know if it is something that will continue to hinder my progress, or if it was just the pressure of trying to make a certain amount before the deadline. 

 

This graph shows a graph with all trades, then I removed all "No Setup" trades to show my TradeBook setups only. I have 4 TradeBooks that I feel good with right now. 1MinOrbs, 5MinOrbs, MountainPass, and ParabolicPullback.

 

Here is a tag breakdown of my different strategies P&L

1MinOrbUp

1MinOrbDown

5MinOrbUp

5MinOrbDown

 

 

MountainPass

 

ParabolicPullback

 

Up until around December, I only traded $25 and $35 risk per trade. 

 

My final two months of trading before the BootCamp in my live CMEG account I was break even on my trading, but fees and commissions dwindled the funds away.  I was only risking $10 per trade, so if I hade entry, exit, and 5partials, that's -0.35R in commissions.  I have now reloaded my CMEG account and will be back live once the funds hit my account. I will be risking 25$ per trade, and I will consider raising to $35 once I gain 1k in equity.  Very excited about 2021. 

 

[NikkiB 22]

WOW at the difference between All Trades and Tradebook Only trades.  I'd love to hear your thoughts/see what you developed during the PCT Bootcamp, I'm doing it on this next go around coming up.  As for your not being able to stay away from trades outside of your Tradebook - how long had you been trading before you did the Bootcamp?  I'm coming up on 2 years trading and for some reason I don't understand, I've found this calm and have started only letting myself trade "my trades" (playbook in my head, I don't have a real one...yet).  Depending on how long you've been trading, I'm thinking the change finally comes along when you've lost enough money and get sick of telling yourself every night "tomorrow I'm GOING to do it this way!"

[hailchaser2 185]

@NikkiB I dabbled in day trading in 2019, then in February of 2020 I traded every day, but most of the days I just traded the first 45 minutes. So I had a solid 7 1/2 months before the BootCamp. But I can’t even consider the first 3-4 months in my “live” account as trading. I didn’t have an edge. So I guess I was still pretty green entering the BootCamp.

 

The advice I would give anyone entering the next BootCamp. Leverage your coach/team leader, communicate with them on developing your rules, and TradeBook. And do it early in the BootCamp. Also have Ardi change your daily max loss to 3-4 times your risk per trade. I asked a few times at the beginning to lower my daily max loss, but was told we weren’t allowed. Then in the end another trader told me Ardi did change his daily max for him.

Don’t focus on the number you need to reach, it puts added pressure on you to be profitable. Just trade well and it will show in your equity curve.

Treat your TradeBook and daily review and journal like a science project. 

They are supposed to focus more on the mentoring this second time, so take advantage of it.

Another thing I struggled with was journaling in Chartlog. I tried to just add that to my normal journaling routine. That was way too much. I was basically trying to journal in 3 different programs, I used OneNote and TraderVue before the BootCamp.
so adding the third journaling aspect made me rush through my journaling to get stuff entered, I didn’t really “absorb” my daily performance like I usually do with my normal routine.

I would suggest just focusing on using chartlog for your review and journal. I believe if I had dropped the other stuff and just used Chartlog, it would have saved me some time and relieved some stress.
 

Start writing down your edge/TradeBook now, get a head start on the BootCamp Process. 
 

Feel free to ask any other questions, I’d be happy to give you my thoughts.

[NikkiB 22]

@hailchaser2 Thanks for the input and info.  I started using ChartLog when I switched to IB/DAS about 4 months ago, so hopefully I at least have that hurdle covered.  Good luck going live again and post updates on how it's going for you! 

[hailchaser2 185]

Here is a spreadsheet I', currently working on to track my individual setup performances

 

 

EDIT, I don't know why my screenshots are so crappy when I screen shot my full monitor. Maybe I need a better app than the regular snipping tool.....anyone know if I am doing something wrong?

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by hailchaser2

[Rob C 826]

2 hours ago, hailchaser2 said:

Here is a spreadsheet I', currently working on to track my individual setup performances

 

 

EDIT, I don't know why my screenshots are so crappy when I screen shot my full monitor. Maybe I need a better app than the regular snipping tool.....anyone know if I am doing something wrong?

 

I use TechSmith Capture. I am quite happy with it. You can save it as an image, link or video.

[hailchaser2 185]

CMEG is turned back on. I planned to take today to make sure all charts layouts, screen layouts, and hotkeys were working properly in sim.....Nothing was working at the open, I couldn't make an entry....no errors showing my why. So I switched to live and took a position, it worked. So I lost 0.6R on that. Went back to SIM and nothing. FYI, you have to set your buying power in SIM. Once I changed it from zero everything worked good.

 

After testing most of my needed HotKeys, I decided to switch to my "Observe Layout" that doesn't even have a trade montage. It all looked good, so I switched back to "Trading Layout" and yep, I forgot to switch it back to SIM. So I took a LIVE trade on accident. It was my MountainPass setup, so it was ok.

 

Tried a different screen capture method, so posting this to see if it still looks fuzzy like before.

 

 

Still looks blurry. I'm going to try what Rob suggested above tomorrow.

 

 

 

[hailchaser2 185]

After that trade, I'm pleased to say that I sat at my station all day, and did not take another trade in SIM or LIVE. I consider that a good sign that my discipline to stick to TradeBook setups only is improving. Let's go 2021.

[hailchaser2 185]

UGGG Max Loss today -3R

Here is how my open started. Yesterday I requested they change my trading permissions to regular hours only, no Pre or Post market trades. They must have f'd it up, because when I went long on WFC for a 1MinOrb it gave me a Trade Time error. It would have been a minimum 1.5R Trade, and maybe even a 2.5R trade. It sucks psychologically to start the day that way. Once I got CMEG to straighten it out, I forced some trades that were not setups.

 

Tried to force these AMD trades, Short, stopped out, LONG stopped out, Long again with a couple partials

 

 

UBER Parabolic Pullback, but I did not wait for a reversal candle.......Not good. The second entry was just 10 shares, I was testing to see if my account was working properly again.

 

OSTK Parabolic Pullback, This is one of the main struggles I have with this TradeBook, Sometimes the 9onthe% is good R:R, but I know the 1Min chart is not steep enough with big candles, I still get tempted by the R:R it provides and enter. I need to be self aware during these times and pass. I should probably take the stock off of my screen completely if the angle looks like this, even if the (on% looks nice.

 

I had 4 Trades today that were not in my TradeBooks, I was thinking of a punishment....I hate clutter, so I printed them out to clutter my desk up tomorrow, and be a reminder I don't want to add to the clutter with more "No Strategy" trades. Let's see if this works, lol.

 

 

[hailchaser2 185]

3 Trades today even though I was trading all day, that's a big step for me. Only had one winner, but all three were nice TradeBook Setups.

 

 

 

 

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Nine trades today. All were TradeBook setups, but I did break two rules. Traded before the first 1Minute candle finished, and traded in the last hour. Two days in a row that I have stayed away from “No Setup” trades.