How long until you became profitable?

[cjsimon07 16]

On 12/30/2020 at 2:55 PM, fintan777 said:

Hi cj thanks for your response. Do you mind giving me an example / template on how you journal your trades? I do not journal my trades but I am going to start now.
I think my main problem is over trading, I take too many set ups even though every time before the trading day I say "I'm only going to take good set ups". I think I'm slowly getting better but like you said, its way slower than I want it to be. Thanks again

 

I use chartlog.com for my journal. I upload all my trades directly to their site. 

The first thing I do each morning is start with a blank sheet of paper on my desk for notes during the trading day. I like to pick one goal to work on each day and sometimes write that on the top of the page before I start my premarket prep. If I am working on not over trading I would write something like, "today I will only take my best playbook setups." I found writing it down and looking at it throughout the day helps me stay focused on it. 

After each trade I note the setup I took, what was good or bad about the trade and I give it a rating based on the following criteria:

GT (good trade): I took a good setup, followed my trade management plan, and made more than 1r in profit

B/E (break even): I took a good setup, followed my trade management plan, but made or lost less than 1r

F/S (full stop loss): Good setup, followed my trade management plan, took a 1r loss

B/M (bad management): I broke more than one of my trade management rules (doesn't matter if I was green or red on the trade)

B/D (bad decision): Impulsive entry, bad setup, over trading... (doesn't matter if I was green or red. For one reason or another I should not have taken the trade).

If I make a B/D or B/M trade I stop and reassess my mental state. Am I able to focus 100% on good trading or do I need to take a break? Sometimes it only takes me a few seconds or a couple deep breathes with my eyes closed to refocus. Sometimes I walk away for a bit and sometimes I just have to shut it down for the day. 

After the trading day I enter this info into a spread sheet. I track daily, weekly and monthly. I start with my P&L, total trades taken, then how many of each category above. My goal is to keep my B/D trades at less than 10% of total trades and my B/M trades at less than 20% of my total. If I exceed that on any given day or week I make my primary focus to fix the issue the next trading day. These things have helped my significantly cut down on my over trading, forcing trades and bad setups. 

Then I go to chartlog and go through each trade. I go through each trade detailing the strategy used and how I managed the trade. There's also a place to make an entry about the day. I detail how I felt that morning, how my premarket prep went and how prepared I felt at the open. Then I go over any trades that I want to learn from (this also includes trades I did not take). You can do a free trial of chartlog, but I recommend paying for it so you can use their data analytics. This will help you see which of your strategies work best. 

Finally, at the end of each week I go over my daily notes and make a weekly entry covering what went well, what needs work and what I learned that week. I do the same thing at the end of every month and plan to do a yearly review as well.  

There's more info on journaling in the education center and I've found the moderators are always happy to talk about what they do. I highly recommend you start a journal and review it regularly. I always say there's no better teacher for how you trade best than you. 

 

[Willy 25]

Hi. I have 3 years since I started reading about day trading. I have been trading life 2 years I am just starting to get profitable. I am down mostly because of the hulk days. It is a different journey for every one. But for me the keys are:

1 - Risk the same amount in every trade. Start small, proper stop loss (important level, EMAs, VWAP, etc.) . Entries close to those levels. 

2 - Tradebook with very clear setups (entry, stop loss and exit)   

3 - More or less a target to stop trading but no to take too many trades ( I mean for example, stop trading after 8 trades no matter the P&L)

4 - Journal (I use tradervue)

5 - Keep your days green, then your weeks are going to be green an so your month.

 

Hope that help you. I am available for any question.

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Here is my chart from 2-9-20 to 9-11-20.....I entered the Peak Capital BootCamp at that point and haven't traded live since then. This is not what I expected for the start of my trading business.......working through it, and will be back live next week.

 

[JS 10]

3 hours ago, hailchaser2 said:

Here is my chart from 2-9-20 to 9-11-20.....I entered the Peak Capital BootCamp at that point and haven't traded live since then. This is not what I expected for the start of my trading business.......working through it, and will be back live next week.

 

Great to know. How is the performance during the bootcamp?

[hailchaser2 185]

36 minutes ago, Jiheng Sang said:

Great to know. How is the performance during the bootcamp?

I did not trade well in the BootCamp for various reasons. I had long stretches of trading well with big hulk days mixed in. In my live account I have a hard stop in place for max daily loss. Without that protection in the BootCamp I was unable to control my hulk days. 

 

I enjoyed the process though and feel that I am a better trader for doing it. 

Edited January 8, 2021 by hailchaser2

[Kav_83 0]

Did anyone find setting Hard Stops (set by DAS) helpful? I'm at a place in my live trading where I can do about 0.5% to 1% of account size daily around 70% of the month. However there is atleast one or two days a month where I go hulk and lose about 4-5%. which seriously jeopardizes my profits. I'm thinking of putting hard stops in DAS , possibly at around 2%  of account size. Has anyone's trading improved as a result of putting in Hard Stops?

[Kav_83 0]

Thanks @peterB! Thats super helpful to know. Yup agree will have to see how it works with my red to green days.