journal Mike B. Simulator Video Recaps

[Mike B 624]

October 12th trade on AMD. Took 2 trades on AMD both were green. One trade was before 5 minutes and the other was right after I got stopped out at break even on the first trade. Ended the week with 4 out of 4 green days with only having one day of true over trading. 

Win Rate% - 68% (slight decrease from last week but tolerable)

Average Win Ratio is above a 2:1 (Slight increase from last week)

Net Equity curve is Horizontal which is good considering I am trading 100 share sizes. 

Gross Equity curve is upward

[Mike B 624]

October 15th did not trade as I did not get enough sleep the night before and had to leave early for work

[Mike B 624]

October 16th, trade on CGC. I did not have time to make a video but I have included the screen shot of the trade. I did not execute my entry well as I lock my montage in the pre-market and forgot to unlock it. By the time I got it unlocked, the stock already moved down. To make matters worse, when I did enter I made a hot key mistake and went long instead of short. I quickly got out of the bad trade and re-entered with the correct hotkey.  I was able to adjust my profit taking plan quickly and took profit at the previous day close and just below the moving average on the 5 minute chart. Overall not a bad trade.

 

[Carlos M. 230]

Nice recovering from a hotkey mistake. Sometimes that can throw you off your game, you kept cool and stuck with the plan. 

[Mike B 624]

6 hours ago, Carlos M. said:

Nice recovering from a hotkey mistake. Sometimes that can throw you off your game, you kept cool and stuck with the plan. 

Thanks Carlos M. I agree hotkey mistakes and ruin your day. I now have added unlocking my montages to my daily checklist before the market opens. I would think this would seems natural to not forget but I have done it a couple of times the last two months.

[Mike B 624]

October 17 trade on AMD. I beginning to realize AMD and I are really good buddies. Got a late entry but my profit taking was where I wanted it to be. If I had been patience, If I had not hit my goal for the day I could also have taken a 15 Min ORBD on AMD. I noticed while I was doing my re-cap. Couple more weeks until I go live. 

 

[Mike B 624]

Oct 18 trades on AA. Today was a rough day, as I took three trades, two of them without a Trade, Risk, or Profit Taking plan. I made my daily goal off the first trade, so if I was live I would have executed the last two trades in sim. However, this is a perfect example of the market rewarding bad behavior have I broke almost all my rules prior to entering the trade. 

[Mike B 624]

October 19 trade on EBAY. I did a quick trade within the first five minutes on Ebay. That one trade made my daily goal, so if I was live I would have been done for the day and transferred to Sim. But since I am already in a simulator, I made the mental note that from this point forward all the trades would only be conducted in simulator and would not count towards any of my statistics. I did not make a video today as I cannot fit the recap in the 2 minute time limit, so I am just going to type it today. By the end of the day I had 4 trades, 2 positive, 2 negative because I let 1 of those go past my breakeven.

Trade 1 - Strategy - I was short biased as Ebay had a bad earnings report and it was having trouble popping above VWAP in the pre-market. I had a plan that if the stock sold off in the first minute that I would go short to 29.00  with a stop loss at VWAP if the the risk reward ratio was at least a 2:1. I entered and covered at 28.89 after a quick drop and then got out as the stock began to pull back towards my original profit target. 

Trade 2 - Strategy - 5 Minute ORBD. I set my profit target at 28.61 with a stop loss at VWAP. This trade I did not execute my profit taking plan well, as I let the stock go past my breakeven point once I had taken my first out. I was messing around with the level 2 display being in the ladder view instead of the normal view I use. I like the visual of the ladder view as it was easy to identify what direction the price action was moving; however, I did not like how I was unable to clearly identify when the stock was at my breakeven price. This caused the stock to move past my break even point, so I decided to just use my original stop loss as an exit as it was only .05 away. I exited the trade when it hit VWAP.

Trade 3 - Strategy - did not have one as I started to let the candles dictate instead of analyzing the information the candles were presenting. Although I did not make money on this trade, this was probably the best trade of the day from a psychology development perspective. I entered at the 29.02 support level believing that the stock would go down toward my profit target from the previous trade at 28.61. I was saying to myself, "I know this stock is going to hit that profit target", thanks to the book "Trading in the Zone" I know when I start saying those words, I need to look for reasons why I am wrong. So I took my eyes off the 1 minute chart and started looking at the 5 minute and 15 minute chart. I quickly noticed on the five minute chart that the stock was making higher, higher, lows. When I saw this I said I need to get out and look for a profit target to the long side. I exited and quickly executed trade 4 to the long side.

Trade 4 - Strategy - Modified VWAP Reversal - I set an entry at the high of the second candle as the third candle did not make a new high. I set a stop at the low of the current candle as I was still a little short biased, and I set the profit target at the moving average at 29.58. I took profit at the resistance level of 29.46, a second out when the stock broke the 50 SMA on the 1 minute, and I exited when the stock hit my profit target.

Overall today I was happy with my trading. I met my daily goal and was in the green 4 of 4 trading days. I was also positive after commissions 4 of 4 days this week. I consider commissions & ECN fees as a learning price and do not count them when I consider whether I was green or red for the day. (Did not trade Monday)

Monthly stats

Win Rate% - 71% (3% increase from last week)

Average Win Ratio is below a 2:1 (1 dollar off a 2:1 ratio)

Net Equity curve is upward (increase from Horizontal) 

Gross Equity curve is upward (Same as last week)

Current planned transition from primarily Simulator to Live trading is November 5, 2019.

 

[MadsFromDenmark 10]

On 10/19/2018 at 9:49 PM, Mike B said:

October 19 trade on EBAY. I did a quick trade within the first five minutes on Ebay. That one trade made my daily goal, so if I was live I would have been done for the day and transferred to Sim. But since I am already in a simulator, I made the mental note that from this point forward all the trades would only be conducted in simulator and would not count towards any of my statistics. I did not make a video today as I cannot fit the recap in the 2 minute time limit, so I am just going to type it today. By the end of the day I had 4 trades, 2 positive, 2 negative because I let 1 of those go past my breakeven.

Trade 1 - Strategy - I was short biased as Ebay had a bad earnings report and it was having trouble popping above VWAP in the pre-market. I had a plan that if the stock sold off in the first minute that I would go short to 29.00  with a stop loss at VWAP if the the risk reward ratio was at least a 2:1. I entered and covered at 28.89 after a quick drop and then got out as the stock began to pull back towards my original profit target. 

Trade 2 - Strategy - 5 Minute ORBD. I set my profit target at 28.61 with a stop loss at VWAP. This trade I did not execute my profit taking plan well, as I let the stock go past my breakeven point once I had taken my first out. I was messing around with the level 2 display being in the ladder view instead of the normal view I use. I like the visual of the ladder view as it was easy to identify what direction the price action was moving; however, I did not like how I was unable to clearly identify when the stock was at my breakeven price. This caused the stock to move past my break even point, so I decided to just use my original stop loss as an exit as it was only .05 away. I exited the trade when it hit VWAP.

Trade 3 - Strategy - did not have one as I started to let the candles dictate instead of analyzing the information the candles were presenting. Although I did not make money on this trade, this was probably the best trade of the day from a psychology development perspective. I entered at the 29.02 support level believing that the stock would go down toward my profit target from the previous trade at 28.61. I was saying to myself, "I know this stock is going to hit that profit target", thanks to the book "Trading in the Zone" I know when I start saying those words, I need to look for reasons why I am wrong. So I took my eyes off the 1 minute chart and started looking at the 5 minute and 15 minute chart. I quickly noticed on the five minute chart that the stock was making higher, higher, lows. When I saw this I said I need to get out and look for a profit target to the long side. I exited and quickly executed trade 4 to the long side.

Trade 4 - Strategy - Modified VWAP Reversal - I set an entry at the high of the second candle as the third candle did not make a new high. I set a stop at the low of the current candle as I was still a little short biased, and I set the profit target at the moving average at 29.58. I took profit at the resistance level of 29.46, a second out when the stock broke the 50 SMA on the 1 minute, and I exited when the stock hit my profit target.

Overall today I was happy with my trading. I met my daily goal and was in the green 4 of 4 trading days. I was also positive after commissions 4 of 4 days this week. I consider commissions & ECN fees as a learning price and do not count them when I consider whether I was green or red for the day. (Did not trade Monday)

Monthly stats

Win Rate% - 71% (3% increase from last week)

Average Win Ratio is below a 2:1 (1 dollar off a 2:1 ratio)

Net Equity curve is upward (increase from Horizontal) 

Gross Equity curve is upward (Same as last week)

Current planned transition from primarily Simulator to Live trading is November 5, 2019.

 

What a great job! Love those recaps, keep the good work up!

[Mike B 624]

October 22 trade on my buddy AMD. I did something I have not done before and that is enter a trade in the minute before the pre-market. I had a great If-Then statement for both a long a short depending on which way the AMD opened. Then about 30 seconds before the market opened, the stock popped above my entry point with high volume, Time & Sales chart started moving extremely fast and the Ask heavily outnumbered the Bids. I hesitated a little as I was unsure about entering prior to the open but I had a good trade plan and it was so close to open I went long above my planned entry but set a stop loss that if the stock moved against me that I was out and ready to take it to the short side. 

Hit my daily goal for the day and started watching charts for an hour till work. 

I also messed around with YNDX as it was a SSR stock with CMEG. I wanted to test if I could get in and out of the trade in simulator. I was unable to use my hotkeys to enter short; however, if I used the Montage hotkey buttons I was able to get filled. Once filled I was able to use my hotkeys to scale out. When I go live I going to test with 1 share to see how it goes. Small price to pay for piece of mind.

[Mike B 624]

October 23rd 5 Min ORBD trade on CAT. Trade went well but the bid-ask spread caused me some issues on taking profit. Overall I was happy with it and learned a valuable lesson when there is a large bid-ask spread don't take profit based on the candle you have watch what the Bid/Ask price says depending on the direction you are going.

Hit my daily goal for the day and then watched the charts for another hour.

[Mike B 624]

October 24th trades on AMD and T. Could not upload a video today. 

 

Trade 1 - S&R on pre-market resistance level - I had a long and short plan for the open. If the stock broke 25.19 I would go long, but if it broke the 25.01 then I would go short. It broke 25.01 and I hit my hotkey but got a bad fill almost .10 lower which threw me off. During the pullback it went to my planned entry and because I was out of whack, as soon as it dropped back to my entry I got out. AMD can be a choppy stock so I did not want to take a chance. I took a little loss on the trade. I then moved on to T

Trade 2 - 5 Min ORBD - (No chart picture) - I noticed a consolidation around 31.66 and decided to go short if it broke 31.60 to a profit target of 31.21. I set my stop just above VWAP. I had a good risk to reward ratio; however, I got in a little early and should have waited until the close of the 5 min candle. I got in with about 15 secs left. I took my first profit at 31.43, second out was at 31.30 (not a good out), and I exited at my profit target.

Trade 3 - 5 Min ORB - While in the T Trade I saw a consolidation on the 1 minute chart with a pull back to a Resistance level. I decided to go short. I took my first out at the next support level and decided to take my second out and exit around the profit target as I began seeing a lot ask start to populate and felt the buyers were starting to gain control. It did pull back and I would have gotten stopped out at my first profit target; however, it did eventually hit my profit target of 24.10.

Daily goal was met, but I had more trades than I would have liked.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for AMD after it earnings report this evening.

[Mike B 624]

October 25th Trades on TWTR & AMD. Today was a day where the Market rewarded me for terrible behavior. I regressed back to zooming into the 1 minute chart and not pulling back to look at the 5 min or 15 minute charts. My plan going into today was to trade TWTR at a 15 min ORB; however, I gave into impulse and traded TWTR 3 times before 15 minutes. The fourth trade on TWTR was the actual 15 minute ORBU I had planned to take but I was so chopped up with TWTR already I called it a day after taking my first profit only to see it run to my profit target. 

Met Daily goal but did not give myself a passing grade for fundamentals.

Trade 1 - TWTR - Jump the gun prior to 5 minute mark. I had no trade plan and had FOMO. The only good thing was I had a stop and utilized it, even though it was not based on any technical level.

Trade 2 - TWTR - Again Jump the gun prior to 5 minute mark since I just had a loss. I again had no trade plan and had FOMO. The only good thing was I had a stop at the 9 EMA and utilized it.

Trade 3 - TWTR - Why not lets try three times in a row to enter a trade based on FOMO and think I am going to have good results. Good thing I realized this and said I out, regroup, and figure out a trade plan.

Trade 4 - TWTR - Hey what do you know I developed a 15 min ORBU trade plan, set my stop loss at VWAP, Profit Target at 33.20, and entry once it broke 31.70. Everything was good but I did not execute my trade plan because I saw another pullback on the 1 minute chart and instead of holding to my stop I just got out with a little profit. And of course the stock goes to my profit target. Bad trade all around.

Trade 5 - AMD - I figured since TWTR was not working out with FOMO strategy, why not try it with AMD, it is bound to work in my favor. I entered on a 1 minute consolidation without looking to the 5 minute chart. I entered and quickly realized how stupid of an entry that was. I made the decision that was lost money and developed somewhat of a trading plan. I set an entry of 19.13, Stop of 18.86, and exit at 19.60. I entered and of course for some reason I did not enter just 100 shares, I also had a duplicate order of an additional 200 shares. At this point I just closed my eyes and took a deep breath and said if this were live what would you do. In the past I would have said oh well this trade don't count, but I didn't this time around. So once I decided that once the stock popped above my entry point I would clear out the extra shares and get back to where I was comfortable. If I hit my stop before that than I would stop out. Luckily it went in my direction and I took my first out to get me back to my normal share size. I took some off at my normal 1st out, half at near my profit target, and exited just above my profit target. 

Overall today was not a good trading day even though I hit my daily goal.

4 more sim days till I go Live.

 

 

[Mike B 624]

October 26th I did not trade as I hit max shares traded on Thursday and I have a rule that if I hit max Shares than I do not trade for the rest of the week. I only look at the charts. When I go live this rule will evolve into trading sim for the rest of the week.

 

[Mike B 624]

October 29 trade on AMD. I took 3 trades on AMD.

Trade 1 - S&R Long in the pre-market - This is the similar trade that I have seen in the past with the 1 minute and 5 minute charts hitting both a support and resistance level and not being able to break through. I developed a long plan that I would go long if it broke the 18.25 with higher than usual volume. It did this so I went long; however, I set a stop loss at the support level and said I would reverse the position if after the open it broke below that with other indicators. After the open it hit my stop loss so I exited and quickly started to look for confirmation to go short with my short plan.

Trade 2 - I saw it bounce of the moving averages and VWAP, so I said I will go short if it breaks 18.15. With the stock being on SSR with CME Group I had to do a manual montage entry. As you can see from the chart below I did not get the fill until my profit target. Once that occurred I set up a new risk to reward ratio and said I will take my first out at .20 lower than my entry. It did this so I then move my break even to my entry and unfortunately the stock did a pullback and I got out at the break-even. This is inline with my profit taking methodology.

Trade 3 - I once again saw it bounce off the moving average, so I said it is going to go lower again. Once again because of the SSR with CME Group I could not get a good fill. once I did get a fill I readjusted my profit taking plan and executed it accordingly. 

I was happy with my first trade. The second and third trade were basically the same trade, but because of the bad entry it through off my profit taking methodology.

Lesson learned from this is either do not plan on trading a SSR stock with CME Group or put in an order prior to it hitting the entry point.

Daily goal was not met today, but I was satisfied with how I traded. I would have preferred to have better entries.

Two more days of Simulator trading. On my last day I plan on posting my simulator analytic comparison between my trading in September and October.