November 2018 Go-Live Support Group

[Rob C 826]

Summary for 2nd week of February

So this is summary of my  2^nd week of trading in which I journaled for the BBT community to view. This was also my 5^th week of trading with the solitary goal to reduce my overtrading. First week was a brutal boot camp style trading. The initial reaction seemed helpful since my second week I traded very well. By the third week I was back to my old overtrading max loss self. Fourth week I went on a self-imposed 1-trade a day maximum, which went well initially, with a week of good trading. Now I just finished my second week on the 1 trade a day and it didn’t go as well. Actually was quite disappointing.

Results:

	Good Trades	Neutral Trades	Bad Trades
1st week Feb	4	1	0
2nd week Feb	0	4	2

 

Lots of things to be disappointed about:

1)    Broke my 1 trade a day rule on Wednesday with a revenge day

2)    Continue to have correct share size issues. An issue I never had until last week.

3)    Not stopping out correctly. Though an issue while I was on SIM, this has not been an issue while trading live. This week I was too early or late on the stop out 3 times (out of 6 total trades is really bad).

4)    Even on the 2min ORB I seem to be jumping the gun a bit. I take the first trade to setup, not waiting for a really good one, or letting the so-so ones go by.

5)    Not taking my partials correctly. Not taking my 1^st partial if my share size was too small. Not taking my second partial a few pennies early in case my tech level was not placed accurately.

Positive things:

1)    Never hit max loss

2)    Journaled every day this week on the BBT site. It wasn’t easy to show my trades to everyone, especially since I was not too proud of them.

 

Next week:

1)    Continue on 1 trade/day maximum. Apparently it is not easy for me to keep after a bad loss.

2)    Concentrate on execution. Correct share size, correct partials and correct stop out. Especially the share size and stop outs. These are skills I already had and do not want to lose.

3)    I feel I should do more. I will still think about it during the long week end.

 

Edited February 17, 2019 by Rob

[Rob C 826]

I was thinking adding a post trade checklists like Mike does, in my online journal. It won't be as comprehensive and organized as Mike's but I think it will be a useful exercise. I do go over this checklist mentally before and after a trade and then give the trade a score and determine how to improve. But I will try adding it to the journal and see how it goes.

Since I am mainly taking 2min ORB trades, I will start with that. Though the time range for the 2min ORB is 9:31:45 to 9:34 EST

What the setup was, how was the momentum powered by and did it break any veto rules.

This is how I define the setups:

Simple ORB 

2min chart

2min candle must:

<0.25 ATR

<1% move

Cross VWAP near end of candle

Must have strong tech levels for risk/reward

Small wicks   The Step 1min chart Should not look like a bull flag

2nd 1min candle should be as large or larger than the first

 

Mini ABCD/Bull Flag

 

Vish Candle

2min chart

Very bullish/bearish candle

Take trade on a break of technical level

 

I tend to find what is powering the momentum as important as the setup. The check list has the list in order from strongest to weakest.

I find "The Curtsy" my strongest "power" indicator. This is when the price reaches a technical level I drew (usually from the daily chart) then touches it and retraces. Thus it is paying its respects to the level. Honestly I still don't trust that I am drawing these levels in the right place and if they are real. So this curtsy confirms it. I usually take the trade as it breaks it and the stop out if it retraces back.

Next strongest is when I see the 2nd minute have as strong or stronger volume than the first.

421 VWAP is when I see a large delta between VWAPs on the different charts. If I am thinking going long and the 2min chart VWAP is 0.67% higher than the 1min chart, that is a strong "power" indicator for me to use.

DTL break is simply the break of a daily technical level

Strong 1st is not only is there a strong final target, but if there is a good place to take the first partial as well, that seems help move the price.

HiLo break is simply the break of the high or low of the day.

Engulf PM is when the 2min candle engulfs an already large premarket 2min candle.

 

Then I have my list of criteria that I will not take the trade at the last moment if one of them is broken.

B-Bands is if the price is above the 20 SMA 4 sig Bolinger band

R/R 2-7 to 1, I find if the risk to reward is too large >7 it's not real and I don't take the trade.

 

So that's it. Sorry about the long entry. If any of you think something is very wrong with these setups, let me know. I have only been live 4 months and still have a lot to learn.

[Mike B 625]

Just completed my Third week of my new trading sample set. I am not quite sure what to call this week other than a tough internal fight with myself.

Weekly Analysis of trading

I was able to trade 4 of 5 days this week. Friday, I just did not have any more emotional capital to give, so I traded simulator. Monday I had a nice trade setup with my edge, it did not quite meet my profit taking criteria, so I ended up getting stopped out. I could have reduced the amount of loss by exiting when the five minute chart indicated that the stock was not going in my direction. After this day I ended up adjusting my exit rules to accommodate for this, so I do not hold onto my loser longer than my winners.

Tuesday I had another nice setup on $MU, but did not get a chance to enter, so I had a no trade day.

Wednesday was were I started having some problems. All three stocks on my watch list had great 5 min ORBs with a good follow on move. This caused my fight with FOMO to be really tough, going into my 15 min ORB edge. $MU met my trade criteria; however, it also pulled back more than half of the opening candlestick, which is a sign to me that the stock is choppy and should not be traded. Unfortunately,  I gave into FOMO and decided to trade outside my sample set with a nice ABCD setup on the 2 & 5 minute charts. I took two trades on this as I had to quickly exit on my first trade as I did not have my stop loss set correctly to my entry point with regards to share size. I then re-entered, once I had this and correct and executed a great profit taking plan. Overall though I did not meet my goal for the day as I traded outside my edge.

Thursday was another tough day as I wanted to get back on track for the lasts couple days of the week. I entered a trade on $KO, thinking that I had meet my edge criteria. My psychology was so bad, that I did not even realize I got filled almost .15 cents below my planned entry, I took my first out above my entry point thinking I met my 1R line, and finally somehow I had a significant larger share size than I should have. I eventually got stopped out on the trade and during my post trade analysis, I realized the stock did not meet my trading edge, and I should not have taken the trade. After reviewing my trades, and noticing I was making several trading errors unconsciously, I decided not to trade live on Friday as I was not in the right spot mentally and needed the long weekend to re-focus.

I have be extremely satisfied with the trading results of this sample set.

Weekly Overall Self Rating: I may not have traded well, but I am extremely happy with my risk management.

Daily Goal Hit –  3 of 5 

Daily Max Loss – No longer tracking, monitoring just to ensure I don't go over

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded three times outside my sample set this week..

2.      Stick to your trading Rules and focus on developing trading skills, self-discipline, and controlling my emotions while in the trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge

[Mike B 625]

All I can say about this week, is that this is what I was looking for out of my sample set. 

Weekly Analysis of trading

I only traded 3 days this week, it seems like this month the world falls apart at work Friday mornings and keeps interfering with my ability to trade. Maybe I will just start taking Fridays off from work.

I took 2 out of 3 setups this week. I did not take the third setup, as the I was stopped out on the first 2 setups and called it quits for the day, only for the 3 third setup to finally work. That is exactly what my sample set is designed to teach me. You never know which trades will be the winners or the losers, just trade the good setups. It has been a rough couple of weeks of trading for me emotionally, so I am looking forward to finally getting out of my current streak. I know it will happen, I just need to continue to trade good setups.

I am definitely at the point where Mark Douglas says it will become very difficult to trade the next trade because of my current streak. I can't wait for his method to prove my mind wrong.

I have be extremely satisfied with the trading results of this sample set.

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Traded well all week

Daily Goal Hit –  3 of 3 

Daily Max Loss – No longer tracking, monitoring just to ensure I don't go over

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded two times inside my sample set this week..

2.      Stick to your trading Rules and focus on developing trading skills, self-discipline, and controlling my emotions while in the trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 S S 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge

[Rob C 826]

Summary of my week ending 2/22/19

So this is a summary of my 3rd week of trading in which I journaled for the BBT community to view. This was also my 6^th week of trading with the solitary goal to reduce my over trading. This is also my 3^rd week I went on a self-imposed 1-trade a day maximum, which went well initially, with a week of good trading. Second week was quite disappointing. My third week would have been OK if I didn’t break my setup rules today.

Results:



Negative things this week

1)    Broke my setup rules once this week

2)    Traded AMD twice this week. Trying to stop trading my “comfortable stocks”

3)    Took a 1min ORB with 2min ORB setup rules.

 

Positive things:

1)    Never hit max loss

2)    Journaled every day this week on the BBT site.

3)    Hid my P/L window, which is a first time in 10 months (6m SIM). Never looked at it until end of the trading session.

4)    Kept to my 1 trade/day max this week.

5)    Share size, taking at 1^st partial and stop outs were back to normal this week.

6)    Started a rule not to trade before 9:31:45 to prevent 1min ORB trades.

 

Next week:

1)    I finished “The Daily Trading Coach” book (3^rd time) this week. So I will start rereading “Trading in the Zone” this weekend.

2)    I think after 3 weeks on the 1 trade/day rule, and understanding why I broke that rule last week, I will modify the rule for next week. I will allow a maximum of 2 trades a day IF my first trade is a winner. I can’t trust myself if my first trade is a loser. The urge to revenge trade is too strong. Especially, when the loss is caused by a mistake. But after a winner, which is also a well executed trade, I instinctively don’t want to trade anymore and ruin the day. So I assume I will be pickier after a win. I will give this a try.

[Rob C 826]

 

Live trading summary of week ending 3/1/19 and month of February.

Though I have been trading live for 4 months, this is the first month I felt real progress was being made. I had to go extreme with my rules for this month (only 1 trade allowed per day). But, it has really helped reduce my instinct to over trade (from extreme to just bad). It was the first month I did not go hulk. It was the first month I never hit max loss. I did break the 1 trade/day rule once on a revenge trade. It was also my first month with a positive equity.

For March I will stick with the one trade a day rule, though I will allow myself a second trade if the first trade was a well executed winning trade. I can’t trust myself after a losing trade. Since my equity was positive and did not go hulk in February I am increasing my risk per trade from $25 to $30.

In February I reread both the Daily Trading Coach and Trading in the Zone.

Stats for February:

Total # of trades	21
Hulk Days	0
Max Loss Days	0
Broke max trade rule	1
Hoy Key Mistakes	1
Good Trade %	43%
Neutral Trade %	33%
Bad Trade %	24%

 

As for summary of the week ending 3/1/19. Not a good week.

Good Trades	Neutral Trades	Bad Trades
3	1	3

Four out of five days I would consider as bad trading days. Adding 2/22/19 Friday was also quite bad, I am left with only one good day out of the last six that I was happy with my trading. This has left me with very high doubts about my trading again.

So next week need to work on checklist especially being careless with the Risk/Reward. Problems need to be fixed internally and externally. As for internally, I will verbally go through my checklist (I video on all my trades with mic on, so it will be recorded) before I take a trade. This is a bit embarrassing to admit that I need to do after trading for 4 months live. As for external improvements, it seems this month on DAS I never got over the habit of having my tech levels automatically listed for you the way Etrade-Pro does. So I was sloppy double checking my levels before a trade. So beside increasing my margins, I will place a note on each chart (I assume DAS has a way for you to do this) from now on listing the two neighboring major levels above and below the opening price.

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by Rob C

[Mike B 625]

What a month of trading. Today I really took a look at my trading for the month, because the last couple of weeks I was just not satisfied with my trading. What I found was interesting, when I pulled away and looked over the month, I traded extremely well each day especially in the last two weeks. I only had two days that I traded outside my edge in the middle of the month. This is definitively not the feelings I had each and every day. It was refreshing to say the least that overlooking the month, that I was sticking to my trade plan and managing my risk well.  

Weekly Analysis of trading

I traded all 5 days this week, although I had a trading error on Thursday as I left my order setup in simulator from the night prior. 

I took 2 out of 4 setups this week. Monday and Tuesday I hit my profit target and got through that difficult spot of having 3 losers in a row plus 3 trades outside my edge. I traded the third setup, but I was simulator without knowing it. The 4th setup I did not see as I was watching another stock on my watch list causing my to miss the entry.

The time I spent on the sample set has been worth it. It has assisted in identifying a couple areas I need to work on.

(1) Profit taking execution. My profit taking plan I believe is worth while, I am just not executing it as designed.

(2) When I do everything right and the stock goes against me, I am still getting frustrated. If I did something wrong, I have no issue with the stock going against me. I have to remind myself that stopping out is doing the right thing so do not get upset.

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Traded well all week

Daily Goal Hit –  5 of 5 

Daily Max Loss – No longer tracking, monitoring just to ensure I don't go over

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded two times inside my sample set this week live. 1 time in simulator

2.      Stick to your trading rules and focus on developing trading skills, maintaining self-discipline, and controlling my emotions while in the trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge

[MadsFromDenmark 10]

Good to see you working hard Mike! 
Slowly coming back again, did swift to futures, holy cow, going back to stocks again. 
How much are you paying, in (fees/monthly) (software, for using it) where you trade?

And what about you capital, can it survive those (Monthly fees?) 

Great day.

[Mike B 625]

4 hours ago, MadsFromDenmark said:

Good to see you working hard Mike! 
Slowly coming back again, did swift to futures, holy cow, going back to stocks again. 
How much are you paying, in (fees/monthly) (software, for using it) where you trade?

And what about you capital, can it survive those (Monthly fees?) 

Great day.

I am with CMEG, so I am paying 2.95 per trade and $150 for the platform. When I first started I would say that my capital could not keep up with how I was trading (scaling out too much), so I had to make some adjustments to how I took profit. Since adjusting my scaling, I have no issues. 

[MadsFromDenmark 10]

2 hours ago, Mike B said:

I am with CMEG, so I am paying 2.95 per trade and $150 for the platform. When I first started I would say that my capital could not keep up with how I was trading (scaling out too much), so I had to make some adjustments to how I took profit. Since adjusting my scaling, I have no issues. 

Nice to hear. 

If its okay, how much do you have on you account?

[Mike B 625]

This was a rough week as I was battling the San Diego Flu all week. I tried fighting through it the first three days of the week, but I gave in and just decided to rest and get better the last two days.

Weekly Analysis of trading

I was only able to get truly settled into trading on Wednesday this week. Monday and Tuesday I was out of my element and was only willing to take a trade if it was an A+ setup. I was happy with Wednesday trading as I was able to get stopped out and than re-enter a trade without letting my emotions getting the better of me. 

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Good considering the outside elements

Daily Goal Hit –  1 of 1

Daily Max Loss – No longer tracking, monitoring just to ensure I don't go over

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded two times inside my sample set this week live. 1 time in simulator

2.      Stick to your trading rules and focus on developing trading skills, maintaining self-discipline, and controlling my emotions while in the trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G S G 16 17 18 19 20

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge

[Rob C 826]

Live trading summary of week ending 3/8/19.

This week feels like last week, in that I had a bad week, but I don't feel that bad about it. The previous week I had 5 bad trading days out of 6, but was happy I finished the month of February with out a max loss and positive equity. This week I now had only two good trading days out of last 11, but Friday was a really good day and my nervousness really decreased Thursday and Friday. So I actually feel OK about the week.

The poor trading was primarily due to not catching what I call "veto" rules. Obvious rules, when broken, voids me from taking the trade. Usually following these take no effort and its usually the setup itself that I have trouble following my rules. But this week I was breaking veto rules. Most of the time it was carelessness. Just wasn't looking for them. By the end of the week I made a large effort to be conscious of them and at least on Friday didn't break any of them.

Good to bad trade ratio was 50%, which was quite disappointing.

I did raise my risk to $30 a trade this week. I was stuck at $25 a trade for 4 months. But I finally had a positive equity month with no hulk days which allowed me to increase my risk. I didn't feel any difference so will keep it at $30.

Next week's focus is improve adherence to the veto rules.

[Mike B 625]

I got over the flu, and was anxious to get back to trading. 

Weekly Analysis of trading

This week I confirmed, I am really good at not letting a stock go past my stop loss. It feels great to know that after 4 months, this is one of the things that I choose not mess around with. I think I have ingrained it into my mind so much, that I do not even have to think about it anymore to execute it. When the price action hits my stop I am out.

The other great thing about this week, is I am not getting emotional after the stopping out. I have actually been able to move on to look for additional trades after getting stopped out.  

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Good 

Daily Goal Hit –  5 of 5

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded two times inside my sample set this week live and 1 time outside with a VWAP Reversal strategy.

2.      Stick to your trading rules and focus on developing trading skills, maintaining self-discipline, and controlling my emotions while in the trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology. I am looking to refine my trading strategy at the end of the month.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G S G S S 18 19 20

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge

[Rob C 826]

 

Live trading summary for week ending 3/15/19.

From a quality standpoint, this week was pretty good. For the most part I took good setups, broke rules infrequently and generally managed the trades OK. Though it’s not supposed to be important at this stage of learning, my low win rate this week started to affect me and I was close to breaking my maximum trade rule on Friday. Luckily I was able to turn off the platform and walk away before taking another trade.

My trade evaluation by week:

This week was interesting since I finish taking 30+ 2min ORB trades since I started live on the DAS platform. 30 is the minimum trades that I will analyze the data. So out of the 31 trades my win rate on the 2min ORB setup was only 65%. My win$/Loser$ ratio was not very good either making this not a profitable setup. Yes my % is much higher when I don’t break rules, but I don’t want to look at the “what ifs”.

What is interesting about the data is my win rate for stocks I have never traded before was 45%. And the win rate for the stocks that I have traded at least once before was 75%. With that info I need to make some adjustments. Now I don’t want to stop taking 2min ORBs on stocks I have never traded before, but I do want to stop the preference I have for new stocks. I am always worried I am going to get into a rut trading the same stocks every day. So if I see a good setup on a familiar stock and a new one, I will always trade the new one. With this data in hand I need to stop that habit. The preference should be in the opposite direction. That will be a focus for next week.

 

[Mike B 625]

Completed my sample set this week and then week into a chaotic Saturday of track, soccer, and fundraising.

Weekly Analysis of trading

This week I was really satisfied with my psychology. I made a few blind spot trading errors, but managed to to remain calm and executed well afterwards. Over the past two weeks I have been taking 5 min orbs in the simulator prior to trading the 15 min orbs as I want to incorporate this strategy next. I am going to take the next couple days to decided when I want to incorporate 5 min orbs live into my trading plan. Right now I am not confident that I am taking good setups with the 5 min orb.

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Great

Daily Goal Hit –  5 of 5

Goals for the month 

1.       Traded three times inside my sample set this week live.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

2.       I did not hit Max Shares traded in a day.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did not change any of my trading or profit taking methodology. I am looking in the process of adding a strategy to my trading plan as well as increasing "R" per trade.

Sample Set Results

                P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G S G S S P S G 

P - 1:1 than Break-even

G - Hit Profit target

R - Stopped out

# - Trade outside my Edge