November 2018 Go-Live Support Group

[Mike B 625]

23 hours ago, Rob said:

Well at least I didn’t blow up my account today.

I was a bit nervous when I got up this morning (the usual 5am Pacific time). The last 3 times that I put together 4 straight days of solid trading (Mon-Thurs) I hit max loss on Friday. So again this week I had 4 solid days of trading so I was worried I would hit max loss today. Well I went way beyond that. I’m a real boom and bust trader.

I know I have a hulk issue and overtrading. This is the 4^th hulk day in 9 weeks, but today was far worse. The other 3 days I lost less than 1% of my account, today was over 3%. It’s an eye opener that I now know I have the ability to blow up my account. My share size was doubling with every trade so by the end I would have. Luckily my 40min alarm went off. I see from my journal that ALL trades after 40min of continuous trading are losses. Essentially, it is my alarm to take a few minutes break. That broke me from my destructive path for long enough to turn off my platform.

For the first time my video recording was corrupted. So I can’t watch to see what set me off. I remember the first trade I stopped out at B/E. It was a correct action since stock kept going against me. The second trade I also stopped out at the stop point for the predetermined $25 risk I am trading. So these were two OK trades. The third one I remember stopping out but that’s all I remember. The rest is a blur.

Etrade doesn’t have risk controls. I asked after my first hulk day. Apparently I need them. So I just placed an application to CMEG. I also like the idea of a smaller account. I can do less damage. I knew Etrade-pro would only be good enough for at most my first year of trading, but I didn’t think I would switch this early. Etrade-pro really helped me with my hot key mistakes, which was a major issue. Hopefully, I am better at that now. But, I am really going to miss a platform that the buy and a cover are different actions.

I took on my overtrading and hulk issues sort of supply/demand. Reduce the causes and reduce the reaction. Hotkey mistakes were my big trigger. So I changed platforms and greatly reduced it. I created simplified rules and started with low risk to help prevent over reaction. I increased my discipline by getting up well before the market so I am fully awake and had time to study the market before the opening. All my trades are recorded and reviewed. I am aware that’s not enough. I will change platforms again, but more importantly I need to search and determine what part of my psyche is so reactionary and why. A tough thing to do. But necessary. Will have to ponder over the holidays on how to accomplish this.

 

 

Rob,

I can definitely relate to you. My last week of trading was terrible (Dec 10 -14). Three of the five days were red and each of those days I over-traded trying to make up for the loss on the first trade. What made it worse was that each of the trades I lost money on, I entered when I had no reason to take the trade. Unfortunately, last week I was not able to trade as I was out of the country, so I had the entire week to reflect on what went wrong. I believe that I have narrowed it down that I get FOMO which in turns causes me to trade outside of my trading edge. In order to try get rid of this fear moving forward, I have altered my daily trading goal from a dollar amount to only taking trades within my edge. I have set a goal of accomplishing a streak of 5 days in a row. 

I believe focusing on my trading skills as a goal instead of the dollar amount will assist me with focusing on the right things to trade consistently. 

Thank goodness for my trading journal, because without it I would still be making the same mistakes over and over again.

Mike 

[Mike B 625]

20 hours ago, ragy said:

@Mike B Hi Mike  - I found your live status is extremely valuable. I am starting my SIM and learning from people stories here. I really like how you track and monitor your progress in the spreadsheet. Is it possible to share it with me?

Thanks!

The spreadsheet I use I got from Bart. Below is the forum link where you can download it from him. I will send you the above two sheets via message.

 

 

[Rob C 826]

2 hours ago, Mike B said:

Rob,

I can definitely relate to you. My last week of trading was terrible (Dec 10 -14). Three of the five days were red and each of those days I over-traded trying to make up for the loss on the first trade. What made it worse was that each of the trades I lost money on, I entered when I had no reason to take the trade. Unfortunately, last week I was not able to trade as I was out of the country, so I had the entire week to reflect on what went wrong. I believe that I have narrowed it down that I get FOMO which in turns causes me to trade outside of my trading edge. In order to try get rid of this fear moving forward, I have altered my daily trading goal from a dollar amount to only taking trades within my edge. I have set a goal of accomplishing a streak of 5 days in a row. 

I believe focusing on my trading skills as a goal instead of the dollar amount will assist me with focusing on the right things to trade consistently. 

Thank goodness for my trading journal, because without it I would still be making the same mistakes over and over again.

Mike 

Mike thanks for the note. Its good to know that I am not alone.

Yes, I determined the same conclusion as you did. Somewhere I changed my focus from skill improvement to money. When I went live I thought it would be a year before being concerned about the money part of the equation. But within a few days of going live that change. First, it took be by surprised I was making money. I assumed at best all I could do was a controlled loss. But due to beginners luck I starting making money right away, which of course of course was great. Then I immediately got concerned about keep making money. Then FOMO/revenge trading started.

I revamped my rules/goals this morning. I do evaluate each trade I take and rank them good/neutral/bad, but that was not a goal. But it is now. I presently have two goals now, just make solid trades (setup/risk-reward/entry/exit/etc) and number of trades. Which will be 3, no more and only less if I don't see any good setups. I must stop at 3 due to my over trading habit. And it shouldn't be less than 3 due to lack of learning. I have been getting lucky the last 2 months with ORBs. Especially AMD/AAPL if you don't mind taking the trade 2-4min after the open. Since I went live I have been averaging 2 to 3 days a week I would reach my daily goal with my first trade and be finished trading at 9:40 EST latest. Though I am not complaining, this habit will burn me later since it is not much of a training session. Learning just one setup which could disappear next week.

I do feel better today. I feel ready for next week, but maybe I should take some time off. Losing 9 times my max loss is a new experience for me.

Again thanks for the note.

Rob

[Mike B 625]

Doing my second month of live recap. It did not go exactly how I anticipated, but I believe I learned a valuable lesson during my second week that made last week a much more enjoyable.

Monthly Analysis of trading

I began the month trading well, staying within my edge and only executing trades that I was confident in. When I increased share size I reverted back to taking trades outside my edge. This was fueled by the first day of increase share size when my first trade I got stopped out and then I entered a trade solely based on my gut and made the majority of the money back; although, I still ended the day red. I then took this strategy into the next day, entered late on a trade, got stopped out, and then revenged traded two more times in the day and ended almost at my max lost. I believe I posted a rant about this. The next day I was able to recover and trade well, but the final day before having to travel I ended up doing the exact same thing I had done on the two previous red days. Like I posted earlier I lucked out and had a whole week to reflect and analyze what I was doing wrong. I came back from that trip and began trading with my new goals and trading plan which focuses more on developing trading skills vice a money matrix. With the volatile and crazy week during Christmas, I met my goal each day.

What I Learned for the month

I learned that when my focus is on trading skills and executing sound trades, I do well and enjoy trading. When my focus is on making money or recovering losses, I do extremely poorly. The biggest thing I have taken from this month is that my edge when executed properly has between a 75-85% chance of working out, while if I take a trade that does met my edge I have between a 15-25% chance of working out. Thinking in these terms it has made it much easier for me to only trade within my predefined edge and most importantly, if I miss the trade I am not worried about FOMO anymore, I just look to the next time it presents itself.

From a psychology aspect, I have noticed that I am not nearly as nervous entering a trade or holding a trade when I trade within my edge and trading plan. I do not get nervous during pullbacks, because I am confident in my stop loss, profit target, and entry. Even when the trade goes against me and I get stopped out, I do not get an adverse emotional reaction.

Now if I trade outside my edge and trading plan, the complete opposite is true. I am nervous during the entire trade and usually end up exiting early when it goes in my direction. At the end of the day if I end up red, I am frustrated at myself for taking trades outside my plan. 

Monthly Overall Self Rating: Satisfied and looking forward to January

Daily Goal Hit –  1 of 10 (First two weeks goal)

                               4 of 4 (Readjusted goal last week)

Daily Max Loss – 0 of 10

Goals for the month progress

1.       Met the goal of increasing share size once by having five green days in a row. 

2.       Did not meet my goal of trading my edge 5 straight days; although, I may still achieve this based on Monday's performance. I am currently at 4 days

3.       I ended the month with a 65%-win ratio and a 1:1 risk/ratio which was a result of week 2's bad trading habits

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control all month

2.       I did hit Max Share traded in a day, but I did not attempt to trade again so the control was not triggered.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did increase share size (Had two large red days right afterwards)

2.       GGGGGRRGRGGGGGG

Revised Goals for the Third Month

1. Trade only my 5 edge until a 20 set sample is complete. (No trade days don't count towards the total)

2. Increase share size once during the month after 5 straight days trading my edge. (No trade days don't count towards the total)

3. Have a 2:1 ratio at the end of the month

4. Have a 60% average win rate

[Stevo 4]

Your statement: "I learned that when my focus is on trading skills and executing sound trades, I do well and enjoy trading. When my focus is on making money or recovering losses, I do extremely poorly. "  As a new full time trader myself in the few couple months, I can resonate with that statement.  We need to keep very focused, work hard and keep learning, discerning and growing our trading intellect, patience,  intuition-gut-feeling and psychology to survive the learning curve long term. Wish you the best!  If we care enough about a result we can certainly attain it!  As Andrew and many others in the community has said, so much of this is psychology.  I have done about 700 real trades since October 15th.  I think it will take me about 5,000 trades to really get my chops honed to even figure out what kind of a trader I am becoming/evolving. Every trade teaches.  I love it though. Absolutely love everything about trading (the good, the bad, the ugly and staying in touch with the markets) and am so pleased to have found the BBT community. Cheers!

[Mike B 625]

First weekly recap of the third month of live trading. Wow the first two months have gone by quick, it feels just like yesterday I was making my first live trade. 

Weekly Analysis of trading

This was a tough week to do myself analysis. This was the first week that I have felt I traded well each day of the week. I definitely noticed a complete change in my mindset this week, since changing my goals from a $ mark to the development of my trading skills. I noticed I was no longer taking trades just to take trades because I had a gut feeling it would work. I only entered trades when it met my edge criteria. I took fewer trades than in the past weeks, but at the end of the week I ended up having the most profitable week yet.  

Monthly Overall Self Rating: Great

Daily Goal Hit –  4 of 4 

Daily Max Loss – 0 of 4

Goals for the month progress

1.       Traded within my edge all week.

2.      Met 2:1 ratio and above a 60% average win rate

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control all month

2.       I did hit Max Share traded in a day, but I did not attempt to trade again so the control was not triggered.

Trading Methodology

1.       Did increase share size (Had two large red days right afterwards)  A Mistake did not increase share size this week.

2.       GGGG

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Mike B

[Mike B 625]

Second weekly recap of the third month of live trading. This week I found testing my self-discipline has aided in dealing with FOMO. 

Weekly Analysis of trading

I found myself fighting FOMO this week a lot and hitting my goal of only trading my edge within a 15 min ORB was easier than in past weeks. I once again managed to meet my goal each day. I set my goal to trade a sample set of (20) 15 Min ORBs with certain indicators and confirmations. I did this because, through my self analysis I noticed myself chasing trades and giving into FOMO instead of finding good setups resulting in unnecessary losses. I figured in order to overcome FOMO and resist chasing the trade, I would face it directly everyday until I could emotionally overcome the urge to enter a trade outside my pre-defined setups.

As of Friday, I have completed 13 of 20 trades and I have seen a drastic change in my psychology before the trade, during the trade, and after the trade. As long as I traded within my edge, I am less nervous and even if the trade goes against me I am not depressed, upset, or frustrated because I know that I can't win every time, but the probability is in my favor. This has also been reflected in my net equity curve over the past three weeks. 

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Positive and looking forward to Monday

Daily Goal Hit –  5 of 5 

Daily Max Loss – 0 of 5

Goals for the month progress

1.       Traded within my edge all week.

2.       Increased Share Size

3.        Met 2:1 ratio and above a 60% average win rate

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control all month

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

Trading Methodology

1.       Increase share size for Monday January 14th. 

2.       GGGGG

[Mike B 625]

Third weekly recap of the third month of live trading.

Weekly Analysis of trading

The first couple days of the week were good, I stayed trading only within my edge. Wednesday is when things went wrong. Instead of focusing on developing my Trading Skills, I let the fact that I missed an entry on a stock I had dropped off my watch list after 10 minutes effect the way I traded. The other two stocks I kept on my list didn't give me an entry, so I was ready to call it a day and not trade, but I looked back at $JWD and saw the great 15 Min ORB that gave a $1.00 move over 10 minutes. That right there was the mistake, I shifted my focus from developing my trading skills to the money I could have made. I got emotional walked away from the computer and once I came back, I noticed another stock moving, so I took an entry. Luckily I was smart enough to realize the stupidity of this mistake and I got out. Right after my exit, boom stock went against me bad. The next day I was fine, but a little hesitate on taking an entry and missed another great move. At least I learned from the previous day and walked away. 

Then came Friday, I was set and ready; however, I did not have myself in the right mindset as I was more focused on not missing an entry so I would not leave any money on the table. This caused me to take an early entry, I got stopped out and then I went back to my old ways of chasing the stock and getting stopped out three times, which resulted in hitting my daily stop loss. 

The biggest take away from Friday after I ended my day was that even though I hit my max loss, I was not upset with the money I lost, I was disappointed in the way I traded. It was encouraging to see that my mind has started to shift away from the money to the trading skills. I now just need to keep reinforcing this belief by focusing on trading skills instead of the money I lost, made, or could have made. 

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Disappointed in myself, but looking forward to bouncing back next week.

Daily Goal Hit –  2 of 5 

Daily Max Loss – 1 of 5

Goals for the month progress

1.       Traded outside my edge 5 times this week.

2.       Kept Share size the same. (Possibly looking to change how I take shares after listening to Peter D. and Robert H. videos on risk management and Share sizing.)

3.        Met 2:1 ratio and above a 60% average win rate

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control all month

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

Trading Methodology

1.       Same thing as last time I increased share size, I have had a couple bad trading days in a row.

2.       GGRRR

[Carlos M. 232]

4 hours ago, Mike B said:

The biggest take away from Friday after I ended my day was that even though I hit my max loss, I was not upset with the money I lost, I was disappointed in the way I traded. It was encouraging to see that my mind has started to shift away from the money to the trading skills. I now just need to keep reinforcing this belief by focusing on trading skills instead of the money I lost, made, or could have made. 

Great weekly recap Mike! Fully agree with your comment noted above. Focus solely on the process and the money will work itself out. 

[Rob C 826]

 

It’s been awhile since I gave an update. I have been wrestling with my over-trading demons. I have been trying different ways to help based on the trading psychology books I have read. Though I was seeing slow improvement it wasn’t enough. I knew another bad hulk day (which the over-trading triggers) may put me over and quit trading.

I choose poor setups at least 1/3 of the time. Thus, it is possible on my first trade of the day, I am already over-trading since I shouldn’t have taken that trade. I needed to do something drastic and immediate or I wasn’t going to make it. So I created a plan to help deter my over-trading and implemented it earlier this month. It was brutal. But, apparently helpful.

I forced myself to trade to 10am (EST) every day or until max loss or max trades are reached. I know 30min doesn’t sound too long, but for me with an over-trading issue who’s bread and butter trades for the first 2 months live were the 2min ORBs (thus I was usually finished for the day at 9:35am) this would not be easy. So it started bad and then got worse. In 8 days, I hit my max loss 5 times (one of them I went hulk with a 2.5X max loss), hit my max trades on two days and only made it to 7am once (for a loss).

Now for someone who hits max loss twice a month, hitting it every other day is quite painful. But, that was the point. I guess the pain finally hit some crucial limit and day nine my trading changed. Now my last 5 days have been very good trading days. I was able to trade to 10am (EST) – or longer, each day. No over-trading (though the urge is there it’s under control). I notice my initial thought to a trade is now different. Originally it was, “that looks like a good setup, quick take the trade.” Now my initial thought is, “that looks like a good setup, now let me wait a bit to see if I can get a good pull back or volume confirmation.” Yes, some trades now pop/drop without me, but that doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. It’s not about the money, it’s about learning to trade.

I saw the results immediately

	Good Trades	Neutral Trades	Bad Trades
Last month	41%	23%	36%
Past Week	58%	42%	0%

 

I rank trades by quality now not by P/L. A good trade is a good setup and execution. There can be some slippage in execution of course. A neutral trade is usually a good setup but there was a one or more noncritical mistakes. I didn’t wait for a better entry, share size was off a bit, exited to early or even a bad setup that I realized quickly and got out of the trade. A bad trade is commonly one that should have never been taken. These “bad” trades disappeared this week, but were common since I went live.

Other news…. Looks like the 2min ORB has really faded. It was my real money maker for my first 2 months live, but now they have really disappeared (at least for the stocks I am looking at). I just don’t see that setup anymore. Now with that said, Intel was a near perfect 2min ORBD setup this morning which I took for my big trade of the day. I actually waited an extra second before I took the trade because I didn’t believe it. I thought those were gone, but it had all the criteria I look for in the setup. Luckily, I took it before I lost my entry. But, that was the only 2m ORBD setup I have seen in the past two weeks. They may still be out there, but not on the stocks I look at. I usually look at only 3 and most of the time they are common with the stocks in play that Andrew and Carlos list.

Sorry for the wordy recap. Thanks for reading. Hopefully you had a good week.

Rob

[Mike B 625]

On 1/25/2019 at 12:03 PM, Rob said:

Now my initial thought is, “that looks like a good setup, now let me wait a bit to see if I can get a good pull back or volume confirmation.” Yes, some trades now pop/drop without me, but that doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. It’s not about the money, it’s about learning to trade.

Rob,

Same thing with me, once I changed my focus from money to developing trading skills, I seen a big difference in my trading. 

[Mike B 625]

Fourth weekly recap of the third month of live trading.

Weekly Analysis of trading

This week was filled with uncertainty about how I was going to move forward. I wanted to change how I take my position size, but at the same time I wanted to make sure my trading plan criteria would not be affected. I traded live Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; although, I was not comfortable at all on Wednesday as I had changed up my hotkeys. This caused me to be hesitant on taking an entry, so I decided to trade Simulator for the rest of the week while I worked out my new trading criteria along with testing my hotkeys. I am satisfied with my trading this week and I am looking forward to testing my new sample set of 20 starting on Monday.

Weekly Overall Self Rating: Satisfied and confident in the changes I made this 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 progress

1.       Traded only within my edge this week

2.       Changed how I take Share Size. I am now taking share size based on fixed $ amount per trade.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

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

Trading Methodology

1.       I have changed  how I am approaching my trading goals. My current goal is to complete a sample set of 20 trades within my predefined criteria. The desire end result is to see the % of win rate and assist in thinking in probabilities instead of just understanding probabilities. 

                Risk Analysis: 1:2 or Greater

                Indicators: Must meet 2 of 3

                          Trades within the ATR

                          Small share Sizes with High Volume

                          Has a direction upward or downward

              Confirmations: Must meet 3 of 4

                          ORBO closes above VWAP/ORBD closes below VWAP

                          No Large Wicks/Candles (Wick cannot be larger than body, Candles body not larger than 1/2 ATR)

                          Closes near VWAP (Needs to be within $.30)

                          Has a pullback prior to breaking the Opening Range

Sample Set Tracking

                1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 625]

Wow, just completed my third full month of being live. Man time passes quickly, it felt like just yesterday I was attending my first meet up in Los Angles getting ready to start the simulator. Now, I am having the best time of my life every morning trading in the market and being a part of a great community of traders. 

Weekly Analysis of trading

This week I was only able to trade 4 of the 5 days as I had to attend a conference which kept me away from the open. This was the first week that I was trading with my new sample set and position sizing. I was a little nervous the first couple of days, as I was not completely confident in my ability to execute my new hotkeys. As the week progressed I was much more confident with this and my nervousness dissipated. On the days I could trade my edge appeared 4 times. I took 2 of of the 4 edges. I did not take my edge on $HOG as the bid-ask spread was too big, and I did not take an entry on $AMD as I was already in a trade with $GE. I am just not ready to have two positions opened at the same time right now. 

I will say that I did think the trade on $GE would not work, and I actually hesitated a little on the entry because of it. I forced myself to take it anyways because it met my trading criteria and wouldn't you know it the trade worked. I was wrong, but I was glad that I forced myself to take the trade to help myself start thinking in probabilities. 

Weekly Overall Self Rating: I am very satisfied with how I traded this week.

Daily Goal Hit –  4 of 4 

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

Goals for the month progress

1.       For the month I traded outside my edge 3 times all of which were losses.

2.       Changed how I take Share Size. I am now taking share size based on fixed $ amount per trade. I also adjusted my profit taking plan.

Risk Controls

1.       Did not trigger Max Loss control.

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

Trading Methodology

1.       This weekend I also added strict criteria for taking profits. As I am trading with CMEG, I have found you have to be very selective on when to take profits otherwise you are giving the money you make back in commissions. I have 3 profit taking plans depending on how the stock and lvl 2 data moves.

           Plan A - 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1(this allows me to be at break-even if the stock moves back to my entry point), All out at Profit Target

           Plan B - 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1, 1/2 at profit target, all out at technical level or my first out.           

           Plan C - 1/3 out at just a little above 1:1,  1/2 out near the profit target if stock stalls near it, All out at the Profit Target or my first out.

Sample Set Tracking

                P G 3 4 5 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

[Mike B 625]

Just completed my second week of my new trading sample set.

Weekly Analysis of trading

I was able to trade 4 of 5 days this week. I got pulled away on Friday for a work emergency in the morning. I took 2 of the 3 edges that appeared. I did not enter the 3rd edge that appeared as I was already in a trade and did not want to have two positions open at once. Out of the two trades I took I got stopped out on 1 and hit my profit target on the other. The one trade I did not take did work within my trading plan. I started to post a daily recap to track the results of this live sample set in the Daily Trading Journals section. I have found this has helped me stay accountable to my trading plan and to not trade outside the parameters.

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

Weekly Overall Self Rating: I am very satisfied with how I traded this week.

Daily Goal Hit –  4 of 4 

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

Goals for the month 

1.       Trade only within the sample set.

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 5 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

[Rob C 826]

It’s been two weeks since my last update. In short, I have been dealing with an over trading issue which I could not beat. So I tried a self-prescribed “boot camp” last month which last 8 torturous trading days where I hit max loss on 5 of those days, but it did temporarily control my over trading. I then had a solid week of trading, controlling myself to good setups. But it didn’t last.

Monday (1/28/19) of the second post boot camp week I felt a bit tired and gave myself a rating of 4 out of 10 on my “well being” score I do every trading morning. A 4 is the lowest score I will still allow myself to trade, though reduced size. It didn’t go well and took some bad setups. The week continued to get worse. By Thursday I was back to my old ways and way over traded and hit max loss.

But luckily that was the last day of the month, so I decided to start fresh on February 1^st.  The “boot camp” was just enough to get me in the right direction but I need continuous drills to keep me from going back to my old ways. So I set up a new training program.

Week 1:

1 trade a day maximum. After I take the only allowable trade I need to stay focused on charts, without making trades, until 10am (EST). I can switch to SIM if needed, but preferably just stay mentally engaged.

Reread Daily Trading Coach. This was the 3^rd read. 1^st one when I started the SIM, the second read was the first week live.

Chose a nontrading discipline and work to improve it.

Increase well being lower limit to 4.5.

Set -3R max loss limit by broker

 

Results of week 1 (actually 6 days)  went well. Traded well with no trades I would rate as low quality (bad) trades. I rated myself a 4 for well being on Tuesday and used SIM instead, trading 3 high quality trades. I definitely got more out of it on the 3^rd read of the Daily Trading Coach then the previous two.

One issue (if it can be really called an issue), is I got a bit too lucky with the setups. The 2min ORB which was my bread and butter for my first 2 months live, which went away for a month (about one good setup per week), came back with a vengeance last week. All 6 days I found a good setups somewhere from 1min to 3min and thus had 6 good trades. Only one stop out and that was at break even. Due to that good luck I didn’t really test myself very much psychologically. The drain on our psyche obviously comes from losses. So I will continue the 1 trade per day max next week as well.

Results of the last 6 days of live trades:

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

 

I defined how I rate good/neutral/bad trade in a previous post. I also made 3 good sim trades on Tuesday.

I also made the transition from Etrade Pro to DAS last week, which went OK.