Mark D. Day Trading Journal - Live 2019

[Mark D. 435]

20 hours ago, Tommy said:

I took almost the same trade on mu.

my theory on why the stock actually was not weak as I thought at the moment is, on the 2min the 2 candles with high volume, the first is a kind of indecision candle, the one after also has high volume but a relative small body, these both suggest quit a lot of buying power. Maybe this should have signaled that even with at vwap it could go both ways with no real preference. Meaning don’t get it. What do you think?

 

edit, on edgewonk you need to manually combine the trades that are just partials into 1trade , it’s quit a pain to do this, I don’t really like it and stopped using it, the import also doesn’t work well for me.  still trying to figure out a good way of journaling.

 

Yeah i agree that trade was at best a maybe and not worth taking. I was too focused on the 2min while the five minute chart was still trending higher. As soon as I got in I realized I was probably going to get stopped out.

 

I was messing with combining my scale outs in edgewonk but it didn't change my win percentage but I didn't close edgewonk and open it back up so that may reset it, I will try that. Thank you! 

[Mark D. 435]

20 hours ago, IamKarthi said:

Have you tried Tradervue, it is calculating the win % properly (not counting the partials as separate wins). It is also free for 100 trades in a month. I am using it now as free, as my trades are limited, but soon will subscribe the paid plan. I like it.

17% winrate is not too bad. I think some of the guys make money with just 35% winrate too, as the Wins are huge and losses are small. 

I agree, the emotional part is missing in SIM, I just reduce my size in Real. When I get FOMO then i jump on to SIM (so kind of both, instead of just SIM). Stay Green.

I have not tried tradervue  but I've already went back for the year and recalculated my weekly win percentage in my excle sheet and it is 34%. Maybe I should always shoot for 3:1 trades and that way I'd still come out profitable. Thank you that's something to think about. 

I think I could get a better win percentage if I didn't try and catch reversals without a proper setup. Like I should only take double top and double bottom reversals.

 

I guess the win percentage itself isn't the issue it's my revenge trading the same trade again and losing twice in a row that I need to work on. 

[Mark D. 435]

Week 21 Recap

Doing this recap too late so I can’t recall how I felt about the week of trading.

·         Weekly stats

o   2.4 R/R (Goal: above 2.0) [Previous Week: 2.1]

o   20/28 71% (Goal: above 80%) [Previous Week: 86%]

o   -$54.53 (Goal: $250) [Previous Week: -$68.16]

o   2/7 29% trades with the trend (Goal: 100%) [Previous Week: 62%]

o   2/7 29% Non-optimal Entries (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 29%]

o   3/7 43% Letting Losers Run (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 5%]

o    2/7 29% No Setup (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 10%]

o   1/6 17% true win percentage (Goal 45%) [Previous Week: 27%]

 

·         Highlights

o   Great double bottom trade in AMD.

 

·         Ongoing things to work on

o   Fell this week in no setup trades and trading with the trend and the worst one, letting losers run! Need to keep all these in check.

o   Two bad trades in a row on MU trying to catch reversals without signals.

 

I went back and recalculated my true win percentage without scaling out and my results are below. The interesting thing is I was under the assumption that if I’m not trading live, I’m not progressing but looking at these numbers shows me that I’m having win percentage issues that are independent of whether I’m trading in sim or my real account so even though I’m not thrilled about trading in sim again, I am forcing myself to go back to sim until my win percentage is at least 45% and I have four weeks in a row where my net p&l is positive

 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Mark D.

[Mark D. 435]

Wednesday June 29th, 2019 

Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. feels good to take a couple days away from the markets and recharge. 

First trade was a 5min ORBD in GOOS. good entry, but i only got partially filled because i was afraid of a pullback and never got a chance to add to my position. i didn't think to add to it on the way down which would have been the smarter move. sold half when it moved 80 cents in my favor and then the rest when i thought it was hitting the bottom. turned out it kept falling all the way to my original profit target. 

GOOD: good setup and entry

RFI: sold too early and didn't have enough shares

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: no, didn't follow the plan. 

 

 

then i tried to take what i thought was a double bottom in GOOS and got in long on a new 5min high. it couldnt get through the MAs and just kept slowly falling all morning. 

GOOD: got out at stop loss

RFI: not a true double bottom, labeling this "no setup"

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: yes, followed the plan

 

last trade of the day is my newest setup that i'm calling bottom (or top) fishing. what i do is put in a limit order 5 cents above the LOTD and hope for the price to test the low but then head back higher. with the limit order is a market stop 10 cents from my entry. Once i'm in the trade i switch to a range order of 3:1 risk reward to replace my original stop. my thinking is that i'm always trying to guess the trend change and double tops and bottoms are major reversal signals so i should in theory get some really good entries with this method. I tried it out today on AMD and it unfortunately did not work. i'm going to do more forward testing on this because i think it has a lot of potential to be a good setup i just need better parameters. had i done the double top in AMD today at 10:28 it would have worked beautifully. 

GOOD: entry and setup and stop all mechanical

RFI: need to make better parameters (ie. maybe look for double tops and bottoms on the 2min not the 5min)

MOOD: good. 

CONSISTENT: yes

 

What i did good today: took all setups, kept emotions in check

What i did bad today: second guessed my ORBD and cut a winner short for a losing trade.

What can i do better tomorrow: don't sell the first half of a trade too early that's going in your direction. only trade valid setups. 

 

 

[Mark D. 435]

Thursday May 30th, 2019

sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. trading from my laptop this morning so no 15min or daily chart to look at while trading. 

first trade was an ORBD on TEVA. got in at the break of the the low of premarket but it came right back up and i got out before i got squeezed

GOOD: good setup, got out when the trade didn't work

RFI: could have got out with less of a loss

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: yes

 

Next trade was an ABCD in BYND. it ended up making a double top and when i went to get out before my stop i doubled my position on accident. then i was too hopeful to get out at breakeven and held to my auto stop of $13. 

GOOD: setup was valid originally

RFI: hotkey error and not getting out at dollar loss

MOOD: fine

CONSISTENT: no, not to plan

 

then i took a revenge trade in BYND and got in short for only 5 shares. this one worked and it hit my range order profit. not happy about getting in on a revenge trade but my revenge trades rarely work so i don't think this one time will cause a habit. 

GOOD: range order and waited for my profit target

RFI: revenge trade. 

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: no i didn't fully plan the trade. 

 

last trade of the day was a double top in TEVA. i had to get up so i missed my original entry on a new 2min low off the bounce of the PDH but it still hit my profit target. 

GOOD: setup, R/R, followed plan

RFI: got in late

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: yes, followed the plan. 

 

What i did good today: kept my emotions under control

What i did bad today: Hotkey error and revenge trading

What can i do better tomorrow: make sure to use the right hotkeys and never revenge trade. 

[Mark D. 435]

Friday May 31st, 2019

Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. 

first trade was an ORBD in $T. got a great entry and it did trend down for a little bit. it bounced off of $30.75 and then the next time it came near that level there were big bids below the low and i was confident i was going to get to my profit target but it didn't break and starting trending higher on the 5min chart and i got out at my breakeven. if i was a more seasoned trader, i could have bought twice my share size and rode it up but i got stuck in the hopeful stage that it would try the low again. at least i got out way before my stop loss. 

GOOD: good setup, good R/R, good getting out of a losing trade. 

RFI: could have flipped my position when it didn't hit the LOTD. 

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: yes. 

 

Last trade of the day i thought at the time was an ABCD in $ZUO but looking at it after it kind of already tried that move and i got it on the second try so i catergorized this as a no setup. I was in the right direction but it couldn't break the HOTD and i got out around breakeven. 

GOOD: got out when it rejected HOTD

RFI: not really a setup. this would have been a good candidate for top fishing

MOOD: good

CONSISTENT: yes. 

 

wow what a slow friday for me but i guess a boring breakeven friday is better than an exciting red day. 

What i did good today: took good trades, didn't feel any strong emotions about my trades not working

What  i did bad today: not recognizing sooner that T wasn't going to break lower

What can i do better tomorrow: when you see signs of something happening and then it doesn't happen (i.e. big bids below the LOTD expecting it to break but doesn't), act on it! 

[Mark D. 435]

Week 22 Recap

Good week of trading for me. Red with commissions but green on trades. Win percentage was right where I want it to be, I just need to capitalize on the trades that are going in my favor and I’ll be good. The break away from trading really helped to clear my head and allowed me to be more focused on the price action and less worried about the outcomes.

·         Weekly stats

o   2.3 R/R (Goal: above 2.0) [Previous Week: 2.4]

o   36/40 90% (Goal: above 80%) [Previous Week: 71%]

o   -$9.02 (Goal: $250) [Previous Week: -$54.53]

o   6/10 60% trades with the trend (Goal: 100%) [Previous Week: 29%]

o   1/10 10% Non-optimal Entries (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 29%]

o   1/10 10% Letting Losers Run (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 43%]

o   2/10 20% No Setup (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 29%]

o   44% true win percentage (Goal 45%) [Previous Week: 17%]

 

·         Highlights

o   Much better on the ORBs this week. I’ve been thinking about what William H said when he takes his ORBs by asking why would other traders go against my position so I’ve been making sure the ORBS I’m taking don’t have moving averages or levels as resistance before getting in.

o   True win percentage was much better, better than it’s been in 7 weeks.

o   Good job of cutting losing trades.

o   All stats better than last week.  

 

·         Ongoing things to work on

o   Need to work on letting my winner run.

o   Still had one stubborn loss this week. Need to cut all losers next week and in the future.

 

 

[Mark D. 435]

Monday June 3rd, 2019

Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. 

first trade of the day was a 2min ORBU in AMD. definitely got caught in the FOMO on AMD. went full share size and got auto-stopped in about 30 seconds. ok not that big of a deal, the setup was ok, i didn't like the $29.14 level that was the current HOTD but all in all i think the setup was fine. I meant to put a stop at the $28.85 level but i was having hotkey issues and i didn't want to miss the trade (bad!!!!) and i ended up getting what i should have on this trade. 

GOOD: setup

RFI: position size too large for the moves AMD is making today

MOOD: fine

CONSISTENT: nope, froze when i should have got out and had the DAS stop catch me. 

 

broke my rule of taking 1 loss on ORBS in a day by taking a 5min ORBU in AMD. this one did go to 2R but i absolutely butchered the exit, getting out 75% before 2R and partialing way too much for a 2R trade. so still down for the day but only slightly. Not at all happy with my trading because i should be up 1R on the day at this point but i was down instead due to my botching the exits. 

GOOD: setup was still there. really good entry. 

RFI: terrible exits

MOOD: ok

CONSISTENT: no, did not follow my selling strategy. 

 

Next two trades were the worst of the day. i went long in AMD on a new 2min high for an ABCD on the 5min chart but i couldn't break a new 5min high and made a doji on the 2min and a new 2min low so i bailed for a 0.5R loss, again too big of a postion size for AMD today, it's really moving. i would have got stopped out for a full loss had i not got out when i did so in that respect it was good.

GOOD: got out before stop

RFI: bad/no setup. FOMO

MOOD: greedy and emotional

CONSISTENT: yes, got out on price action

 

 

Then i decided that it was now a short because it wasn't breaking higher and I got in on a revenge trade that I, of course, held past my stop for an auto-stop loss. 

GOOD: auto-stopped out

RFI: no setup, revenge trade.

MOOD: emotional, greedy, just trying to get a win

CONSISTENT: no. 

 

 

Then i got in one more time on a 5min ABCD on AMD. this time it did make a new 5min high. thankfully, i realized how crazy my trading was and i calmed down and set a range order at my stop and a 5R profit target because i still believed AMD was strong and going to move higher, huge asks the entire time and volume on the upticks. it came back down to my entry but otherwise didn't give me any trouble all the way up to 4R when i decided it was crazy not to take any profit so i got out 75% at 4R and then the last piece on a new 5min against my position. this trade single-handedly put me in the green (barely) for the day. 

GOOD: good setup, entry and great R/R

RFI: got in too early, guess instead of waiting for confirmation it was moving higher

MOOD: exhausted and disgusted at my trading today.

CONSISTENT: yes, stuck to my plan with modification for price action. 

 

I really made a Christmas tree on AMD today. I can tell i'm getting better, if only slightly, because a day like today a month or more ago would have been a max loss day but i managed to pull it together and come out slightly green.

What i did good today: stopped trading after i was up because i realized how crazy i was begin

What i did bad today: FOMO, greed, emotional entries, over trading. that pre-market run-up in AMD just broke all my fuses lmao

What can i do better tomorrow: have to keep emotions in check at all times. also, need to realize when I've had several days of good controlled trading i'm at risk to lose it and make some emotional trades. 

 

[Mark D. 435]

Tuesday June 4th, 2019

Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. quiet trading day at home. 

The markets were really choppy for me this morning and i only took one trade that i was not confident in but made it to 2R. I took AMD long above the VWAP after it made a new 2 min low but couldn't break lower through the moving averages. i recorded my thoughts while trading on mic and i was not at all confident until it broke the HOTD then i was pretty sure my order would get filled. i'm happy i didn't let my pessimism talk me out of this trade. i almost got out with a small win even though it never went against me. 

GOOD: stuck to the trade and hit my profit target. 

RFI: even though i hit 2R i could have hit 3 or 4R but i convinced myself it wasn't going to move very far. 

MOOD: good, always happy for a green day with good trades.

CONSISTENT: yes, stuck to my plan

 

What i did good today: patient and very careful with what trades i took. 

What i did bad today: even though this trade worked, it's not a setup i trade or recognize. 

What can i do better tomorrow: only trade setups. 

 

[Mark D. 435]

Wednesday June 5th, 2019

Sleep: 7 hours, Mood: good, ready to trade but busy talking and with constant distractions up in to the bell and after. also trading from my laptop because i'm traveling. 

First trade of the day was an ORBU in CRON that i took on a pullback to a daily level for an entry. it went in my favor a tiny bit but i ended up bailing before my stop at a new 2min low. glad i got out, saved me some money on my stop that was hit. 

GOOD: got out before my stop

RFI: not that great of a setup.

MOOD: fine

CONSISTENT: yes, followed my plan and got out when it was not working.

 

next trade i tried to take a reversal in MU. i like the hammer low and the break to a new 5min high where i got in. i realize now that it really didn't make a new 5min high, just the spread went over by a penny. got stopped out quick. 

GOOD: got out at stop

RFI: no setup, didn't let the market confirm it was going to go higher.

MOOD: fine, a little disappointed

CONSISTENT: yes, respected my stop and followed my plan. 

 

last trade was the same trade again on MU. it looked like it was finally going to go higher because it made a new LOTD but bounced back. i was too focused on the 2min chart and not at all looking at the 5min where it was making lower highs and lower lows and i got stopped out again. worst trade of the day. also stubbornly held for more of a loss than i should have. I am not trading well this morning. that trade hit my max loss so that's it for the day. 

GOOD: DAS prevented me from losing much more than i did

RFI: no setup, stubborn selling loss.

CONSISTENT: no. 

MOOD: mad at myself for the bad trading. 

 

i don't know what it is about Wednesdays but i'm really prone to hit max loss on it or be red. i haven't had a profitable Wednesday in 8 weeks with almost half being max loss days. i know that it seems silly to pick a day that i don't trade well on but it's like a self fulfilling prophecy that i'm not going to trade well on Wednesday especially if i've had a good week up to that point. 

What i did good today: bailed on my first trade when i saw it wasn't working. 

What i did bad today: holding past my stop is a huge no that i've been doing more of lately, i need to work on not doing that the rest of the week and also i've taken a ton of trades this week that aren't my setup or edge and it shows in my P&L. trying to go long in a week market. once or twice is forgivable but three times in a row is just stubborn and unnecessary.  

What can i do better tomorrow: trade your setups. respect your stops. two basic things that are essential to good trading days. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Mark D.

[Rob C 826]

Friday is my killer day for the 6 months I have been trading live. Is it due to a difference in market personality? Or my sleep deprivation is at its worse? And its been this way for so long its like what you said its self fulfilling. I finally threw in the towel two weeks ago and I trade half shares on Fridays. At least it won't keep ruining my weekends anymore.

Luckily tomorrow is not Wednesday or Friday 

[Mark D. 435]

35 minutes ago, Rob C said:

Luckily tomorrow is not Wednesday or Friday 

Lol agreed! I keep telling myself to quit after my first stop out on Wednesdays but easier said than done. 

[Mark D. 435]

Thursday June 6th, 2019

Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. 

first trade of the day was an ORBU. i missed the entry on the 2min so i waited for the 5min. i got in 1/3rd my position on the break of the 5min body, risking a new 2min low and then added the rest at the break of the high of the day, moving my stop to the high of pre-market. i sold everything at 3R. Proud of this trade. 

GOOD: R/R, entry, exit, setup

RFI: could have got 4R without a pullback

MOOD: pride, very happy. 

CONSISTENT: yes. 

 

What i did good today: took only setups, followed my trading plan. 

What i did bad today: quit trading. I don't want to give any profits back which is good but there is still a good half hour left and if i hit one more 2R trade i would be at my profit target but i don't want to risk it. 

What can i do better tomorrow: don't let one winner stop you from taking more good setups on the day. 

 

[Mark D. 435]

Week 23 Recap

Pretty good week of trading for me. Only got to trade 4 days but almost all green with the exception of my trading on Wednesday. Proud of my trading this week.

·         Weekly stats

o   2.3 R/R (Goal: above 2.0) [Previous Week: 2.3]

o   32/48 67% (Goal: above 80%) [Previous Week: 90%]

o   $12.10 (Goal: $250) [Previous Week: -$9.02]

o   8/12 67% trades with the trend (Goal: 100%) [Previous Week: 60%]

o   2/12 17% Non-optimal Entries (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 10%]

o   3/12 25% Letting Losers Run (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 10%]

o   3/12 25% No Setup (Goal: 0%) [Previous Week: 20%]

o   4/10 40% true win percentage (Goal 45%) [Previous Week: 44%]

 

·         Highlights

o   First green week in like 8 weeks so that’s exciting

o   Good job this week taking 4R, 3R and 2R trades this week.

o   Great job controlling FOMO on Monday.

 

·         Ongoing things to work on

o   I need to be more consistent with my point convention.

o   Working on doing only 3R exits with no partials to make up for my 35% win percentage

o   Need to push myself to take more good setups when I’m trading well.

 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Mark D.

[Mark D. 435]

Friday June 7th and Monday June 10th

No trades either days. Had personal things to do both days so i couldn't trade. back at it tomorrow.