Live Journal Exercise – Learning to Trade an Edge like a Casino

[Mike B 624]

April 7, another day with no trades. I went back through all of the setups I was looking at to make sure that I am not being too cautious and talking myself out of a trade. When I look at the setups it is just not there. I keep getting this wick up or down on the five minute candle that is making a new high or low. Two weeks ago I got rid of that criteria and I got test how good my risk management was as I was getting stopped quite often. We will see how tomorrow goes. I know I am going to be dealing with a ton of FOMO tomorrow, so I am going to take it slowly.

[Mike B 624]

Weekly stats, I only got 2 trades in this week. Mainly because the three trades I took on Wednesday were in Sim by accident. Always change your order template back after working on hotkeys. I had 1 loser and 1 winner in the live account. With sim added it was 3 for 5 this week.

 

Top Three Good Trends

1. I stuck to my entry plan and only took the trades that meet my entry plan. I did not give into FOMO and I was able to control my emotions leading up to the trade.
2. Following the entry, I was able to execute my trade management routine and kept myself calm throughout the trade. I was aware of my emotions and I defiantly stood up and faced what was bothering me this week.
3. Each and every day I got up and decided to trade even when things were not going the way I wanted. I noticed that I need to come up with something to manage the emotions after getting out of a trade that did not work. I am seeing the opportunity to find another setup afterwards, but I am not getting refocused back into the zone quick enough to capitalize.

Bottom Three Bad Trends

1. My discipline when it comes to profit taking has hit a snag. I am exiting too early and not allowing my plan to carry itself out. I am letting my emotions of being wrong get in the way
2. I learned a valuable lesson on Thursday. The way my plan is executed, after taking the first partial is makes no sense to partial before the next 2R level or break even. It is just not worth it.
3. After a loss my emotions are getting to me more than normal. I am not sure what the cause of this is, but I am going to have to put something in place to handle it.

Focus for Next Week

1. Actions after a loss
2. Sticking to my profit taking plan
3. Being aware of my emotions prior, during, and after.
4. Remain committed to taking only setups that met your criteria.

 

 

 

[Mike B 624]

April 13, 2020

These are the trades that can hurt the most. Did everything right from the entry, trade management, and profit taking, but the end result just does not come out the way you want it. $MU had a great setup for me, market was trending the direction I wanted after rejecting VWAP and then it bounced. Stopped me out. Oh well great trade just did not work. This has been a tough sample set to get through, especially with the poor trading in the beginning.

 

[Mike B 624]

Been a while since posting. Last week was a bit busying, so I didn't much extra time. I was barely able to keep up with my trading journal. Anyways here is today's trade. I took a long on $MU. I got a partial at 1R and then the price action went to my 2nd partial, but I didn't get filled. No issue, stayed in the trade for about another hour and eventually got stopped out at break-even. I should have gotten back into $MU around 2:30, but the stock seemed choppy at the time, so I stayed on the sidelines.

 

[noob 5]

Hi Mike, 

 

Always good stuff. I am currently going back to the drawing board and trying to do the 20 trade suggestions with a defined edge, per Mark Douglas's book. Unlike the previous trades, where I was micromanaging the trade, I am going to work on being more mechanical and define the entries and exits. Additionally, I am working to define the setup and edge, which I believe I was trying too many things and making it too complex. Fingers crossed, but I am now excited to be stopped out with the planned trade. 🙂 We'll see how good my edge is over the next 3-5 sets of 20 trades.