[GeneTrash]

Hello all,

My story:

I have been sim trading for approx 6 months. The last few have been pretty serious and as of Monday March 17/08 I went LIVE!! I just felt I couldn't wait any longer as everyday with paper was lacking the real emotions of live trading. So I am started out with $5000 and will be trading one contract on the YM. I trade at work, and can get in as much screen time as safely possible while staying under the bosses radar

My two month goal is to still have the $5000 and re-evaluate then. On Monday I placed 3 trades, all stopped out for a -30 point total. Tuesday I traded my first FED day haha and learned a lesson. I knew it wasn't a good idea to trade on FED days, but I believe mistakes are the greatest teacher. I was down $-364 at the end of the day. So starting Wednesday I had a account balance of roughly $4440. This will be the last I mention money as it is not the focus of this journal. You can follow along as I will attach my trade summary and a graph each day.

From now on the maximum loss per day I will be allowing is 20 points, which is two trades as my stops are always 10 points. If I reach this I will close down the live software and start up my demo account. If I reach a profit of 100 points in a day I will close down and flatten everything, starting again tomorrow.

I use OEC and will be adjusting my post formats as this journal evolves. Feel free to offer advice if things are un-clear or confusing. The purpose of this journal is to help others and create another level of accountability for myself. I hope to update it everyday I trade. Look for updates in the afternoon or late evening.

This is the first account I have ever had and as of 6 months ago I had no experience in investing or trading.

I look forward to your discussions.

[brownsfan019]

Gene,

Few things:

1) CONGRATS on starting the journal! That is awesome!!!

2) VERY nice detailed analysis here with your spreadsheet. That is a job well done.

I know it's hard, but it's not about the $$$ in the beginning. You've done the right thing here and making yourself accountable... as discussed here.

A few comments from a candle trader:

Trade 3: bullish hammer after your red candle. Nice confirmation for long.

Trade 4: HELLO inverted hammer on high volume. GORGEOUS short to me.

Trade 5: Hammer as well, depending on how you enter, it failed or did not fill.

Trade 6: In hindsight, a large engulfing candle. I personally would of had a hard time taking that to be honest.

Here's my view of the same YM chart with your S/R zones:




As you can see, your VHA was tested numerous times and defended by the bulls until that invertered hammer occurred. Other trades nicely profitable as well.

The exits are key here as to whether some/all trades made money.

Good luck in your trading!

[Hlm]

First of all...I agree with everything that brownsfan said.

Second, it would be very helpful to know a little bit about your trading style be it Candles, VSA, MP, Indicators, Divergences, etc. It doesn't have to be specific but could be helpful for future comments. I like seeing that you have a 3M chart with Market Profile since that is what I trade off of . Do you pay attention to any other possible fixed S/R areas like pivots? For example today you had a Pivot Point at 12304.33 and a S1 at 12199.67.

As far as the fed day for a BRAND NEW live trader.

You appear to be off to a great start. Keep it up!

[GeneTrash]

Overall a disappointing day. Bad trade management killed me. I think I should be taking profits quicker while I am still learning. I find myself looking for home runs and it's costing me... I was aware it would be a slow market as it's the day before a long weekend after a wild week. Taking small scalps would have been smart.

I got to wrapped up in the potential breakthrough into yesterdays value area as you can see by some of the bad trades haha. I have to be more objective and analyze what the market is doing and not what I want it to do.

My execution was poor as I had an issue with accidently trading 2 contracts instead of one.

Tough to swallow going to the weekend but that the way she goes. Looking forward to Monday because I know the opportunities I missed will come around again. Have a great weekend everyone.

Thanks for the input on yesterdays entry guys!

[brownsfan019]

Gene - I think what you saw today is what happens when you have fixed S/R levels based on previous price data. This is exactly why I do not use them (MP #'s, Pivots, etc.) as I could not get them to work for me. A day like today where it's just hugging your line will eat you up real quick if not careful.

Just an observation, take it for what it's worth. If your research shows that days like today are to be expected and easy to deal with, then great. If not, hit the homework this long weekend HARD before Monday.

[Hlm]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

This is exactly why I do not use them (MP #'s, Pivots, etc.) as I could not get them to work for me. A day like today where it's just hugging your line will eat you up real quick if not careful.

Originally Posted by GeneTrash »

I got to wrapped up in the potential breakthrough into yesterdays value area as you can see by some of the bad trades haha. I have to be more objective and analyze what the market is doing and not what I want it to do.

In my opinion those fixed areas reacted as expected today. Yes, price hugged that LVA but did you notice what was also there? The previous days POC. Look at how price reacted when it went through it on the downside. That area has been a point of interest over the last couple of days. Without some extremely strong internals and a nice PA (candle) entry I would have been very cautious at playing the actual BREAK into the Value Area. Later in the day you have the so called "flip and test" of the HOD which also so happens to be the previous UVA area. Do you go back to the previous day and manually draw possible important S/R areas? Whenever dealing with potential S/R areas you MUST understand the other areas around you and how they might affect your risk reward. This is where you seem to be having trouble Gene. That being said...after reading your comments it appears that if you had stuck to your plan and had not made that silly contract mistake, the day might have ended decently. Of course when starting out with REAL money problems like that will occur. The key to success is to stomp out those problems as soon as possible. And yes, easier said than done...welcome to trading.

Have a great weekend!!

[brownsfan019]

Originally Posted by Hlm »

In my opinion those fixed areas reacted as expected today. Yes, price hugged that LVA but did you notice what was also there? The previous days POC. Look at how price reacted when it went through it on the downside. That area has been a point of interest over the last couple of days. Without some extremely strong internals and a nice PA (candle) entry I would have been very cautious at playing the actual BREAK into the Value Area. Later in the day you have the so called "flip and test" of the HOD which also so happens to be the previous UVA area. Do you go back to the previous day and manually draw possible important S/R areas? Whenever dealing with potential S/R areas you MUST understand the other areas around you and how they might affect your risk reward. This is where you seem to be having trouble Gene. That being said...after reading your comments it appears that if you had stuck to your plan and had not made that silly contract mistake, the day might have ended decently. Of course when starting out with REAL money problems like that will occur. The key to success is to stomp out those problems as soon as possible. And yes, easier said than done...welcome to trading.

Have a great weekend!!

Gene - HLM brings up an excellent point here if you are going to use these MP levels. I had no idea what all was going on there, but he does. Maybe if you are nice you can pick HLM's brain a little about how to use those numbers.

[Nick1984]

Are you sticking only to the MP levels of the previous day or do you use a developing MP to make decisions?

Also in relation to your profit targets it seems as if you don't actually have a set profit target for each trade. What I've found is that by creating a quasi mechanical rules system to my trading its helped heaps because it effectively takes the emotion out of your trades. When trading one contract I'd take +10 all the time simply so i could used to it even if the price kept on going. It helped to develop my money management discipline. Now I'm trading 3 lots on the ES and I always hit +1.25 as an automatic exit on my first 1/3rd. The second target is +2.50 and the last contract is discretionary with my stop moving up to break even +.25 so I effectively have a free trade which covers my commissions.

Maybe you can look at setting up a more mechanical profit target system to get you used to being more mecahnical and less emotional.

Good luck mate.