[brownsfan019]

3/4/09 Came out to be a wash, forgot to post.

3/5/09



An OK day. A couple woulda, coulda, shoulda in hindsight.


Those 2 losing ZN trades were not the best trades in the world. One of those - well, I made $XXX so far, let's take a shot - and it bit me in the behind.

[brownsfan019]

You know what is interesting about this thread? First, not surprising there's only 2 of us posting here. I've posted in other parts of the forum and when you ask people to post here if they could use a little added motivation, provide some motivation to others, etc. - it's very quiet in here. For example, there's some serious discussion about VSA, Wyckoff, etc. etc. but I don't think we've ever seen one blotter showing one person making money using those systems. Not one...



Second, I notice that on this smaller account, the $ result is ok, but nothing to get excited about. One interesting thing about trading is that if you are making money and want to make more, you can just up your size. Granted that's a double edged sword, but we operate in a very nice business where you can do the SAME amount of work and get paid MORE. That's rare if you think about it - doctors, lawyers, brokers, etc. - all get paid more by working more. Here, you can still work the hours you like, trade more and make more money.

I bring this up b/c it's easy to get lost in the shuffle as you trade more (size, accounts, etc.) that these smaller accounts may not seem like much initially, but you can work them up over time. And when the time is right you can increase size to increase profits w/o having to do more work.

It's hard to find too many business that will keep increasing your pay for doing the same amount of work.

[daedalus]

Long story short i'm still tweaking my method and I finalized some stuff today that came to my attention after taking two back to back losses. My entries are a *tad* too aggressive. By backing off maybe 7% I can avoid catching a lot of bad trades.

Even so, I didn't trade well. And there was more than ample opportunity for me to walk away with money today and I didn't take it. Disappointed with my execution.

Oh well... It could've ended up a lot worse than it did. And when I consider how much money I have paid in losses I didn't need to take over the past two weeks I'm happy I realized this simple flaw in my entries. So all in all... one down day to figure out an integral way to make more money more of the time? Well worth it IMHO.



Brownsfan - even though for right now its just you and me... at least it proves that there are two honest traders out there in the world!

[brownsfan019]

One thing nice about really looking at your P/L is you can sometimes hone in certain aspects of the trade and see where improvements can be made. For example, I probably should have not taken those ZN trades which would have left me P/L at +$500. I'd like to see this account regularly performing at $500-$1000 on average per day, so if I was a little more patient it could have happened.

But sometimes you can fall into the 'this is the house's money' mentality and risk more than you might otherwise.

[bathrobe]

Brownsfan,

I have been paper trading the 30 year since you started the thread based on the advantages of trading that market. Congratulations on your success in that market and the 10 year.

I trade the ES for a living and was wondering if you ever take advantages of the inverse relationship between the es and ym and the bonds? I know you told me previously you trade 30 and 10 year using technical analysis, but I often see great setups in the es and ponder taking an inverse live trade in the ZB along with the ES trade I am already taking.

Thank you for opening my eyes to a great market and I wish you continued success.

Thanks,
Chris

[brownsfan019]

Chris,
Here's an interesting thing you will note about the ES and the bonds - they don't always move in perfect inverse correlation. There are many times that I scratch my head when they move in tandem! So my suggestion is to watch both and see how they look to you, based on how you trade. Most times they are moving opposite but there are times where it moves in perfect harmony together. My guess is that some computer programs out there are trying to arb them and the big boys have to keep them in check or else everyone would do it.

[brownsfan019]

3/6/09




Nothing special from Fri. Had I been focused more would have gotten a few other trades on but wasn't there 100% on Fri apparently.

Overall, an ok week on this account.

[brownsfan019]

3/2/2009

$656.25

3/3/2009

$125.00

3/4/2009

$0.00

3/5/2009

$328.13

3/6/2009

$203.13

$1,312.51

Not a bad week on this account. Hypothetically if this was a $10k account that's a return of 13% in a week.

I think consistency is key for longevity in this business and if I can continue to keep the accounts performing at respectable levels, then I'll be happy.

Now, if I can focus the entire time trading and take all the trades I see, then we can get that number up even more.


note - in all fairness these numbers do not include commissions. I wished OEC's reports would factor commissions in. The nice thing about bonds is that the commissions are lower than the indexes (for now at least).