YM journal

[frugi]

I think I may be beginning to get a feel for this price action lark.

Edit: "Lark" is completely the wrong word, as I soon discover!

I have a long way to go of course, but if I can take just 2.25 ES points a day I'll be happy as Larry, at least for the moment (that's still about £275pw).

However my discipline has been poor (as ever ) and I often find myself becoming greedy, bored, distracted or irate and overtrading, gambling and/or chasing losses, often late in the day, often to the detriment of a perfectly reasonable, patiently gained profit.

So I thought if I force myself to put my P/L and executions up every evening on the days I have traded, where everyone can see it and guffaw at my stupidity (or, occasionally I hope, smile at my restraint) I would be more inclined to be disciplined during the day. It is one thing to lose $ in the privacy of one's own self-contemptuous mind, but to have the loss dragged into the public eye is quite another, espcially when the loss stems from obvious lack of self-discipline.

This P/L plan is just a novel way in which I will to try and enforce this discipline. I do not know if it will work but I'm keen to try.

If any mod feels this is a total waste of t2w space I quite understand, and I cannot promise to post every day (just the winning days :cheesy: ) or indeed continue doing this for long.

First one tonight, unless someone tells me to desist. Woah I'm nervous now!

 

[Roger Carton]

Frugi

I admire your courage and think it's an excellent idea. I'll be regular visitor. I have poor discipline as well and have to supplement my meagre income with temp jobs, like collecting trolleys, gets me fit though!

Good fortune to you (don't like using the word luck because of its connection with Lucifer). That's another one of my problems, I'm too superstitious.

Regards

Roger and out!

 

[BBB]

Maybe you should:
Take your 2.25 points as soon as you see them

Switch to a different time frame so that you can trade in a manner that wont bore you. This could be smaller, or larger so you can go and do something else while your stop is in the market.

If you do post, then there must be consistency. Otherwise you will just be lying to your self. Do you really need to do this? Will it just put more strain and pressure on your self?

Why not paper trade for a while, while you resolve your issues. It will be a lot cheaper!

Either way, good luck. You're in a stronger position for knowing you weaknesses and are now in a position to do something about them. You're not the first to have troubles, and will not be the last!

Rog - ditch the superstition mate! You make your own luck in this world - as Frugi is about to find out as he journeys along the road to profitability!

 

[frugi]

Thanks for the advice BBB, I appreciate it.

Maybe you should:
Take your 2.25 points as soon as you see them

I will almost always do this when the opportunity arises. Then I will risk up to half of that booked profit in trying to make more. Anything over $200 and I'll lock in $150 or so.

However as my temparament is best suited to scalping (I dislike trends - now that may be a handicap I have to work on!) I am apt to take a lot of three quarters, halves, even quarters, and like to monitor price action constantly to adjust limits, reverse, reconsider etc. if needs be. Capital protection is paramount so I'm apt to work with very tight stops which also suits scalping. I have tried leaving wider stops in the market and walking away but I just don't feel comfortable doing this with IB. I run a system using hourly charts thru SB in the background and this satisfies my need to swing

If you do post, then there must be consistency. Otherwise you will just be lying to your self. Do you really need to do this? Will it just put more strain and pressure on your self?

I hope there will be consistency. The exercise will do me no good if there isn't. Certainly no shirking or forgetting to post losses. I used to have a thread on FillYaBoots where I'd post all my swing trades in advance and I found that having them in public view made me select each trade with more care and reason. I hope this will hold true for ES daytrading too.

Why not paper trade for a while, while you resolve your issues. It will be a lot cheaper!

To be frank I do not trade in the same way on paper. I am naturally indolent and I need to have money in the market to learn properly. Yes, this is probably a big fault but one at least I'm aware of.

Either way, good luck. You're in a stronger position for knowing you weaknesses and are now in a position to do something about them. You're not the first to have troubles, and will not be the last!

Cheers for the support

 

[frugi]

Fought the trend all the way with nervous scalps. Too much commission, not enough points. But happy at least to have a +ve p/l given I was facing the wrong way like a stubborn silly Pushmepullyou


Running total:

$112.50 - (22 * $2.40) = $59.70

 

[frugi]

Should have gone long at 1133 on those tasty PDs and just held it till the ND top...ah well. Still find distinguishing between trend and range days hard, but given China's predicted McClose I should definitely have favoured the trend today.

 

[mombasa]

Good thread frugi - keep it up.

I didn't get in on the action today - was down in the pub - just as well really - pretty sure that I'd have spotted the trend early on and gone short

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Did you notice the Adam & Eve Bottom on the 10 min chart? I notice you spotted the very easy 5-wave up! LOL

 

[frugi]

I did Skimble but I wasn't sure there was enough clear air around Adam's bottom (not surprising given his love of artichokes ) or enough horizontal distance between his and Eve's to qualify. Looks like it did eh :cheesy: Too busy looking for divergences, me.

That 5th wave was longer than I thought, hence attempts to short the beast, esp at R2.

Nice consolidation targets produced by wave 2 though.

Up to 1162 then the bear market resumes in earnest??? Who cares, I ain't no weatherman.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

The 5th wave was long - but notice that by putting your stop at the low of each 10 min bar it would have kept you in the trade. And even if you had followed the 5 min chart (which is ideal when you know that you're on the 5th wave and a turn is imminent), using the low of the previous bar as your stop, you would have ridden the trend up nicely for an exit at 1146.

I know, I know, hindsight, eh? LOL

 

[frugi]

Hindsight can provide the best homework. Thanks .

 

[Loada Dosh]

Hi Frugi

I'd almost forgotten you had left iii for here, I hope you are keeping well.

If I may speak frankly, and no disrespect intended, but some people may view this thread as rather pretentious.

You already have your own web site on which you publish your trading activities, so why the need to duplicate the information here? Would it not be easier to simply give people the URL link at the end of each of your posts, as I recall you used to do on iii?

You are also setting a precedent. There must be dozens if not hundreds of people who can open up similar threads, is there not a danger therefore that before long the whole board will become cluttered.

I'm raising these doubts in the spirit of friendly enquiry.

Chris

 

[ivorm]

Hi frugi,

As you know, I used to read your excellent thread on fillyaboots (and sometimes tried to contribute something useful myself). I must say that it was one of the most informative, thought-provoking and entertaining threads I have ever followed.

Please, please do not be put off by any negative comments about what you are doing. I am sure that many people will find this thread extremely useful. And those who do not... well no-one is forcing them to read it, are they ?

Good luck and I am looking forward to your posts.

Regards,

 

[frugi]

Cheers ivor

Don't worry I shall not be put off. I received kind and flattering support from several members of t2w within a few hours of the thread going live and I fully intend to continue (until posting my losses becomes too embarrassing :cheesy: ) I have a feeling this will do wonders for my discipline so I have everything to gain by continuing.


LoadaDosh,

You already have your own web site on which you publish your trading activities, so why the need to duplicate the information here? Would it not be easier to simply give people the URL link at the end of each of your posts, as I recall you used to do on iii?

I have a simple, boring, flaky moving average system much like any other on my website that I run in the background through a spread betting firm. Very unpatriotic of me I'm sure. This has absolutely nothing to do with my ES daytrading activities as described on this thread.

Anyone with a website in their profile automatically has a link to it at the bottom of their every post, if only you'd care to look.

Perhaps your time would be better employed postulating your strong views on technical analysis rather than picking holes in an old adversary!

 

[stevem12]

Frugi

Well done on the thread and on yesterdays profit. You seem as though you have a similar problem to me, all too often trading against the trend!

But you`ve also shown how when using direct access a profit can still be made, when I first started I was trading like that with Fins and D4F imagine how different your P/L for yesterday would`ve looked via one of them

Keep up the good work and posts , and never forget the ONLY way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

A small profit still puts you in the 5%

Steve

 

[ChartMan]

Keep up the good work and posts , and never forget the ONLY way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

:cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy:

That HAS to be quote of the month!!

 

[hampy]

Frugi,
Really looking forward to this thread. My new trading PC arrives in less than 2 weeks so I'll be with you in the market learning as I go.
I notice there's been some negative comment all ready. Ignore it,seeing someone's trades and reasoning soon after they occur must surely be a real help to all the beginners out there
cheers,
hampy

 

[frugi]

D'oh

I made one good trade today and that was a long at 1142.50 just after the doji sandwich around 8.00. I waited to buy until the price moved above the yellow pivot line and was rewarded with two long bars up (10 min). I sold this as it reversed off the top of the channel at 1144.75.

Unfortunately I also made 17 poor or unecessary ones. This was thanks to my starting trading in the lunch hour (I had been out scaling walls during the arvo!) which swiftly pitched me into a thicket of angry whipsaws.

It's no good scalping sly quarters if there's an equal number of halves and points lost. Or, while on the subject of elephants, I would do well to remember that I cannot defecate like one if I only eat like a bird. I got away with taking quarters yesterday because I was very careful with entry and concentrating intensely. Today I was not so careful, probably a touch distracted, and before long I was down over $250 and spent the rest of a grim day chasing losses instead of staying patient and treating each trade as if I had made none previously (i.e. on its own merits).

Today was quite choppy in general so I doubt anyone found it a breeze which is a poor but slight defence. But there is no excuse for trading (gambling) after 8.45 and even after the close just to try and grab a bit back.

I also missed the TICK/RSI PD between 6.30 and 7.00. I didn't fancy shorting the double top at 8.20ish as there was no TICK divergence.

However it is worth mentioning that my loss is at least within the bounds of my trading plan - I am allowed a max loss of $400 a day (composed of $25-$175 per trade (depending on potential perceived reward)).

Today's travesty: -$162.50-(18*$4.80) = -$248.90
Day 2 running total: -$189.20

Hope you guys did better Cheers for the PM too, Rosso.

 

[frugi]

Eeuw...here's what not to do. Note the doubling up revenge trade too!

 

[ChartMan]

Yes, a hard day with nothing to get your teeth into.....