Well, with all the talk about Trade Journals and Logs I figured I would start posting one here. I have always kept a journal of my trades to note why I took them and why I didn't ... as well as to note how and why I managed the trade once I had something on. Not only does it force me to write things down, but it also allows me to look it over at the end of the day and note things I should be looking at (long term) to perhaps make my trading plan more efficient.

Since I keep a log anyways, and since I apparently have no shame, I thought posting it publicly might help a few folks. Of course, constructive criticism is welcomed and hoped for. If I am doing things less efficiently than I should be, I want to be able to correct these deficiencies as quickly as possible.

To keep things simple and to obfuscate the purposes of this journal as little as possible, I won't be posting position size, etc. However, to give some insight, I will discuss entries in terms of 'Units'. The default entry is '2 Units' as this affords me the ability to go half size as well as double/triple/etc size.

That said, on to Day-1 ... ;)

quote:

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Originally posted by uktrader

What is "trade ratio"?

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It's a formula I'm using to attempt to show a relative profit and loss which can be used regardless of contract size and number of trades. The idea is that whether you trade 2c or 20c and take 1 trade or 5 trades per day, that those numbers would be roughly the same.

Ranges are:
0-20 is small positive/neg (roughly b/e)
21-50 is avg
51-100 is above avg
101+ is large

I'm still tweaking the formula, but once I have something solid I'll post. ;)

Very nice trading there brokebackbernie!!

Day-7 : Thursday -- June 29th, 2006 ...

Heading:

Pre-Market Thoughts:
(1) Overnight High was 1263.50, Overnight Low was 1257.00
(2) VAL Areas between my trading package and JP match today -- 1254.25 / 1248.75
(3) Fed Announcement is today ... should be relatively boring until after 2:00pm
(4) Looks like we're going to open in value today ... no 1mOR, overlays are valid.
(5) Nothing really to do at the open ... no levels to trade off of ... maybe paper WVL @ 1251.00?


SINGLES: 1258.50 (G Period 06/27/2006) 1263.25 / 1248.00

... News & Speaking Events ...

Corporate Profits 8:30 ET
GDP 8:30 ET
Jobless Claims 8:30 ET
Help Wanted Index 10:00 ET
EIA Natural Gas Report 10:30 ET
3-Month Bill Announcement 11:00 ET
6-Month Bill Announcement 11:00 ET
FOMC Announcement 2:15 ET
Farm Prices 3:00 ET
Money Supply 4:30 ET


..... Market Open .....

Comment : Here we go ...

Trade-1 : wibH Short (ADD +1500, +1760, ADD +1866)
Entry : 1263.25
MACG : 1264.75
Max Run : 0.00
DrawDown : 3.50
Exit(s) : Took one of the MACG off @ -1.25 and scratched the rest b/e. Took avg -2.25 on the rest. I got lucky here, i should have stopped out on the full load but I got stupid. We did have a weekly pivot up there which made me hesitate about jumping ship (I would have jumped at HOD in hindsight). The weekly pivot convinced me to give it just a hair more room and allowed me to salvage and mitigate some of the losses. The hard part is I'm expecting a pretty significant pullback to opening prices ahead of FOMC, but I didn't know how much more push this was going to have and I just didn't have the stomach to hold.

Comment : I wanted to reshort up at 1267.00, weekly pivot point, but we didn't get there by a tick. I will try to take them though if we get up to 1267.00 as it will be like a 2-tick IB trade as well.

Comment : Did not take the wr1 ... would be good for +1.50 though, so I'd be stopped out now anyways be via Protection Mode. Although this is a very bad thing in that I did not take this trade (as I should have according to the rules), the fact that it would not have hurt me, even though it looked quite gloomy, helps to reinforce that I need to take them all.

Comment : Messed up on the dval trade ... I missed it ... had the opportunity to get in, but did not ... JP said it best I think when he said simply, "I have to take this, because if I don't and it goes, I will be mad". I need to take them all. Period. If it is in the plan, take the trade.

Daily Order Pull / CXL Time: 1:14p.

Trade Ratio: -12.750
Overall Ratio: -28.500

quote:

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Originally posted by day trading

Very nice trading there brokebackbernie!!

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Thanks ... but ... I don't know ... I think I'm my own worst enemy most of the time ... I can do so much better if I just let myself 'go' and take these trades. I am too worried about whether or not it is going to lose before I take it, and that's wrong ... simply wrong. No one enters a trade thinking it will lose. I need to enter all trades thinking they will win and just take my stops when I'm supposed to. Period.

I have found that writing these things down and 'yelling at myself' on paper seems to help some ... if nothing else, it helps reinforce it to myself. ;)

quote:

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Originally posted by brokebackbernie

quote:

---

Originally posted by day trading

Very nice trading there brokebackbernie!!

---

Thanks ... but ... I don't know ... I think I'm my own worst enemy most of the time ... I can do so much better if I just let myself 'go' and take these trades. I am too worried about whether or not it is going to lose before I take it, and that's wrong ... simply wrong. No one enters a trade thinking it will lose. I need to enter all trades thinking they will win and just take my stops when I'm supposed to. Period.

I have found that writing these things down and 'yelling at myself' on paper seems to help some ... if nothing else, it helps reinforce it to myself. ;)

---

b3 -

obviously, every trader has to find his own way. given that i have a couple of quick personal revelations that have been important to me:

1. self-recriminating thought/talk/etc does me no good
acknowledging, accepting, and addressing mistakes can be productive and very enlightening. in fact, your statement can become alarmingly true:

quote:

---

if nothing else, it helps reinforce it to myself.

---

if you keep beating yourself up, you very naturally do reinforce those behaviors. i know that was not the intent of your comment, but it remains true.

2. getting mad tends to be counterproductive
in another post you mentioned (i'm paraphrasing) embracing the idea of 'getting mad when you miss a trade because you're not on it.' reflexively and naturally, i agree with that feeling. however, this is a business. if i get mad that i missed a trade, what am i gaining? this can easily lead to revenge trading, forcing trades, over-trading, trading too big, and further self-recriminating behaviors. in my mind, if i miss a trade, win or lose, what i have done is adversely or at least inaccurately affected my strategy / set-up percentages. basically, i need to run my business more efficiently, more effectively, if i want to stay in this game.

also, keep in mind, JP has been doing this for many years and began his trading career in a very emotional, very volatile environment (trading from the floor). over the years, he has been able to harness and wield his emotions in ways many off-floor traders never achieve. he had to master his emotions, or he would never survive and it would be a quick demise at that. JP has a lot of experience and a strong desire to share his knowledge - absorb as much as you can, because it is all valuable.

it reminds me a lot of writing. you see, hear, and read SOOOOOO many rules it just seems stifling. as you work your way along, you begin to understand the rules and why they are there. eventually, because of your experience, you know when and why you can break those rules without sacrificing your material. your writing becomes more than a sterile set of static rules. trading has a similar dynamic. the feel, the intuition, the discretion - it all comes with time and thousands and thousands and thousands of trades.

again, these are MY perceptions. i realize they will not work for everyone. and, even being my perceptions, these currently are more goals than constants. i still have to work very hard on both (and many other) areas before i can become a consistently successful trader.

anyway, i sure hope things go well for you and want to thank you for your contributions to the forum. i think you have added a lot of value here and hope that it pays dividends in your business.

hth

quote:

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Originally posted by omni72

quote:

---

Originally posted by brokebackbernie

quote:

---

Originally posted by day trading

Very nice trading there brokebackbernie!!

---

Thanks ... but ... I don't know ... I think I'm my own worst enemy most of the time ... I can do so much better if I just let myself 'go' and take these trades. I am too worried about whether or not it is going to lose before I take it, and that's wrong ... simply wrong. No one enters a trade thinking it will lose. I need to enter all trades thinking they will win and just take my stops when I'm supposed to. Period.

I have found that writing these things down and 'yelling at myself' on paper seems to help some ... if nothing else, it helps reinforce it to myself. ;)

---

b3 -

obviously, every trader has to find his own way. given that i have a couple of quick personal revelations that have been important to me:

1. self-recriminating thought/talk/etc does me no good
acknowledging, accepting, and addressing mistakes can be productive and very enlightening. in fact, your statement can become alarmingly true:

quote:

---

if nothing else, it helps reinforce it to myself.

---

if you keep beating yourself up, you very naturally do reinforce those behaviors. i know that was not the intent of your comment, but it remains true.

2. getting mad tends to be counterproductive
in another post you mentioned (i'm paraphrasing) embracing the idea of 'getting mad when you miss a trade because you're not on it.' reflexively and naturally, i agree with that feeling. however, this is a business. if i get mad that i missed a trade, what am i gaining? this can easily lead to revenge trading, forcing trades, over-trading, trading too big, and further self-recriminating behaviors. in my mind, if i miss a trade, win or lose, what i have done is adversely or at least inaccurately affected my strategy / set-up percentages. basically, i need to run my business more efficiently, more effectively, if i want to stay in this game.

also, keep in mind, JP has been doing this for many years and began his trading career in a very emotional, very volatile environment (trading from the floor). over the years, he has been able to harness and wield his emotions in ways many off-floor traders never achieve. he had to master his emotions, or he would never survive and it would be a quick demise at that. JP has a lot of experience and a strong desire to share his knowledge - absorb as much as you can, because it is all valuable.

it reminds me a lot of writing. you see, hear, and read SOOOOOO many rules it just seems stifling. as you work your way along, you begin to understand the rules and why they are there. eventually, because of your experience, you know when and why you can break those rules without sacrificing your material. your writing becomes more than a sterile set of static rules. trading has a similar dynamic. the feel, the intuition, the discretion - it all comes with time and thousands and thousands and thousands of trades.

again, these are MY perceptions. i realize they will not work for everyone. and, even being my perceptions, these currently are more goals than constants. i still have to work very hard on both (and many other) areas before i can become a consistently successful trader.

anyway, i sure hope things go well for you and want to thank you for your contributions to the forum. i think you have added a lot of value here and hope that it pays dividends in your business.

hth

---

omni72,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate your feedback. These comments, like those of uktrader and day trading are exactly the things that I was hoping for when I decided to post my journal(s) in a public forum. I know I am doing things right, and I know I am doing things wrong. I guess that we sometimes get so involved in what we're doing that we don't even realize certain things -- that is where the unbiased and fresh opinions really help. I've thought about what you said and a lot of it makes sense. I plan to work on exactly these things you've mentioned in the coming weeks.

With the help of those on this forum, as well as JP, I will be a successful trader, and I will have a successful business. I hope that in some small way my eventual (but definite) public evolution and maturation into a full time successful professional trader will also help those around us to improve and perhaps not make the same mistakes I have.

Again, I truly appreciate your thoughts and comments. I look forward to future conversations. ;)

b3 -

you're very welcome. stay focused and keep up the good work. one trade at a time, one tiny trade at a time.

and, of course, keep participating in our little community here

have a great weekend and be safe.

Day-11 : Thursday -- July 6th, 2006 ...

Heading:

Pre-Market Thoughts:
(1) Overnight High was 1283.00, Overnight Low was 1278.00
(2) VAL Areas between my trading package and JP match today -- 1280.75 / 1276.75

... News & Speaking Events ...

Monster Employment Index 6:00 ET
BOE Announcement 7:00 ET
Challenger Job-Cut Report 7:30 ET
ECB Announcement 7:45 ET
Jobless Claims 8:30 ET
ISM Non-Mfg Survey 10:00 ET
Pending Home Sales Index 10:00 ET
EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 ET
3-Month Bill Announcement 11:00 ET
6-Month Bill Announcement 11:00 ET
Chain Store Sales 12:00 ET
Money Supply 4:30 ET

..... Market Open .....

Comment : Here we go ...

Trade-1 : VAH Long (ADD +400, +500, +700)
Entry : 1280.75
MACG : NONE
Max Run : 6.25
DrawDown : 0.75
Exit(s) : Got all my scales through +5 ... (paper) ...

Comment : Missed this entry due to late arrival this morning. Got to work late, paid the price.

Trade-2 : PDH Short (ADD +800, +700, +800)
Entry : 1285.00
MACG : 1286.50
Max Run : 2.25
DrawDown : 0.50
Exit(s) : Got +1.00 and +2.00 and BE on the balance.

Comment : Day looked trendy up, but there were singles and 'stuff' up in the area of PDH so I took it short.

Comment :

Comment :

Daily Order Pull / CXL Time: 2:34p.

Trade Ratio: +2.750
Overall Ratio: -24.500

BBB: I must apologize for not reading more of your stuff. For some reason, when you post a reply or topic I don't receive my usual email notice that you have put something on the forum. This appears to be unique to you and I receive all other updates so not sure what is going on there. Anyway - that's why I don't always know that you've posted something.