ES October Trading Summary

RESULTS FOR OCTOBER
Contracts:	400
Net $P/L:	-4087
Wins:	75
Losses:	70
Win%:	52
Avg$Win:	100
Avg$Loss:	-165

Poor End

2:45pm CDT - I executed my plan perfectly today taking every signal until I hit my loss limit at 1:30. The ES swings were crazy today and volatility was back. Too bad my plan was not in sync with the swings today. A fitting end to the month. November will be better.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	-996
Wins:	1
Losses:	3
Win%:	25
Avg$Win:	194
Avg$Loss:	-397

No Sim

2:50pm CDT - 1 long and 1 short today - much easier than yesterday's hectic trading pace where I made 24 trades with zero results! Some of my readers have to wonder WTF am I doing? Yes it's very true lately that I've been trying different things and vary strategy as often as daily. The great thing about trading for yourself is that you can do anything you want. Some have said I should be sim trading but that is not for me. I have tried it in the past but it does nothing to help improve my mindset which is and always will be my biggest nemesis.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	4
Net $P/L:	164
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	82
Avg$Loss:	0

Slow Speed Selloff

3:15pm CDT - Down $250 after first 2 trades on the day and churned the rest of the day. Back at it tomorrow!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	49
Net $P/L:	-190
Wins:	11
Losses:	13
Win%:	46
Avg$Win:	85
Avg$Loss:	-86

More Broker Hell

3:10pm CDT - Open ECry had no charts/quotes/DOM for awhile this morning (more than an hour). I tried my best to trade off my eSignal charts alone but it was not a good idea in hindsight. It was a tough market to trade even without broker issues to make matter worst. I'm not sure if/when they will ever get their act together but for the near future, I recommend everyone stay away from OEC until they have at least 3 months of solid performance.

I was down nearly double the end tally after the opening 2 hours. Fought back half of it the rest of the day.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	25
Net $P/L:	-490
Wins:	6
Losses:	8
Win%:	43
Avg$Win:	95
Avg$Loss:	-132

Monday Moves

3:00pm CDT - A couple nice moves today in the market made for some good trades. I was pretty good at sitting on my hands in the chop.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	5
Net $P/L:	300
Wins:	4
Losses:	1
Win%:	80
Avg$Win:	88
Avg$Loss:	-53

Friday

3:10pm CDT - Some good trades early on that I should have held longer, then gave all the gains back in the midday chop, then got it back on the short side after lunch. All in all, an okay week for a change. Look forward to the weekend break.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	199
Wins:	6
Losses:	4
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	74
Avg$Loss:	-62

6 in a row

3:00pm CDT - A good morning with 1-2 point scalps. Missed the afternoon spike. Morning winners on chart below (6 in a row!) - but then I had 5 losers/par trades later, not shown. Ready for Friday...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	11
Net $P/L:	221
Wins:	6
Losses:	5
Win%:	55
Avg$Win:	56
Avg$Loss:	-23

Free Fall

3:15pm CDT - Up $160 at one point, down $160 later on, then back to breakeven on the day. So it goes - a day with a big up move with no retraces to get in, followed by chop, and ending with a huge down move with no decent retraces to get in.

I did scalp a point long a couple minutes after the close on the bounce of that super fast 4 pt. down push that took out all the stops!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	16
Net $P/L:	46
Wins:	6
Losses:	8
Win%:	43
Avg$Win:	83
Avg$Loss:	-56

Down Tues.

3:15pm CDT - Some bad entries and overtrading were mostly to blame today for a small down day. I'm feeling out a new methodology so some errors are to be expected. But tomorrow is another day...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	14
Net $P/L:	-111
Wins:	8
Losses:	5
Win%:	62
Avg$Win:	44
vg$Loss:	-93

Outside Day

2:15pm CDT - 1 nice trade for a few points and a couple trades for a couple ticks that I got out of too early and could have had a point or two on each if held. Always working on that little blemish in my trading psyche, holding winners longer. The work never ends...

On the daily chart, ES logs an outside day (HH and LL than Friday) so I'm quitting a little early to get outside on this first day above 60 deg. in nearly 3 weeks here in Chicago.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	3
Net $P/L:	204
Wins:	3
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	68
Avg$Loss:	0

Friday

3:00pm CDT - Just one short trade from this morning. Still taking it easy.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	1
Net $P/L:	109
Wins:	1
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	109
Avg$Loss:	0

Comments

2:45pm CDT - Thanks all who follow along and for most of the comments in Tuesday's post. I read everything that comes in and take it all in, even if it may be blunt unsolicited advice at times. So far I've only had to delete one comment a week or so ago from an Anonymous commenter that called another commenter an idiot. But I know 99% of my followers are mature adults so will likely keep the comment section of this blog unmoderated but reserve the right to change that if I ever need to.

Yesterday I took the day off and will tread lightly going forward for now. One ES trade today shows I am still out of sync, but only by a tick! I was stopped out on a long at the low tick of the regular session at 82.75.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	1
Net $P/L:	-103
Wins:	0
Losses:	1
Win%:	0
Avg$Win:	0
Avg$Loss:	-103

Equity Curve

3:20pm CDT - OK, this month is officially depressing so far. Today I traded TF for a change after reviewing lots of charts last night. My strategy involved entering after a small retrace in trend direction and exiting after 4 or so ticks. Rinse and repeat. Of course nothing goes as smoothly as backtesting but I knew trading 1-lots I would not get me in much trouble. So I trade 1 lots, then upped it to 2 lots after going negative, then increased to 4 and finally 5 lots before hitting my $circuit breaker for the day just after 11am. And so ends another negative day!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	25
Net $P/L:	-1362
Wins:	1
Losses:	6
Win%:	14
Avg$Win:	186
Avg$Loss:	-258

I'm great at following my trading rules and can trade like a robot anytime with zero emotion if I have an ironclad set of rules covering any and all conditions that could arise in my entry/exit and position size. But my "problem" is that something typically comes up that makes me justify tweaking the rules. And so the trouble begins. Part of the reason recently I think is the dwindling year and the desire to be positive by end of 2009 - not a good reason...

Sometime, hopefully sooner rather than later, things will click for me again and I'll be clicking the mouse according to plan, a winning plan. Until then, my goal must be to limit the damage.

Here's my equity curve since start of this blog nearly 6 months ago. Not very pretty but it's reality.

FCM Financial Data

No trades today - should have slept in! Happy Columbus Day!

On another note, this is a good site to look at now and then to see how your FCM is doing. For better or worse, my broker has more than doubled in size (customer segregated funds) in less than 2 years.

Rainy Friday

2:50pm CDT - Dead market most of day. Glad it's the weekend!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	-89
Wins:	1
Losses:	1
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	237
Avg$Loss:	-326

Slow Day

3:00pm CDT - I thought I had plenty of patience but do I have the patience for 30 min. charts? Having doubts already. I'll have to discuss this with my inner boss and figure out a game plan soon.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	2
Net $P/L:	119
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	59
Avg$Loss:	0

Choppy

3:00pm CDT - First trade of day long was up 3 pts. before going back to breakeven to stop me out. Other 2 trades were about the worst entries possible.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	3
Net $P/L:	-283
Wins:	1
Losses:	2
Win%:	33
Avg$Win:	9
Avg$Loss:	-146

Going Long

1:45pm CDT - I'm shaking things up and going long - Longer timeframe charts that is! No more trading off 3-tick range charts, 1 min. charts and 5 min. charts. 30 min. will be my new timeframe and primary trading chart. I know this won't solve my personal demons and issues but it can't hurt. The main benefits I see is that it will limit overtrading as I do not intend to do much trading intrabar and it will help me see the bigger picture and hold winners longer. The main negative is that stops need to be bigger. We shall see... 1 short trade this afternoon:

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	1
Net $P/L:	134
Wins:	1
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	134
Avg$Loss:	0

Down Day Repeated

2:45pm CDT - Another losing day. I may take some time off this week in case you don't see my daily post. Then again, I may not...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	24
Net $P/L:	-1100
Wins:	3
Losses:	5
Win%:	38
Avg$Win:	137
Avg$Loss:	-302

Rio

3:10pm CDT - I traded 10 lots all day and didn't do so well. I was actually even until the last trade of day which I stopped out for -9 ticks. Back to 1 or 2 lots Monday.

Congrats to Rio who beat my hometown Chicago for the 2016 Olympics!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	180
Net $P/L:	-1168
Wins:	9
Losses:	7
Win%:	56
Avg$Win:	207
Avg$Loss:	-433

Down Market, Up Day

2:50pm CDT - Got shaken out of one short I put on just after the 9am CDT news release that would have gone on to be a winner. But the other shorts today worked great. 21 more days like today would make for a nice month.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	304
Wins:	3
Losses:	1
Win%:	75
Avg$Win:	120
Avg$Loss:	-55