October Trading Summary

RESULTS FOR OCTOBER
ES Contracts:	1242
Net $P/L:	233
Wins:	108
Losses:	53
Win%:	67
$Commissions:	3254
Avg$Win:	270
Avg$Loss:	-546

Mon. 10/31

2:45pm CDT - Sad performance on this final day of the month. Was up over a grand and then had a couple full stops in the late day lull. Perhaps I should just not trade in these conditions. But saying that and doing that are two entirely different things. I will be taking the rest of the week off most likely to work more on strategy development.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	106
Net $P/L:	-3328
Wins:	2
Losses:	3
Win%:	40
Avg$Win:	462
Avg$Loss:	-1417

Fri. 10/28

2:25pm CDT - A choppy, go nowhere, less than 10-pt. range ES day. For the week, a whopping net +$149. Enough to buy groceries for the week. :)

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	57
Net $P/L:	13
Wins:	1
Losses:	3
Win%:	25
Avg$Win:	160
Avg$Loss:	-49

Thurs. 10/27

2:25pm CDT - Near perfect moves in ES today. Didn't get any size on due to shallow retraces but 1 short followed by 2 longs was fine for the day.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	3
Net $P/L:	455
Wins:	3
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	151
Avg$Loss:	0

Wed. 10/26

2:45pm CDT - Up $500 then I had 2 max-size stops in a row losing $5k. That has never happened in all my backtesting of this strategy. I could blame the EU but what's the point? At least the next 5 trades got half of the loss back.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	92
Net $P/L:	-1841
Wins:	8
Losses:	2
Win%:	80
Avg$Win:	391
Avg$Loss:	-2484

Tues. 10/25

2:45pm CDT - Tough day and market felt like a totally different instrument that yesterday. Nothing like EU news to shake things up. Luckily I sat out the early morning gyrations. After that, the ying and yang were just off enough to throw my strategy into conservative mode and I exited many trades at/near breakeven only to see price then move as expected.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	91
Net $P/L:	512
Wins:	4
Losses:	4
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	180
Avg$Loss:	-53

Mon. 10/24

2:50pm CDT - Very slow, low volume day. Volume just barely beat Columbus Day on the ES. Most of my trades worked albeit very very slowly. Patience wins.

On another note, I scrolled through ZS charts and recorded what would have been if I had continued trading my old dog ZSRO system. Very doggy lately!

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	1011
Wins:	3
Losses:	1
Win%:	75
Avg$Win:	344
Avg$Loss:	-21

Fri. 10/21

1:50pm CDT - Packing it in for the week a little early. ES action is too spurty and thin for my liking. For the week, net loss of -$1563. I take some console in knowing it would have been +2.6k or so if not for my f*ck up Tues.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	11
Net $P/L:	1484
Wins:	6
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	247
Avg$Loss:	0

Thurs. 10/20

2:40pm CDT - Was up ~800 before a max size stop out early afternoon. I've had my fill of those for the week, thank you very much.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	72
Net $P/L:	-1601
Wins:	5
Losses:	5
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	193
Avg$Loss:	-514

Wed. 10/19

2:25pm CDT - Yesterday's history, a new day dawns. But it was good to vent as I was really pissed at myself. Nice calm market action today made for a good day. Only traded once after Beige book release and could have taken a few more signals that would have been winners but there's always tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and the day after that...

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	48
Net $P/L:	1899
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	397
Avg$Loss:	-42

Tues. 10/18

3:05pm CDT - Unfreakin’ believable – I made a rookie trade that is so unforgivable there should be some kind of punishment for it, besides loss of capital. It was not part of my strategy and I took it just because I didn’t believe the move up around 2:10 CDT would continue. Fading strong, momentum, high-volume moves with large size is as dumb as it gets. Granted I didn’t know about the Europe bailout plan news until after the fact but still! Then a revenge trade right after that could have been much worse but I wised up and exited with a 2 tick loss. -$4200 was the total cost of the trades that should not have existed and wipes out the previous 4 days worth of gains.

Other than that, it should have been a breakeven or slightly up day. I did have a legitimate max-size stop out early in day but had worked my way back to down just $150 when my brilliant fade idea materialized.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	134
Net $P/L:	-4339
Wins:	6
Losses:	5
Win%:	55
Avg$Win:	392
Avg$Loss:	-1339

Mon. 10/17

2:45pm CDT - A very slow grind down all day. Didn't get much size on due to shallow retraces but didn't take much heat on any trades either.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	7
Net $P/L:	994
Wins:	4
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	249
Avg$Loss:	0

Below is a look back I did over weekend of my results with my ES strategy for first 4 weeks (20 days) trading it. During that time I had 6 max-size stop outs which account for 89% of my losses. If I can keep those to less than 5% of my total trades, things should work well going forward. I decided not to post my backtested P/L curve that I mentioned a few weeks ago because what I've been doing in live trading is slightly different so what's the point...

Net $P/L:	12549
Wins:	121
Losses:	61
Win%:	66
Avg$Win:	257
Avg$Loss:	-305

Fri. 10/14

2:30pm CDT - Another slow, low volume day. 10.5 pt. daily range in ES (with 45 min. to go) is the tightest session since July 26th. Took a couple early exits after being lulled to sleep. For the week, net gain of +$4781.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	823
Wins:	4
Losses:	1
Win%:	80
Avg$Win:	211
Avg$Loss:	-21

Thurs. 10/13

2:45pm CDT - Nearly got burned on the final hour selloff but escaped unscathed. Good day overall.

Foreign-Exchange Traders (Source) are among the "World's Most Influential Players." Who knew?! I only posted this as it says 30% have success. That beats the 10% that we often hear sited...

"Main Street's appetite for trading currencies keeps growing, despite government warnings about excessive risk. Individual investors make up about 8 percent of the Forex market worldwide and execute $315 billion in trades daily, up from 2 percent and $38 billion in 2004, according to Aite Group. But -- ahem -- only about 30 percent of do-it-yourselfers make money in their accounts, according to data from brokerage firms. This summer the SEC warned that currency trading wasn't appropriate for all investors, and U.S. regulators have drafted new rules to curtail trading risk. But Aite analyst Javier Paz says that any new guidelines are not likely to slow the stampede: He expects more growth over the next few years, as additional U.S. banks and securities firms begin catering to individual foreign-exchange traders."

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	73
Net $P/L:	1758
Wins:	7
Losses:	3
Win%:	70
Avg$Win:	269
Avg$Loss:	-42

Wed. 10/12

2:30pm CDT - Volume is still low but ramping up a bit from the past few days. FOMC minutes didn't add much action to the day and I played it safe and stayed on the sidelines just before and after the release.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	25
Net $P/L:	1010
Wins:	5
Losses:	1
Win%:	83
Avg$Win:	210
Avg$Loss:	-42

Tue. 10/11

3:15pm CDT - Felt like Columbus Day Part II. Another low volume day with lots of chop. Fading every swing after the first hour would have been gold today. But I did okay, all considered.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	99
Net $P/L:	803
Wins:	4
Losses:	6
Win%:	40
Avg$Win:	256
Avg$Loss:	-37

Mon. 10/10

2:50pm CDT - Yawn - Columbus Day action.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	5
Net $P/L:	387
Wins:	2
Losses:	1
Win%:	67
Avg$Win:	196
Avg$Loss:	-5

Fri. 10/07

3:00pm CDT - Up, down, up today - up $800, then down to -$1600, and ended on $100. For the week, net gain of +$193. If not for EU news burning me again, it would have been a nice week. But it wasn't negative which is all that really matters.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	72
Net $P/L:	99
Wins:	9
Losses:	2
Win%:	82
Avg$Win:	292
Avg$Loss:	-1263

Thurs. 10/06

2:00pm CDT - Another calmer day and everything was working. Content to close up shop early as I'm back to even on the week.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	33
Net $P/L:	2051
Wins:	8
Losses:	1
Win%:	89
Avg$Win:	262
Avg$Loss:	-42

Wed. 10/05

2:45pm CDT - More muted action today which was fine by me after yesterday.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	76
Net $P/L:	763
Wins:	4
Losses:	4
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	233
Avg$Loss:	-43

Tues. 10/04

3:20pm CDT - My strategy doesn't like days like today. Took 2 full stops on max size which never makes for a good day. But during the late day rocket launch which I missed out on, I did think of another related strategy to test out. Who knows where that will lead me.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	107
Net $P/L:	-4530
Wins:	8
Losses:	6
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	263
Avg$Loss:	-1106

Mon. 10/03

2:20pm CDT - As I get up on the day, I want to play more conservatively and circumvent my strategy guidelines (i.e. taking profits early). I need to stay focused on the bigger picture and take the trades as they come. This afternoon I shortchanged myself 4.5 ES points on a 4-lot that was there for the taking.

RESULTS FOR DAY
ES Contracts:	101
Net $P/L:	1810
Wins:	10
Losses:	3
Win%:	77
Avg$Win:	202
Avg$Loss:	-70