Drawdown Day

3:10pm CDT - Another very choppy day which I did not escape from this time! Overtraded given the tight range all day and may have to figure out a filter for days like the past couple. ...or just sit on my hands. Hope FOMC tomorrow adds some life to these charts!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	38
Net $P/L:	-999
Wins:	4
Losses:	4
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	178
Avg$Loss:	-428

Chop

3:10pm CDT - Very choppy day which had me red early on and stayed there all day. The 2 losing trades were first, followed by the 3 winners. Not enough to get me green but happy to escape the wrath of the chop mostly unscathed!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	36
Net $P/L:	-94
Wins:	3
Losses:	2
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	246
Avg$Loss:	-416

Rosh Hashanah

3:15pm CDT - Slow, low volume Rosh Hashanah today with a few quadruple-witching whipsaws. I was doing great until I made 3 small losing trades at end of day within 8 minutes of the closing bell. Took $85 off my high-of-day. What was I thinking trading at that time? TGIF!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	20
Net $P/L:	373
Wins:	5
Losses:	4
Win%:	56
Avg$Win:	94
Avg$Loss:	-24

Jerky

3:10pm CDT - Tough day. Lots of fake outs today which kept me scrambling and bouncing from red to black and back again. On the chart are 5 trades from the morning which had me a smidge red. Recovered in the afternoon but the jerky action had me taking gains off quickly. ...too quickly in most cases. I expect this jerkiness is partly related to expiration day which is tomorrow.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	28
Net $P/L:	152
Wins:	7
Losses:	2
Win%:	78
Avg$Win:	125
Avg$Loss:	-361

Market up again

3:00pm CDT - Can nothing stop this market from going up?! Most of day was tough to scalp with a tight upward range. Made no trades in the afternoon chop.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	12
Net $P/L:	219
Wins:	3
Losses:	1
Win%:	75
Avg$Win:	143
Avg$Loss:	-210

New High

3:00pm CDT - Tough day with more signals than in recent memory and more losers too. Nice to see the market rally to another new high on the year. Although I don't really care if it makes new lows either, as long as it moves, as I am a trader not an investor.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	22
Net $P/L:	443
Wins:	4
Losses:	3
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	140
Avg$Loss:	-39

Another Slow Monday

3:00pm CDT - Another slow Monday. Caught a couple scalps on the long side to start the week.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	4
Net $P/L:	264
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	132
Avg$Loss:	0

IRA

2:40pm CDT - Nice end to a nice week... Glad my broker's problems seem to be in the past too with virtually no issues of data lags or freeze ups this week. Having eSignal as a chart/quote backup has been a great investment over the years. (although they charge too much!)

I'm feeling pretty good trading 2 lots recently and may soon start trading again in my IRA account (Oct.?) if my results continue. I used to trade only my IRA account but have been trading a taxed account mostly over the past year. Since I lost any resemblance of an edge or consistency awhile ago, I stopped trading in the IRA since a blowout there would not be easy to recover from and would jeopardize retirement funds. Only trade with money you can afford to lose!!!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	524
Wins:	5
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	105
Avg$Loss:	0

Rollover

3:10pm CDT - Was flat all midday sitting on a $250 gain from the first hour but gave it back at end of day on a short trade attempt in the final half hour. Volume seemed really sluggish most of the day with traders split between the U and Z contracts on rollover day.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	22
Net $P/L:	-7
Wins:	3
Losses:	2
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	171
Avg$Loss:	-260

Conservative

3:00pm CDT - Not bad but not happy with myself for taking a last half hour long off early. Got long at 30.25 and exited for 2 ticks (it went up 16 ticks). Just call me an end-of-day conservative, today anyways...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	16
Net $P/L:	183
Wins:	3
Losses:	2
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	208
Avg$Loss:	-220

Post-Labor Day

2:40pm CDT - Good day to trade 2 lots! Left a few ticks on the table but happy with result in this choppy day after Labor Day market. The morning trades are on the chart:

2:50pm UPDATE (looks like OEC's new platform version is pasting my fill arrows 1 bar later than they actually occurred. Otherwise the platform worked well today! [fingers crossed])

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	454
Wins:	4
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	113
Avg$Loss:	0

Pre-Labor Day

3:20pm CDT - Well I can't blame my broker today as they are back to near normal with only a small freeze up a half hour after open. I decided to up size a little today and traded mostly 2 lots and a few 4 and 5 lots. The results? Not so good... Mostly because the non-farm payrolls action faked me out big time and my short, stopped out at 1009, hit me for an early $380 deficit.

I'll admit that trading larger size to battle back from a loss is something I do regularly. It's not always pretty but it works more times than not. Discipline is required.

Looking forward to 3-days off!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	41
Net $P/L:	118
Wins:	7
Losses:	5
Win%:	58
Avg$Win:	92
Avg$Loss:	-105

Day4

3:00pm CDT - Broker delays in charts/quotes were limited to the first 70 min. after the open today. I blame my 2 losses on the DOM being so messed up right after the ISM number release. For the most part I've been able to avoid problems by trading off my eSignal charts this week but not in this case. Otherwise it was a slow, yet good day.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	217
Wins:	6
Losses:	2
Win%:	75
Avg$Win:	50
Avg$Loss:	-40

Broker Issues Day3

3:10pm CDT - This is getting annoying! 3 days in a row now the new mandatory version of OEC Trader software has had major delays for first hour or two. I can understand 1 day. MAYBE 2 days. But 3 days!?!?! WTF?! Are these guys incompetent! I feel like a guinea pig to OEC investors who want a product with more bells/whistles/etc. They should have a bare bones version that people can opt to use that never changes. I'm not ready to jump ship yet but patience is wearing thin.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	12
Net $P/L:	-19
Wins:	5
Losses:	4
Win%:	56
Avg$Win:	62
Avg$Loss:	-82

Broker Down Day2

3:00pm CDT - Broker continuing to have problems most of morning. Several minute delays on charts and DOM caused me to trade 100% from eSignal charts which was quite challenging. I sure hope they are back to 100% tomorrow as patience will not last long... Good start to Sept. in spite of it all.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	11
Net $P/L:	259
Wins:	7
Losses:	2
Win%:	78
Avg$Win:	38
Avg$Loss:	-5

ES August Trading Summary

RESULTS FOR AUGUST
Contracts:	181
Net $P/L:	892
Wins:	84
Losses:	56
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	47
Avg$Loss:	-55

Broker Down!

3:10pm CDT - Missed a couple winning trades in the first hour due to my broker platform being down. It was a mandatory upgrade to a new version over the weekend and you'd think they would have tested every thing before launching it! Things finally returned to normal by 11am or so which of course was in the middle of the dead market.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	5
Net $P/L:	12
Wins:	2
Losses:	2
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	13
Avg$Loss:	-7

Averaging Down

In a way I'm glad it's Saturday and the markets are closed. It was 2 years ago today that I was at my all-time equity high in the morning, and $130k off that high in the afternoon. So 8/29/07 will always be a day that is etched in my memory banks and the subsequent lessons it taught me.

I posted regularly that summer in EliteTrader's 2007 P/L thread. I had a profitable streak going and increased my trading frequency and my results followed along. In the 4 weeks prior to 8/29/07, I had made $250k in profits from my trading so was trading "with the house's money" and felt I had enough capital to increase my starting position size from 2 contracts to 3. So that's what I did the morning of 8/29/07. I was up nearly $6k by 12:55pm, when I began shorting the market and averaging in until the "uncle" point nearly an hour and forty minutes later. It took me just ten minutes to buy back my 400 contract short position and realize a $137k loss.
See 8/29/07 post in P/L thread

I remember feeling shocked at the time but didn't expect it to happen again for a long time. I rationalized it in my head that I would gladly give back 100k every time I make 300k in the time span of 6 weeks!

I had a couple other "smaller" drawdowns before throwing in the towel.

See 10/14/07 post w/ equity curve

That pretty much sums it up and is why I will always remember August 29th each year! We are all products of our experiences and that summer I experienced a few years all at once.

TGIF

2:30pm CDT - TGIF! :) Look for a weekend post tomorrow on the 2-year anniversary of a day I will never forget.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	9
Net $P/L:	227
Wins:	7
Losses:	1
Win%:	88
Avg$Win:	33
Avg$Loss:	-6

Finally less chop

3:00pm CDT - It's nice to have a day with less chop for a change. The market still didn't go anywhere and the daily ES chart now looks like 4 dojis in a row! But at least we only had a couple changes in direction today. A couple of trades from this morning on the chart:

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	217
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	45
Avg$Loss:	-4

Spinning Wheels

3:00pm CDT - I spun my wheels again today and barely escaped the red and finished at my high of the day after digging a couple hundred dollar hole earlier. The market the past few days has been very tough for me with little but chop and the day's open nearly equal to it's close. As usual, I need to do some more homework to devise a better way to trade this (or just sit out)...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	14
Net $P/L:	14
Wins:	2
Losses:	6
Win%:	25
Avg$Win:	118
Avg$Loss:	-37

Ben Tuesday

3:10pm CDT - I should have quit after my first trade which was good for 7 ticks... But I didn't lose today which is a win in my book. Lots of changes in direction today which kept me scrambling. Here's a few morning trades:

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	12
Net $P/L:	6
Wins:	3
Losses:	5
Win%:	38
Avg$Win:	96
Avg$Loss:	-57

Monday

3:00pm CDT - More moves today which was nice to see. Too bad I gave some back toward end of day. A couple winners and a 3-tick loser on the chart today:

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	5
Net $P/L:	112
Wins:	3
Losses:	2
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	68
Avg$Loss:	-46

Friday

2:55pm CDT - As usual, no action except for first hour. Good to see a breakout to upside! 2 long trades today.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	2
Net $P/L:	194
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	97
Avg$Loss:	0

Crawling

3:00pm CDT - Slowly crawling out of Tuesday's hole and flipped back to the plus side today on the month-to-date tally. Another slow summer day except for first hour as usual.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	4
Net $P/L:	114
Wins:	3
Losses:	1
Win%:	75
Avg$Win:	52
Avg$Loss:	-40

Better

3:10pm CDT - Much better today...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	3
Net $P/L:	192
Wins:	3
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	64
Avg$Loss:	0

Down Tues.

3:00pm CDT - Shut things down after 11am. Shorting the morning move around 980.5 and stopping out at 984 resulted in most of the negative take. Just didn't have my head in the game after that to attempt a recovery so will save it for another day. And with a tight 4 pt. afternoon trading range, I'm glad I sat out!

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	-476
Wins:	3
Losses:	3
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	18
Avg$Loss:	-177

Another Monday

3:10pm CDT - A big move down overnight but not much action during the regular market hours. I did manage a few good scalps and another Monday is in the books.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	9
Net $P/L:	114
Wins:	4
Losses:	3
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	43
Avg$Loss:	-20

Friday

3:20pm CDT - Despite my winning 2 pt. trade overnight for $200 (filled at 1:33am), I proceeded to scratch the day with abysmal scalping giving back my overnight gain. Considering there was NO action except for first 45 mins. and last 30 mins., I'm not surprised. I did trade mostly 2 lots and don't think that attributed to the performance issue other making it twice as big as 1 lots would have been.

So the week was a scratch too which is better than a loss I guess. But I still tend to kick myself for weeks like this thinking that I should have gone on vacation and enjoyed myself! Not that I don't find trading enjoyable, I do! I'm just sayin'...

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	26
Net $P/L:	32
Wins:	8
Losses:	6
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	64
Avg$Loss:	-81

No good today

4:00pm CDT - Ending with technical difficulties in getting a macro to run just now, the day has not gone well. 3 losing trades in a row trading 2 lots did not go as planned and I seemed to never get in sync with the slow afternoon action, if you can call it that. I did short 2 contracts at 1013.25 at the close, target 11.25.

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	17
Net $P/L:	-169
Wins:	5
Losses:	7
Win%:	42
vg$Win:	66
Avg$Loss:	-71