April Trading Summary

Net breakdown:
ZS $830, ZW -$463, ZC -$1152, GCL -$593, 6E -$491, YM -$154

RESULTS FOR APRIL
Contracts:	263
Net $P/L:	-2023
Wins:	46
Losses:	57
Win%:	45
$Commissions:	1323
Avg$Win:	230
Avg$Loss:	-221

Fri. 4/29

11:30am CDT - Slow day, glad to be green. Results for the week, net gain of $2499. YTD -$14,566.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $594(6), CL -$65(8)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	14
Net $P/L:	529
Wins:	4
Losses:	4
Win%:	50
Avg$Win:	229
Avg$Loss:	-97

Thurs. 4/28

4:55pm CDT - Crazy day. Like most of the past few days, I stop when I hit around $500-1000 on the day. Today, that never happened. So I kept banging on the profit door figuring it would open and one of my trades would squirm it's way in. A $1000 ZS short ~11:45 did just that (which I could have held for double or triple that). But I also could have stopped after the first trade and skipped the next 18 trades and ended up at the same point at the end of the day. I was down nearly $1400 midday so it was a good recovery but way too much work.

I realize this chart is hard to follow where each trade sequence is but I'm not about to annotate it that well. Suffice it to say each green or red triangle represents 1 to 4 contracts typically.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$18(52), CL $221(2)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	54
Net $P/L:	203
Wins:	10
Losses:	9
Win%:	53
Avg$Win:	262
Avg$Loss:	-269

Wed. 4/27 - Ten Commandments

1:35pm CDT - Still struggling with taking profits too early. Mechanical system trading was much easier than this discretionary stuff. But the results? The jury is still out...

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $569(6), CL $102(4)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	671
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	176
Avg$Loss:	-104

Whipplebox made me Google Doc Rotella and I liked it so much here it is with a twist:

Doc Rotella’s Ten Commandments (modified by MBAGearhead)

1. Trade to trade well. Don’t trade not to trade poorly.
2. Love the challenge of the day, whatever it may be.
3. Get out of results and get into process.
4. Know that nothing will bother or upset you regardless of price action and you will be in a great state of mind for every trade.
5. Trading with a feeling that the outcome doesn’t matter is almost always preferable to caring too much.
6. Believe fully in yourself so that you can trade freely.
7. See where you want the trade to go before every entry.
8. Be decisive, committed, and clear.
9. Be your own best friend.
10. Love your stop loss and your target.

Tues. 4/26

1:40pm CDT - Choppy day in beans so my "bad" habit of taking profits early worked well.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $428(14), CL $91(2)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	16
Net $P/L:	519
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	209
Avg$Loss:	-262

Mon. 4/25

1:25pm CDT - Not a bad start to the week. Still need to work on my new methodology, which is mostly discretionary, as you can tell by the third trade of the day where I shortchanged myself nicely.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $578(14)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	14
Net $P/L:	578
Wins:	5
Losses:	1
Win%:	83
Avg$Win:	118
Avg$Loss:	-10

Thurs. 4/21

12:00pm CDT - Good day to end the week but left lots on the table. I figured ZS would die after the opening hour with the holiday weekend forthcoming. But after I decided to stop trading, the buyers pushed things up 15+ cents. Oh well. Results for the week, thanks to Monday, was a net loss of -$596. Look forward to a long weekend. Happy Easter!

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $509(8)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	8
Net $P/L:	509
Wins:	2
Losses:	1
Win%:	67
Avg$Win:	290
Avg$Loss:	-71

Wed. 4/20

1:50pm CDT - Focused on only ZS today. Took 1 old system trade that lost $450. A long trade about 6 mins. after the open stopped to the tick and took off 10 cents without me. Otherwise an okay scratch day...

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$6(35)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	35
Net $P/L:	-6
Wins:	8
Losses:	5
Win%:	62
Avg$Win:	170
Avg$Loss:	-273

Tues. 4/19

5:00pm CDT - Thought for the day, "Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had been meaning to post this chart earlier but will now. It shows quite well the real relationship between R:R, Win%, and the effect on profit curve.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $698(10), 6E -$491(14), YM -$154(4)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	28
Net $P/L:	53
Wins:	3
Losses:	7
Win%:	30
Avg$Win:	330
Avg$Loss:	-134

Mon. 4/18

3:45pm CDT - I'm back, sort of... I kept my recent streak alive today as I'm working out the kinks of implementing new ideas and being off for more than a week. No need to elaborate on the new ideas now other than to say I'm veering away from being a breakout trader. Interestingly enough, however, my old ZS system has been on a roll. In the 7 days I haven't traded it, it has produced over 23 cents in profits. That's over $11,000 trading my old 10 lot size. Here's mud in your eye!

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZC -$1152(10)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	-1152
Wins:	0
Losses:	4
Win%:	0
Avg$Win:	0
Avg$Loss:	-288

Thurs. 4/07 - Enough

12:00pm CDT - Enough is enough. Know when to say when. Yada, yada, yada... As I said a couple weeks ago, being a breakeven trader is not the plan. Which of course means being a losing trader is not either. Technically, I'm breakeven now for past 11 months and have given back ~60% of gains from 2010. My ZS system is broken and may recover but at this point it is not worth waiting to find out with real money. I will be taking a break from trading as I spend my time revamping my methodology or inventing a new one/ones! I expect to be back before end of April.

Today was stopped to the tick in a ZW short that would have paid nicely. Similar to ZS which I trailed stop too soon to breakeven as the earthquake news hit.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS $386(10), ZW -$463(5)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	-77
Wins:	1
Losses:	2
Win%:	33
Avg$Win:	474
Avg$Loss:	-276

Wed. 4/06

1:25pm CDT - Ditto.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$1352(10), CL -$28(4)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	14
Net $P/L:	-1379
Wins:	1
Losses:	5
Win%:	17
Avg$Win:	76
Avg$Loss:	-291

Tues. 4/05

2:00pm CDT - Over last 8 trading days, I have had 3 winners and 30 losers. Ouch. At least I had 1 of those winners today (ZS on long side). The race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$66(10), CL -$552(5)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	-66
Wins:	1
Losses:	6
Win%:	14
Avg$Win:	949
Avg$Loss:	-169

Mon. 4/04 - DRP

11:55am CDT - Drawdown Recovery Plan has begun! After today, I’m down 19% on the year and 29% from the year’s equity peak on March 4th. Obviously not where I wanted to be with 1/4 of the year gone but not that atypical of drawdowns. There’s 2 things about drawdowns that are inevitable, they either continue or you work your way up to new highs. Whichever outcome is in store for me (I choose the latter), I’m going to slow things down a bit for now. It’s all about longevity in this business and as I’ve said before, I’m in no hurry to succeed. Capital preservation is a must however.

For this week I will limit my trades to a max of 5 (1 lots) for CL and 3 (5 lots) for ZS. I will continue trading my ZS system which has been performing terribly and accounts for most of my drawdown. There is no particular reason why this has happened and it should snap back to normal at some point. Last year when I quit trading it, it was right at the bottom of a drawdown and came back nicely. By the time I resumed trading it, I missed out on much of the upswing. So I’m giving it another week at least this time.

After this week I will readjust the plan. If it’s a negative week, I will likely cease trading for a week or two and spend the time refining various methods and researching new ones.

Thanks to most all for the recent comments/emails. I haven’t responded to all but I do read them. And no worries regarding the “anon” folks that like spewing less than supportive tidbits. I have the ability to delete any comments if they get too far out there.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$1202(15), CL -$362(5)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	20
Net $P/L:	-1565
Wins:	1
Losses:	7
Win%:	13
Avg$Win:	96
Avg$Loss:	-237

Fri. 4/01 - April Fools

1:10pm CDT - It's better to be thought a fool and remain silent than open one's mouth and remove all doubt. Happy April Fools' Day! A fellow trader suggested I pull a perfect prank today and post a $50k up or down day with an "April Fools" announcement to follow. But since I've never posted a fictitious post, why start now? And after March's loss, I'm not feeling that humorous.

Traded system half size today - 2 more losers. Stay tuned next week for DRP (Drawdown Recovery Plan)! Admin note, monthly statement link updated on right.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ZS -$839(10)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	10
Net $P/L:	-839
Wins:	0
Losses:	2
Win%:	0
Avg$Win:	0
Avg$Loss:	-420