April Trading Summary

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
6E $1979(5), ES $9(1), ZC -$93(1), CL -$1825(119)

RESULTS FOR APRIL
Contracts:	126
Net $P/L:	71
Wins:	56
Losses:	64
Win%:	47
$Commissions:	484
Avg$Win:	131
Avg$Loss:	-114

Wed. 4/29

1:50pm CDT - No excuse for continuing to trade CL. 6 losers in a row to start day, and 7 in a row to end!  I need to do more homework and better define if, and how many times, I can retake the same signal after a stop.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
CL -$839(18), 6E $804(2)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	20
Net $P/L:	-35
Wins:	6
Losses:	14
Win%:	30
Avg$Win:	211
Avg$Loss:	-93

Tues. 4/28

2:00pm CDT - Couldn't get out of the red today. Trade management was subpar at best, especially on the last trade.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	-207
Wins:	6
Losses:	9
Win%:	40
Avg$Win:	36
Avg$Loss:	-47

Mon. 4/27

1:35pm CDT - Took most of day to hit profit target and I certainly could have managed some trades better. It's the age old trading dilemma, take the money and run or hold out for more...

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	7
Net $P/L:	203
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	70
Avg$Loss:	-74

Fri. 4/24

1:40pm CDT - Back above breakeven on the month with 4 trading days left.  Planning to end April on the plus side if CL will allow. 

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	2
Net $P/L:	202
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	101
Avg$Loss:	0

Thurs. 4/23

1:45pm CDT -

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	7
Net $P/L:	203
Wins:	5
Losses:	2
Win%:	71
Avg$Win:	52
Avg$Loss:	-29

Wed. 4/22

1:35pm CDT - First trade of the week after doing more homework/research.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	1
Net $P/L:	206
Wins:	1
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	206
Avg$Loss:	0

In other news, if you live in a cave or haven't heard this in past 24 hours...
After 5 years, it's about time!
UK trader charged for manipulation contributing to 2010 flash crash
“Against a backdrop of negative market sentiment and thinning liquidity, at 2:32 p.m., a large  Fundamental Seller (a mutual fund complex) initiated a program to sell a total of 75,000 E- Mini contracts (valued at approximately $4.1 billion) as a hedge to an existing equity position. This large Fundamental Seller chose to execute this sell program via an automated execution algorithm (“Sell Algorithm”) that was programmed to feed orders into the June 2010 E-Mini market to target an execution rate set to 9% of the trading volume calculated over the previous minute, but without regard to price or time. The execution of this sell program resulted in the largest net change in daily position of any trader in the E-Mini since the beginning of the year.”

And this is very interesting to see behind the veil:
Who Trades Emini Futures? Some Data to Ponder

Stage 5 Trading

No trades today but wanted to take a second and give a plug to Stage 5 Trading for anyone trading futures.  They are an introducing broker for Gain Capital/Futures Online (formerly OEC) which I have had a couple of accounts with for many years.  One of the managing partners, Anthony, had been after me forever to join their community and I finally decided to so in 2014 by moving one of my accounts to Stage 5. Primarily it was because I wanted to use the Stage 5 Trade Analyzer which is a great tool (see also).  You've seen it on my recent charts.  Being able to track MFE and MAE on every trade has been eye opening. Exporting results into Excel allows you to track lots of metrics for analysis.  The below chart is an example of my last couple hundred crude oil trades.  If the blue line, representing MFE minus MAE, isn't pointing up, there's a slim chance of long term profitability.  And the greater the slope is the better you are likely to be doing.  I'm still working on keeping the green line above zero!

This tool alone has made the move to S5 worth it but the other services they provide to traders have been a bonus.  The weekly "ask anything" webinars Morad/FT71, the other managing partner does, daily pre-market videos, and chat room have been beyond what I've seen from any other broker.  Let's face it, most brokers give the impression they are content churning traders in and out (after they blowup).  But S5 seems to be more "human" and actually care about how you're doing. 

Thurs. 4/16

1:55pm CDT - Congrats to anyone who made money in the swing/chop fest this morning.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	7
Net $P/L:	-367
Wins:	2
Losses:	5
Win%:	29
Avg$Win:	101
Avg$Loss:	-114

Wed. 4/15

2:15pm CDT - Nearly got myself in trouble with the short fill at 9:29:55.9 which included 6 ticks slippage. Just because something has worked well in recent past, has no bearing any given single time in the future.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
CL $111(5), 6E $221(1)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	6
Net $P/L:	332
Wins:	3
Losses:	2
Win%:	60
Avg$Win:	323
Avg$Loss:	-319

Tues. 4/14

1:40pm CDT - Another system trade in Euro early this morning on the long side.

RESULTS FOR DAY
6E Contracts:	1
Net $P/L:	496
Wins:	1
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	496
Avg$Loss:	0

Mon. 4/13

1:35pm CDT - Testing day...

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	3
Net $P/L:	-381
Wins:	0
Losses:	3
Win%:	0
Avg$Win:	0
Avg$Loss:	-127

In other news, broker ordered to pay $2.4 million in damages.

Wed. 4/08

1:50pm CDT - Time for a short break to figure out how to get over this hump.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	63
Wins:	8
Losses:	6
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	86
Avg$Loss:	-104

Tues. 4/07

2:35pm CDT - Missing out after the first trade stopped out threw me out of balance. I've let a lot more discretion creep into my signals lately and I need to fix this.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	12
Net $P/L:	64
Wins:	6
Losses:	5
Win%:	55
Avg$Win:	97
Avg$Loss:	-104

In other news, a former trader remembers the CME futures pits.

Mon. 4/06

2:30pm CDT - Didn't quit when I should have and dug a deeper hole. Interestingly, when I did finally quit, the next trade, on SIM of course, made back all the loss and then some.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	6
Net $P/L:	-1453
Wins:	0
Losses:	4
Win%:	0
Avg$Win:	0
Avg$Loss:	-363

Fri. 4/03

8:50am CDT - ES closed 8:15am and Euro closes at 10:15am. My 6E system doesn't know it's a holiday so I took a signal, thanks to NFP report, that worked nicely.  On ES, an "if only" trade...

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
ES $9(1), 6E $458(1)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	2
Net $P/L:	468
Wins:	2
Losses:	0
Win%:	100
Avg$Win:	234
Avg$Loss:	0

In weekend viewing, a good data-filled webinar:

Thurs. 4/02

3:00pm CDT - Efforts to find a breakout at the open were for naught.  Iran nuclear deals news at end of day added to the many large swings.

RESULTS FOR DAY
CL Contracts:	7
Net $P/L:	273
Wins:	4
Losses:	3
Win%:	57
Avg$Win:	139
Avg$Loss:	-94

Benchmarking performance is always tough to do in the solo endeavor of being an at-home retail trader. Those fellow bloggers who share all the details of their results, like I do, are the exception and not the rule. Thanks to those who do. You help show the real side of trading.  There's also the TopStepTrader combine program which I have no affiliation or need to try at this point. But I decided to compile successfully passed CL combine data to see what those traders average per contract.  At $10/tick, just 3 ticks is the average but results vary widely which is not too surprising. My net CL profit per contract so far this year? Barely above 1/4 tick but at least it's positive.  Room for improvement...

Wed. 4/01

1:55pm CDT - I'd like to think the odds are on my side to have a winning day most days but today felt more like luck.  The corn trade was in the money last night but stopped out this morning before heading up and closing at my target.  I'll admit I went a bit off script at CL inventory release but in hindsight, it was eye opening.  Adding to winners and holding does work when the odds for a wide range day are high.  As usual, need to work on holding longer but was content to get back to zero today.

Net breakdown (contracts traded):
CL $97(14), ZC -$90(1)

RESULTS FOR DAY
Contracts:	15
Net $P/L:	4
Wins:	5
Losses:	9
Win%:	36
Avg$Win:	183
Avg$Loss:	-102