Because today happens to end the trading week and month, I am going to summarize my performance for the day, week and month.
Starting with today:
I still struggled with my fear for loss and I finally got really irritated with myself. On one hand I have to be cautious, especially with some nice gains locked in for the week but on the other, I can't trade like a wuss. To the latter point, I felt like my extreme caution was actually causing my performance to atrophy a bit and that doesn't make any sense if I can help it, which I can. This said, I nearly closed out the day with just six ticks locked up in profits after one trade. My plan was to get back on the simulator and practice some more to see if I could further prove to myself that if I just follow my plan, everything will work out. Instead, I finally decided to just nut up and trade and simply accept the outcome - win or lose.
I end the day after having placed four trades for 3.9 points in profit. My last sequence about caused a heart-attack but it was good for me because I accomplished my intention: to re-learn that I can trust my strategy if I execute it properly.
This is what my sequence and chart for the day looked like:
- $60
- $70
- $100
- $160
I am very happy to end the week on a high note, although I know I can do much better if I can get back to following my plan without so much fear. I don't want to push it too hard but I still feel like I can take some more risk and still be fine. As always, we'll see what "tomorrow" brings.
As for this week...
I was able to finish with a new equity high and finally recover last week's losses from those six god-awful, back-to-back trades. Here are the stats:
- Total net profit: $1,885
- Gross profit: $2,012
- Gross loss: $127
- Trades: 23
- Percent profitable: 86.96%
- Average winner: $100.60
- Average loser: $42.40
- Largest winner: $217.60
- Largest loser: $72.40
- Max. consecutive winners: 15
- Max. consecutive loser: 1
Results for the month:
- Total net profit: $1,868
- Gross profit: $4,569
- Gross loss: $2,702
- Trades: 51
- Percent profitable: 82.35%
- Average winner: $109
- Average loser: $300
- Largest winner: $258
- Largest loser: $522
- Max. consecutive winners: 15
- Max. consecutive loser: 6
A few other things to consider about this month:
- I didn't start trading live again until the second week of February. Before that time I was trading on my simulator in an attempt to work through some issues and get better. I also had my appendix out.
- My goal at the beginning of the month was to get my simulator account balance back to break-even, which is $100K. I started the month just over $94K and I ended at $102K trading my same strategy and only controlling one contract at a time.
- I think the big draw-down I caused is actually turning out to be one of the better things that has happened to me. As long as I don't let the fear it caused stifle my progress, I think I will look back some day and point to that day as a huge step forward for me. Not to get ahead of myself or anything...
- Another lesson that I am really starting to learn is to trust my plan and simply execute it. I don't need to worry about losing so much. Shit will happen and when it does I just need to deal with it sans the panic!
I am anxious heading into March because I have high expectations for myself. However, I will continue (as always I hope) to trade with caution and focus on taking small steps rather than giant leaps. Patience is the key.
Out.