Objectives of this journal.
Brief introduction of myself.
- To record my daily trade.
- Tune and fine tune my process to become a better trader.
- To reflect on how I trade and things I can do to improve. (Being 1% better everyday from today means I will be 38x better in 2023).
- To hold myself accountable for all my trades.
A quote from James Clear book on "Atomic Habits"
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems"
Brief introduction of myself.
- 42 years old man, worked full time with a decent paying job (slightly above average) over the past 15 years.
- Started trading during the covid 19 induced lockdown in March 2020.
- Lost tonnes of money since then. I am down, but I am not out. I will continue to persist, fight and eventually achieve success.
- I will eventually become a full time trader one day and will put in the hard work required to achieve success.
Lessons Learnt over the past 1.5 years (almost going to 2 years now)
- Trading is similar to any elite professional job/sports/etc. You need to have a mastery of the skills required and that requires time, effort and the ability to learn from mistakes. That is, no one can ever achieve success in trading without being proficient enough in the execution of strategy, mentally strong enough to embrace any uncertainties in trading and being discipline, determine and dedicated enough to work hard to achieve mastery.
- I have learnt alot more about myself as a person and become more aware of how I react when placed in certain situation.
- There is a difference between "knowing risk management" and thoroughly "understanding and embracing risk management". The same can be applied to the idea of "being patience". These are things that cannot be "taught". These are important skillsets and I need to have the proficiency to implement it when it matters most.
- You can never achieve success in trading without ever backtesting it as much as you can and becoming 1000% confident in it.
- There is a difference between "perceiving an opportunity" vs "expecting (and wanting) the market in go in certain direction". Market doesn't listen to me. I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE MARKET"!.
Lessons that I have not yet learnt and this is costing me dearly:
- Accepting losses gracefully. This leads to impulsive trading when I am triggered by a series of losses and blowing up my account.
- Stop looking for trades. Instead, wait for the market to tell me "Please take this trade... please!"
- Be patience in my quest for knowledge and skill mastery. Equity growth comes later.
- Do not trade/stop trading when I am not in the right conditions to do so, eg., lack of sleep, fatigue, emotionally charged etc.
Trading Platform and Goals (Immediate)
- Passed FTMO $200k Challenge and yet to begin verification. Reason being: I felt I was just lucky to pass the challenge phase. Pure luck and no skills. I will commence on the verification phase once I am confident enough about being consistent in the execution of my strategy.
- Since passing my challenge phase, I have went back to backtest and fine tune my strategy (throughout the whole of December).
- Purchased a $100k Challenge recently and will be using this to get back into the groove of things (especially consistency when emotions are involved).
- I have absolutely no expectation of passing this $100k challenge. My primary reason for starting this $100k challenge is to simply ensure that I am able to execute my strategy as flawlessly and consistently as possible, rectify any mishap/errors that I may face when I start on my verification.
- The immediate goals are thus (1) Learn from mistakes make (I will make alot), (2) Learn how to lose gracefully, (3) Follow my risk management and lastly, survive and not blow up this account and earn a free repeat. (Based on backtest results, I have absolutely no chance of blowing this account in 30 days +10 days from the FTMO dec offer).
Long term trading goals in steps:
- To pass FTMO evaluation phase and become a $200k funded trader.
- To compound and grow my trading capital and become a fully self funded $200k trader (All capital built from FTMO trading)
- To achieve capital growth and consistency for 1-2 years after becoming self-funded (tgr with the FTMO funded account).
- Become a full time trader with at least 2 years worth of life expenses assured.
Instruments and timeframes:
(ctrader trading platform)
- XAUUSD (60 ticks chart)
- EURUSD (50 ticks chart)
- US30 (100 ticks chart)
Strategy:
Discretionary Price Action trading using:
- Market structure to determine areas I need to look out for.
- Set-ups based on a modification of Bob Volman's book on Price Action Trading.
- ATR as a gauge on volatility and comparing relative sizes of candles with respect with market conditions.
- 21 EMA as a filter and gauge on dominant pressure and as a dynamic support/resistance line.
- 7 EMA as a filter and area of values in a strong trend.
Example of my strategy (from backtest)