Hi, I couldn't find a journal for futures on QQQ like MNQ or NQ, so I started one. My name is Joe. I've been day trading for about 2 years. I'm not consistently profitable yet, because I still struggle with self control. If I have a losing trade, I try to get it to break even or better. I almost always can do that, but when I can't, I end up oversized and with a drawdown well beyond any kind of reasonable limit. So, I get margin called or just take a huge loss. I'm much better at not allowing a drawdown to get that big, than I used to be, but I still don't trust myself 100% yet. I'm grateful for day trading, because it has given me a reason to struggle to get better at self control. This journal is meant to be about day trading MNQ or NQ and, if you like, your own struggle to be a more disciplined day trader.
can you program and test or you trading from the hip? testing is not perfect at all and often fails in the future but it will give you some grounding what is consistently working or not. honestly if you don't have some type of automation for entries or exits it's going to be pretty hard to day trade unless you use larger expectant periods. depending on your trading style create some time of the day rules. like trade more size at the opening, know lunchtime is two hours, top of the hour is news, note bond and cash closing times etc.
Mostly agree with MarkBrown. Self control is a lot easier when you've tested your ass off to find the line in the sand and know you can lean on it to manage risk. Also when its reasonable to not follow given context. If you test enough in MNQ you can probably get a mediocre system that shows a small edge with all conditions included in backdata. Given your post you can't program context, but you'll know when the trades would lose. That's useful. In the NQ, lunch for two hours doesn't mean no trades for two hours. Time of day matters. You can use either ETH or RTH. Make a note of 8am. Use larger periods.
You're a fucking retard. "I couldn't find a journal for futures on QQQ like MNQ or NQ, so I started one" No, you did not start one. Where is your journal? And I have had one for the same instruments you are trading for 10 years. You are too younbg and stupid to be on this forum, much less trading this shit.
Wednesday May 21st. Took four longs from 932 until about 1020 am. Used stops keeping it under 3%-ish. I was uncomfortable with the length of the first pause, so I got out because I didn't want to lose my gains and re-entered, because I figured there would likely be another push or two, at least to yesterday's close. On hindsight, I could have just raised my stop loss, which I guess is how people "hang onto winners." I didn't re-enter after 1030 because I figured there is a normal possibility of a reversal around 1030ish and the 20sma was looking pretty long and flat on the 2minute chart. So, I didn't get caught in the sell off. I traded a little bit of the bounce after 1pm, with a target of the 200sma on the five minute chart, but it only traveled to the key level that I had on the chart of 21,315. So, I was disappointed, which might have affected my mood and tempted me to break my 3% rule on my stop loss and start switching to in my head stops, instead of automated ones. Traded the bounce around 330 again. Made the same mistake, trying to jockey for price. Got caught with a loss that was bigger than I wanted to risk. So, I got to feel lousy, which is good, because I can use it to teach me to stop doing that. Just take the trade for what it is and let it work out or not.