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Gav's trading blog - Perseverance, Consistency, Confidence

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Monthly review: August 2006

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I skipped weekly review for the last trading week of August. Only one trade was made this week with 0.15-R gain.

This is the business we have chosen ~ The GodFather, the movie

I am not sure if I should say August is a tough month. By saying this, basically I am blaming market instead of taking up the responsibility of my own trading performance. This is a month of mistakes for me. I have made few mistakes. Not so serious, but it shows my weakness in certain aspect of trading. Complaint will never help.

Anyway, August is finally over, I had some good days (week 1, week 2) at the starting of the month and some hiccups(week 3, week 4) at the later of the month. Overall, I am closing the month with positive note. Not impressive, but I survive to fight in September again.

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Revamp the way of writing trading journal

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I was looking for a way to write my trading journal in a short and effective fashion. I revisited Maoxian’s trading for dummies again, and I studied the way he compiled the 90+ trading for dummies lesson.

I found that writing my trading journal in Q&A (Question and Answer) style is something I need to seriously consider. Sometimes, unintentionally, I cheated myself by not writing down my trading mistake. Or sometimes, I am just writing too much of something that is not worth to be mentioned in trading journal.

By forcing myself to answer a series of questions in trading journal will help to keep the journal clean and clear, at the same time, to remind myself about my own trading rules.

This is not new, I know few traders are doing this.

Here are the questions I quote from Maoxian’s Trading for dummies lessons.

1) Why would you be paying attention to this futures contract ?

2) Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract?

3) Where would you get long/short this futures contract ?

4) Where would you put the initial protective stop?

5) When would you stop trading for the day?

6) Where would you exit the position?

These 6 questions are effective in keeping me disciplined. If I am unable to answer these questions, something is really wrong with my trading.

(If one day, bloggers are able to claim and charge copyright of their postings, Maoxian will no longer need to trade. The copyright fee from dummies lessons should feed him very well 😆 )

Postmortem 29-August-2006

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This is the business we have chosen ~ The GodFather, the movie

Dear diary,

I am pretty selective on dummy setup. I do not want to get whipsawed during this pre holiday trading week. (Excuse to take a day off).
Ok, Maybe I was being a coward. I exited the trade early. There were few reasons that prompted me to cover short position of mini-sized Dow early.

  • It failed to reach my 1-R break even point gain, and the worst , it was just 2 ticks away. Market was slow and reluctant to sell further.
  • After the initial break down, it gave me a doji immediately at the next candle. That disgusted me further.
  • The position was opened for around 1.5 hours and going nowhere. FOMC meeting was scheduled at NY time 2pm. People were waiting..
  • “Bro, it is pre holiday trading week. In fact ,you are not supposed to trade!”

Well, am I writing something to cover myself from breaking the rules? Maybe I am.(Anyway, this decision was right for this particular trade, market rallied back in the later session).

These are not rules of trade, but some judgement calls under certain conditions.

Dummy day trading #22 29-August-2006: mini-sized Dow: Short trade closed

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Another lousy day. Short position of mini-sized Dow was established below 10am(chicago time) candle. Dow mini did move in my favour and it was 2-ticks away from my 1-R break even point. AGAIN?!?!?! So near, yet so far….
I am especially cautious this week. After seeing position stalled for an hour and FOMC meeting is scheduled at 2pm, I decided to cover the position with tiny 0.15-R gain.

I am pretty good in making my broker happy huh?

Time for me to catch some sleep. Postmortem will be done later.

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Postmortem 28-August-2006

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This is the business we have chosen ~ The GodFather, the movie

Dear diary,

This is gonna be a short one. Basically, I did not make any trade today. Monday blue? Definitely no. I was basically too tired with some symptoms of getting flu. The weather in Singapore is killing me.

Ok, Looking back the chart retrospectively, There were dummy setups in mini-Dow and E-mini Nasdaq at 1030am (chicago time). Though E-mini Nasdaq trade would most probably end up with break even. Mini-sized Dow would give a minimum 1-R gain.

I will be kinda inactive this week, due to some personal commitments. Some traders are taking a week off as well, Trader Mike is doing that. However, I will make sure myself come back with full strength in September.

One of these days,we will get them