Tom's T20 Journal

[tombacon89]

GER40US30     NEO
22.02.22


Pre Session Questions:

A)Is there any red news to be aware of?
 No
B) Have you identified and plotted the key HTF support and resistance levels? YES  

I thought I had key levels set, but I did not have correct s/r drawn on us30. 

  TRADE / SESSION SUMMARY:   

Did you trade the plan?  No

- my analysis of s/r incorrect on us30. 

a) Did the charts look and feel clear to you during this session? I will say yes I thought so, but obviously my understanding was not there. This has to be down to my more ‘F’ it take every signal approach on this batch. Not good.  

b) Questions arising from this session? No, I just need to re-focus. The battle between taking everything and been super analytical.

D) How did you physically feel?  Ok    

TRADE 11 - ds1 2r 

TRADE 12 - DS1 graded initially. Now I see it is not. Entry candle way too big, although at the time I saw it as relative. Immy pointed out where I had failed to see the m5 s/r levels. So for that, ds0 now. 

TRADE 13 - ds1 - BE   

DS Running Total: 10/13 

BATCH 3 TRADES 11 AND 12 ZOOMED IN.png

 

BATCH 3 TRADES 11 AND 12 ZOOMED OUT.png

 

BATCH 3 TRADE 13.png

     
 

[immy]

The trade on US30, well we talked about it already. It was a great learning trade.

but the DAX trade is totally wrong.

1. it's us session, trade the US market.
2. 4th pullback, no impulse move, clearly a Channel

channel? when you can connect two swing highs (higher highs, in this case, is a bullish move) and two swing lows (lower highs) its a channel. Don't trade channels. Wait for Range, wait for BO, and first pullback.

Do this, ALWAYS attach an M5 chart with your trade arrows with your trades. You will learn hell lot more

cheers


 
 

[tombacon89]

Immy, thanks for your comments, I am noting all these things. 

Having said that, technically this batch has not been as good for me and I am perhaps coming across ill disciplined. I am aware of that for sure. I defo feel I am gaining experience in other areas of trading this batch. 

End of batch review will explain these thoughts further.

BATCH 3 TRADE 14.png

I know this trade is inside m5 range. DS0
 

BATCH 3 TRADE 15 AND 16.png

 DS1s

running ds : 12/16


 
 
 

[tombacon89]

BATCH 3 TRADE 18.png

Trade 17, break of m1 level. Aware i'm inside TR on m5. Aware of levels left. Could get to BE before next level. BE. DS1 calculated risk. But I know this before. 

Trade 18, break of m5 minor level within the TR. Again, I know this. DS1
 

BATCH 3 TRADE 19.png

 Trade 19, still inside tall m5 TR. Bullish channel on m1 not an impulse move, then pullback. tagged out and it felt. Who was to know? nobody. DS0. 

Nothing on us30. 

There is method to my madness and it is to do with the mental side of my trading. One trade left in this batch. it has been a quick, sometimes ugly batch; but I am learning a lot about myself.

 
 

[immy]

TRY NOT to TRADE inside The TRADING RANGES of M5.... if you don't understand this please let me know. I'll video it.

[tombacon89]

25/02/22
Levels set on M5. Clear range bound for dax and us30. Want the break of this first.


I know the first two of these are pre-open.


I am going to do a proper review of my trading to date.

BATCH 4 TRADES 1 TO 4.png

 4R for the session. 

Running DS - batch 3 finished 14/20 - 70%

Batch 4 - 4/4

more to follow

[tombacon89]

TRADING REVIEW

I am simply going to focus on the mental side of trading in this review. With maybe reference to a couple of technical bits. I am not going to super analyse each trade taken in this.

BATCH 1

This was my ‘initial’ strategy practical learning and understanding phase. I had ‘half an idea.’ I had watched the videos, they made sense. I started to forward test on demo. I had a really good positive attitude in this batch despite the setbacks. This review may not make sense to some people, but it does to me, so that’s all that matters

I was confused, I did not know much; and every minute of every session I was concentrating hard. I came up with the phrase ‘YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW.’ this phrase was my comfort blanket; but it makes sense if you think about it.

I tried hard to grasp the most basic concept. Range, breakout, pull back.

It was hard, anything new is likely to be hard; but that’s fine. I was prepared to put the effort in.

It will become a bit more apparent later. But, because I didn’t know what I didn’t know; about support resistance zones, trends, ranges, complex pull backs, market cycle. I took trades on what I BELIEVED to be the correct concept. Some trades were incorrect, some were correct. Some that I thought were correct at the time, were not correct when I reviewed them having learnt some more about the system and strategy.

The reality is this but I did not realise at the time.

1, I did not know what the outcome of any one of those trades would be when I entered. I assumed they would work, because, hey this is the new amazing strategy. Why would I bother trading it if I didn’t think it would workout. However, I thought each trade should workout on a trade by trade basis.

2, subconsciously, or simply because I didn’t know… I was mentally able to take these trades; because what I didn’t know was not mentally blocking me from taking them.

3.Even applying some minor knowledge of the strategy, making mistakes, I made money. In fact, this was my most profitable batch. I’ll come back to this point later.



BATCH 2

Batch 2 was a whole different ball game. I became super analytical because I was determined to make every trade count. I wanted the positive discipline score, I craved it. I felt like I had learned so much from batch 1, that bath 2 would be a lot easier.

The opposite was true. BATCH 2 was HARD. I had a real desire to prove to the world I can be disciplined, at that I can succeed at this. I absolutely DID NOT want to make ANY MISTAKES. As the DS scores rolled in I felt great. I had pre-session routine, I read my rules every morning; I had them next to me in my flowchart. I was confident.

I started to feel a real grasp for the strategy. Yep, there were and still are things I need to learn and experience more. But the core understand I felt was developing. BUT…

I could see everyone else taking lovely trades on different charts, and then also trades were been taken outside of the trading window. I thought ok, fair enough. I attacked my fomo by committing to only DAX at LO, and US30 at NEO.

Until, batch 2 trades 11 and 12. US100. Never looked at it before. But curiosity killed the cat. I took 2 trades on this chart, outside of my hours, without a signal. I felt so guilty and anxious that I had betrayed my trading plan, it really bothered me…. to the point where I was ashamed I’d taken a trade against my trading plan. I now know why. I put so much emphasis on the DS and trying to prove I could stick to the trading plan. It began to make me feeI may be restricting myself too much. I needed to become a little more free flowing. I will never let myself feel like that again. I have to be myself. The market is made up from personalities and opinions… I need to be true to mine.

I was not really feeling fomo, because I was happy nailing the DS. But I was feeling restricted. I was seeing lovely dax trades in the afternoon, and sitting on my hands telling myself. It’s not in the trading plan to trade dax in the afternoon. Let it go. I stuck with it and it took ages to complete batch 2, still watching all these lovely trades coming and going in discord on different markets. I fought it for weeks.

I continued, only trying to take golden setups or what I believed was a golden setup, on one chart at set times.

I enjoyed been super disciplined in batch 2, it felt good. But it was harder feeling restricted. I made 8% in this batch. What baffled me was when I didn’t really know what I was doing, I made 17% in batch 1.



BATCH 3

After BATCH 2 I had a full week at work. I did not trade, but instead on an evening I watched the Mark Douglas 4 part DVD mindset videos. This changed things for me…. I was listening to him talk and thinking of the words he was using before he was speaking them. I felt in tune with his thoughts. I could believe what he was saying was true. I won’t go into that much here but I recommend them to anyone. If you have seen them, you know what I am talking about.

After feeling super guilty for taking a trade outside of my trading hours, I had to target those emotions HEAD ON. By trading AGAINST MYSELF (my mind) in order to prove IT CAN BE DONE; every now and then.

I needed to take the pressure off and to ease myself into this trading world more.

I made a conscious effort to let things go, it will be what it will be. I don’t need to care what happens, I don’t need to worry about what price is going to do next to make money. I don’t need to care if I have a loser. In fact, who cares if it is even a winner. I didn’t even look at my ruleset. I was in a polar opposite headspace, because I needed to experience ‘freedom.’

I gave my brain a factory reset. A factory reset into accepting mistakes, not letting them bother me. Not thinking about them after the fact, or getting bogged down in post trade analysis of why something did or did not work out. You will notice my journals became less descriptive eventually.

I tried to trade with the mindset of, every moment is unique. Previous price may be relevant but it is not the be all and end all of what will happen next. The trade either worked, or it did not. Even if I made a mistake. I was not to really care; because ‘it’s just another trade in a batch.’ (the trick now is to not let mistakes become acceptable and consistent. I need the balance now between DS1s and minor mistakes. The DS1 still has to be priority.)

I felt like I was ignoring myself, my written trading plan and I felt like I was going rogue. The difference from this to batch 1. I knew where MOST (not all) of my DS0s came from. I was consciously aware before taking trades. I felt I had to expose myself to the feeling of GOING AGAINST myself, to get over the fears and feelings of making mistakes; and to overcome that feeling of restriction.

I consciously allowed myself more freedom. More markets. And thought, who cares what time it is? If I see it, trade it! What would be the outcome? I did not know! Did I need to know? Nope. All I need to care about was … ‘IS IT A VALID SETUP?’ and if it wasn’t, ok it wasn’t but IT IS FINE TO MAKE MISTAKES AND THE OUTCOME IS RANDOM ANYWAY. 

To tackle the feeling of restriction, I allowed myself more trades, I would take the first 2 breakouts still. But, previously after 2 trades I would stop for the session and observe, seeing all these great valid opportunities pass. Previously I was not allowing myself to take valid setups later on in the session; or after the session or in different times of the day. I’m not saying take the 3rd breakout, but, if price resets and breaks again for a second time within that session. Then take the first 2 of the new breakout.

In batch 3 I stuck to the 2r drawdown rule per session, I was not prepared to go beyond my hard stop. If my account dropped 2r in one session. Stop. But otherwise, I did not limit myself. If I saw it was there, I took it.

I applied the concept on a minor m1 level. Yes at times trading inside m5, and trading with levels left, not really caring too much about support or resistance. I was aware of that (mostly) but again, appreciating every moment is unique. It might work, it might not…. but over the batch, I should come out on top. That’s all I cared about. Over the batch, I should come out on top.

It was a quickkkkk batch. It took me less than 1 week. (don’t forget I am only a part time trader.) I felt like I was going off the rails a little bit. Which, was also an emotion I need to control. But, the fact I have now experienced that; is a good thing. …. now, where is the balance between restriction and freedom. That Is my next desire.



BATCH 4

This morning took me straight into batch 4, those trades were 2r targets. But for the rest of batch 4 I commit to 1:3.




BATCH RESULTS COMPARISON

The bottom line is this.

I have taken 64 trades so far. 30 wins, 13 break evens and 21 losses and I have grown my demo account 46.65%. Since December, part time trading, working full time, as a newbie.

35.9% growth from DS1 trades, and 10.7% from DS0 trades.

I have made mistakes, lots of them, accumulative though out the batches, and even the DS0 score is positive because I am trying to apply the concept. Over the long run, it is ok to make some mistakes and take losses! Could I have traded better, yes. Could I have traded worse, yes. Am I slowly making money on a regular basis?

YES. PROBABILITY MINDSET.

BATCH COMPARISON.png

 

WHERE NEXT?

So, I am going to commit to doing the following now.

ALLOWING MYSELF TO TRADE 2 MARKETS. US30 AND DAX. I ALLOW MYSELF TO TRADE BOTH OF THESE MARKETS AT ANY TIME IN THE DAY. IF THE SETUP IS THERE, I WILL TAKE IT. I WILL ONLY LOOK AT THESE 2 MARKETS ON M5 AND M1. I do not need any more than 2 markets. ; BUT I WILL ONLY LOOK FOR THE LOVELY SETUPS. I don't want to force it on M1 where m5 is SH!T.

It will be quick when we get multiple breakouts on both charts; but my pre-market analysis time must be slower, and I will be prepared for that. I WILL NOW START READING MY RULES PRE-SESSION AGAIN, AND FOCUSING ON HIGH DS.

I ACCEPT WHAT MIGHT WORK ON ONE CHART MAY NOT WORK ON THE OTHER. THEY ARE DIFFERENT MARKETS, I HAVE TO REMEMBER THAT.

I AM ALLOWING MYSELF TO START TAKING SEED SETUPS AT THE START OF A BREAKOUT PHASE.

1:3 TP. SL to BE at 1R still.

APPLYING THE ‘F’ IT MINDSET ON THE OUTCOME OF ANY ONE TRADE. AKA, KEEP TRADING WITHOUT HESITATION. OVER THE BATCH TRADE YOUR PLAN AND YOU SHOULD COME OUT ON TOP.

RULE CHANGES for the plan will be updated on my written TP soon.

After BATCH 5 we go live on a small account. 

And breathe
 
 
 

[Darren]

Wow - 48.8% growth from just a couple of months - amazing! Congrats. 
 
 

[tombacon89]

Wow - 48.8% growth from just a couple of months - amazing! Congrats. 
 
 

 

Thanks have to confess a typo. it's 46.65% lol. 48.8% is the strategy win rate for my DS1 trades. 

[tombacon89]

Price moved without me earlier so I left the screen for a while. 

This was a touch climatic. It had a range, it had a breakout it had a small pullback. No signal shown but it was a definite 1 candle pull back. 

2r would have been easily hit. But can't think like that. it was a BE trade. that is all it is. 

I'm done now. 

Back next Tuesday.

BATCH 4 TRADE 5.png