TradefuturesAsia

Psychological Journal entry : reading references : 1. 'The hour between Dog and Wolf - risk taking, gut feelings and the biology of boom and bust' by John Coates  2. 'The Undoing Project' by Michael Lewis This is an entry on the last trading day of the financial year, and I am getting into more 'tender' subjects. Probing the belly of the beast. The mind naturally wants to avoid these subjects, that's an interesting observation. So if the mind does not wish to look at something it probably means that it needs to because it's a weakness that should be addressed. As I am really serious about success as a trader - I realize I have to go there. If I don't confront weaknesses they will hang around causing continuous problems.  Obviously, when we a trading we're not always going to win and the reason for not winning can sometimes be unconscious. It might be some 'programming' from the past, a Mal-adaption to avoid pain. So, without gett

day 11 stats: I am making on average $67.6 per day. current week 3: balance : $100,743 ; average win day 126.0 , loser -34.0 best day : 254 , worst -65.9 days 11 ; winning days 64 % av. win 42 loss-37 win % 60 max conseq w/L =2:2 av w/L duration 11/ 17 minutes total trades on average per day : 6 brokerage : $23.80 account bal draw-down limit 97744 to fail combine target $6000 to pass draw-down so far : 0 Making steady progress and fairly consistent. Still afraid of really increasing my size though. My plan was to increase to 2 contracts per trade over $600 profit, but I am reluctant. I find that it is better for my psychological stress control to aim for more small wins of 4-8 ticks per trade. I'll have to work on this fear. I 'scaled' into some trades the last 3 days with 2 contracts and that is a better approach from the money management style I use. My tactic is this given I can ordinarily make 4-8 ticks per trade 2 out of every 3 trades, the othe

Well - I'm making slow but steady progress. I have gained a little confidence because whenever my account drops I am able to recover it to some degree even within a session.  I had a few small losing days and managed to keep discipline, not lose my cool, and throw the towel in when I'd had enough psychologically. At one point a few days ago I had 2 contracts on the swiss franc and I managed to get out for break even after having an un-booked dip in equity down to under 100K by a few hundred. I credit my ability to change my mindset within a trade and judge when I don't feel it's a winner any longer - at that stage I'm content to minimize the damage, drop my limit down to half way between current price action and entry and work an exit. This I think is my major strength. If I can watch my mind carefully during a trading session I should be able to pass the combine stage 1.  I am not keen to 'gamble' with the maximum number of contracts and try to get throu

I have finished my 1 st week in the 100K topstep trader combine and I am pleased with the results so far. I like how the combine sets me up for success because I can see my statistics in pretty fair detail after a day of trading. I am only up a few hundred dollars, but that's fine as I am at the initial stage of just getting a feel for this very short-term scalping style of trading, and getting familiar with set-ups that I'm comfortable with and the pairs I trade at particular times through the day cycle of sessions traded. I tend to restrict my trading to the AUD and JPY during asia, then I switch to focus more on EUR as this tends to lead the AUD anyway and the AUD is positively correlated. One surprising finding this week was that the Swiss franc trades well correlated to the EUR ( in futures you trade the swiss not USDCHF) and it has much lower volatility as there is much lower volume and smaller pip moves per USD, so the risk can be contained more easily with

Having finished the14 day trial - I think I am familiar enough with their  T S Trader platform and its functionality. I will be doing all my chart analysis using Sierra charts as I am very familiar with it and have all my templates in order. The T S Trader will be used primarily for entering orders into their DOM. I haven't even looked at their charts. I compared the responsiveness of their DOM compared to the CQG data feed within Sierra - I saw no lag-time at all. Not that it will really impact my trading on 5-15 minute charts.   As my performance was best using the Australian Dollar with a consistent rate of return of $120 per day on average ( with 2 contracts) this will be my ASIAN instrument of choice to trade. I also trade the Japanese Yen but my results are not as good yet. I can't trade the Nikkei mini contract with top-step yet - though this will be something I will inquire about if I get funded.  I have chosen the 100K combine and trade it this way up to 6 months :

Below is a look at 6J using market profile ( each session EUR- US- ASIA) from 1 June to 6 June: One obvious characteristic of ASIAN session is that the range of trading is much smaller and so it can be easier to control risk when learning or starting to trade the contract.  The larger volume profile over the last 3-4 days can reveal much about the heaviest volume price levels. These can be magnets during the lower volume ASIAN session.  Range trading seems the most appropriate style such as buy low / sell high and reversion to the mean scalping etc   Next I look at a traditional bar chart on a 30 minute time frame to help define the strength of the trend down....this helps determine the style of trading for the session eg. scalping vs swing trading etc  Here today close to end of 6J session there is a weak downtrend; I may swing down & scalp up until the trend changes again to trading range once it rallies past the light blue line. This is 4 * atr ( 30 min) or 4 * 7

Welcome to my blog. Like another hopeful  budding trader - I have decided for better or for worse to journal my  steps to being funded. Notice my optimism? Good, that was my intention.  I won't spend too much time waffling on as we all know what we are trying to achieve here. I just thought, as I live in Sydney, and I am exposed to mostly Asian markets given the day light hours - I might share some of my trades, thought processes, and this may resonate with some of you.It may be that if you're in the other hemisphere, rather than watching crap TV or getting stuck doing house chores in your evening - you may like to escape to your trading desk instead and follow Asian markets. You may find a few more pips or ticks each day are possible, not that I've proven it's possible yet.  I mostly use fundamental news, some market & volume profile, some shorter term 5 minute charts for divergence, and trade off footprint charts. I'm not game enough yet to dive into