Since I took a break from trading this summer. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about growth lately. As a trader one of your overall goals is/should be to grow you account. Sometimes you have to question if your strategy actually does this or not. Or is what you're doing unrealistic? Or are you preventing the strategy from growing your account for whatever reason? Speaking for myself, most of the times I simply just trade, make an occasional profit, recover from draw downs, rinse repeat. But my account is not growing substantially because I never really had an actual goal or target.
FWIW, I'm definitely not a so called elite trader. I still have my flaws which are mostly self inflicted. However, I'm not new to trading either. It's just that I have not successfully grown my accounts properly. I've made money here or there but without a real target or plan of getting to that target. Which makes me feel like I'm just out here, floating.
If I'm being honest, a lot of that has to do with lack of patience, over trading, and being inconsistent due to switching <insert whatever new system here>, etc. This trade journal is being created to help me change all of that.
Therefore, my overall stated goals are as follows:
1. Grow my account using a targeted percentage
2. Stop over trading, e.g., 2 trade max and only if my system provided a signal
3. Publicly journal my trades
Last night I spent a couple of hours working on a spread sheet in an attempt to assist me in compounding my capital. Now unlike other challenges or techniques where the goal is a certain amount of pips per day/per week. I've chosen to approach this differently. The goal is to increase my lot size once I've reached my desired "Balance Goal". The way I designed the spreadsheet is that you can enter the "Starting Balance" of your account, the amount of "Growth %" desired and it will calculate the projected Balance Goal, Profit Goal, Lot Size and Risk %.
So my personal goal is 10% growth in congruence with lot size increases. I envision it working like this:
Trade #1: Considered achieved once the listed "Balance Goal" is reached. At that point, I would work towards achieving the "Balancing Goal" for trade #2 using the updated lot size. Rinse, Repeat.
It may be possible to reach the "Balance Goal" in one trade. Or, it may take several trades for whatever reason. Regardless, I will not move down to the next listed "Trade" unless I have reached or exceeded the previous "Balance Goal".
Example: (A seen in my spreadsheet)
Starting Balance = $744
Growth % = 10%
Trade#1:
Balance Goal = $813.33
Lot Size 0.16
When I reach or exceed this "Balance Goal" of $813.33 I will move down the spreadsheet and find the nearest appropriate trade based on the next "Balance Goal" and use the associated lot size.
For example, let's say on my first trade my actual trade balance is now $979.21. The closest listed "Balance Goal" is Trade #3 with a lot size of 0.2. So that's the new "Balance Goal" target. Rinse, Repeat.
Obviously, this isn't going to be an exact science with the dollar amount to the penny. However, I'll be able to use this sheet to move down the list, as I look to grow my account by 10% before increasing my lot size.
I also created a section to journal all of my trades regardless of winners or losers. Listing the actual balance, actual profit, risk reward ratio, etc.
Anyway, I'm hoping to work out the kinks along the way and continue to grow as a trader.
Should be interesting at least for me. As I want to believe that if your goal is to grow your account, and if you're tracking it with a target, and a plan. It should actually grow. Right?
FWIW, I'm definitely not a so called elite trader. I still have my flaws which are mostly self inflicted. However, I'm not new to trading either. It's just that I have not successfully grown my accounts properly. I've made money here or there but without a real target or plan of getting to that target. Which makes me feel like I'm just out here, floating.
If I'm being honest, a lot of that has to do with lack of patience, over trading, and being inconsistent due to switching <insert whatever new system here>, etc. This trade journal is being created to help me change all of that.
Therefore, my overall stated goals are as follows:
1. Grow my account using a targeted percentage
2. Stop over trading, e.g., 2 trade max and only if my system provided a signal
3. Publicly journal my trades
Last night I spent a couple of hours working on a spread sheet in an attempt to assist me in compounding my capital. Now unlike other challenges or techniques where the goal is a certain amount of pips per day/per week. I've chosen to approach this differently. The goal is to increase my lot size once I've reached my desired "Balance Goal". The way I designed the spreadsheet is that you can enter the "Starting Balance" of your account, the amount of "Growth %" desired and it will calculate the projected Balance Goal, Profit Goal, Lot Size and Risk %.
So my personal goal is 10% growth in congruence with lot size increases. I envision it working like this:
Trade #1: Considered achieved once the listed "Balance Goal" is reached. At that point, I would work towards achieving the "Balancing Goal" for trade #2 using the updated lot size. Rinse, Repeat.
It may be possible to reach the "Balance Goal" in one trade. Or, it may take several trades for whatever reason. Regardless, I will not move down to the next listed "Trade" unless I have reached or exceeded the previous "Balance Goal".
Example: (A seen in my spreadsheet)
Starting Balance = $744
Growth % = 10%
Trade#1:
Balance Goal = $813.33
Lot Size 0.16
When I reach or exceed this "Balance Goal" of $813.33 I will move down the spreadsheet and find the nearest appropriate trade based on the next "Balance Goal" and use the associated lot size.
For example, let's say on my first trade my actual trade balance is now $979.21. The closest listed "Balance Goal" is Trade #3 with a lot size of 0.2. So that's the new "Balance Goal" target. Rinse, Repeat.
Obviously, this isn't going to be an exact science with the dollar amount to the penny. However, I'll be able to use this sheet to move down the list, as I look to grow my account by 10% before increasing my lot size.
I also created a section to journal all of my trades regardless of winners or losers. Listing the actual balance, actual profit, risk reward ratio, etc.
Anyway, I'm hoping to work out the kinks along the way and continue to grow as a trader.
Should be interesting at least for me. As I want to believe that if your goal is to grow your account, and if you're tracking it with a target, and a plan. It should actually grow. Right?
Do more of what works and less of what doesn't.