Hey everyone,
Welcome to my journal. I have been in the markets for a while now. We all start out looking for the perfect strategy, but eventually, you realize that good habits are what actually keep you in the game.
Personally, I love the data side of the markets. I look at Commitments of Traders (CoT) data, track options open interest, and map out gamma levels to see where the liquidity is flowing. I then combine that data with my technical setups to actually take my trades. But here is the simple truth. The best setups and analysis in the world cannot save a poorly managed position.
That is exactly why I am starting this journal. I am doing this completely in public because I know this level of accountability will finally help me break through. The things I want to focus on every month are risk management and the execution side of trading. Each month, I will tackle one specific aspect. If I fail to stick to the rules I set for myself, I will do that exact same challenge all over again the next month.
For this first month, the challenge is all about risk management. To be completely honest, messing up my risk rules has been my number one problem over the last year. It is the main thing keeping me from achieving consistent returns, and it keeps locking me into a frustrating boom and bust cycle. I make great progress, and then a sudden slip in discipline wipes it out.
Finding the trade is just a small part of the job. The real work comes down to simple things like keeping your position size right, respecting your stop loss, and never letting a random burst of confidence change your lot size.
I will not be posting trade ideas before they happen. Instead, I will post my reviews after the trades are closed. The main goal of these reviews is to track my own behavior. I will log whether I managed to keep my lot sizes perfectly consistent and my risk rules totally stable.
If I can keep my execution clean, the rest will take care of itself. My hope is that being completely transparent about this struggle will add real value to some of the traders here who are fighting the exact same battle.
I invite you to follow along, join in with your own monthly challenges, and please feel free to share your thoughts in the thread.
See you in the charts!
Welcome to my journal. I have been in the markets for a while now. We all start out looking for the perfect strategy, but eventually, you realize that good habits are what actually keep you in the game.
Personally, I love the data side of the markets. I look at Commitments of Traders (CoT) data, track options open interest, and map out gamma levels to see where the liquidity is flowing. I then combine that data with my technical setups to actually take my trades. But here is the simple truth. The best setups and analysis in the world cannot save a poorly managed position.
That is exactly why I am starting this journal. I am doing this completely in public because I know this level of accountability will finally help me break through. The things I want to focus on every month are risk management and the execution side of trading. Each month, I will tackle one specific aspect. If I fail to stick to the rules I set for myself, I will do that exact same challenge all over again the next month.
For this first month, the challenge is all about risk management. To be completely honest, messing up my risk rules has been my number one problem over the last year. It is the main thing keeping me from achieving consistent returns, and it keeps locking me into a frustrating boom and bust cycle. I make great progress, and then a sudden slip in discipline wipes it out.
Finding the trade is just a small part of the job. The real work comes down to simple things like keeping your position size right, respecting your stop loss, and never letting a random burst of confidence change your lot size.
I will not be posting trade ideas before they happen. Instead, I will post my reviews after the trades are closed. The main goal of these reviews is to track my own behavior. I will log whether I managed to keep my lot sizes perfectly consistent and my risk rules totally stable.
If I can keep my execution clean, the rest will take care of itself. My hope is that being completely transparent about this struggle will add real value to some of the traders here who are fighting the exact same battle.
I invite you to follow along, join in with your own monthly challenges, and please feel free to share your thoughts in the thread.
See you in the charts!