Fellow traders,
Sorry for the lack of updates. But wanted to take the time to share some interesting emotions from this past week, followed by a summary of my trading this week. Last time I posted, I had a tough day. That was followed by a really good day, a scratch, another good day and a series of roller-coaster days. I am sticking to my trade management guidelines a lot better and since I came from Austin, I actually had the biggest YM winner of my trading career. It is not easy to keep from getting emotional though. My biggest realization this past week was a saying I heard about when I first started trading over a year ago. It is OK to FEEL emotional during trades, just DON'T ACT on your emotions. That saying I believe may be in Carter's book also. That could not be more true. I am getting better, but I am actually leaving my desk once my 2nd target is hit, so I do not panic and take profits too quickly. I make sure my stop is set and go do something else for a couple of mins. And when I get back, much to my surprise, I am still in the trade most of the time and it is going my direction. Anyway -- just some food for thought for those of you who suffer, like I did, from PPT.

I will keep the summary short and sweet. My squeezes have been working great -- 11/13 winners and only 1 was max loss. My ag trade on the other hand was a big fat looser. But my plan was not followed. Whenever trading a new market, I expect to make mistakes. I put a filter on my corn 30 min H/L setup. It has to be trading w/in the middle range of the H/L area. I entered anyway on the day where it was already at the top of the range and took a max loss on the trade. Another example of the plan being important, but more importantly, execution of the plan being CRITICAL.

I plan to, in the next couple of weeks, create a "blog template" which I can update regularly. So far I am going to include some type of trade summary, weekly topic (i.e. right now emotions and trade management are my biggest obstacles), and Q/A. So if you have any questions about my trading rules or trades I execute, please post them in the forum and I will address them during my next blog.

Good Trading,
Michael (kenhill)

Today was a frustrating day trading for me. This new found volatility is really testing my attempt at being a disciplined trader. John has discussed wider stops and larger targets and I am attempting to incorporate that into my plan. It is tough for me to trade 1 or 2 lots with wider targets, but the 20 point stop is being hit pretty often. I traded like a mad man today and found myself really fighting the urge to impulse trade. I made 10 trades today, for a total of 30 round turns. That is a lot of trades for me. But on 7 of the trades, My 1st target was hit and then I was stopped out. I ended the day down b/c I never caught a trade that ran without hitting my stop first. For tomorrow, I will be trading smaller contracts, wider targets and will just try to get use to the increase in volatility.

Here is a quick summary of the types of trades -- once again, I am working on an easy to read trading summary to post actual entries and exits.

ES -- opening gap - -3pts.
ES -- 144T Squeeze -- Scratch
YM -- 89T Squeeze -- Scratch
YM -- 50T Squeeze - +5, +5
Corn -- 30 Breakout - +1/2, +1, Scratch
YM -- Various Squeezes -- BE
YM -- John called in room - +5, -10 -- note John actually made his 2nd target w/o his stop being hit

So I did not manage trades well today, but my bad habits saved me money today -- not really good when you reinforce bad habits. So I am committing tomorrow to use only 2 lots and follow my plan 100%. I will only be trading until 1:00PM EST and will be limiting myself to 5 trades.

Until tomorrow -- Good Trading

I have been trading a little over a year now. While attending the mentorship in Austin, John mentioned the newsletter he does ensures his research is done each and every day. I thought about this on the way back from the mentorship and decided I would address my main trading problem in a similar way. During the mentorship, John and Hubert got to see each of us trade and the way we handled ourselves during the trades. My entry was "crisp" and my setups just needed a little more detail. My main problem was managing my trades. Yes, as Hubert would say, I suffer from ePPT (extreme premature profit taking)! So to address this problem, I am going to update a blog on the site at least 3 times a week. So for those of you who suffer from the same illness I have, I hope this helps.

So a quick recap of my trading activity for Aug 1st. I only took 2 trades today. I had "deer in the headlights" syndrome today. But I was patient and took an 89T squeeze short in the middle of the morning and caught +5,+13,-1. I was pleased with this execution. I allowed targets to be hit -- and got a great fill on my second target, then my stop at BE was hit. Then I moved to the ags market and setup a 30 min. box play on corn. My low side sell stop was hit and within minutes My 1st and 2nd targets were hit. Here is where ePPT sat in. I closed my last contract for +2 1/8 only to watch corn continue to sell off. So I was done for the day. Overall, profitable day, but my management of the corn trade cost me a nice cushion for my weekly profit targets.

More background to come, and also I will be detailing my trades (entries, exits, etc.) in a little better format. Thanks and if any of you would like, or have suggestions, on how this blog could help your trading careers please let me know.