07/17 Weekly Review

Let's review the trades and progress from this week, the only way to improve is to measure, adjust, measure, adjust, measure, adjust.... you get my drift..

I also believe that key in making progress is to be honest with yourself and others, sure, there are days when I wish I could just sweep my losses under the carpet and pretend nothing happened, but what is the learning in there? Well, that all being said, this is why I keep this blog, it is an actual picture of what is going on, for better or worse, I'm human and will make mistakes, the key is how I fix those mistakes and improve myself as a trader.

Day-by-day review:
07/13/09: 6 trades, 5 wins, 1 loss. +0.29% ROI ** Decided to weed out small target trades because they were not allowing 1:1 win:loss ratio
07/14/09: 4 trades, 3 wins, 1 loss. +3.79% ROI
07/15/09: No trades
07/16/08: 4 trades, 2 wins, 2 losses. +1.34% ROI
07/17/09: 2 trades, 1 win, 1 loss. -0.32% ROI

Totals for the week:
16 trades, 11 wins, 5 losses. +5.2% ROI (Compounded)
Winning Percentage: 68%

This is all good and fine, but how did I grade my trades this week? After going over one by one, I want to grade my trading based on a few metrics that are ultimately the most important for long-term success:

1) Entry set-ups: B+. I am pround with myself for spending the entire Wednesday not chasing any trades, a fe traders in the group kept chasing and hit a lot of loss and frustration. I did take a few trades on Thursday that missed the trend-line confirmation

2) Managing Stops: A+ I did a great job managing to move my stop candle after candle, 50% of my losing trades had their stop reduced as I followed the price action. That's a lot of savings!

3) Capital Allocation: C -- I allocated less than I planned for 70% of my trades. Propper allocation would give me at least 20% ROI this week. Here is a goal for next week

4) Managing Exits: C -- I had a few trades where I closed before the limit was hit, I didn't document them, but I know they were there, the worst case is the trade I took this Friday. Once you start stopping manually you enter a state of emotional decision-making and end up cutting yourself short. Here is my secondary goal for next week