Trading Blotter

This is a summary of the blotter I use for my trades.

This is not an audited document. For correct performance, look under the actual tab. I don’t spend enough time correcting rounding errors, calculating exchange fees, NFA fees, or others. I know that over time the difference in profit and loss adds up.  I record the trades as a risk management tool while I’m trading, slow down my thinking and try to not over-trade (not very successfully).  I also use it to review trades and become more disciplined.  I don’t use it to calculate my account balance.  Rarely is my broker incorrect.  I check its reporting weekly and that’s a separate exercise.

Read this post if you want to understand about the purpose of a blotter.

 

 

The complete blotter is recorded in a spreadsheet that includes the following items:

  1. Entry Date
  2. Exit Date
  3. Days in the trade
  4. Trade ID
  5. CQG symbol
  6. Expiration
  7. Class
  8. Market
  9. L/S (long/short)
  10. Units
  11. Entry price
  12. LAST_PRICE
  13. Profit/Loss
  14. Trade Idea Total (P+L)
  15. Closed (Y/N)
  16. Fundamental ID
  17. Technical ID
  18. BiMTi  (Booy Insights Mid-Term Indicator)
  19. Setup Days
  20. Current Stop
  21. Trade Risk
  22. Total Trade Idea Risk
  23. Trade Idea Risk – Open P/L
  24. INITIAL STOP
  25. $ Risk
  26. $ Risk/Contract
  27. Min Target
  28. $ Reward
  29. $ Reward/ Contract
  30. Current R/R
  31. ORIGINAL R/R
  32. Multiplier
  33. Margin
  34. Total Margin
  35. All Stopped (scenario)
    1. -10%
    2. -30%
  36. Pre-entry checklist
    1. Is it done based on the closing price?
    2. Are there three points of Support or Resistance?
    3. Is it flat?
    4. Is the trade in the direction of the 42-day SMA?
    5. Are the fund’ls pointing in the same direction?
    6. Is there a money flow (COT) alignment?
    7. Is a multi-day retracement been confirmed?
    8. Risk no more than 1% of equity
    9. Risk no more than $2,500 per contract
    10. Have no more than 5% of closed equity at risk at one time.
    11. Have no more than 10% of cumulative risk this week
  37. Pre-exit checklist
    1. HAVE the Big Kids shown their hand? (end of day)
    2. PRICE: Has it met long-term Resist/Supp?
    3. TIME: Has it been about 1/3 of the build-up timeframe?
    4. BREAKOUT: Has it gone as far as the width of range it was in prior?
    5. REWARD for RISK: Have we made 3x the money we risked?
    6. Stop trading if down 4% for the month.
    7. MEAN REVERSION: Has it retrace 50% of previous move
    8. NEWS: Is the new news meaningful or just noisy?
    9. Did it take out the breakout days high/low
    10. Did it take out the previous wave high/low
  38. Reasoning:
    1. Technical
    2. Fundamental
  39. EXIT (comments)