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I assume you are aware that your present strategy doesn't work.
My suggestion is that you change your focus to following your plan.
Don't worry about how much you win or lose per trade, worry about whether you followed your plan or not.
Don't just have a stop in mind, write it down or even better put it in the market.
The worst that will happen is you will have a small loss. As per plan.
"The days when I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days" RW Hubbard
Notes: A nice rally for the past two weeks in crude. Sitting near the highs of the day and looked like a good spot to get short for a day trade. Short 1 contract 20 ticks off of the highs of the day. Edit: took the trade off, oil hitting new highs. Trying to cut my losers faster and not hold on to bad trades.
Note: my live personal account is open with my new broker and will likely put on some live trades today.
Plan: Identify support and resistance, use a mental stop and obey it, usually around 6-10 ticks
Notes about trade 1: MES was making new highs 4608.50, pulled back to 4601 which is where I got long 1 contract. Got the push higher and took it off for 27 bucks.
It is so important for me to find a good exit point when I am wrong and I must honor it no matter what. If I make ten trades I would rather have 9 small losses than one big loss that wipes out half of my account (which has happened to me many times). I have to be patient and take the losses so I can control the drawdowns when they happen. Losses are part of trading and can not be avoided. Before I enter a trade I have to be ready to take a loss which is really hard for me.
It was a very good day. I followed my plan exactly the way I wanted to and that made today a success. The first three trades I used a mental stop and found this to be stressful so I switched to a hard stop order. Have a couple of trades that were up +30 ticks but the market came back to break even where I had my stops.
Really focused on micro crude right now. Small tick size, decent liquidity on the bid/ask and the price is easy to comprehend. The fundamental story of crude is also interesting to me and the more I track the crude news the better I understand the market.
I work until noon tomorrow and probably won't do any trading tomorrow.
Plan: Set a mental stop in my head, exit using market order if stop is hit. Stop is usually 6-12 ticks. So I am going to use a mental stop because I was stopped out on a price spike yesterday and would rather avoid that going forward. Hold profitable trades until close.
Trade 1, MCL, Long 1 contract @11:29am, Entry 76.46, Exit 76.43, -$3
Trade 1 was 40 ticks in profit but held until market came back to BE.
Trade 2, Micro 10yr note, Long 1 contract @1:23pm, Entry 3.826, Exit 3.822, -$4
First time trading the Micro 10yr Note, looks fun!
Trade 3, MES, Long 1 contract @2:02pm, Entry 4581.00, Exit 4577, -$20
Price hit my mental stop and I didnt get out, I held the position until it was 8 handles against me, then it rallied and was lucky to get out with 4 handle loss. Have to keep working on my stops.
Trade 4, MES, Short 1 contract @2:56pm, Entry 4575.00, Exit 4565.00, +$50
Exited at close
I would call today a 75% success. Success on 3 traded and a complete failure on one.
Trade 1 in oil the price went in my favor right away. When the market was 30 in my profit I placed a hard stop at break even. Price fell back and hit my stop which is completely fine.
Trade 2 was in micro 10yr note. My first time trading this market. Price went against me 4 ticks and I got out with little emotion.
Trade 3 was a disaster. I had a 6 tick stop in my mind. Price hit my stop and I just held on. Price went 32 ticks against me then rallied and I was able to exit for a 16 ticks loss. I need to keep working on discipline because this can't happen again, the market could have easily went further against me then what would I do. I got complacent.i got lucky also. I am disappointed in myself for this trade.
Trade 4 went in my favor right away and I held until close.