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I don't want you to sell yourself short when it comes to trading trend breaks.
The great thing about them is you can trade them both ways.
I will typically use them as scalp opportunities. I will use ATR based on the last 5 candles to decide how much of a scalp I want to use. Also taking into consideration the Hard left of my price action.
80% of them fail so watch for that opportunity to grab it coming back to test the channel it broke out of.
I liked that one I took today because it had a long failure wick on top. It was actually a higher risk trade because we were trending up. It could have very easily continued in trend. However notice the Volume? It was capitulation and that was an oversized candle.
Yeah it was big risk on the stop but remember the 80% rule. sometimes you just need to play the odds. Dangerous yes but this is gambling.
the correct stop placement would be at the top of the break out wick. Thats a HUGE stop. I wont use it. I will take my chances with what I willing to lose.
Concerning Al Brooks: I purchased his $250 course. Very informative but also very Dry to listen to. My mentor basis his teaching on alot of what Al teaches. My mentor also teaches his own individual style. Which gives credit to your earlier statement about following Vince. Personally I am trying to put together my own style just as you are. It will be a collective of everyone and everything we have ever learned.
My current trade I am in.
I am still having a huge issue with following the trend for mor than 2 or 3 points.
good luck to you and your Journey
If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten.
Celebrate because you executed your edge. Not because you won.
Todays description: started out bad then got better then ended in frustration.
First the bad:
First trade of the day didnt go through correctly. It entered way above the price then exited with a 1 tick loss. This happened twice. I managed to catch it on video and send it to support. Tried to reproduce for support again and then it magically fixed itself.
Then the better.
Once I was confident everything was working correctly I shot off 3 trades in a row. The first was a continuation of the trend from overnight and the second and third was channel line bounces. All of the them went as planned.
Finally the frustration:
I missed, didnt pull the trigger, on 4 trades in a row where the signals were screaming at me. See green circles After the 4th one I missed I felt emotions kicking in and called it a day.
I know the reason for not taking the trades: Didn't want to lose what I already gained for the day. I have a mental block right around 50 ticks. Frustrated with this because I could have easily doubled my tick total.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
I followed my rules and entered the trade as I should have.
What was the worst thing that happened to me today
I didnt pull the trigger on high provability trades.
Technical glitches started the day off bad.
Other notes: I have been looking at trading gold at a higher time frame. I started looking at a 1500 tick chart of GC and noticed some fantastic possibilites. What intrigues me about this the I would take 3 to 4 trades a week. Kinda of set it and forget it. I started testing this in ninja trader sim earlier this week and moved to TST today. It was a good day to; + 6 dollars. If this works, I may trade 2 combines; one for CL and the other for GC.
My time is limited so I am going to keep this short and sweet; yesterday I exited the first trade early and didnt take other trade I should have. As a result I made stupid trades at the end of the day trying to make up for it. I missed no less than 6 quality trades. In every one of those missed trades I had doubt for one reason or another.
Today when I traded I took every trade which I had doubt. As soon as I felt the doubt was setting in I took the trade. It was a exercise in overcoming my fear. Was not worried about wins or losses I just wanted to get over whats holding me back.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
On Monday I cut a trade short. This caused me to make stupid trades which then caused me to focus on my fears and doubts.
What was the worst thing that happened to me today
I didnt let some of the trades run to their targets. This is my next step: let the trades run till I get stopped out.
Today was a good day. I had two losses but they were contained. However the second loss should have not been a loss because I exited because I thought price was going to change direction and wanted to keep my losses small. Once I figured out that I was wrong I got back into the trade and rode it out for a 15 tick gain.
I missed several other trades because I was away from the computer and one because of doubt. I did not trade the news today.
I still need to let my trades run. I cut three trades short today which would have hit my 15 tick target.
Based on my results over the last couple of weeks I feel that I am turning the corner. When I follow my rules my entries have improved 10 fold compared to 3 months ago. I am starting to have more positive days than losing days. I still have a lot to learn and work on but I know I am heading in the right direction.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
All of my entries were solid.
What was the worst thing that happened to me today:
Well, the best laid plans quote is most appropriate for today. This morning I saw the a near perfect head and shoulders pattern completing right at the open of trading on CL.
My plan was simple; short if it starts down and hold it until there were two legs up or I get stopped out, hopefully BE or better. I went to place my order at 87.33 and nothing happened. Tried it again and nothing happened. Tried to place a limit order and it was rejected. I was bummed. By the time ZenFire was fixed the move had nearly completed. Looking back on the trade I called it perfectly. For this I am happy. The question remains: could I have stuck to my plan and held it for a 100+ ticks? I will have to wait for the next time to find out.
But, all was not lost. The system came back online and seeing the major part of the move in CL was over, I jumped over to GC. I played the trend and practiced my entries and made 68 ticks on GC before I started having systems issues again. This made up (partly) for missing the move this morning.
The cluster at the top of the GC charts is where I had to go into R-Trader and kill the orders.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
I didnt let missing the trade in CL get me down. I moved on to other trades and made my ticks for the day.
What was the worst thing that happened to me today:
After reviewing my types of trades which I have done best on over the weekend I decided to focus on Trend direction change and Trend Bounce. (see previous post) As a result I had a hard time pulling the trigger today. I missed several trades. I think I was trying to hard and was over analyzing the trades. This is going to take some getting used to, waiting for the proper setup. I am going to download some Market replay tonight and practice.
First trade I made 36 ticks off the open and the second/fourth direction change which did not pan out way I had hoped. The third trade I didnt wait for my entry. Had I waited for it to pull back I would have hit my target or at least came out with a BE or better.
I also missed a trade in Gold which would have netted me 3 to 5 dollars depending on my exit. I missed several other entries for the same reason as I did in CL.
What was the best thing that happened to me today:
I saw the trades I needed to take based on my analysis.
I stopped trading because The market failed support my type of trading.
What was the worst thing that happened to me today:
I didnt take the trades which I saw. I had hesitation and uncertainty.
For the sake of Journaling and looking back on your trade decisions.... I was wondering if you kept additional notes that are not posted here in your journal?
I ask because I like following your journal.
Personally I like to post my trades as I iniate them and as they finish. Writing my thoughts and emotions as they happen.
that way I can look back and decide if I was an idiot that day. LOL.
Maybe you already do that on another piece of paper or maybe you don't want to.
Just a suggestion.
Good luck and please keep posting
If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always gotten.
Celebrate because you executed your edge. Not because you won.