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I was very busy with other work today, otherwise I might have taken a few trades earlier.
However, first thing this morning I pulled up a longer-term (240 minute) chart and saw that price had reached an important (for me) expansion level, so I didn't feel like I was going to be missing out on any big moves. I believed that price would chop around in this area for a while before deciding which way to go - which it seems to have done.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Mission Plan: In development Theater of Operation: Mike Six Echo Mike Three
Trade #337
07:31 Short. Poor entry after report spike.
14:14 Stop to b/e+1.
14:35 Trailing stop on 5min.
14:38 Modified target reached. +34 ticks.
Trade #338
12:43 Short. This entry was in a much better place.
14:14 Stop to b/e+1.
14:35 Trailing stop on 5min.
14:38 Modified target reached. +35 ticks.
AAR
Objective: Trade the M6E/6E the best I can for now and continue to work on developing my trading plan.
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Outcome: I took one silly trade today, and then one more appropriate trade.
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Observations: I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants a bit right now, but I think I needed to do that a little in order to start seeing through more relaxed eyes rather than frustrated ones.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Very interesting to see how going against your normal behavior and methods affects your attitude. Bigger stops and the addition (?) of trailing stops appears to have loosened up more than your trading...
I think you could also turn it around a little and say, "Very interesting how going against your normal attitude affects your behavior and methods," because what I've been working on is my attitude more than anything else.
-AT
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Mission Plan: In development Theater of Operation: Echo Uniform Romeo Uniform Sierra Delta
SitRep
07:25
The best setup (for me) occurred before I was at my desk this morning (blue rectangle on chart - around 05:00), and I wasn't keen to enter on the pullback that followed, but it turned out to be a great trade.
Trade #339
10:38 Long prematurely.
10:47 Stopped out. -14.3 pips. Not a good trade.
Trade #340
10:49 Long at a better place.
12:31 I had to leave the office early and I didn't want to have to wait through another swing down before a final move up, so I got out with +18.5 pips. Price never did go much further.
AAR
Objective: Trade the EUR/USD the best I can for now and continue to work on developing my trading plan.
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Outcome: I had a lot going on today with some trading-related management things (which I'll talk about this weekend), so I only took two trades.
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Observations: I've found that having a little more "room to work" and being able to do that with a small cost per tick is making a difference for me, so I'm gearing up to trade the micro FX in sim for a while.
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I'll discuss this more over the weekend, but it will be late (maybe Sunday) because I have a lot of work from my other job to do.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Mission Plan: In development Theater of Operation: Echo Sierra Mike Three
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Training Day 72 (05/22/2013)
Trade #261
08:28 Long just a little before the open.
08:38 Target reached. S5 Trader had me out with positive slippage, but I'm recording it as a normal target. +6 ticks.
Trade #262
08:37 Long.
08:38 Stopped out. S5 Trader had me out with positive slippage, but I'm recording it as a full stop-out. -5 ticks.
Trade #263
08:39 Long on same setup/idea.
08:39 Target reached. +6 ticks.
Trade #264
09:00 Short.
09:00 Target reached. I'm using MIT orders, and since the market is pretty volatile today, I was filled one tick worse than expected. +5 ticks.
Trade #265
12:14 Long - MISTAKE. I got long when I meant to get short. Would have been a nice winner.
12:17 Stopped out. -5 ticks
*No S5 Trade Analyzer due to demo platform being down.
AAR
Objective: Trade the ES the best I can for now and continue to work on developing my trading plan.
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Outcome: I've done relatively well over the past 3 days.
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Observations: I've been struggling terribly lately trying to determine how best to proceed/progress. I'm still working to make some decisions, but I've gone back to my basic ES method over the past three days just to get back to something I'm somewhat comfortable with. I'll try to explain further once I've cleared things up more for myself.
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Note that I've restarted the trade numbering to include only the ES trades that I've taken since the start of this exercise.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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As I mentioned in my last post, I've been struggling. I feel like I got off track and became very lost at some point.
There are a lot of factors that have contributed to this, but I need to get back to some consistency and clarity.
So for the time being, I'll be going back to trading my basic ES method (in sim) to get back into a consistent routine.
I've made some modifications to my stats (and corrected a spreadsheet error) in order to give myself a more "realistic" view of my performance and to see what longer-term consistency looks like. I need to do this because I need to know, as soon as possible, what I can do with the account size that I currently have.
I changed all of the stats to reflect only 1 contract at a time, rather than the multiple contract scale-out method I used for part of the time. I did this for two reasons. First, because the scale-out was actually having a detrimental effect on my results, and second, because I need to see what is possible with my approach using just 1 contract.
I've modified the trade numbering to reflect only the ES trades that I've taken, and excluding the other products that I bounced in and out of. I did this so I can see clearly how many ES trades I've taken. I also modified the "Week" number in the grid to reflect the actual week of the year rather than a consecutive count.
I have some work to do to get myself back to a place of being clear about my direction.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Just focus on a tiny number of things until you get your footing back. Don't worry about the end result (net profit).
Instead, just pick one or two things you want to get right, keep them very straightforward and simple (like don't take more than 3 trades today, or don't chase entries, or don't flip flop from long to short in same day). Then score yourself on these at the end of the day, and do it for enough days until you get "A's" in your score, then you can move on to other areas.
Objective: Trade the ES the best I can for now and continue to work on developing my trading plan.
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Outcome: Took three trades with two wins and one loss.
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Observations: I went against the trend on all three trades, but rather than trying to pick a top, my trades were based on the current conditions and context at the time of entry.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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Mission Plan: In development Theater of Operation: Echo Sierra Mike Three
Trade #272
08:31 Long.
08:31 Stopped out. -5 ticks.
Stopped out to the tick before price turned around.
Trade #273
08:31 Long. I believe the setup is still valid. I hammed the entry orders though and got long 2 cars.
08:32 Exited 1 car at market as soon as I was clear about my position. +1 tick.
Trade #274
08:31 Still long on the remaining contract.
08:32 Price was moving strongly so I extended my target by 1 tick. +7 ticks.
AAR
Objective: Trade the ES the best I can for now and continue to work on developing my trading plan.
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Outcome: Only took three trades because I'm keeping it tight right now. I also had to leave to do other work.
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Observations: Felt a little more relaxed today for some reason.
"Is it hard? Not if you have the right attitude. It's having the right attitude that's hard." - Robert Pirsig
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