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The first natural law is nonresistance. Go with the flow. No thought of resistance - see opponent/market as a teacher who challenges us to bring out our best.
Stress happens when the mind resists what is.
Don't "try".
"When an archer shoots for enjoyment, he has all his skill; when he shoots for a brass buckle, he gets nervous; when he shoots for a prize of gold, he begins to see two targets." - Chuang Tzu
The overnight session predominately traded within yesterday's value and it looks like we will open there as well.
84.25 has been rejected over and over again. Europe tried to breach it, but could not accept prices up there. Could be key area for short today if we get an opening drive up there...
But.... just like yesterday, if we trade, and accept above that level, we could keep up with this new age irrational exuberance.
My expectation is for a balancing day. A) It feels (to me) like the market needs a rest. B) 84.25 is not accepting prices above it.
First losing day this week. I managed risk, so that is priority number one. Definitely some sub-par trade locations today. Gotta remain more selective.
First two trades were near-fantastic trades. I attempted to get long on the opening drive lower as we traded into the prev POC. Unfortunately I had some really tight stops and was taken out at the LOD.
After a scalp attempt short, I went long as price was being accepted above the prev VAH and yesterday's high. Just like yesterday, I didn't allow my runner to go until the market showed me I no longer wanted to be in the trade.
Trade 5 was really what I call a "blind pullback entry"... I typically am not happy with them after the fact, and this one was no different. I just got caught long and price was not showing any signs of turning around at that point. (I had hoped the 2nd IB Extension there would contain price). Hung in a little longer than looks good in hindsight, but still within my allowable risk tolerances for any one trade.
Trade 6 was a long off an area with confluence of a dLVN, IB high, RTH VWAP, and a previous swing high level. I also did not allow this trade to run to it's target because it stalled for 5 candles.
Trade 7 was a long off the top of the RTH dVAH. Given the large, steep, pullback, this was probably not ideal as we're getting overextended at this point. I was looking for a full trend continuation to new highs.
Trades 8 and 9 were attempts to get short on the breakdown of the previous swing low and IB high. Again, I typically lose when I attempt breakout trades, and these were no different than the norm.
10 was a reversal to long since IB held.
I'm ok with a losing day. It's just a part of trading. If I were to improve anything it would be quicker exits from trades 5 and 7.
With improper demand comes improper development. Stretch your comfort zone, but don't ignore it.
Development entails a constant stream of "little failures" along the way.
Tolerance for failure comes from an intuitive grasp of the natural process of learning.
Progress is mechanical. If you practice something over time with attention and commitment to improve - you will. Many times I have wanted much more immediate answers to my problems/conflicts.
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Ok, a different type of structure for today's open than I've seen since I started keeping up with such.
Overnight we've traded mostly BELOW yesterday's RTH value area. With the ON low even lower than yesterday's low.
Not sure what to expect, but that's ok, my trading doesn't rely on fulfilled expectations (in many ways, ha)
At the open I'll see if yesterday's low at 1581 provides any support, may be a good long location if we're going to overlap yesterday's range.
Another key level will be the POC and VPOC area around 1588.
Will also be watching how we react to yesterday's value area on the TPO's.
Sorry don't have anything more than that, but this is a learning process for me too.
Stopped out for the day today. 0 for 3 on the trades. Typically wouldn't have been a daily stop, but for some reason I traded 2x positions on trades 2 and 3.
Initial longs were looking for a bounce off yesterday's low.
Trade 3 was shorts looking for the down move to continue.
Neither happened.
All stops were technically well placed and honored. We'll get em next week.
First off, prayers go out to those families suffering from what's going on in Boston.
Other than that...
I had fun trading today.
There were some good trades, there were some bad trades.
On the bad trades. It seems I got in to some old habits. Enter, stop out, re-enter, stop out, re-enter, stop out.... kind of trading. Very poor self control in those areas. Sigh. I can do better though, and I will do better.
Other than those two patches of losers, I had some pretty nice trades. I didn't really maximize the profits often, but the entries were decent.
Overall, I am working on increasing my ability to trust in a game plan for the day, and execute that game plan. I wanted to be short coming in to today, as you can tell from my initial shorts at the previous low area. I'm going through a style transition, so errors are likely to come up. What is the style transition? I'm moving away from being so caught up in the bar by bar, swing by swing, price action. I'm moving more towards seeing areas that I want to do business and executing that plan. When I first heard people like FT71 say this, it did not resonate with me at all. Lately, it's making more and more sense to me as I'm starting to zoom out and see the bigger picture.
The future, better trader me, would be short initially from the previous low as planned. Take my scale outs. Add at the area again, take scale outs from the add. Add at the level again, take scale outs. Then, allow the core position to run and run and run until the market SHOWS ME that I do not want to be in that position any more.
I was going to keep this a secret, to simply take any outside "pressure" off the table, but I really do feel like I owe it to the people here to keep a journal like I said I would.
After I messed up that combine on Wednesday, April 3rd... I started a new one fresh on the following Monday, the 8th.
Here is the results so far. Friday was a big burn and definitely set me back, but I stopped trading before hitting the DLL, which is an improvement from my first combine!
My goal at this point is really just to trade well and manage risk. The emphasis is no longer on winning it. Screwing up that first one really brought me a big dose of humility. I'm seeing more and more how I'm not near as good of a trader as I thought I was. This isn't a negative self concept... it's actually the opposite... I had an over-inflated self concept which is just as detrimental as a low self concept. This is a healthy reality check, and I'm in a good place going forward.
I've come to realize that the weight of everyone I know, and the weight of everyone on futures.io (formerly BMT) is really not on my shoulders to perform... as I once imagined it to be.
This is what I've referred to in my thread (over and over and over again!) as "knowing my place." Knowing where you really are is a powerful thing and gives you a solid place to build from.
Nice work!
-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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