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Good day today. 1 losing trade but it met the rules so what can I do!
Okay so here is something new. I am learning about harmonics and today I observed a bat pattern on the DOW:
Cool, so now lets see what happened on the smaller time frame in the area of completion of the bat:
We had an expectation failure on the immediate swings. This is my trigger to enter. Price chopped at my entry before taking me out. I could have saved myself some points by tightening my stop when price failed to make a new low but ultimately this trade was a hedge on a bigger trade I put on long at the close yesterday in my retirement account so no biggie.
P.S. WHAT A RALLY TODAY!
Results:
1 loss
-.93R
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Today was a boring session that I should have walked away from. I was messing around with harmonics which is just silly when I am a rank novice. Until I become proficient with harmonics, it is stupidity to risk real money with it.
NONE of these trades fit my rules so there is really nothing to explain. Just a day of going totally rogue. Can't believe what happened after I covered that second trade. Ridiculous.
Result:
1 losing trade
2 break-even
-.83R
I hate to end the week on a bad note but I am leaving on a short camping trip tomorrow. It will be a great time for me to detach from trading and technology as a whole. I plan to come back fresh on Monday with a clear head, and a commitment to trade my plan.
I think it's natural to make this mistake as you're in the process of discovering your style and niche (can we call it your trading self?). The frustration from losses of violating rules eventually push you forward into doing the right thing if you're serious about this. In the end, the loss is a gift and a potential turning point to making better decisions. Lately, I've been pursuing what appeals to me in my trading (loving OrderFlow and momentum trading). The meat of what I'm trying to say is, if you really like your process, you won't feel the need to deviate from it and you'll stick to your rules. Also, deviating from your process can be because of your own uncertainty of it, and because of classic beginner trader mistakes like FOMO, boredom trading, etc.
In the case of a beginner trader, theoretically (this is easier said than done because it takes time) they should find what appeals to them first before sticking to a process. I personally went about trading for roughly a year and didn't pay any attention to what I liked to do, because I didn't know. I didn't experiment enough.
Went on a bit of a tangent. These are just my most pressing thoughts lately and they relate to your post. I hope they apply to you. Whatever you do, don't let your mistakes get past you, and don't give up.
Once again, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Thank you for contributing your thoughts!
That is a thought-provoking post that I am going to need to think about.
Today was definitely boredom trading. There were zero setups according to my rules, because the market traded sideways. But I REALLY wanted to trade. I ended up trading for the sake of trading and not surprisingly lost!
Next week I will continue to practice harmonics, but will only take trade setups that fit my original rules. Maybe I can use harmonics to add confluence to setups I am already interested in.
Thanks again for your contribution to my thread - always welcomed and appreciated!
My camping trip was an excellent opportunity to relax and unwind. I feel refreshed and prepared to do my very best work this coming week.
Spending time with the family reminded me of the big ‘why’ - why put all this effort into becoming a professional trader? I am committed to achieving this dream so that I may be financially independent and have time to spend with the people I love. This mini-vacation was a nice reminder that trading is NOT the goal, but a means to achieve it.
With that said, I am enthusiastically looking forward to a great week of learning and growing as a trader - with any luck I might make a few bucks too!
I watched one harmonic trade setup that ended up being a blow-out! I decided last week to not add harmonics to my trade plan until I become proficient with them. For that reason I simply watched this trade setup without actually taking the trade.
I traded past my usual quitting time at noon because well I was determined to take a trade today. The first setup I got was less than ideal but still tradeable per my rules. Took it for the long and then strangled the trade by tightening my stop aggressively. As I write this post the ES is hanging out about 1 point lower than where I closed. I tightened my stop because we were trading up into resistance. I wanted to see that resistance break and when that didn't happen I did not want the risk on the table any longer.
Results:
1 break even
Thoughts:
I did well not taking rogue trades on a boring day. I did trade past my session because I wanted to make a trade. That is an emotional response I need to work on. I am here to make money not to trade for a thrill. Overall a good session.
First trade was because ES reacted off of yesterday's close price which also had confluence from a few other harmonic factors.
Second trade was because ES came deeper into my area of interest and then traded sideways with huge volume. I interpreted this as a big player building a large position. Having sold off all day I determined that this institution was likely buying. We had a bullish impulse leg out of this area and then I took the next entry. Was very quickly stopped out and price proceeded to nosedive. This is why I use protective stop losses.
Results:
1 win
1 loss
After commissions I was break even on the day.
Thoughts:
I missed a trade entry because I wasn't quick enough on the draw and hesitated for about five seconds which was all I needed wait to let the opportunity pass me by. This would have been a real nice 5-6 point trade.
Lesson is that I need to continue working on staying ahead of the market so that I can execute with no hesitation.
Good day of trading despite the lackluster result.
One trade today for little better than a break-even.
Why I took this trade:
-I usually don't take trades this late into a move. We had already made numerous swings lower and usually that means we are less likely to continue in the same direction. This is because the lower price moves the better the price becomes to buy etc. The longer a trend persists the worse the risk reward of the trade becomes.
-I took this one because I knew that if the bears were able to break through support, we would see a tremendous selloff.
-I also decided to manage this trade aggressively if price did not do what I wanted it to do.
Why I closed the trade early:
-ES and NQ both made very weak new lows, and I saw large volume come into NQ as it made these lows. Price did not immediately drop as it would if this large volume was selling. It must be market buying then! At the same time YM had not made a new low. I covered my position immediately.
In other news I had another chance to practice my harmonics today. I observed a beautiful butterfly on YM about 30 minutes before the pattern completed. Staying true to my plan I did NOT take the trade but only watched to see what happened. This butterfly was nice because it corresponded with Tuesday's (yesterday) low. Added confluence!
Yesterday (Thursday) was a relapse day. I abandoned my rules and traded recklessly. In the month of June I have managed to get my average daily trades below 2 as I've focused my attention on quality of setups. Yesterday I took 6 trades... LUDICROUS!
Lets talk about each trade more or less one by one.
Trades 1 & 2:
Sort of a double top on NQ followed by a really unconvincing setup. I was not feeling very particular so I took it and was rapidly stopped out.
After the next weak up move I decided that the up move MUST be over. Took another setup and when we failed to follow through I tightened my stop aggressively and locked in 1 point. Not a bad recovery for a trade I should not have taken in the first place. My rules state that I must enter trades when I get a setup in an area where I would expect a reaction from price. While both of these trades were setups, there was no confluence with a more convincing larger level.
Trade 3:
This did not TECHNICALLY meet my rules because price was not at an 'important' level but we were contained within the larger bearish swing when the setup occurred. The risk-reward was exceptional. I was targeting the third leg down. I chose to trail my stop loosely because I did believe we would move and take the larger swing to the downside. I tightened my stop up to a 4 tick loss and was unfortunately taken out. Nothing really wrong with this trade. Was I greedy? Maybe. Was it a realistic expectation? I think so. Why get scared and take the trade off at +30 when your target is over 100? We did react off of Tuesday's low. Maybe that should have been a warning sign. Not much use in playing woulda coulda shoulda. I just need to find a process and then stick with it.
Trade 4:
EH. I don't like looking at this trade. The entry was acceptable. Bearish swing in the morning and then a double-top-ish followed by a setup. I couldn't make up my mind whether to take the first target (drawn in white), or swing for the fences. Instead I did neither and was taken out for 1 point in the green. I don't even know what I was thinking on this one.
Trade 5:
My second trade on the YM and the real breadwinner of the day. Look how much I left on the table. I was emotionally done with trading. I had traded nearly 2 hours past my usual quitting time trying to dig myself out of the hole. When we hit the first target I trailed very aggressively and closed the trade with great relief. All things considered this entry was hardly warranted and did not qualify the conditions of my rules. It was a bad trade despite the 'good' result.
Trade 6:
While all these other trades were going on I also had a MNQ trade going on as well. This was not based on the same set of rules I am SUPPOSED to use for daytrading but instead was more of an intuition or feeling trade.
Results:
4 wins
2 losses
Break-even after commissions.
Thoughts:
One day removed from this session and I am still upset and disappointed with my performance. I know that the shit hits the fan with my psychology when I take one trade outside the bounds of my rules. It is equivalent to opening pandora's box. I lost all control and traded for the sole sake of recovering my losses. This clouded my judgement and impacted my result. This is NOT how a professional trades. These ranging days kill me because there are no setups at critical levels and I rapidly grow bored. My goal for next week is to maintain control and follow my rules to the letter on all five days.
Not a very boring day but devoid of setups. That V move was unusual and irritated me in a strange way.
I wanted to short the first test of 26110 and double top around 11am. As you can see, price plummeted straight down and I had no setup in order to take advantage of this tremendous move. There was also no setup to get long before that ridiculous rally out of the V bottom. We tested the top of the range for the third time and this time I did get a setup. Took it expecting to trade at least halfway down to the low of day. Because of this I trailed my stop loosely and moved it to break even instead of trailing aggressively at the first target. It is what it is.
Thoughts:
This past week has been very ranging and quite difficult for me to trade. Price has beaten up my rules and the results have been lackluster. On the bright side, ending a difficult week with a break-even (+$20 after commissions) rather than a loss means that I must be improving. Due to the ranging nature of price this past week, I have seen less follow-through. Taking profit at the first target would have improved results considerably. The question then becomes: Do the infrequent trend days that yield huge wins make up for the underperformance of trailing loosely during ranging conditions? I do not know the answer to this question. Eventually I hope to become adept enough to recognize the markets potential and know whether a grand slam is likely or not. Next week I am making a point of trailing more aggressively on all trades excluding the A+++ setups that have obvious huge potential. I believe that aggressive trailing will result in smaller wins with greater consistency.