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I made three RTH trades on Thursday and basically lost all focus and interest to continue trading the rest of the day, total revenue lost $312.00. I didn't even trade at all on Friday. I was invited to play golf with some buddies and took the day off, in fact I played Friday and Saturday. Had a great time. Given the fact it was Friday and Quadruple Witching day was a big factor in my decision not to trade "live or sim". Looking at Friday's chart glad I didn't trade lol. I just started reading "Trading For A Living" by Dr. Alexander Elders on my new Kindle which is great btw. Only 25% through the book and waiting for the meat and potatoes. So we'll see if I gain anything from this book. I plan on reading a lot to increase my knowledge and mentality to improve my trading. I wasn't going to share this, but decided too after the fact. I made an appointment to see a psychologist that works on personal growth and career goals. I will share my experience as the sessions move on.
Only two trades so far this morning. Having PC and/or connectivity issues with Zen-fire. I can't even login on my brokers website.
I did re-read most of chapter 11 in "Trading In The Zone" and staying aware of my thoughts, feelings and emotions after I make a entry to the completion of the trade.
Trade #1 results +1 pt (Why I made the entry): we had a 4.5 pt gap below 1124 to 1119.50 and price struggled to break 1124, we have a NPOC at 1120.25. I felt good about the trade, I was confident and emotionless.
Trade #2 results +2 ticks (Why I made the entry) I had 1133 as a level of resistance, DT with declining volume and 14 pt range. I was really confident with this trade, but concerned with the data connectivity issues I was having and price would just freeze for a bit.
I would like to take another trade or two today, but may not be able too. It's lunch time and I have some personal biz to take care of later in the day. We'll see what happens
My apologies for not posting lately. I haven't been trading since the day after my last post. I have been dealing with my wife's health issues and my mother has been recently hospitalized and just released yesterday. I have been very busy dealing with all these issues. I may not be able to trade on a consistent basis and when I do, not sure how much time I can devote to writing in my journal. I plan on changing my strategy a little to see if I can reach my daily objective and working on changing my daily, weekly and monthly circuit breaker.
I spent some of my weekend revising my strategies, rules and goals. Unfortunately, I broke a rule today. Trading in a choppy market. The early session was very choppy and slow and the afternoon session the market picked up some steam and showed some nice opportunities. Unfortunately, I had already hit my daily circuit breaker of 4 pts per car or $400.00 max DD. One rule I did not break was to trade when I saw an edge and that was not that difficult to do.
Trade #1: results +1 & -0.50 (Why I made the entry) DB on both the 5 & 10 min charts. looked like a directional change. Hit my first target. My ATM is set to move to -1 pt when my first target hit and then move tick for tick after that. My second target was +2 and the mkt went 6 ticks in the money and then stopped me out -0.50. ( What I did wrong) Execution was needs to improve. I felt confident and no fear in the trade.
Trade #2: results -1.50 (Why I made the entry) Previous candle was bullish. I chased this trade, thinking it was going to run when actually it was a volume spike candle. Had I done the opposite it would have been a 4 pt winning trade. Hmmmm, makes you think doesn't it? BIG ERROR!!!!!
Trade #3: results -1.25 (Why I made the entry) Same dumb shit as #2. Don't remember what I was thinking. On the next candle I got stopped out. Next time wait and no re-entries during these conditions.
Trade #4: results -1.50 (Why I made the entry) Chased another trade. Again, this was another volume spike reversal bar right into the LOD.
Psychologically, I was not with it. The first trade was a good trade, but the last three was just ridiculously not thinking at all. Impatience is part of the issue thoughts of missing out is also part of the problem. There was two setups later in the day that I had called and would have been nice winners. MY PROMISE IS TO NEVER TRADE IN CHOPPY CONDITIONS EVER AGAIN!!!
More than likely I will not be trading tomorrow. I will be taking my wife to the hospital for a outpatient but painful procedure. I'm not sure when she will be done and will be back home.
The day started out pretty well had 3 trades in the morning before I left for lunch with my family. Had I stayed in the second trade I would have hit my daily objective, but still left the morning in the money. Afternoon not so good. But I feel that I am improving on discipline and focus. As long as I am making steps in the right direction I'm happy. Really, I need to look for 2 to 4 high O&P setups and that's all I need for the day. Only one bad trade that I should have avoided, but mistake will happen. My job is to eliminate as many mistake as possible.
My trade data is in the attached excel spreadsheet so I don't have to enter them twice. I am confident that I will start seeing positive and more consistent winning days in the next few days. I need to be better at selecting my setups. Funny, I have not used any indee's for some time now, but added MACD and Kelter channel to possibly provide me with a better picture of what I see. I will test them in the next couple days and see if I want to keep them or trash them.
Hi Ryan:
Just curious. What are you looking at to confirm the go-ahead with your signal? For ex. the Emini is bumping up against a resistance area giving you a short signal. What do you look at to confirm the signal and are you counter trading?
Dominick
Yes, I'm counter trading. I look at many things, like how did we get there meaning was it a high volume spike bar or did we drift to that level. Is it a strong trend? I don't want to be the deer in the headlights of a big truck doing 75 mph. I've done that several times, lol!!! I also look at the Dom and tape, but still learning the feel of Dom. I look for big blocks to either the long or short side. I like to see if we hit a brick wall so to speak, meaning we keep bumping say 1142 area and price does not break it with two candles or if we get a long rejection tail. Again, I'm still learning to get a feel for these things. The last two bars on the volume helps me determine if volume is lower? That tells me there is a possibility for divergence. Sometimes when we first get to a S/R level I will wait to see if the market retraces and wait to see if we retest the high or low and then I take a trade or a PB entry. To me its a science that has to be studied and perfected.
If you're going to counter trade I would recommend finding the average ticks it moves with you and against you, then play a lesser amount of ticks. For ex if the average counter move is 4 to 7 ticks play 3 ticks until your confident then you can add contracts. Also if it goes against you, how many times does it hit your stop and then goes back to your original target.
What I used to do is start with one contract, if it hit's my stop and starts to reverse I enter another trade. If that goes against me I'm out in two ticks. Total loss would be 6 ticks instead of 8 with two contracts. When your wrong your wrong.
Another idea, if I may be so bold, is to see the results if you traded with the trend.
Thank you for the feedback. Honestly, I'm not the best trend trader or my system doesn't work very well as a trend trader. I either chase the trend (which is against my rules) or I get in too late. This is something I have been working on.
It was a busy week for me and did not trade the last few days. Hopefully I can trade more next week, but still have a busy week with some old business matters. I have been reading a lot on my new Kindle. Just finished "Trading For A Living" by Dr. Alexander Elders. I wasn't impressed. The beginning was better and as the book went along it was mostly about indee's I don't tend to use indee's that much and don't care too. Just started reading " The Daily Trading Coach: 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist" So far I like it, but we will see. I need to focus on my strength's and work on my weaknesses.