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It is great that you posted some of your trades, but why did you buy where you did? Why did you exit? What was your reasoning and logic?
Overall most of your trades seemed fine, just a bit quick on trailing stops. But again it is hard to tell because we have no idea why you are executing trades where you are?
Please just pick a few of the trades and give me some of your reasoning behind entering and exiting.
Here you trailed your stop and exited for +1 tick. When price continued in your direction and you missed multiple points.
Why did you trail your stop? Why not hold your initial stop and allow the trade to work?
I am not saying you did anything wrong, I actually did the samething this morning. I entered the NQ @ 4034.25 at 9:45 CST. I exited at the VWAP because price pulled back against me and I got scared. Once I exited, price then rallied 5 points. I missed it because I did not allow my trade to work. I trailed too early and settled for less profit. This is me cutting a winner short which is just as bad as letting a loser run too long.
So I ask you, why and how did you trail your stops? Why did you decide to enter the trade as well?
Thats my system, to trail at two ticks. I believe (could be wrong of course), that this trailing preserves capital/profits.
I am looking at explosive moves, moves where price keep going up, not pulling back and then going up again.
Nobody, knew after 12h25 price was going to keep going up. In fact it hit the 10ema, and thats a place where price usually reverses.
Remember I am trading a small account (maybe mike was right I should trade forex), I can not risk too much.
But guess what I actually abandoned that system and am working on a new model.
@tturner86 are you a discretionary trader or mechanical?
Thank You for pointing that out, I have noticed myself that I tend to cut winners short. See this is why you have to backtest @kevinkdog, b/c then you have some idea of how far price generally goes before reversing.
Its hard to decide to let winners run (b/c you dont know how far price will go, hence the trailer) versus. bank quick profits.
In my previous posts I did mention I am still trying to determine my trading identity, or what is the best method for someone trying to build a small account versus maintain a large one.
Have a great day and thank you for posting on my thread.
When I enter a trade I have a very specific target, entry and stop. Below is a trade I just took.
Blue circle is signal bars. Green line is entry short. Red line is initial stop loss. Blue line is trade direction and duration. Blue triangle is exit signal. Yellow box is a sea of price action I sat through awaiting target.
Key is when I placed this trade I had a target set. I was targeting the Purple box (Control Point) and the lower standard deviation cloud around bar 340. I had this area in mind before trade was executed. So when I looked and saw the spike up of bar 316 and then the reversal, I did a quick math in my head. Stop would have to be up around 3041, so I would be risking 2 pts. Target is 7 pts below. That is almost a 4:1 reward to risk ratio. So I pulled the trigger.
Price went in my favor then hit the bottom of the inside band. You can see that price then interacted with it for quite some time before making its way towards my target. At this moment my stop was at B/E. My line in the sand was the VWAP (Alternating Blue/Red dash dot line in the middle of chart.) If it penetrated that, I would close.
Once price broken down under the band around bar 328 or so my stop is at the VWAP and my new line in the sand is the VPOC (Volume Point of Control) the large red line on the right of the market profile. If price penetrated that I would then look to close.
Price then entered the Pivot Point box (blue and purple box at the bottom) and tagged my limit order.
See how I have broken down how and why I entered, moved my stop, and exited my trade? Each have logical reasons why, each are based off price action around a support level, and each can be studied and backtested. I can go back and study how price interacts with these areas. (I am fully aware that price action is dependent on market cycle and behavior and will change every so often.)
I am discretionary. But I have very specific setups that I trade and a written plan on how to execute each one. I only trade these setups and do not play around or 'test' new ideas with live cash.
Also a 2 tick trailing stop is unrealistic and doesn't give you enough room for the markets natural ebb and flow.
My trades are context + signal + entry price = trade.
Context is a down leg in a trading range. It was also a failure at the high.
Signal was the 2 bar reversal after a pullback to the VWAP. It was also a VWAP gap bar. Price passed it creating a gap, then it completely reversed that move back to the VWAP.
Entry price is 1 tick below signal bar, entry price is important because it determines where the stop is and where the target is and helps to determine the R:R for the trade. If I cannot get an entry that provides a decent R:R then the trade is not valid.
All of the indicators and everything I do is in the quick summary of my journal. Please do not get distracted by the chart.
Can you now explain your logic and how you managed your trades on your "Long at 61 at 12h09, EXIT at 61.25 (Stop (used a trailing stop)) " trade.
Ok I need to be as detailed as you are when it comes to journaling but this was based on my weekly pivot setup.
simply price came down and hit the weekly pivot, and I believe TICK hit -500 , so I decided to be bullish....
cant remember my exact trigger, but I am sure it was when the tick crossed over its 10EMA after hitting -500 ( I think) then I probably set a buy limit at the 10ema (remember this is 5min, as requested by Josh, and do most of my business on the 1min).
It looks wierd on the 5min....but yeah maybe you are right the 2 tick trailer is not realistic.
Sorry this was a while ago......so not sure what my mindset was on that day.
And here is an issue you need to work on. Be more detailed in your journal. Look to gather info about the entry, management, and exit of the trade. Also capture what you were thinking and feeling during the trade. I also like to write down what happen after I exit. Did it continue, fail, etc.
I see you have some logic in entering the trades, that is good. You need to work on determining an exit. Once you know e entry and exit, the management will be easier. (I am still working on that myself).