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Just as I was going to pat myself on the back for getting my sleeping schedule back on track, my alarm failed to go off today and I overslept -big time.
Received 6 signals today and acted on 2 of them. (Overslept on one and hesitated too long on 3).
Mistakes to avoid:
Not acting quick enough. If I decide to act on a trade signal, I need to do it quick, and not wait for a "better price" because the trade will take off without me.
Part of the hesitation is due to not wanting to lose money. However, the longer I wait to enter, the further away my stop has to be from the ideal place based on the setup -so I am actually increasing my risk.
I was very pleased, but extremely surprised that I managed to hold on to that short and not exit prematurely as I have been doing lately. My strategy should entail me being in trades for minutes or hours at a time and instead I have been scalping and jumping out of trades within seconds, happy to bag some tiny profits.
Need to do:
I have to get a new alarm clock before Monday.
Altogether there were 6 short signals today and 3 really crappy long signals.
I could only stay till 8:30am due to some appointments today, so I only took the first 2 signals. (The trades are described in the attached charts.) Actually if I did not use the 1 minute chart for timing my entries and exits, the 5 minute chart would have me stay in the first trade long enough to cover the second one as well and the result would have been almost the same.
I was glad, however, that I decided to go by the 1 minute chart because I hate seeing a trade go 40 ticks in the opposite direction.
Mistakes to avoid:
Do not avoid the yellow line on the bottom of the chart (circled). I should have exited when price bounced off the pivot and the yellow line stopped.
Need to do:
I really need to find some time to go over charts and study my signals.
Oh yes, decided to show you my 1 minute chart today.
Yes, thank you for the reminder, I have been thinking of just concentrating on trading my number one setup. It does not occur frequently, but it is worth to wait for when it does show up; especially considering how little I am acting on the other setups anyway.
This is why I feel I need to study my charts more often. I do have signals on my charts that look very specific, however, there are other things, like volume and pivot points, that I still take into consideration which make the signals "stronger" or "weaker." I would love to be able to say that this is the advantage of being a "discretionary" trader, but sadly in my case, additional variables complicate my decision (whether to enter or not) and indecision means in-action.
You know I have a suspicion that I do not have the necessary confidence in my method and that is why I am so often reluctant to enter on all of my signals. I will work on this over the next several weeks by going over previous charts. I should also learn to do some automatic back-testing. Thanks for your comment, good trading to you.
i like reading the updates to your journal, because i think the struggles you are working thru are very common to what ive been working thru.i have a friend, a trader, who got over the hump into profitability in july of 2010, and he has been extremely helpful to me.so many people have so many opinions, and at times, i got very off track.after regrouping, i found that i was angry, for letting this happen.i ended up realizing that i had to be very careful, with who i would "let in" to my world of trading, but just as important, what i would say to others.if you havent listened to big mikes webinar from saturday..definately do!! , he discusses , that there is no holy grail, and no perfect method.he emphasizes, that the method isnt the problem, there are many good ones.the key is the execution.it sounds like your entry signals are good, and you intelligently derive signals with a method you are using.i look forward to watching your future posts, because it seems to me you are closer than you think.
I forgot to post the attachment I had for you, which is my DOM. I watch it when I am thinking of entering a trade and the whole time I am in a trade, so that I know exactly what price is doing.
Often the DOM makes me (hold my breath and) forget all about the chart and scares me out of trades prematurely. I am calmer when I watch the charts.
Today, in CL, was exactly the kind of day that makes me wish I could stick to trading off the 5-minute chart completely. Oh well.
I did very well today.
Mistakes to avoid:
Do not sit at the computer for two hours straight after your last trade when nothing is going on. It's ok to take breaks or to end the day early once in a while, especially once in the green. The market had already moved almost 3 points, not sure what else I was expecting to happen.
I was thinking of waiting to start the day till after the report came out today, but decided not to only because I had an installation appointment setup for my new TV and Internet cable combo.
Mistakes to avoid:
Hitting the snooze button too many times. Only missed about the first 5 minutes of the opening, but considering I planned to stop early today, I should not be so lenient with myself.
If I am entering a trade, and I should have already been in that trade based on the 5minute chart, do not wait for the green signal and the most ideal setup. Enter as soon as favorable circumstances show up. (note to self: green EMA, pink signal & yellow is good enough)
Overall not a bad day -perhaps because I knew that I was going to be ending early, my focus did not falter.
Since I did so well yesterday with the shorter hours, I planned to only trade till 11:30am (2:30pm Eastern) today, but then ended up sitting there till 1pm anyway.
Even though I still hesitated often, I was very pleased with my entries today, because I managed to enter almost every position I attempted to get into -only one blew past me, which is really good for me.
Mistakes to avoid:
Do not let Volume fool you; if there is a high spike when an entry signal forms and then volume goes back down on the next candle, it does not necessarily mean that the trade signal is invalidated.
Did some work on my morning reminder document over the weekend and also studied my chart setups from previous week, including Friday.
Got up on time today, but took too long with morning preparations and getting the dog out etc., so I missed the first short entry signal. Then I missed the second long entry signal because I was organizing my office and didn't realize my volume (that notifies me of me of signals) was muted.
Normally, I try to watch the market during all regular trading hours, but today I took a break away from the computer between 9am Pacific Time and 10:20am and called it a day at 1:30pm. I would like to find a suitable time for me to take a break on a regular basis. Ideally I would go out with my dog during this time to get some exercise and to refocus.
Only two trades today. Entered both of them kind of late and perhaps because of that I exited at first hint of having to return profit.
Mistakes to avoid:
Not getting up on time to get to the computer up and running with necessary software by 6AM.
Forgetting that I can always get out if I enter a trade that goes nowhere or against me. Hesitating on pulling the trigger not only decreases the profit on a trade, but also increases the (stop loss) risk I have to take.