Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I try to use non trading days to learn something....or to simplify or to solidify something I've been working on....and I've done all three today.
1. Decided to incorporate an RTH 5M chart. Turns out there are a few valuable uses for an RTH chart..... Mainly directional filters and potential chop identification vs a globex chart.
2. Solidified a couple of issues I've been having with where to take profits. This will be much more systematic from now on. In other words, instead of guessing or using my panic mode to take profits, I'll be using pre-determined profit locations. More on this later.
3. Simplified my entry chart a bit more. Not much mind you, just a little. But each incremental reduction in the amount of required input necessary for a trading decision the better.
None of these are things you should decide on a trading day. Rather wait until you have or take some down time (I call these "Buffer Days" and they should be planned into your schedule each month) to think each item through and decide without the pressure of the market intruding on your rational thought process.
Lastly clarified issues related to trade location, number of trades available per day with regard to my trading rules and set ups and rearranged my chart locations slightly.
Looking forward to the remainder of the week.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
This is not something I traded, just validation of what I've been thinking and working on.....turns out it was a decent day to have traded but that's the way it works out....regardless, I'm glad I took the day off to work on a few things.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
I like the revisions made to the charting setup yesterday. Easier to read.....in fact the easiest trade of the day I passed on because it looked TERRIBLE at the time...but I did see it in real time.....its just something I've NEVER done before and is what is right vs what is comfortable.
The "normal" trades were a bit more difficult. For one thing, I recognize how far away from the actual resistance line we were when I took the trades, secondly I also knew the first one was a bit early and the next two were reminiscent of the one I passed on just in the middle and working with a potential weak resistance zone.
There may be more trades later today but I'm done at least for a little while. Gonna just sit and watch for maybe two more hours tops and see how price action flows today.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Tried to get and stay long in the pull back....should have been scalping....so had a couple small losers and scratches....then broke short, got filled on the pull back to resistance.....held to PZ2....
Also cleaned the chart up a bit....too many hand drawn lines.....the method works without all that although sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't.
Now I'm pretty tired and I haven't eaten yet. So I'm done with trading for the day.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Got some food in me, cleared my head and decided to try and add some value to the process here. This journal is supposed to do two things; 1. Help me stay on track, 2. Add value to the readers and get them to vote for me in the contest thread.
So adding value is the way to accomplish both objectives. With that in mind, I'd like to pontificate on today's price action.
Today was pretty typical in terms of price action. A head fake higher out of the ORH....and then a couple of bars back and forth and then the impulse move down....followed by a pull back to the break out zone and then continuation short. SO far so good.....its 6:05AM and I'm fresh and patient. No issues with waiting and waiting. Just sit there and see how price sorts itself out.
Take the trade, hold to the first profit zone. I had designs on the lower profit zones but once price stalled at the first one, a deep pull back is almost guaranteed. So trail out and wait for the next set up.
This is where it gets dicey. Starting to get hungry now, patience is a little thin, more in the mood for instant gratification.
Got a long on the 800T chart. This is ok, just have to be aware of the HTF. For this reason, I traded small size, small stops and BE pretty fast....which led to a bit of chop in the pull back areas.
However, once the pattern completed, a new short following the pattern of the first one is in order.....which played out nicely. As I write this, I have left a ton of money on the table. I took profit at the PZ2 only to see it collapse to PZ3 and further.
As a trader, I executed ok today....BUT the patience issues set in while I was hungry and I admit I had a bit of fear of giving any back....but each trade stands on its own, regardless of what the PnL is.
So the value add from this is simple.
1. If you have an edge and you can recognize it real time, then only execute on that edge. Leave everything else to someone else. Its all the in between trades that rob you of mental and financial capital.
2. If you have some sort of reasonable way to project profit objectives, stick to them. More often that not, those will play out in your favor if you are patient.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
I saw the shorts happen but to be honest, after the sell off yesterday, another 2 dollars overnight I was expecting some sort of pull back today.....so I passed on the initial shorts and of course they ran 70 ticks or so, then I thought maybe I was wrong and went short on the pull back.
This failed pretty quick (BE) and I knew it was over for the shorts in the near term. Besides, while I was sitting there, price took out the swings to the long side, then rolled over and took out the lows and bounced pretty hard....
Since the London session was mostly flat to long, I figured longs would be the way to go especially at or after the open. With the gap nearly 100 ticks away, seemed reasonable to look for longs.
At the open, things heated up pretty quick and I just jumped in....and it went straight up.....I had planned on adding to the trade but it never really pulled back enough to get a second position on. So while it was a great trade, it wasn't with full size. To bad.
Not sure if I'll trade much the rest of the day. Will have to see something pretty compelling at this point to make me want to take further risks today.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris