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Big Mike's challenge made me think of finally getting into it and starting the journal.
THIS IS GOING TO BE A JOURNAL OF MY PAPER TRADES, as I am still in the beginning phases of trading.
I plan to start the journal on Monday, March 5.
Meanwhile, attached is a snapshot of my everyday pre-market analysis for the next trading day that I regularly post on Stock Twits, Twitter and Facebook.
It can be seen in it that I use Gom indicators (Elite section) and the chart setting is fully inspired by L2ST value based trading.
(Please note that I am not their member or used any of their products, just read all their blog posts and seen the videos. I do not trade their setups as in fact I am not sure what exactly they are.)
My strategy is based on trading from support and resistance levels (defined on previous day) in the direction of "least resistance".
"Least resistance" in my terms is defined as supply/demand development shown in bid-ask numbers in the volume ladder. In short, either the selling/buyng dries out or the "supply meets demand", the bulls or bears are trapped and thus the stop-losses and psychology works in my favor.
Attached you can find examples of the setups described above.
My first trading day is over.
My first trade is over.
Following my pre-market analysis, I had a few S/R areas marked in my chart to indicate where to look for setups.
Rarely does it happen (according to my backtest) that there is a signal in "pre-market" hours, or more plainly, during the first bar.
This situation occured today but I did not take the trade.
Following that first mistake another mistake followed. I took a trade which did not have any clear signal and was opposite to my first intention.
MY MISTAKES were caused:
1) by fear
2) by wanting to be right
MY SUCCESSES TODAY:
1) As soon as I fully realized what I have done (still in the trade), I managed the loosing trade well and closed it before my initial SL was hit (8 ticks).
2) I did not take any impulse trades, despite that I wanted to .
Since I trade only during the first four hours of trading, I did not take any more trades.
AFTERTHOUGHTS:
It was a big lesson today, even though only confirming what I already know about myself. I need to work around my need to be right and around my fear to pull the first trigger. I have to remind myself that it is a probabilistic game and that I am able to manage the trade.
Even though my first trade ended up in loss, it was sheer joy to learn about myself and I am looking forward to trading tomorrow. And by the way, I did a recording of my trade (too large a file for posting anywhere, besides it is in Czech and private ).
On the attached snapshot it can be seen that I took four trades today, which is the maximum trades that my trading plan allows per day. I also reached my target loss of 5% FOR A WEEK. In case of live trading, I would go back to paper trading.
Since this is a paper trading journal, I am still learning and today the lesson was really valuable, I, of course, will continue to trade.
Trade #1
Screatched - BE. Shorted the first (open) bar correctly, scratched the next bar out of mere fear and uncertainty even before the bar closed.
Trade #2
I assumed that the market could close the opening gap so I entered on the next setup. The setup was MORE OR LESS correct, however I did not manage the trade well even thoug I could see that it did not develop into what I expected and I let the stop loss to be hit.
Loss: 8 ticks per contract
Then, it seemed that I completely forgot to short
Trade #3
The setup was not clear enough, I took it despite of that. I did not manage it well again as I let it hit the stop even though I could see it was not developing as it should (hope and preyers are useless here ).
Loss: 8 ticks per contract
Trade #4
It was a nice setup and around a quite strong S/R area. However, with approaching noon, I knew there was going to be some chop. This trade was just sort of "out of fun". I secretely wished it would go my way but I was not granted that wish.
Loss: 8 ticks per contract
LESSONS LEARNED:
Areas to work on (weaknesses):
Fear again
Fighting the trend
No trade management today (maybe after the first mismanaged trade)
Entry on unclear setup
What to do:
I do need that checklist for the morning (have it in my trading plan, still not ready).
I do need to define my setups more precisely.
I am still learning and I like the way delta was developing today. I spotted a few things to notice in my next trades.
Greetings to you, too .
My efforts are just starting, I am at the very beginning and even after the first three days I have piles of stuff to learn!
Thanks for your support.
Trade #1
I entered the first trade based on a very clear signal. I managed to live through several heats but was too greedy and did not close the position at my previously determined target. I managed only to move my SL to BE+1.
Result: +1 tick/contract
Trade #2
This trade was rather wrong. I forgot that I do not trade from that area unless there is a clear trend which there was not. I scratched it.
Result: -6 ticks/contract
LESSONS LEARNED:
Either stick to 2 contracts to be able take the first profit target and than manage the remaining contract, or adjust my trade management. However, that will come only with experience (watching and understanding what the market is doing).
I realized today that it is no good to trade overexhausted.
So much of special concentration to which I am not used to takes its toll. I guess I need to accustom. But I do not give up.
Three trades today, all of them losses, all of them stop loss hits. The last one was managed a bit, I moved my SL closer because of the price action and cumulative delta behaviour.
The losses webe a bit smaller since I made some adjustments to my entries which seems to be working.
There is no need to summarize each trade separately. I did not focus very well today on the charts and completely forgot to follow the bigger picture. In fact I completely forgot the basic principles of the market auction and instead concentrated on pure signals.
I reformulated my morning checklist. Am preparing a summary of this week which I intend to post on weekend.
Today I am posting early as we are going dancing tonight .
I was ready to both sell and buy the market today.
Trade #1
First opportunity came during the first bar, third bar only confirmed it. The first contract hit my profit target, I managed the second contract and as soon as I saw quick buyers coming into the market, I closed the second contract and entered a buy order, however was not filled. I stopped trading afterwards as the market slowed down and did not give me any more reasonable signals before noon. I trade only till noon.
1 trade: 17 ticks profit.
LESSONS LEARNED:
Fast market requires fast reaction. I am glad I did not think too long... Maybe I got a glipse of "stay tuned to the market" state.