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This journal is to document my progress towards attempting to try out for the TST combine in future months as many other members here have done. This phase will be a practice account, and this journal has been started due to the awful mess I made of the first few weeks, in the practice account and a need to document my trades formally and indeed publicly so that I can review and amend as appropriate. And to bring discipline back to my trading which has been very absent recently.
This journal will be a trade journal and will be a supplement to a historic journal which was intended to document the path to this point here:
Well what can I say I have just spent the last few days going over some of the extensive materials on this site and hats off to Mike for the putting this together, and for keeping things well controlled!
Hats off too to the members in here …
I was gob-smacked when I went back to get the link for that and realised I had not shared my progress since October last year!! My bad!! And the excuses for that will be posted there separately!!
This is also supplementary to the business plan I wrote and have started to implement which was drawn up on the back of the bad few weeks. The plan for anyone that wishes to look over it is here:
As for this – I have no idea how long it will take to get to the level of consistency I require of myself before I even try the combine and of course any feedback from the “old hands” at any time would always be welcome!
The plan is to post every day where trades are made with the day type analysis and initial thoughts, along with individual trades (where I remember to screen shot them!) with rationale and a good points v learning opportunities that the day has provided.
My next post will be the analysis and trades from today.
Wish me luck!!
Graeme
Never stop learning - never stop applying the knowledge.
Actually – before I post the trades I think some “full disclosure” is required as clearly confession is good for the soul!!
Just to show how messed up things were I have posted the TST trade reports for the first two weeks:
And for the second account up to the point where I realised I HAD to stop the rut and get a grip!!
Expectation of a range type day as described below:
First Trade
I failed to use “snagit” but it was a long taken at 1543.25 off yesterday’s low with little selling showing in the volume footprint. This was pretty much broken straightaway and I then expected a test of the “virgin” VAH as described above so exited @1541.75 expecting a better lower entry.
Second Trade
Was a long taken at 1540.25 as shown in the images below:
This trade was exited way way way too early for all the wrong reasons at 1542.00:
Third trade
By now I had convinced myself that my initial analysis was wrong and that a test of the falling VWAP would lead to a continuation of the down move and new lows so short 1543.00:
The exit was simply based on the price action as below – and of course another change of mind back to my original range theory!
Fourth Trade
A Switch over to the Euro now – Clear downtrend for the day and a pullback that hit consolidation at a previous swing low and recent consolidation at the same area – then a break out down entry short 1.2857.
The tightening of the stop in that trade proved right and prevented a 30 tick move against which would have meant my initial 15 tick stop would have been hit.
Fifth Trade
Was a test or so I thought of the VPOC as shown below entry short @ 1.546.75
Again price shoved straight through the VPOC which invalidated the set up and I exited at 1.48.50.
So three losses and stop for the day – so sayeth the trading plan!
Lessons from the day:
1/ Believe in myself – as is so often the case my pre-trade analysis was not bad – it did turn into a range day although price did not make my expected high target of yesterday’s close.
Trade 1’s exit was appropriate to plan because I expected a re-entry at better value.
Trade 2 - Had I believed in myself and not allowed the daily noise to whisper in my ear, then trade two would have been the trade of the day, as allowed to run it would have been exited as soon as we saw the double top at today’s pivot at 1549.25 which would have been a structurally important point which would not have been ignored!
Trade 3 – The exit on this was good based on the price action which is the converse of the above point – BUT – the trade idea and location was flawed and I was suckered in by the noise whispering to me!
Trade 4 – This was a logical trade and exited correctly taking account of price action.
Trade 5 – whilst the exit was logical I really should not have taken given the proximity of the pivot point. Had I not done so then I could have carried on trading – and we know what happened when price got to the pivot point!!
Overall I am surprisingly relaxed about today. My principle objective since the disaster in the first few weeks is all about managing risk which was achieved. However I must learn to accept my initial analysis and only deviate if the initial premise is structurally beached.
I appreciate this is a long post – but it is important to me to be detailed in my thoughts for future review – I do hope though that I can improve on the way I use snagit it to produce more consolidated images to save space!
Any comments welcome!
Graeme
Never stop learning - never stop applying the knowledge.
Expectation of a range type day for ES and possible downtrend for 6E as described below:
First & Only Trade – ES short at 1554.75 as per analysis. Traded several times at 1555 but no fill so accepted one tick lower. Stop placed at 1557.75 which is above high and normal ES rotation so if reached I am very wrong in my analysis! Target at 1551.50 so more or less 1:1 risk/reward. Depending on progression – if goes into profits then I will be watching the developing TPO VAL low and Volume VAL for potential early exits. As this may well re-test the highs I cannot adjust the stop in at this point.
UPDATE Oh well just under two hours and stop hit. But small loss and fully acceptable.
Lessons from the day:
1/ Despite the loss this was a good day. Made a plan and traded it. For now I would rather trade the plan and build my discipline than fiddle with the trade. This will lead to a much more accurate review of trade performance and that is vital to the longer term.
2/ The euro only hit my sell location with less than an hour to go until the forced close with TST so I did not feel there was enough time to get anywhere near my targets so passed on the trade. This proved correct as at the time I needed to be flat price would have been exactly at the entry price!
Any comments welcome!
Graeme
Never stop learning - never stop applying the knowledge.