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Extremely poor start to the combine, -$479.44 for the day. The market started off choppy and I got caught trying to trade small movements rather than looking what the market was doing overall. I felt very anxious today and it felt like the fear of missing out was causing me to force trades.
Mistakes
Overtraded, trading on the 1 min time frame
Took trades without proper setups
Did not enter a protective stop, which led to stop creep
On the one trade that was in the proper direction for the day, my stop was too tight
Was too inflexible, looking for long trades after it seemed the downtrend was established
Wait until 08:40 CST to make my first trade
- Yes, I did wait until 08:40, but not sure this helped me any as I shorted at 17541, right before the market went higher. Market had made a previous low and had bounced a bit, so not sure why I decided to short near the lows.
Take only 2 trades per half hour
- Totally failed at this goal, as I ended up taking 21 trades in an hour and a half of trading.
Enter a physical stop on every trade
- I did this inconsistently, and one of the times I didn't do it, I got stuck and ended up trying to double down several times. This is what killed me.
Don't use less than a 3 or 5 min time frame to enter trades
- Also failed at this goal, and this would have helped prevent some of my overtrading today.
Try to use limit orders to get better trade location
- Another fail, I don't think I used a limit order once to enter a trade.
I misread the market and kept trying to short into of the first hour. I am having a hard time being flexible and trading what I see, rather being stubborn and sticking to one dea.
I feel very lost at the moment, and I don't feel I am giving enough though or doing enough analysis before I enter trades.
Goals for tomorrow
I will do a premarket prep, which I didn't do the past two days, and try to have a game plan before the market opens.
I am definitely still overtrading and trading my P&L. In order to limit this, I will take 3 trades maximum for the day.
The market did not get to my levels and I was prepared to not take a trade.
I did take one trade, however, when the market traded back down to the pivot, and I was able to make 25 ticks on the trade.
Even though I did not follow my plan for the day, I saw that most likely the market would not trade to those levels. I decided I would take a trade if the market traded back down to the pivot. When the market previously traded to the 17589 level, there was not much interest. I believed that this level would act as support and when I saw the candlestick pattern that was my confirmation.
I am satisfied with how I traded today, and hope to continue being selective with my entries.
I actually had a late start to the day and when I opened up my platform I saw that the market had gapped down, closed the gap and traded up to the pivot and made a double top at 17605. Once I saw the lower high on the 1 min and 3 min chart, I went short and got 20 ticks. I actually did not intend to use 2 lots on this trade, I didn't notice the default in my platform was 2 lots. I will have to adjust that back to 1 lot. I was lucky I it was not a loser.
After 1 positive trade, I thought about shutting it down for the day but continued to good movement. The market was in trading in a large range and there were a couple of opportunities that I thought about taking, yet did not. This annoyed me a bit, but I tried to keep calm and keep watching the market.
My plan was to short the market around 17600 if there appeared to be small volume/interest around that level. It traded up to 17599 and I believe the volume was around 80 at that level, vs several hundred leading up to that level. I went short at 17592 and hit my target at 17572 after taking some heat on a couple of pull backs.
I like that I have only 3 trades the past two days, even though I missed some good opportunities. I don't find it hard to stop trading for the day after a win or two. It's after I have 2 or 3 losses in a row where I have problems and I start to revenge trade.
Thanks for sharing your Combine journey with everyone. It takes courage, and I wish you well. Hopefully I will see your name on TST's lists of recently funded traders in the near future.