Hey everyone.

I'm very excited to be starting my trading journal. I've spent a lot of time lurking over the past month, reading other journals and watching some of the webinar's, and I've been liking what I see, so the next step is of course to join the community

I'l do a quick intro before I post my first entry.

My name is Conall, i'm 30 years old and I live in Dublin, Ireland.

I got my first taste of trading through the cryptocurrency markets, and became very interested in traditional markets as I started to learn the basics of technical analysis.

I'm an IT analyst/systems and infrastructure administrator, and Ive got a keen interest in logical systems and automation.

If trading pans out for me, the dream is to be able to start my own trading firm. I'l be able to build out my own infrastructure and dabble in programming too ,so it feels like the perfect fit.

I'm studying for a degree in computing & software development part time, should be done end of 2019.

Outside of this i'm also studying:

CMT Level 1 (exam booked for end of december)
Easylanguage for algotrading (Reading the putt book at present)

I think that's enough for now, but ask me questions if there's anything you are curious about and i'l add the best questions to this post :-)

I commenced the Earn2Trade Gauntlet on 29/10/18 , but today is my first day trading it properly due to study obligations.

As I am based in Ireland, I can only trade the last 2 hours of the session (7pm to 9pm local time).

Instruments

I plan to scalp the ES, NQ and RTY. I was gonna do YM instead of RTY, but sadly I don't have the datafeed required. RTY is a new instrument for me.

Strategy
I mostly do small momentum plays, look for box breakouts, identify trends with MAs etc. My setups aren't fully developed in my eyes, but they are a starting point.


Indicators I use:



RSI & MACD - I look for confluence or divegences between this and what's going on on the charts.
ATR - I use this to manage stop sizing and also to decide whether a market is too choppy to trade.
RSqueeze - gives me a headsup of volatility crushes. Can be the sign of a big surge in momentum. I may cut this , as I'm aware it works best on long timeframes. For now, it stays.


Others:
SupDemZones - map Supply and demand zones on chart. has some value, but i'm not well practices in using it.
OpeningRange - I draw and refer to the open range and premarket when deciding on my targets and levels. I generally draw the levels that interest me most on Renko charts as below.
Market Profile - Order flow for identifying possible changes in momentum, identifying zones where longs or shorts get trapped.


I am currently writing basic algorithms while I learn easylanguage (and hopefully ninjascript as I know some C# fundamentals). Gomi's tools excite me :-)

Stops and Targets

I implemented a new stop and profit target system (messed up an entry because of it , but it was worth it once I figured it out)

Currently I'm using a two target stop, with an entry of 2 contracts, all-in/scale out.

Target 1: 8 tick stop, 12 tick target
Target 2: 10 tick stop, 15 tick target

I will adjust my stops before taking a trade based on the average True Range to prevent getting stopped out too much. Once target 1 is reached, I take profit from 1 contract. If it makes sense to do so , I will move my remaining stop closer to, or At breakeven.

I'm not completely sold on the tick targets at present, I wanted to make sure my profit targets were realistic. As such I decided to use the renko charts to decide on levels and targets (forgot about renko altogether, I think I'l be using it as part of my normal process.)




The blue X was a mistaken entry while I was setting up my two target stop for the first time. Took an effective scratch.


I kept an eye on market footprint while deciding whether to enter positions. This is a new tool to me, and I'm inexperienced in using it (finding it hard to find good reading/viewing on the topic, any links would be great). I plan to review it during sessions, but I may not generate many trades from it. My main aim with it is to try and discern where shorts and longs may be under water based on the drawn levels. I think I may need to spend a session or two without entering trades and just observe levels and compare with the footprint and write out my thoughts until I'm confident enough I can do it during the trading day. I think that could be great.




Today's Balance is : +$199.32. I'm very conscious how much of my profits were eaten by fees today, so I need to consider moving up a timeframe and entering fewer positions. I guess I can knock $25 off the fees for the messups with setting up the 2target stops earlier though , but still pretty bad.
My aim with this trading style is to reduce my cost basis (theoretical avg price), but maybe it's not worth doing this entry style on such short timeframes.




Good things:
Closed out my shorts at opportune times
Made some OK entries based on divergence and momentum (as a beginner I'd call this a win).
Made this journal entry! :-)

Bad things:
Did not consider shorting at 2740.75 at 8pm (dismissed it without thinking it through due to bull Squeeze signal on Rsqueeze indicator) <I must not rely on indicators to think for me>
lost a lot to commissions

Thoughts:
I should probably create a reading list and update it regularly as to what i'm reading/have read :-)

That's all for now, Its 10:14pm now as I write. Time to grab a beer and play Dota. Peace out.