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Catching Big Waves - a trader's journal of surfing the the markets
I am not abandoning futures.io (formerly BMT), I really have grown to love this place. I always thought the last thing I wanted this to be was a trader's Facebook. But now, (sorry @Big Mike) it kind of has become something similar to me. So many other traders sharing their tips, trades, successes, failures. Where else could I go to find so many people in one place who share the same dream, have felt the same pain? Trading is only truly understood by a trader, and being understood feels good.
I am just referring to posting live trades, pouring out my soul on a regular basis, giving real time commentary. It helped me tremendously to see myself after I was done for the day, but there is enough of a pattern established for now. Maybe later if I feel the need. Tiime will tell, and I may some day come running back to journaling, or maybe have some breakthrough thought that I feel may give someone else the push they need.
But it's time to simplify, and documenting live trades, copying and pasting chart images while I am trying to trade... very distracting, breaks my focus, causes me to fear being wrong. Eliminating that part I believe will bring a greater calm.
I cannot describe how instrumental this has been in understanding myself. I started this when I thought I was finally onto something and just felt like sharing it, but also, I believed if I could put into words and pictures what I was doing it would help me to reinforce it in myself. What came later, after I had had enough of the instructional format, was not what I was expecting, but I saw that it helped me see some things, helped me get my thoughts out in a way that was constructive. And eventually allowed me to see myself in a way that can be difficult for one to do. We never see ourselves the same as everyone else does. But here, sometimes I was a stranger to myself, and I discovered I was able to learn from it.
The posts from other traders, that was the best part. Having people join in, saying I am not alone in how I feel, having people point out things I was not seeing, receiving feedback from people who do trade full time. I really never anticipated all that, and would have probably never asked for the advice I received, due to pride, or embarrasment, or just being stubborn, or shy.
I have lived "trading" 24 hours a day for the past 5 years. In the car, in the shower, in my sleep... and now seeing that level of intensity is missing the point. @researcher247, aka Hedvig, was like an angel from heaven (if you removed the foul language and the attitude), waking me up recently with his posts about "get a life!" I may have found that if I approach trading as a means to enjoy life, rather than consume it, it helps put it back into the realm of not caring so much. And I know, for me, when I care less, I trade better. The biggest moves I have had are when I just was curious to see what would happen. The smallest, when I worried about giving something back.
I have seen that sticking around with this journal open keeps me tied to a monitor, and watching the markets move causes me to stay fixed on the potential opportunity, which lasts from 6pm until 5:45pm, if I allow it. There are great times to trade, and horrible times to trade. Deciding when, and then moving on, makes a lot of sense.
I am sure I will still capture some trade images, that part is nearly painless. I do that much nearly on autopilot. But starting already, when it is time to trade, that is all I will do. Eliminate the "noise". Afterwards I might enjoy trade chat.
Roughly 6 weeks until phone always off, email always closed, door locked if I choose. And no hotels, unless I bring my own monitors.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
The exact confluence range was 77.73 - 78.07, but there is still that spike top that does not appear on the daily, extending the 100%app potential to 77.07.
I might actually be done for the day. Net 82 on easy size. Cocoa Beach surf 2-3', which seems high for summer. I don't know, never surfed. But I have been watching it.
It was a tough buy, about a minute into the pit open, which is a tough time for me, feels more like a leap of faith than a calculated trade.
After the potential of a 5WM completion, that further confirmed with a possible local DB overnight, I was wanting to buy at one of the 3 lines shown on the 6 range. Price never quite made it there, but close enough.
Those lines represented various areas in the 30 minute zone that in my mind offered the premium entry if direction was to be up.
My "buy ready" trigger was the arrow on the volume, but I was nervous about the pit open volume. I had bought 2 contracts and dropped them for a total 8 tick loss, but the entry would have been flawless had I not been afraid of it. The 9:01am bar of volume was where I jumped back in, and netted 84 ticks.
I then caught a second run with one contract for a daily net of 113 ticks.
I had a thought, that it is not really the edges of zones that I like to trade, it is the areas that have the biggest question marks. For example, was the a 5WM completion? Who knows, but if you were short, that might be a place to consider lightening up, taking some off, tightening stops, reversing position... Volume out of the open said if you were short, you had better start considering that possibility at least.
Where it goes from here could be $20 or $200. But for a moment in time, the direction was most likely up. I wish I knew how to backtest that by computer. It would keep me from feeling so intense with nearly every trade.
I like Hedvig's "one and done", and if I could ever get the balls to hold a trade, that buy before 9am with 4 contracts, WC target, and I would be set for the week. Some day. I am working on it, It just feels so good to be flat again.
