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Background: I am a fairly new investor/day trader, and have been studying various markets for about a year. I began focusing on the ES futures market around 4-5 months ago. I have demo traded and live traded some, but for now am sticking to demo trading to build confidence and experience before continuing forward live.
I will be day trading the ES using PATS style of trading (I see there are other members in the elite forum who have traded/are trading this style). I am new here but have seen this as the best legitimate resources for trades, and feel it's in my best interest to get involved. I will be using this thread as a daily journal to discuss my thoughts on the market, the trades I have taken and likely a snapshot of my chart.
The plan will begin as follows: Aim to make between 2-4 points a day. I will start with a baseline of 2 points/day, and possibly open up some if the market conditions align. I will trade 2 contracts, scalping out one position at 4 ticks profit, and allowing some flexibility with the other (runner, or scalp, dependent on market).
I welcome all encouragement as well as criticism, assuming its constructive. I am new, and know I will make mistakes. I will use this journal as a tool to sharpen my skills over time as well as force me into the public eye. I like the idea of publicly sharing my journey, as it will force me to stay disciplined and focused, else be scrutinized by the masses. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
READY GO!
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
If anyone does decide to follow this, let me know your thoughts on this posts layout. If it's not clear I will try to change it around to make it easier to read and understand.
Notes for the day: I had an appointment this morning and didn't get home until 11 AM. I don't always like to trade later into the day, but I figured why not today as I knew I would be starting this journal. When I arrived home I found prices were trending downward and holding nicely in a channel. I took two trades today, and I will briefly discuss below.
Chart:
i.imgur(dot)com/HrkryAW.png if you'd like to see my chart.
** Sorry I can't embed images until I reach 5 posts (this is post #2). **
Trades:
Trade #1: 1 Contract, Short
Time: 11:25 AM
Type: Pullback second entry short with trend
Outcome: +4 ticks (scalp)
Notes: Prices broke my trend line briefly, but the price action showed rejection to the upside, leading to a 2nd entry short at EMA and trend line. I may have been able to get in at a better spot, but wanted to wait for the short term trend line to break. Also, I had a poor exit here as you can see on the chart. I only had one contract in this trade and would have scalped and attempted to exit the other around my support line. I let this run a bit and had an absolute stop at my scalp limit. Will be changing to 2 contracts from here.
Trade #2: 2 Contracts, Long
Time: 1:04 PM
Type: See note / LOTD below
Outcome: +4 ticks (scalp), +3 ticks (runner)
Notes: I took this trade too early, to be honest. Prices popped up and settled above prior resistance. I got in at the first entry. Got stuck in some congestion but prices began breaking higher so I stuck with it. I don't usually use pivots but I was playing around this afternoon and threw it up on my chart, and low and behold prices were just reading R1. I only got 3 ticks on my 'runner' as I could see prices were stalling at R1, but I should have been able to grab a few additional ticks. Don't know if I'll keep the pivots on my chart, but I may use them from time to time.
Net profit/loss:
+ 11 ticks (+2.75 points) = +$127.50 before commission
Lesson of the day (LOTD) :
I would like to use this part to discuss what I feel were my mistakes I made, and lessons I learned throughout the sessions. Today, I want to emphasize the lack of waiting for the 2nd entry on our move up. Prices did present a 2nd entry (immediately following a 2nd entry short failure) that began the move upward. If I had waited for this I wouldn't have had to sit through congestion (which in my experience leads to anxiety trading live). Luckily the trade worked out, but luck isn't what this is about and something I need to pay more attention to.
** Sorry I can't embed images until I reach 5 posts (this is post #3). **
Trades:
Trade #1: 2 Contracts, Long
Time: 10:07 AM
Type: 2nd entry long (pullback to EMA)
Outcome: -14 ticks
Notes: Price broke out of the upward channel I had drawn, and I was looking for a retest or move to a new high. Waited for the 2nd entry, but failed to wait for a CLOSE outside of the short term trend line. Barely stopped out before prices turned where I expected. A bummer to lose this one but it seems I was on the right track here.
Trade #2: 2 Contracts, Long
Time: 10:53 AM
Type: 2nd entry long (pullback to EMA)
Outcome: -14 ticks
Notes: A similar situation as the first trade. As you can see the on my chart I was seeing a possible spike and channel. I again got in on a 2nd entry, but did not wait for a close outside of the short term trend line. In hindsight there were many clues about this trade I should have picked up on (trend likely losing steam after the channel break and retest, 2nd entry failure w/ no trend line break, weak rejection off EMA)
I've changed my chart since then, but I had a possible channel working upward (spike & channel) that became invalid once price broke and sold off.
Net profit/loss:
-14 - 14 = -28 ticks (-7 points) before commission
Lesson of the day (LOTD) :
Well despite feeling like I read the price action sufficiently, I again was too eager and left out parts of the strategy, showing a lack of discipline. Also along the same note, I did not set a hard gain/loss target daily, and know I need to implement this to minimize losses.
Adjustments:
1. When looking for a second entry (or otherwise), be sure trend lines (both short term and longer) are drawn correctly and we have a BREAK of the trend line (CLOSE of bar) and possible retest. Also stop placement has been troublesome, being just barely stopped out of would-be winners.
2. Need to develop proper daily gain/loss target, either in points, or number of trades taken. Hard to say at this point, but likely will go with a point based target.
3. Become more comfortable taking trades before market open. I've seen multiple setups occur before 9:30 EST but I've been hesitant to take ANY of them. Will look to take good setups earlier in the AM.
End Notes:
Well today played out poorly due to mistakes on my end. I stopped trading after the 2 losses. I still have a hard time 'hanging it up' early in the day after a string of losses since there's so much market time left, but know that usually the day ends worse when I stick around, so tomorrow's another day.
I must get better with trend lines, breaks (bar close) and retests for trade entries, at this is a big component in taking a trade vs sitting out. Along with this I need to work on stop placement. PATS strategy uses a max of 2 points, usually tightening to 2 ticks under the entry bar. Fixing my entry points should help my stop placement issue. Still a long road ahead
I didn't get home until about 11:30 AM so I didn't get much of a chance to trade Friday, but I did hop on for about an hour. Unfortunately I missed some very nice moves earlier in the day, but I was able to get into a trade and grab some points quickly.
Chart:
Trades:
Trade #1: 1 Contract, Long
Time: 11:56 AM
Type: Pullback to EMA with trend
Outcome: +13 ticks
Notes: When I got home and hopped on I saw prices had been trending up consistently all day. Hopped on long with trend after a pullback to the EMA and caught all of the move. I didn't wait for a second entry here because price action was very obviously upward and we were seeing rejection at the EMA and prices continued to hold in the channel all day. I switched over and traded this on my live account.
Net profit/loss:
+13 ticks = 3.25 points before commission
Weekly Net: -1 point (since the start of this journal)
Lesson of the day (LOTD) :
I just wish I was home earlier to trade more of this day. Also, I should have stuck around as other opportunities presented themselves, but being a busy weekend I was just glad to end it on a good note.
End Notes:
After a very slow June it's nice to see the markets picking up in volatility and movement. Thank you Q2 earnings. Hoping for more days like this.
I don't trade PATS-style, but I appreciate it and view the charts that the PATS guys are posting.
I have a suggestion, and believe me, I'm not being paid by @Big Mike to say this: it might be well worth your while to spring for the cost of an elite membership. I know it's some money, and of course it's up to you. But there are several price action journals in the elite section, and in some, several people are posting and commenting on charts throughout the day. You would get good feedback, and there's a lot of other stuff in the elite section also.
Obviously, it's your choice, but if you are going to do a lot of posting, it's a good place to be. Just my 2 cents, not trying to push you.
As far as the journal idea goes, yes, it's a good tool, for the reasons you stated.
I'll follow along, and if I have something worthwhile as a comment, I'll put it out.
Thanks Bob. I was looking into the elite membership and agree with you that it would be a good investment. Some point soon I will definitely be looking into this, I would love to be able to review charts with other traders throughout the day. I appreciate the advice and thanks for following!
I did not trade yesterday as a close friends family was still in town and I was spending time with them. They took off this morning to head home so I'll be getting back into the swing of things now. I may trade a bit today, but if not I will pick right back up tomorrow morning.
I got caught up with another job and ended up not taking any trades for the rest of last week. I did monitor the market a bit at the end of the week though. This week is shaping up to be similar in terms of work requirements, so I may still be a bit sporadic in posting.
Chart:
SIM TRADES:
LIVE TRADES:
Trades:
Trade #1: 1 Contract, Long [SIM]
Time: 9:53 AM
Type: Pullback to EMA in trend
Outcome: +4 ticks
Notes: This was an aggressive trade, made in SIM. Just after the first large impulsive move down, we began correcting and I got in with 1 contract to follow prices back to EMA. Not a trade I would take often.
Trade #2: 1 Contract, Long [SIM]
Time: 10:38 AM
Type: Failed 2nd entry
Outcome: +6 ticks
Notes: Second entry failure to the short side during correction at the EMA so I took the reversal (following the short term trend). In hindsight I could have held this all day, but what I was seeing on my chart at the time wasn't compelling for a hold. (Still presumed to have downward bias at that time and had not confirmed upward channel)
Trade #3: 1 Contract, Short [LIVE]
Time: 12:12 PM
Type: Small trap / failed 2nd entry short
Outcome: +1 tick
Notes: Saw this occur right after a failed 2nd entry long. Prices broke and moved about a point in my direction but struggled the whole way. Got out before prices moved higher.
Trade #4: 1 Contract, Long [LIVE]
Time: 2:49 PM
Type: 2nd entry long
Outcome: +4 ticks
Notes: Prices pierced through the trend so I wanted to be careful on the other end, but saw a nice 2nd entry that I thought would at least retest the support area we just pierced through. If I was trading more than one contract I would have scalped then moved stop to BE to see if this continued upward (as I am typing this it looks to be fighting higher).
Net daily profit/loss:
+17 ticks = 3.25 points before commission
Lesson of the day (LOTD) :
Though I feel I am getting better at reading the general price action, I am still having trouble capitalizing on the bigger moves. Only took 1 contract trades today looking to scalp so I'm not too worried, but something to take note of.
End Notes:
Read the price action pretty well today. Not well enough to get in on some of the real good moves, but well enough to avoid many bad situations that formed (traps, etc). Trying to mix in live trades to ease into the anxiety of live trades.
Hi, welcome!
I like the layout of your posts, it's clear and you give a lot of background info.
Trading just with channels and no indicators is what I'm doing as well at the moment.
I was looking at your negative day:
I am probably greener than you, but here I see a break of the channel with one full bear bar outside, this would have made me wary.
The trend then dips under the EMA, so I would expect a pullback and a retest of the extreme, which failed at first and developed into a double top (the four bars stopping at 1976) which sometimes signals either a reversal or a wedge. The second dip under the EMA makes a reversal even more likely.
Other than this you seem to be doing really well, so I wish you all the best.
As a happy customer I subscribe with @bobwest an elite membership was the best investment I've made, you'll find lots of info to help you with your trading.
