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Firstly, thank you @ bobwest for your kind words. It's good to know that I'm not alone in the struggle
Keeping this journal helps me to maintain self-discipline and after half-month time I can already see that
I'm a much better loser than before. It's easier for me to stop trading when emotions take over, so losses on bad
days as yesterday are limited.
Since I started this journal my expectancy (counting this month) turned from negative to positive. That gives me hope
that I can improve even more.
Anyway, yesterday wasn't a good day for me mentally. Maybe I should not trade at all, as my focus was on problems outside trading.
Still, I tried to keep right frame of mind and take some trades.
trade28info
Here I took a trade instead of waiting for a right spot to enter with better trade location.
trade28entry
trade28exit
trade29info
I could have a little wider stop in this one.
trade29entry
trade29exit
Couple of minutes after hitting a stop loss the price went down.
trade30info
trade30entry
trade30exit
Lack of patience to stay in position resulting from lower confidence in a trade.
I didn't wait for all the elements to be in line with each other.
trade31info
trade31entry
trade31exit
I was acting on emotions in the last one - chasing the price as it moved
in direction of a trade I closed before. I'm glad it did stop me out so the incorrect behaviour
wasn't rewarded.
During these couple of days I've reviewed my recent trading and decided to increase position size.
I will trade 4 MES contracts. I want to find out if I can keep up trading with positive expectancy and
have a real shot at passing step 1 of Trading Combine this month.
I thought it will be easier for me to left one contract running after I cashed in a profit, but to be honest
it wasn't easier. I probably need more experience to accept risk of giving profit back, when there is
a good chance of even better payout.
After that I had a problem to execute a trade as I wasn't entirely sure about market direction.
There were couple of occasions that my intuition told me to take the trade and after
that price moved in the right direction. But I was just sitting and watching.
I felt that the tension in me is rising and one time I entered a trade without clear signal, but I scratched it 13 seconds later (that's one of the rules I commited to apply).
scratch trade
I wish everyone a great New Year and excellent trading results!
Yesterday was quite difficult for me. In the first 3 trades I got the direction wrong.
When I thought it would be a continuation it was reversal.
When I thought it would be a reversal it was a continuation.
I lost some confidence and took a trade with smaller size and then I got it right.
trade2info
trade2entry
trade2exit
trade3info
If I've gone long it would be a perfect entry. Instead...
trade3entry
trade3exit
trade4info
trade4entry
trade4exit
trade5info
trade5entry1
trade5entry2
trade5exit1
trade5exit2
Here I need a better plan when adding to a position. The trade location should be better.
Basically after I've increased position I also moved stop loss to breakeven.
I think I didn't spend enough time to evaluate the context. After all it was an inside day,
so some back and forth moves were to be expected.
Today is a holiday day in Poland, so I didn't trade at all. Had less time, but I managed to
review my trades from yesterday.
I couldn't find the patience to wait for right setup to emerge. That resulted in taking trades
I wasn't entirely confident in and closing them at first sign of opposite price action.
My timing in entries was also not good. It was another neutral day, so it was crucial to wait
for the right re-test before entering a trade, so the proper R:R could be achieved.
trade6info
trade6entry
trade6exit
trade7info
trade7entry
trade7exit
trade8info
trade8entry1
trade8entry2
trade8exit
I was basically closing trades near to breakeven, because I thought that the
price action didn't give hope for continuation in direction of the trade.
trade9info
trade9entry
trade9exit
Here I waited for a spot to enter a short and when I missed it I couldn't help myself
but to chase it. It was punished quite quickly.
I waited for another entry, but that wasn't the right spot either.
trade10info
trade10entry
trade10exit
After that I stopped trading. I wasn't sure if I could take the right trade even
if there was an opportunity.
Unfortunately, at the beginning of last week I caught a virus infection and was off trading for several days.
Yesterday was the first day of trading since 05.01.2023.
I took the first trade early during european session.
trade11info
trade11entry
trade11exit
Not the best start, but at least there was a signal I followed without hesitation.
trade12info
trade12entry
trade12exit
I had a problem in waiting for this trade to play out. I expected more decisive move
to the 61.8% Fib level. That was why I eventually closed it too soon.
trade13info
trade13entry15m
trade13exit
Here I closed the trade at breakeven. The price action didn't look like going further down.
trade14info
trade14entry
Here I closed 2 MES to take half profit and let the rest run.
In the first trade I was looking for a responsive buying reaction as my hypothesis
was that the market will continue bracketing.
trade15info
trade15entry
I got good looking shakeout, but I didn't manage to get in a better trade location.
That's why I wanted it to be followed by an upward price action.
That didn't happen so I closed the position.
trade15exit
After that I switched to short in case there will be a re-test of the low and maybe
continuation lower.
trade16info
trade16entry
Quite quickly I closed half of the posistion.
trade16exit1
With the rest I decided to train myself to be more patient.
trade16exit2
There was some progress in how long I stayed in a trade that goes in my direction.
But on the other hand I wasn't tested much by the market (pullbacks were very shallow).
After open auction during first hour of the day I thought that it is less probable that it
would be another trend day. I was looking for a reversal type trade and therefore I tried
to enter with responsive buyers. Succeded after third try.
First two trades were done with only 2 MES, beacause I wasn't entirely sure that it is a good spot
to go long. Especially in the second one I had too tight stop loss.
trade17info
trade17entry
trade17exit
trade18info
trade18entry
trade18exit
After those 2 tries a more convincing picture formed itself on the chart.
That's why I entered with 4 MES.
trade19info
trade19entry
trade19exit1
trade19exit2
From then on I missed an opportunity to go long and also one signal to go short.
I guess I was tired and my decision making process got compromised a little.
After I entered a short there suddenly appeared fear of giving back profits and I just
couldn't think and act logically.
trade20info
trade20entry
trade20exit
I couldn't even wait for my stop loss to be hit and I got my lesson. If I hadn't closed the position
the price would approach the daily high but my stop loss wouldn't be hit and I could have
the best win for the day. I could add to position later as price move showed such opportunity.
If I want to succed I can't scratch trades only beacause I have problems with accepting loss that is
of perfectly fine size given the potential reward.
Friday (20.01.2023) and yesterday were a bit of a setback to me.
Most of the entries weren't bad, but my trade management was awful.
I couldn't focus and acted on fear.
I have to prepare myself better before the session and when I notice that's
I'm not in a mental state that gives me reasonable chance to stay in trades
I should adress that issue first. Then I could trade with more confidence.
Those days are always a lesson, but I'm concerned that I repeat the same mistakes.
However their impact is limited compared to the past. I decided to pay more
attention to self-assesment.
trade21info
trade21entry
trade21exit
Perfectly fine trade. I should just wait and see how it would play out.
I tried to outsmart myself after opening the position.
trade22info
trade22entry
trade22exit
After I've seen that the first trade would play out according to my plan,
and I wasn't able to profit from that... That's how mistakes start to pile up.
trade23info
trade23entry
trade23exit
Another example of my try to outsmart myself. Instead of going with the trend
I suddenly thought that one signal (I ignored the context) is enough for market
to change direction.
trade24info
trade24entry
trade24exit
Here I entered a trade on emotional impulse after I saw some price
action on relatively higher volume. It appeared to be in the opposite direction (the
upthrust on a candlestick with higher volume) so I closed the trade.
I have downloaded the worksheets from Jared Tendler's website.
I remember that I have used them 12 years ago when I played poker and
they were quite helpful. It's time to treat the mental aspect of trading with
more systematic approach.
Yesterday (24.01.2023) I was getting a lot of conflicting information from the chart.
VSA showed me signals in the middle of value area to go long, so I hesitated to take them
(and didn't after all). On the other hand, shorts didn't go to the VAL area so the consolidation
was quite shallow and I could take more profit if closed trades near VPOC.
In the first trade I also noticed my lack of patience.
trade26info
trade26entry
trade26exit
Second trade confirmed the validity of the first one.
