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So today I was dragged away from the screen to do some shopping at IKEA....
I was a little anxious to get back home to say the least. Should have known I was in trouble at that point.
So I sat down around 345 eastern time, cash session almost closed for the ES. But I forced it.
I found a trade that did not meet my rules and I pushed it....suffice it to say I lost.
I put in a sitting limit order at previous high, assuming if price hit this level, the volume would still be short and my sell would work. Price came to high, took me in the market and the volume profile I was trading on was gone! This should have been the signal for me to get the hell out...considering I did not wait to see if order flow changed at that point.
At one point I remember thinking...wow my volume gap is being filled fast, and Im one tick against me, maybe I should get out know and let the day pass....so what did I do? I said..well maybe it will turn around. Dumb fuck!
So after taking the loss I immediately looked back to see my entry and I could not see why I entered there.
Right after the opening One could see this was going to either be a quiet day or a trend up day.
Later in the morning, I had, well the market had a price volume discrepancy and I took full advantage of it.
Since the volatility was so low, I changed my regular 2:1 to a 1:1.
Risked 8ticks made 10ticks.
Some almost opportunities but I am not looking to hit every trade, just one great trade after another.
For the month now up 3.9%, not to far from my 5% goal for the month of March.
Tomorrow will be another day.
I am proud of myself for not forcing any trades today. I was able to sit back and wait for the opportunity to show its pretty head....waiting for my overalls!
And it has nothing to do with entry or exits, or stops, or indicators...
its risk management and having your winners larger then losers!
That is it!
Today was a slow ass day in the ES but I got my goal of one trade for a 3:1 RR. I risked four ticks going for the 12. This model enables me to be wrong 70% of the time and still end the month a winner.
At the end of the day I only care about being consistent. Not that every month will be a winner, but consistent in my trading, even when it goes bad. To not let emotion take my trades. All this is to one day attract more funds, so I can keep doing the same thing on a larger scale...and then I will have made it.
So I am going to run a little experiment for the month of April. I am going to hopefully prove that without a single indicator and just reading the tape, one can be consistent with proper risk and money management.
I will be trading a 3 tick stop, with 2 contracts. Target one is 4 ticks and then move stop to -2. Second target is 12 ticks.
Now I do not intend to hit the 12 target frequently, but even once a week is gonna be killer. The 4T targets will get hit a lot and I am only using them to balance out the losing trades. Considering a full loss is 6T and a full win is 16T; and contract 1 is a 1.33:1 and contract 2 is a 4:1; then I can sustain an accuracy rate of 27% and still be a winner in this game of legal gambling.
So my edge has nothing to do with the markets, charting package, discipline or the like....just good ol' execution.
Oh and one rule...I only trade this from 930 to 12noon.
I do know what I am looking for in the tape; it is not a "setup" or pattern, just some recognition. And its market generated so no lag lol.
I will be posting all trades with my practice runs Monday.
Since I am going to be trading a new method I am going to be going SIM for the Month of April. And my mentor ripped me a new one last night when I slipped I would be going real with this new method....so point taken home.
Instead of -2 on remaining contract I will be making it BE. There will be many times the market will knock me out on second contract and then take off but I do not care. If it does it may or may not offer me another opportunity to get in had I been early on previous trade.
Since preservation of capitol is number one rule, and second rule is refer to first rule then it is necessary I not trade on greed but on risk.
The first contract for 4T is to cover small losses over time and grab the tiny moves. The 12T contract should be knocked out most of the time. But I only need two or three of these a month to be king in my world. So bring it on Market.
I will be positing all results. Tomorrow should be exciting.
I am beginning to see that my "trading" is leaning more and more toward a mindset of a gambler. However, not blindly. I am always trading with a mathematical positive expectancy; and that is key in gambling math.
I have long left the idea of big gains each day/week/month. Now I just want to be able to consistently BE and then hit one or two +16T moves in the ES a month...thats right I said a month. Then over time just keep increasing the bank roll and thus the trading size without affecting the positive expectancy.
Todays stats:
6 TOTAL TRADES
2 FULL STOP LOSSES
3 BE (With means 1 contract was +4 and the second 0)
1 1:1 trade. I normally only do 3:1 but the ES was very slow today so I had to adjust to the market personality today. This is a game about monthly stats so one day does not matter...as long as one is wise with how they manage money.
Today left me with +4T. But again, I could care less because tomorrow I will either be up or down those 4 or 8Ticks. Its about the monthly numbers. I am planning on most days to keep me at BE and then the few 3:1 trades will pave the way to winnings.
Hope everyone had a kick ass day....
And would love to see people get away from indicators, fancy ways to plot the same info, ways to optimize etc etc....
and begin to REALLY focus on risk, money, and trade management. We are only playing a coin flip odds game; so why do you honestly think you can win?
I had my pre-market levels selected, all based on yesterday and overnight session, low volume areas that I felt would rotate price and I could fade.
Trade attached.
One of my levels for today was 1302. Price came down to it, and I waited till next price rotation to see the test. Price surpassed the previous down rotation BUT it was done on 1/4 the retail selling and 1/4 the institutional selling as compared to the previous down rotation...so I took the long on the next order flow transition which can be seen on my charts from red going blue or blue going red.
On my longer rotation chart it was giving a buy order flow transition at 1301.75 so even more conviction.
This was a 4T risk and 12T target. Sticking with a 3:1 model. Only one trade per day..so that was it!
Today I started a new trading rule.....from 930 to 12 I trade for 8T target and 4T stop; or I can keep it to 8 after 12pm only if it would be the first trade of the day.
After 12 I go to 4T risk 4T target. Since in general market movement has stalled out in the ES.
Today took someeeeeee time for the market order flow to let me know it was time to hop on board. It was hard to watch the AM run up and not be a part of it...but sometimes I catch em and sometimes I do not...such is life and it FINALLY does not bother me anymore.
Both long trades today; one for 8T and one for 4T; So a total of 12T for today. It was hard to trade at work and also not safe but its sim right now....at least till end of April until I feel better with my style.
I need some more "experience" to gain a better "understanding" of my edge (money and risk management) to turn into confidence.
Hope everyone is buying up this US debt that was sold today....scary stuff. Lets fire DC and start a new!