you have a steady roll going. these are just for reference in case there's something in there that might suit your trading style at some point down the line.
I did a lot of BULL fighting today but came out victorious. I came out ahead at $73 net with mostly short trades. But had I cheered on the bull instead of the "short" speared matador, I would have probably had $250. Funny, but I started out the day thinking "They are going to take this sucker long." But then I fought them. I still have a lot of mental work to do in this game. What is my problem? Isn't 2 more trillion $$$$$$$ in stimulus just passed on Friday enough to get this market going? Congress stealing our money can't fix the stinking virus. And the Fed can't cure it. And I think earnings will totally SUCK this next quarter. But I have to trade in the here and now. I have to trade what I see ALWAYS. I should have been long all day.
Today had the smallest range (it appears) in about 4 weeks. I welcome it. AMP reduced their commission a bit too. I only ended up with about $60 today on the smaller range with the MES, but that is okay. It may be time to try to trade with 2 contracts again with lower volatility. Even if the amount is about 1% of the account balance, this is much better than negative 1%! I will take it.
The major moves are back! I got some shorts and then some longs. Fortunately I did not stay long as this market tanked again from 2508 down to 2453. Wow. Today is one of my best days so far at around $200.
These are my mostly long trades just after the open yesterday. I try not to trade during the first 5 min while the market establishes a direction, but yesterday the initial direction seemed pretty clear. Of course the bears took over a little later, and wouldn't let go for the rest of the day. (Most recent first) I had one of my best days so far yesterday, with a net gain of $235. The 3 day avg ATR is dropping, so my stop is going to be tighter. Today is will be 17 max MES ticks, but again I will try to get out the moment I feel my edge is gone. 17 is the emergency stop. And if things get really nasty on my P&L for the day, my "walk away" point is -$241.
About -$180 today. The oil deal announcement did me in. I was on the wrong side on the way up, and then finally I got long only to be told, "Sorry Bud, you missed out. Tell you what I am going to do--I am going to graciously allow you to contribute to my retirement account. Thanks. You are so generous!" Well, we were all over the place today! After the first run up, the speed was a bit better than most recent days, but I just couldn't make things work. If I had to sum of trading it would be "1. Decide if there is a trend or a range. 2. Go with the trend or fade the edges in a range." I did neither well today. So much red today!! So many times I was long when I should have been short, and short when I should have been long. But tomorrow is another day. (most recent first)