11/7 TUE Similar to yesterday, it's a busy day in the markets today. again, I didn't spend every minute taking bar-by-bar notes, because I didn't want to distract myself from structuring trades. there needs to be an EEG machine that reads and automatically transcribes my thoughts on each bar in real time. 5min exercise: es my rough process (WIP): I look for the nearest "complete" channel from the previous session(s) then I apply a market cycle analysis and trade each transition stage as relevant "setups" emerge. I am also working on a small but growing "encyclopedia" encompassing various cycle types. Usually, I trade intraday minor-channel-based cycles. In the past two sessions, I started to notice some changes in character. I think it may be appropriate to shift some focus to the 60min channel in the coming sessions/weeks. 5min exercise: gc it must be a fluke because I think gc has been beginner-friendly for a while lately. the only trap here that I think I would have fallen for in the early days is a PB-bear trap. there are reasons the day turned into a "never-ending" pb.
11/8 WED Interesting day. I thought I was decently in sync with the markets today. Mismanaged a few trades though. Most notably, around b26-28, I had exited a swing short from b16 to b23, planning to reenter on a trend channel line hit (bc b23 range expansion I was reasonably certain the market may retrace. <--trying to be cute, I should know it won't end well). At the same time, I was stalking a pb short in gc (I should've held a swing short overnight bc after settlement close yesterday I was fairly certain the HTF correction down was going to get a second leg, but I felt I was getting lucky in gc two days in a row so it can't be that easy on the third day...). I ended up not seeing exactly what I wanted in gc (for some reason I wanted a pop fade type of bear flag) and I also ended up missing my reentry spot in es in b28. There were several other things. In es, i didn't size either leg perfectly (under). That was fine. I learned to not get upset when my plan didn't cover all possible regimes/scenarios, and I learned to adjust quickly on the fly. However, I am not happy that I was overly confident about my initial range projection in both cases. Haven't been posting EoD summary notes because they contain too much personal stuff in the last few sessions. es 5min
11/9 THU Markets are offering so many opportunities left and right lately... A bit short on time today--I am getting deep in the weeds regarding my processes. Also doing more voice memo planning now, recording editing and reviewing take time but it is worth it IME. I am also experimenting with trade recording (ones taken, ones canceled, etc etc). I have both scale-ins and scale-outs to make matters worse. I find proper trade documentation quite time-consuming and am unsure how best to go about it. I don't want to skip it so will keep tweaking until I find something that is simple enough without omitting necessary attributes. 5min es ^the 60min chart shows a textbook 3bat BO (credit LBR) p.s., am finding my style; my process is evolving... (cf voice memo plan from 11/09 for 11/10 plan)
11/10 FRI quick post. will be traveling this weekend. One key thing for me today is the higher timeframe market cycle. As done in homework the night before, I decided to treat the price development as a first BOM BO attempt in a countertrend direction (many other PA or non-PA interpretations would work; I think a different market cycle story may fit just as well; whatever approach a trader can use consistently, comfortably, should be good). The way I read probabilities is-- that such 1st counter-trend BO's often get faded, and the market may then go into BOM again and often try a 1st with-trend BO. The tricky part on 60min is the way the counter trend BO was reversed. Unlike the way things are often done on lower TF's (sharp reversals). Maybe that was the market's attempt to trap traders out. idk. Moving on to the next part--the market will decide if they like this with-trend BO or would rather go back into BOM. shall see next week. peace all. 5min es
11/13 MON hmm, Mondays... It's a small doji day that triggered a High-1 on D1 (barely). As of today, am planning to keep things simple this week--trade the 60min up channel until PA flags warning signs (bulls appear to have momo still to grind up into that Sep gap) 5min es trades i took vs the ones i'd like to take given my trading style ^evidently not thinking clearly in real time today
11/14 TUE Had to run to the vet in the AM. Missed most actions in the morning. PM: mostly trading range PA. Did not manage well, and ended up just BE. I got trapped into thinking probability had shifted in favor of a mean-reverting leg in the channel. It turned out the premise was premature. The biggest problem was trade management. I didn't have a defined decisioning process for the situation I was in. I wasted some time working out what I considered the best course of action while I kept the trade on, and it was distracting. Going forward, I think what I'll do is compile a library of generalized trade scenarios, and define my processes of handling them when I am on the right/wrong side of probability. 5min es
11/16 THU Not so great, BE day. Distracted and had a slow start. Nevertheless, am looking forward to Friday. 5m es for anyone reading, my labeling looks like silly gibberish haha. a personal process has been developing organically. it's very basic stuff, the labels are just mental shortcuts for me to remember what I am trading.
11/17 FRI a typo in yest slide. 1116 es, not 1115 es. today was a better day. made better plans, traded better, better pnl. what made a world of difference today is my level of focus. that's what "mind over markets" means to me (sorry dalton if I completely missed your point) also put together 3 checklists (first iteration) for different steps in trade management today. something clicked today--starting to process PA logic faster in real time. Markets appear more logical, and market cycles easier to understand. (part of me thinks forcing myself to post something online after each session helped in some way) 5m es
11/20 MON Not good, BE day. It's 100% my fault. Some bigger issues imo: *consistently slow starter on Mondays *plan did not cover all contingencies--critically, overlooked a piece of key cycle context on 60m *trading was sloppy later in the day as I got tired 5m es