That particular little chunk of PA reminds me of traps I've fallen for, so I think of it as touching a "hot stove". I certainly expect continuation of the trend, but narrow range consolidation is notorious for running stops placed just outside the range.
Monday 29th September 2014 :- Market Preview -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the daily chart we are moving towards our channel low, where the most likely direction is a move back to the mean. On the hourly, we passed through the bottom of our channel at the end of last wee, but couldn't hold on. The move back above on Friday, has been reversed since then, and we now sit just above the original lows. We may pass through the lows again at the open. On the 5 Min chart we have made a nice downward channel since the overnight highs, and if I was a better trader I could have taken advantage of those tests of the trend line. Anyway for now it looks like we will have the opportunity for trades at important levels today. With a bit of luck there may be some obvious entries for me to take. Best of luck for the week.
Monday 29th September 2014 :- 1 Min Chart Review -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I made two trades today, and both were against the trend. I had spend most of the morning observing, and trying to see if I could use the 5 Min and 1 min together, but the answer was no. I need to work more on this before trying to use it in real time. I only confused myself by getting away from my normal method of thinking. 1. After the open we have made a double bottom after rising from the previous days low. This is a possible area to enter a long, but I would not enter near the open when the price is volatile. 2. This is a more realistic entry for me where the retracement goes back to a previous swing high before turning up again. 3. Here we have a higher low retracement, again I didn't enter, as we had come off the upper trend line on the 5 Min, so I was unsure weather to take it. 4. After a long rise where I didn't enter, because of my unsureness today, I eventually shorted the break of the minor trend line. This was not a good entry, and I should have stayed out of the market for today. 5. Again I shorted the break of the longer trend line. This time my entry is well off the trend line. I do know to wait for pullbacks tfde trend line. But plan not followed today.
Tuesday 30th September 2014 :- Market Preview -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After making a double bottom yesterday morning, we proceeded to make a big rise yesterday. We are now sitting at the midpoint on our hourly chart, and close to a downward trend line. The centre of ranges and channel is said to be the more high risk area for trades, because it is the area where more people agree on price, which causes less trends. However I will watch for whatever I can find. On the 5 Min chart, we have an overnight high of 62, and we are below that now, testing a upward trend line. We have a lot of different levels below us, with swing highs, lows and midpoints. What affect these have is a wait and see, but there is nothing there that is as strong as the extremes of the range for making trades. These days make me aware of the possibility of a day revolving around a mean, with only small trends. No predictions, just trying to be aware before the open.
Tuesday 30th September 2014 :- 1 Min Chart Review -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My speed of thought wasn't quick enough today. That shows that I don't have all aspects of this ready. As I have been told, I need to own the plan, and at crucial points I was analysing and over analysing, when I should have been entering. I also exited good trades that would not have stopped out because of this. Overall I am happy that I was picking good entries, but the trade management was not 100%. I can manage them much better in Sim. So I need to find a way of improving that. 1. This is a short on a retracement. The fill is below what I would like. I eventually exited when we stopped falling. We had moved so far down in the trend that I was not going to risk it turning well above my entry. I had an internet outage for the first 10 minutes of the day, so I cannot know if I would have entered the retracement nearer the open that rejected yesterday's daytime. I would like to think that it would have happened. We'll know the next time. 2. This entry is the only one that I don't really like today. I put two midpoints on the chart for yesterday, and entered a short when we retraced to the first. I was entering just above the second midpoint, so it doesn't take a genius to see what might happen. I'll see what I can learn from it. Too many midpoints probably. 3. Here is where my slowness of thought started to catch up with me. Here we have a break of the small line, and a higher low which is almost a double bottom, well above the 50% point. I exited after a minute or so, because when I looked at it after entry, it looked like I was trying to enter in the middle of a small range. My head could not tell if I had made a correct entry, so I exited. I am trying to only put on trades where I have no confusion, and I was seeing bars and lines instead of price rising off a point. I need to review some other examples of this. 4. This entry suited me better. We broke through the previous high, retraced, and the entry is above the high. I exited when we rejected a swing high from yesterday. Somewhere within the last 2 trades, and the rise from the lows, there is the potential for a measured move up. I missed this at the time. 5. The rejection of the previous low was in fact a retracement, so I entered a long again. I exited when I checked on the 5 Min chart and saw we were at a downward trending line. This madness is not in any part of my plan, and caused me to miss a good trade. Back again tomorrow, and hopefully my exits will be as successful as my entries.
Wedensday 1st October 2014 :- Market Preview -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like a dog on a chain, the price reached the hourly trend line yesterday, and couldn't pass through. That ended up being the high of the day, so now we are back below the mean of the range, and heading towards the lows of yesterday. We are still vaguely in the middle of nowhere as regards major support and resistance, and may have to rely on lower time frame S/R points to pick out low risk trades. On the 10 Min chart of yesterday, we can see that the day doesn't really go anywhere, and revolves around a mean, which also is roughly where the overnight high was made. I don't know what that means, but it looks like we are starting a downward trend in the 10 min chart, and we may test yesterday's low after the open. This is an area where we may find some trades.
Wedensday 1st October 2014 :- 1 Min Chart Review -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm progressing slowly. So far this week my trading errors as I define them, have been reducing, although not yet gone away. I am happy with my retracement entries today, except number 5, which luckily caused no harm. If I can become more consistant with my entries, and manage my trade management better, then I feel that this week will be a success for me. I'm back reading "Trading In The Zone" again, on the recommendation of KDASFTG. Its funny how different I see it after learning and practising over the last year or so. 1. Here we attempted to get back above the open,and failed. This was also at a touch of the downtrending line on the 5 Min chart. I exited when we broke through the overnight low, and moved back above on the next bar. While spotting an entry like this is becoming easier with prctise, I don't yet have the trading feel to manage the trades when they float down to the limits of the range, like today. 2. I moved back in after the exit bar closed below the overnight low. I have an automatic target and stop loss set up with my trades. I would usually move the target out if price looks like its starting to speed up, but this time the price moved so fast that it took out my target in an instant. Thats acceptable for now. Better the target taken out than the stop loss. 3. Another retracement entry. I moved the stop loss to 1 point below the entry after we had gone down 4 points, and was taken out. 4. Again I moved the stop loss when we dropped 4 points, and was taken out. These bars are volatile today, and I am not set up to manage that. I'll take what points I can out of the day, and try to learn from it. 5. This trade is my mistake of the day. Not because I exited early, but because I entered it when it was outside my stop loss limit and way off where the break of the small upward trendline happened. I am glad that I exited even though it quickly fell 10 points. It would have just been a lucky trade, rather than a good one. 6. After we moved below the hourly range low, we returned to test it from below. I entered on the retracement, and was stopped out above the range low. Enough for today.