It's easy in sim. In real life, I would have stopped trading real money after the 3rd loss in a row. And if I wasn't smart enough to quit then, my daily limit would have been hit after the 6th trade. I'm still on the fence about managing the trade. This would have been a winning day if I refused to let my stop get hit when I had the chance.
I look at it like this. We all know that your trading capital won't last long when you are positive then let it come on your stop loss for a loss. I unfortunately did that for a couple days myself when I was live back in Sept. Moral of the lesson was "protect your capital" I don't mind moving to BE or BE+1 soon after price moves in your direction. The worst thing that will happen to you is you pay for comm. and can trade again. Just yesterday I had trade on ES that bounce between my original price and Stop loss for 15 mins; then moved in my direction. However I didn't wait that long. I put my target at my entry and protected my capital. I don't like taking bullets from point blank. I would rather make them glance off me if at all possible; just my two cents.
Started off OK, taking my signals, but didn't take the 3 most profitable ones because ... hell I don't know. Trade #1 Entered a long buy limit at 87.28 based on overnight support. Was filled and took 10 ticks of heat for a few bars, then the trade started moving my way. I had a 25 tick hard target in and price got within a tick. I moved my stop up to +14 and was taken out. Didn't follow my trade management rules, otherwise I would have gotten my target on the next bar. +14 ticks. Trade #2 After the oil report, I entered a sell limit at 88.94 based on yesterday's HOD. Was filled and took few ticks of heat, then switched to the 1 min chart to manage my exit. +2 ticks. After the peak, I sat on my hands and let 3 short signals pass me by. Even though the trend was up, there was plenty of room down towards the EMA. Trade #3 Price looked like it was holding the EMA, then got a couple of bars making HH's and HL's. The 09:00 bar was a strong green bar. Went long at 88.57 with a tight stop and price came crashing down. I was filled and stopped out in less than a second. Very impressive violent move. -9 ticks. Trade #4 Price moved sideways for 1 hour, making a few head fakes. The 10:10 bar looked like a bear continuation, but ended up green. The 10:15 bar broke the most recent pivot high and closed above the EMA. Went long at 88.50 with a fixed target of 25 ticks, which was 1 tick under the high of the 09:00 bar. +25 ticks. Finished up 3 ticks for the day because of a 23 tick loss on 6E. Overall, I'm not too happy about the way I traded. I mismanaged my first trade and it cost me 11 ticks. The 3 trades I ignored were each winners. I'm trying to keep an awareness of where price was to 'help' me with where price might go, and that did get me a couple of small winners, but today it seems I would have been infinitely better off if I had blinders on and just traded every signal.
Have you noticed that most of your with trend trades happen closer to EMA that are profitable? Have you noticed that most of your counter-trend trades winning trades happen when close is going down when you buy? It is the nuances of trading that makes you a better trader. Like if where I enter is too far from recent pivot extreme, I will place a limit order lower so I can reduce my risk, so if you are risking 11 tics, you want to place PS 2 tics below the ie.pivot low, so you entry can not be more than 11 tics from where you are placing your stop. But on counter-trend trades I always risk less than what I risk on trend trades, which I have to buy lower, closer to pivot low, and if price holds, makes for good support.
Overall I'm happy with my CL trading, even though I only ended up 2 ticks on 4 trades. I managed the trades well and didn't jump to BE at the first opportunity. The one mistake I made today was a failure to note the S/R areas on my chart (got distracted with email). This caused me to take a long trade just under resistance that failed. On the bright side, it's nice to see something fail when it's supposed to. Trade #1 Had 3 big green bars up. Didn't get filled on my first attempt at entry, but was filled on a second try. This was just under the aforementioned resistance area. Got a full stop. -9 ticks. After realizing my mistake about noting R/S areas, I saw a support area at 80.08. Trade #2 Wasn't filled on my first attempted short and price rapidly approached support so I didn't attempt a second entry. Entered a buy stop at 88.08 and was filled on the big drop at 07:00. Price bounced off violently, then came back down just as quick. I tabbed over to forxex. com to see if I missed a news event, but didn't. When price moved back up, I moved my stop to BE +1 and was stopped out. +1 tick. Price went crazy on the 07:05 bar and made a massive perfect doji. Checked for news again, but didn't see anything. Sat out the next 40 minutes or so, waiting for the market to make up its mind. Trade #3 Price surged up over the EMA, then on the next bar closed under it. The next bar was red, so I entered a short at 88.08 with a tight stop. I felt that the repeated puncturing of the support at 88.08 was now greatly diminished, and the rejection of the EMA was a short signal. Also, I felt that the range created by that big doji might still be in affect, so I adjusted my target to 15 ticks with a 5 tick stop. Got stopped out. -5 ticks. Trade #4 Got a long signal a couple of bars later, and I forgot to adjust my stop and target from the last trade. It hit my target quickly. +15 ticks. Did +16 ticks on 6E
Trade #1 Short at 87.48 at resistance with a 9 tick stop. Got stopped out with 1 tick slip. -10 ticks. Trade #2 After price popped through resistance, when long 87.60 and took some heat. Price turned around, then moved my stop up and got out. +4 ticks. Trade #3 Another counter trend trade with a tight stop. Had 18 MFE and moved stop to BE+1. A mistake I made was not adjusting my target to reflect the fact that this was counter trend. +1 tick. Trade #4 Played another counter trend trade off a strong resistance area. Right idea, but a little early. +1tick. Trade #5 Got a shooting star that poked just beyond the resistance area. Entered a sell stop a few ticks below at 88.29 - not very aggressive. Hit my hard target. +25 ticks. Made 16 ticks on 6E. The good - profitable day and managed the trades well. The bad - I seemed more focused on counter trend trades and really should have been looking to join the trend.
I am not a big fan of counter-trend trades in crude unless volume sets up right and pivots distance getting tighter at tops. Crude is a very good trending market and works well using trendlines and double bottoms and tops. And I think that is counter-trend trade taken, stops have to be reduced. Have good weekend all.
I like what you have to say about the counter trades. Here's my chart. I made one goof today at the very end with a counter trend trade forgot about the pull back and it cost me 10 ticks. Figures since I was trading outside my zones; that's what I get! I'm going to start drawing trend lines on everything I think!! Been looking at a tendline add-on, but not all that excited about it. Nothing like doing it manually.