Well done trading for the day . I am going to post 3 charts, the first is how I think it should have been traded the second is what I actually did. ( sim). and the third is the 15 sec which I use to try to get better entries. This may be the first time I've posted my actual trades, I can't believe I did this. I am absolutely certain my problems stem from letting a winning trade turn into a losing trade. I actually was aware of that feeling today. On a day when profits should have been huge I was profitable making 530. Then why do I feel so crappy? I wanted to follow the SLA and was unable to do that EVEN IN SIM. Starting to question my sanity. anyway here goes. 1. sold 2 @73.50 covered @ 72.75 2. bought 2 @76 sold @79.25 3. sold 2 @ 80.25 covered at 82 4. bought 2 @ 88 sold @ 90 5. sold 2 @ 92.50 covered @ 87.50 6. sold 2 @ 84.75 covered @ 83.50 7. sold 2 @ 82.75 covered @ 78.75 This was trading 2 contracts all in all out
Boru, I have trouble understanding your charts with regards to the dot colors. In the first one, green dot means long. Then you exit at the red dot. But then you have a green dot, to go long again? I think you just mean green for entry, but usually we are using green for long entry, red for short entry, and either blue for exit, or i use black for exist. To me it looks like you are going long on a down move.
my mistake green = entry, red = exit also I should note on the 15 sec chart the circles were placed on the 1 min chart so on the 15 sec they may not be exactly where they were in relation to price
I think I understand why I'm scalping price the way I do. Without getting into deep philosophical discussions. I remember when I first started trading, because I worked construction and didn't have access to information (this was before cell phones, I used to phone my orders in to my broker). I would do my analysis at night call my broker in the morning then call in the late afternoon to find out what happened. Basically I was daytrading a daily chart just holding for one day, selling (or buying) on the second day. I was selling LHs and buying HLs using a stochastic to time my trades and amazingling was good enough to not go broke but I didn't make any money either. At the time I just wanted to supplement my income. I was a scared trader back then to, I used to think if only I had access to prices during the day lol. However I knew one thing, on one good trade I could make half a weeks salary if I didn't lose anything. (beginning of the fear). I traveled on and off over the years so there were long periods of time I didn't do anything with trading. I was also raising a couple of kids and enjoyed watching them play sports and even coaching some of their teams. All the while studying printed charts as if the answer to success lay in the patterns spread across the pages. Still the dream persisted although my wife now thought it a nightmare, when finally I am free during the day , have access to prices, free platform to trade off, and now I still think I'm doing good if I knock down a couple of hundred a day. A workingmans mentality if ever there was one. If I left it at this I could probably make some money on a consistent basis. This is not where I want to be. I am fairly certain my lack of discipline stems from an ingrained habit to take money out of every trade vs letting the trade run its course ala SLA. The funny thing is when I put a trade on in the past using daily charts I always used a stop and they weren't always close, and I took my medicine when I was wrong, I accepted that as" hey I was wrong". But to have a trade go in the black and then lose money bothered me more than my stop getting hit. I'm sure that's when I started to take profits so quickly. Using SLA on a one min chart the most I am at risk is 2-4 points, this is peanuts compared to what I was doing years ago . When they get an elephant trained, a thin rope and a stake will hold him in place as long as you want, I'm starting to know what he feels like. Lots of rambling here, This just sort of came to me, maybe I'll better understand next time I want to close out a trade just to book a profit, maybe it will help someone else. good trading
clarifying post 125 not bragging , don't want to be misunderstood. This was the best day I've had in 2 weeks but on a day when price moves 200 points and the best I can do is $500 on sim after I posted the above is disheartening to say the least. On the other hand many thanks to DbPhoenix for making so many lessons available to those who want to learn.
Don't feel bad... I lost $168, and even then I'm sure I did better than most! I'm sure some guys were buying all through the drop, and selling all through the rise back up. I was at least going in the right direction. This really was an incredible day. No way would I think we could come back up so far. Thank goodness we are being taught to just follow price.
Everything is possible in trading. Now as of losing day, you are one among at least 90% of traders : so I am not sure you did much better than many.
I would imagine many who lost, lost much more than I did. So yes, I'm in the 90% who lost, but of that group, maybe I'm in the 10% who lost barely 3 digits! Doesn't matter, great learning experience nevertheless.
You miss a great learning experience : 6, 7, 8 digits teach you to never blow again, if one really learns from the experience.