Calls are a dime a dozen (but thanks) No, when I saw the 12:55-13:00 5' bar with 5,000 cars I considered that was probably the small-traders-stop run so I looked to get short at around 74.10, but was waiting for the ES and/or EUR to bend a little to help with the momentum. Then the CL started to fall while ES & EUR kept grinding higher and when it went below 73.90 I considered it was too late. Missing this trade doesn't bother me that much because I would only take it in hindsight (I think I was right in not shorting with ES & EUR going higher). What has me pulling my hair is not getting long at .30-ish (about when you did), even if I would have been stopped out at be and particularly not getting long at .20-ish (about when you went long at .28?), because regardless of whether the trades would have worked or not, that's what my plan called for. Ugh, I'm such a pussy... If I didn't trade like a scared girl, I'd make money every once in a while. Seriously
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/reaction-to-august-payrolls-report-2010-09-03 STORYCOMMENTS SCREENER (6) AlertEmailPrintShare By MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The following is a selection of reaction to news that the U.S. economy shed 54,000 nonfarm jobs during August, a smaller decline than expected. See related story. "On balance, the upward revisions make the report a bit stronger than we expected. It does not change the recent trend of moderate growth in private payrolls and is inconsistent with fears that a sharp slowdown in the economy is under way. We believe this report, together with other recent data, will convince the Fed to refrain from launching a new asset purchase program at this month's meeting." -- Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital. "Despite the better-than-expected result in August, the narrative on the U.S. labor market continues to be one of a recovery that is continuing to struggle to gain traction. Indeed, with only a miserly 763,000 jobs being created since the turn in labor market conditions since January - a very small down payment on the 8.5 million jobs that were lost during the recession -- the struggles in this sector of the economy are obvious." -- Eric Green, chief U.S. rates research and strategy at TD Securities.
Stopped out. Was that a dumb trade or what? I s'pose so. But then who would have thought it would shoot right back up?
Looking for resistance at 74.50, and 74.72. Kind of hard to short this late in the afternoon a Friday in a long weekend, but Is tempting
Sorry about that trade, Schizo. In my view, the last 15-30 minutes in oil are some sort of lotto-close, particularly on Fridays (and even more so before a long weekend). But your ES short is looking good!
The irony is when you got the balls (as we all did when we started) you lack the brains and when you get some brains you lack the balls The good part is the more you learn, the more the puzzle pieces will fit together, the more logical everything will seem and the more confidence you will have, as your subconscious will know it is so. But it is true that a trader with balls and a little knowledge to follow a simple system will do better (initially). Unfortunately some ask to many questions to take that path. :eek: If you have sufficient knowledge and good R/R and positive expectancy then you are either trading with scared money or other reasons. One thing I will mention is that if you have built up an image of yourself as a 'good trader' the reason you may hesitate to take a trade, that you have every reason should work, is that the ego does not want to be proved wrong, so it goes about creating uncertainties in order to protect you, but really its protecting itself. Better to be a right pussy than one who has put all their knowledge on the line and then proved wrong, as in you can't erase your PnL. This also shows in the need to grab some profit without waiting for your predetermined target or adjusting your stop. I'm no psychologist, just my2c
It will probably lose, not gain, strength as it wreaks havoc on the impoverished people of Central America, but it's heading into the Gulf. Too much buying to be short-covering, imho.