I've had 3 b/e trades, had a slightly unusual thing happen, took a nap and just returned to my desk to see the slightly unusual thing turned out to be a really bizarre coincidence. I shorted just after the market open @ 82.29 with a target @ 81.99. It went 18 ticks my way and I moved my stop to 82.28, was stopped out TO THE EXACT TICK and price went through my target without me. I didn't re-enter after being stopped out because too close to the news. Then I had another short off a LH that dropped over 10 ticks the very second I put it on and came right back to stop me out b/e. Then I played the breakout, buying 82.59 and was stopped out b/e in a few seconds on lack of follow through. By then I was frustrated. And also very tired from being up all night enjoying our first cool rainy night in a long time. I suddenly noticed my cursor drifting very slowly across my DOM. It stopped at 82.82. I laughed to myself and thought, "Maybe this is a Hand of God trade and I should offer 82.82." I went to take a nap and returned a while ago to see the HOD @ 82.82. OK, I'm outta here, gonna enjoy this nice weather, good trading to all!
Your candidness and insight are truly appreciated... It's amazing how it sometimes seem as if the market knows your stops and targets... btw, how many ticks before you move your stops to b/e? thanks, Walt
I am fedup of shorting today and CL coming back on my face. just shorted 82.81, either BE or $300 so far I am BE after 17 trades.
Take it for what it's worth, but as I understand it you're not a "scalper." If you're getting 17 trades in one day then you need to refine your setups a lot better. I am pretty picky about what I do, I struggle with my own trading due to self-doubt, but between the NYMEX open to Noon, with what I look for, I see maybe 2-3 setups and out of those only 1 is a "must-trade." 2 of them I took in SIM, but I missed the "must-trade" because I was waiting for the news. Also, for me, today wasn't very good as far as signals and follow through go. There was a lot of tails on the candles and a lot of ranginess. The 2 trades that I took had some heat put on as far as going into a loss before turning around. Most of the time when I see a good signal, after I get into the trade I don't take much of a drawdown before it accelerates in the direction of my trade. Some of the quicker moves came out of nowhere. I don't read the market as well as NoDoji or anybody else who has much more experience than me so that is why I wait and usually pass up what NoDoji may see as a good signal. I used to do what you did, taking a lot of signals expecting all of them to go to a profit target and when they didn't I'd get really frustrated that I let a +13 or +17 tick profit turn into +1. I refined my strategy and I am currently working on that. This week has turned into a SIM week because I have a few psychological hurdles that are affecting me taking trades.