I have no idea why I didn't play the early breakout, or for that matter the initial long signal off the close of 9:10 bar (even better). There was simply no reason not to trade at that time. I think it was too many headers at my soccer match last night, killed some brain cells. So I saw the 9:30 bar leave a counter-tend short signal and I said these exact words to my fellow traders: "That is a counter-trend short signal and the reason I'm not taking it is because it's too close to the high and the law of testing the high is in play." And did I go long there? No. And did I play the breakout of that high? No. And did I bang my head against my desk when a 100-tick bar transpired? Yes. I wasn't about to miss the second one, so once the consolidation range was put in I placed a sell stop @ 78.06 and a buy stop @ 78.55. Exited on the pullback from the new high and shorted off the double top of the new high. I'm gonna just send EON my money to trade, though; he gets better entries and trades more than me
I can feel your pain... wait, no, actually it's MY pain in MY head after banging it against MY desk (Very nice how you pulled yourself together) Herr EON rocks!
Sorry D, I'm exhausted trading for myself. just relaxing now enjoying a cigar with my feet on the desk Thank you Picaso
Oh, come on, whiner! "Maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb." - Money for Nothing, Dire Straits (After some deep psychoanalysis I realized why I didn't trade the first long/breakout. I had a short entry bias from the huge selloff in pre-market. Bias - the price action trader's worst enemy...)
MrBochin, since you were responsible for a contango comment on this thread when I first starting trading CL that resulted in two back to back awesome trades for me, I will share my (and Al Brooks') with-trend trade secrets: In a trend, look to enter wither when price pulls back to a 20-bar MA and finds support or resistance, or when price pulls back a few bars and get in on the break of the hi/lo of the previous bar (that means it becomes the pivot bar to resume the trend), pretty much as you said. Or look to enter when price gets very close to or at a previous pivot high or low, or to a hi/lo of the day. In a really really strong trend, just close your eyes and hit the buy or sell button as indicated by the trend.
Al Brooks presentation, 2 of them to download I view them in Opera which gives good control of the playback note the use of mini trend lines http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/104/futures-i-trade-show-brooks-book-6008-2.html
Thanks a lot really appreciate it. The contango comment that I made I learned from a friend that spent several years living out of the Energy sector on the NYMEX floor. Another thing I believe you made a comment about having some ideas of trying to have some swing positions, then I made my comments about my horrible experiences, well I forgot to tell you that a viable way to do this is with Options. You probably knew this but it does not hurt to mention it. Look right now in the down side the put option for September for strike price in 70 is 0.25(250 dollars) which is not bad at all.