I have made some decisions concerning time frame . When I had first started the journal, I was making entries and exits based upon shorter term charts 5 minute etc. It seemed that I was too active, so I had decided to place more emphasis on the hourly chart. Unfortunately though, it seems that placing so much emphasis on the 60 minute is detracting from my ability to be nimble during the day. I will be going back to the shorter term charts (not ignoring the 60) for a while to see if this will allow me more flexibility. The 60 minute chart seems to perhaps just echo my overall long term short bias and this is what I want to avoid in the short term account. I want to trade what I see currently. Secondly, I noticed that the strong bearish divergence that I noted last night on hourly charts, didn't seem to carry much weight , at least so far, today. I think this is possibly due to the fact that it was at the beginning on the nighttime session and it was not a "continuous " indicator due to the lack of action overnight. It may be that divergences on hourly charts are best when they occur in the context of Regular Trading Hours. --We'll see-- anyway, I am going to mark it down for further observation. --Still learning
I just watched the short term trades that you posted and came to the following conclusions: Total results is - 8.5 points (calculated when we were at 1318.5). The open positions have an open loss of 38.50 points, which means that they are totally responsible for the actual loss and they consumed all the profits from the previous 30 trades. Adding to losing positions only created even bigger losses, so that was a bad idea. If you would have placed a stop at -5 points your total actual result would have been +18 points instead of a loss of 8.5 points. A difference of 26.5 points! I did not check if profitable trades went wrong more than 5 points (which would cause a loss of 5 points instead of the actual profit) but i don't think the profitable trade ever went 5 points wrong. You did much more shorts than longs. Apparently you don't like longs. Lucky for you the trend was short till 4 days ago. So the question is: what will happen in a uptrend? The results of the last 3 days can give you already an idea about what will happen. This posting is not meant as a critic, just trying to explain what i see and how i see it.
Buy1Sell2 Overall, a decent start, decent profits (for the time frame you chose). But at the end of it all, a very common mistake. Sometimes Buy2Sell1 required IMHO. Yes, the position may be small but give it some time to work for the same number of lots. It was looking really neat in the beginning, but at the end cant say the same. Thanks mishwar
great posts guys!! I will address some of the issues a bit later today when I have some more time. Thanks for the insight and help!
============ Figured Buy1sell2 liked the short side more; as his nickname hints. Actually most of trends in YM , ES have been long all year , except for occasional weekly, but figure B1 sell2 lives his nickname. Ever thought about the NQ; much more polar bear trends there today, most of year, tick size to be reduced in April.????????????????????????????????????????
Thank you for the viewpoints and observations here. I need to explain that I do not have a preference for shorts versus longs, it's just that right now, I have a strong short bias with regard to position trading. This use of the 60 minute chart has closely resembled the longer charts that have me with the short overall bias. Thus, I think as I move back to the shorter term intraday charts, I wil be able to get away from the continual short bias in the day trades. I did take a couple of longs during the first week, when I was using the shorter term charts. I have noticed this week, that I have bypassed the short term long signal simply because I was relying too heavily on the 60 minute chart. We'll see in the coming days. Thanks again for your post.
I hope you continue to follow the journal as I switch the approach to where I get comfortable and can be profitable consistently. During the first week of trading, I had been using the much shorter time frames and had success with the increasing position. However, my thought of working the 60 minute chart in more heavily I think is really tantamount to the trading longer term and so I intend to go back to the more active first week trading. I hope you continue to be interested and perhaps I can get it to look neat again. This I think will then have me in some long trades.