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Boy did I dance. Today was my first day ever profitable. only like 7 points, but that's in the green! Made many mistakes though that I need to address. I know what CHOP is. It's painfully obvious. My mind is learning to SPOT it sooner. I also noticed that price is so much more rational and behaved--if one can call it that--far after the open. Full report coming tonight with trades taken. I overtraded again, but didn't experience my emotions getting the best of me today. More later..
Today was an easy 1 ( had to work, no trades SOB! ), pretty much single direction all day long. But better than me well done!!
I it was pretty simple unless you like to trade beginning CHOP! Woops. I'm learning though. I'll pay to learn.
Yep, this would be an account killer for me, it's up, must come down, ohhh it's up more, average, MORE, ohhhhhh need more $$$'s If the market is having an up day, no matter how nice the setup looks only play Longs. Sound easy
This my friends is going to be long...I realized many things today. For starters... 1. I have an issue/emotion problem with the 930 bell. For some reason, it tells me to trade. And sometimes, trade I shouldn't. Immediately, I fear losing "that" trade. The one that runs 20 points. Stupid. For the past 3 days, I've gotten chopped at the OPEN, and then realize that price eventually "calms" down, and respects supply and demand VERY well. I'm considering skipping the first 30 minutes. CONSIDERING. 2. Even though I ended profitable today, which is a success having gone live for only 3 days now, I made far too many mistakes. I succeeded in making money. I failed at executing my well-defined plan. It's tough to remember all of my damn rules, which I've recently written. There are MANY "what-ifs". A plan should be simple. Not easy...simple. Mine is. But having gone live, it still needs many kinks worked out. 3. Even though my plan is written and next to my laptop, it needs to be memorized and practiced, in real time, with real money, to become second nature...and memorized, almost intuition-ed plan. 4. I recognize CHOP FAR too late. I need to add a rule to my plan/brain, that recognizes CHOP. Not necessarily a range, but CHOP. Generally speaking, lower highs/higher lows. This could vary however. 5. I also learned today how imperative it is for me to zoom out of the chart, and draw some necessary trend-lines. It was almost an AHA moment. Seriously. Notice it in the charts attached. 6. I overtrade. Plain and simple, I'm looking for "better/faster" trades, and I'm not waiting for my retraces. My patience is severely lacking. If I boiled it down to a personality flaw, it's because I'm amazing and I should get what I want. Isn't that silly? How about some humility and neutrality in life? In the markets? I"M SORRY. 7. Again, because it's important, PRACTICE RECOGNIZING CHOP EARLY. The number one question I think I need to ask myself is, "is price going anywhere?" --> Higher highs? Lower lows? No? CHOP/RANGE = Wait. Attached are the trades I took, and the trades I should have taken. 20 Trades Today. TOO MANY. DUH. 6 Winners. 14 Losers. 1. -1: I bought at 0924. Who does that? I surely shouldn't. It's not in the plan. Why am I so eager to trade? 2. -2: 0935. Greed. Fear of missing the move? Impatient? I didn't follow any part of my rules on this trade. No retrace. Even if price was rejecting previous range, my rules wait for a solid, evident retrace. There was none. Bad. 3. -2.75: By this point, CHOP should have been evident. But not for this brain. Price retraced 50%, and then another 120%! Why did I buy? 930 bell witch! At this point, one would definitely sit out and analyze what's going on. 4. +1: Longs weren't working. Let's short. SHIT. 5. +4.5: This was an ok trade. I exited because of fear though. Because? Because I wanted to lock in some profit after my losing days. I wanted to lock in profit because I want to succeed. Maybe, just maybe, I wanted to show you all how I made some money. Is my reputation on the line? moving on... Trades 6-11: - 11.25. I SHOULD BE PATIENTLY SITTING RIGHT NOW. PRICE DIDN'T GO ANYWHERE. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM. I am trading things that aren't even there. I am creating them in my mind because for some reason I think the market should give a little because I put in some work. All this bitching, and I do have to say. I'm working on me. This will not continue to improve. 12. +11.5. Finally. 13-15. -6. What was I doing? I went long. Then two SHORTS? I shorted an OBVIOUS uptrend? An obvious uptrend channel that's been in effect since overnight? WHAT? In hindsight, I'm a dumbass! SHIT! 16. +3.5. Exited because we went sideways. 17. +14.75. This is a trade where everything clicked. I left for 2 hours to clear my head. Eat. etc... Came back, and price was ranging right into the trendline, and I had to go long at the bottom of the range, and boom. My only regret is not holding until the end of the day. Would have taken no heat and tripled the points earned. 18. -2.25: Tried to get back in. Wrong time. Wrong retrace. 19. +1.75: Regret not holding. Fear of not having a winning day got to me. Price only skyrocketed after this entry. This could have easily been 30 points. I'm learning though. 20. -2.5: Who shorts in an uptrend again? ME. idiot. You do the math. 9 Points I think? Profit? Should have been 90. Blind grandfather could have made a killing today saying BUY! No BUY! Buy it you piece of shit! The question my friends, is what can I do to avoid the trades I should not have taken, and take the trades that I should have taken. Attached is a chart of what should have happened. Trade 1: Not triggered. Trade 2. Triggered. If I were completely fearless and new what I was doing and understood price action, I simply would have held until at least 1230. if I exited on the the long down bar, which could have happened, my entry would have been trade 3. Trade 3. We broke the range, and price retraced a perfect 50%, and we never took any heat. Trade 4. Trading range during lunch, demand line touch, and up we go. Avoid 930 trades for now. A lot of volatility and shakeout's according to plan. STOP TRYING TO CATCH "THAT" move. SHIT! Even if I missed number three, I still had 3 or 4 more opportunities circled in pink! Trade the plan! One final note. Have you noticed that even with a written plan, it takes time for it to become ingrained into the mind? I want it to become a second nature. When will this come? Hopefully tomorrow. wuh? Good night. Over and Out SMACKS ***last image totally skewed to fit whole day of analysis. What a profitable day this must have been for some people!
Call that rambling on, amateur, should read my journal lol No trades till 9:45, first 15mins are random pretty much, its just going to chop around hit your SL the take off without you, which we all hate, let them argue over the direction, join the first trend move 9:45. For your 3rd day of trading your doing well, trading about my 4th year level, took me 8 years to get profitable, still have bad days.
Today the current trend of this market is still up. We had an amazing climb yesterday, of over 100 points. After yesterday's closing bell, price went sideways and has stayed in a range ever since. About 63 to 73. However, I think it should be noted that price jumped out of this range and double topped at 3982 3983, at about 130 AM. Climbed fast, and very quickly rejected back down into the range. Traders are seeking value and have been since about 1700 yesterday, at about the 3968 which is Midpoint of sideways range. Daily recently bounced off the bottom of an 09 uptrend, and we are above the mean of that channel. Price could go either way today. We have a "triange/wedge" of sorts setting up. Traders didn't take price higher yesterday. Demand diminished a little as we reached the supply line which started on 9/19. Attached is daily wedge I'm talking about. Today, as an exercise in patience and discipline, I will not be placing trades during the open. If I miss an opportunity, there will be plenty of them. This means at least 5 minutes of observation. Short to you, SUPER LONG FOR ME. Also, I get only 7 trades today. Unless I keep winning and winning and winning. No Open. 7 trades. I'm hoping I can learn to take only the best, well though-out trades, and also not experience the random up/downs at open. I always "want in", and that's not good. I should want my well-thought and tested set-ups. Period. So that's what I'm looking for. What I'm looking for at 930--> For starters, price has to clear the range. To upside, we need to clear the supply line on the daily, which would be about 3980. However, if you recall from the past month, traders found a lot of value at 80. It ranged there for sometime in the past. Watch this area. We have a very steep demand line. Price is currently ranging towards this line which represents a slope of value that traders have been finding value in. If they continue to find value here, that demand line willhold intact. If not, and it breaks, it will break at about 3880. I can play to 3880, but the pre market range has to be cleared first. We have a possible back forth day today. It might take a day or two around this mean.