If you're a US citizen, all futures trading profits get taxed the same, no matter what country those futures contracts trade in.
After a short break I came back and made a few more trades. 1 loser, 1 breakeven (on HHI), and 3 winners. Now I'm really done. +1342 HKD (+$172 USD)
Traded US while working from home today. Got chopped up in the AM making low probability, high potential bets inside of that corkscrew. Was down about $250 when we got the breakout to the south, and then I took my profits too early, should have worked that move much harder then I did. Over the lunch hour I went and got an oil change. When I came back, my email and phone were blowing up, and I had to make several calls. While I was on a call, I saw the inverse H&S form on the ES at 1:45 Central, the 5 minute chart made 3 attempts to breakdown and failed each time. I was still on the call, but I told myself I'd go long at 1016 if price got there, and just as I went to enter my entry order (stop limit), price blew through that level. Not wanting to chase it, I sat there and watched the market march upwards without me. There were three more great price action setups that I passed on because I didn't want to start revenge trading, so I simply watched a great opportunity pass on by. I'm not sure if the person that I was on the phone with could hear the aggrevation in my voice. I would have taken profits at 1019, so it's not like I would have caught the whole move, but it's the principle of the matter that has me so pissed off right now. I don't know about you guys, but the ones that get away hurt much more than the losers. +$189 USD
The last hour... US market. It was a spectacular up move... followed by a spectacular reversal. Almost back to the point of origin.
No kidding, I had stepped away from the away from the screen after my post to take a shower, came back to see it how it closed and could not believe my eyes. The upmove was reasonably telegraphed, had a decent probability, and had a good entry opportunity. The downmove had none of those qualities and looked to have moved twice as fast. I feel for anyone who was sitting in an unrealized profit, counting their chickens and planning to sell out at the close.
I've decided to make the transition to HHI somewhat slower by still using MHI for certain setups. I don't know if that's wisdom or folly, but it feels better (which means it's probably folly). I traded the first hour of last night's session, as the wife and kids are still out of town. I'll actually be joining them at the end of this week, and won't be back until 7/19. I also have church committments that will prevent me from trading this Wednesday and Thursday nights, so I only have tonight and tomorrow before a long break (about 12 days). Not the best time to be scaling up, so my main objective is to just be careful and not do anything stupid the next couple of days, and when I come back from vacation focus on being more aggressive with HHI. +1385 HKD (+$178 USD)
Was up early due to a couple of good HHI trades. Then I foolishly decided to put on a few MHI trades, on decent setups (at first), but then things spiraled out of control. Order entry errors, trade mismanagement errors, looking for setups that weren't there, reversing on stops that didn't consistitute valid setups, you name it. Then I started trading HHI again to try and make back some of the MHI losses, and I started getting chopped up there. At one point I checked I was down about $400 USD. Then I walked away from the computer for a minute and asked how would I trade if I was flat on the evening. I came back and starting clawing and scratching my way back, closing out my last trade just one minute before the end of the morning session, and finished up $140. Why did I even trade MHI? If I had simply stuck to HHI I would have had an excellent night. Why did I make so many mistakes? Why did I throw my trading plan out the window for half an hour? I think the answer is simple: fear. I'm afraid to scale up. I'm afraid of what happened last year when I first started trading HSI and HHI. I'm afraid of the volatility that my P&L is going to start experiencing. I'm afraid of failure. My daily session P&L has been in a nice gentle uptrend over the past 3 months, and I've gotten used to it. I'm going to have nights where I drop $500 just because the setups aren't working. I should also have nights where I make $700 or $800 because everything is clicking. I need to accept that I have an edge, accept the possibility of the worse case scenario, and just trade and let the chips fall where they may. Easier said than done. +1091 HKD (+$140 USD)
Stopping after the first hour because I'm exhausted and need to go to bed, was up too late last night and debated on not trading at all tonight. I could criticize myself for pages for not being aggressive enough, for taking profits too early, for passing up on good setups, even for quiting too early. However, one step at a time, for now I'll be proud that I stuck with HHI and fought the urge to trade MHI, that I took my losers like a man and stayed focused on momentum. +1922 HKD (+$247 USD) 7 trades, 7 contracts, 5 winners, 2 losers As a reminder, I won't be trading the next two nights due to other committments, and I won't trade next week because I'll be on vacation at a family reunion with the in-laws. I'll report back on the 19th.