Getting out of my own way

Me during a strong pullback



I have a bad habit of looking at every single candle and over analyzing it. So now, if the premise is good I set my stop loss and exit order and go chill and listen for the order to be filled. I occasionally come back to trail my stop loss on major HH's and LL's and right before the end of the trading day if I hear nothing in order to close the trade out before the day ends.

This works much better for me than scaring myself out of profitable trades because I overanalyzed a pullback as some sort of major reversal. If my premise is sound and my stops and exits are properly placed then I need to trust them.

If I find it going wrong too much I can revisit my strategy to find out where I'm going wrong. But letting the boogeyman scare me out of profitable trades is a huge leak, and this was a good way to fix it.

 

Today is a bit nasty considering the titans that had historical earnings yesterday, huge moves higher after the close only to open today in a sea of red.

 

Buy the rumor sell the news.

 

I don't think that's today's situation. I think it has to do with the push and pull of the new stimulus package, markets will start to trade lower until its approved. Today was the last day so now they are really down to the wire meaning by next week something will be approved. If it doesn't get approved next week markets will trade lower but like I mentioned any and all losses will be entirely erased once the stimulus bill is approved in the weeks ahead.
I even think the possibility that they do one of those weekend meetings and come to terms just to give the markets what it wants by the start of the week. That can be something that happens as well. Would boost markets 2 to 3%

 

mr bugsy,
what timeframe charts do you like?
what hold times are common?

 

I use 5 minutes with a 1 hour also to see long term support/ resistance. Hold times are however long it takes to reach the stop or exit setup. If none hit I exit end of day.

 

+1

After quite a while at this now, I believe successful trading is about knowing yourself. Your particular strengths and weaknesses....

Analyse, review, implement.....

Rinse and repeat

Kaizen

 

assuming the rumor is right and eventually becomes the news.