I traded the long side, a few shorts but all failed by stopping out, again discipline remained a challenge, when price is trending in a channel, channels can continue for a long time, only 2nd confirmation of channel brake can be considered a possible bigger pullback if not a reversal, however, again I made the mistake of shorting it, shorts should not have been part of the trade.
another problem was keep my stops too tight, given the range I got shaken out...only to see it go higher and higher, my stops were not adequate. I traded mostly 1 or 2 contracts, or 1 contract and scale in/out.
I believe that was the 4th books I bought on trading after http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Trends-Robert-Edwards/dp/0814408648 http://www.amazon.com/Stock-Commodi...+Trend+Trading+By+Advanced+Technical+Analysis http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-in...Hill+-+Scientific+Interpretation+Of+Barcharts But I must say, you will have more confidense in methods you trade if you can backtest using computers. I could never be able to trade some of the methods I use if it wasn't for automation. Some of the best trading happens overnite and some areas dealing with reoccuring number patterns happen so fast, I can't see them with naked eye. But I agree with you that much of the past systems still work well, having some kind of rules is better than no rules at all. And thank you, java was great.
A better day, +$1,800 including my probe positions* Much better discipline, stayed on the right side of the market. Though only traded 4 NQ contracts, I let my winners run and added to my position on small pullbacks which is my usual style of trading. ES trades did not do so great, pre-jobs report bracketed for up swing and down swing both got filled and targets and stops hit due to usual high/fast price moves, closed with small profit. Then shorted at 7 am considering breakout to fail, covered on EMA support at 1774 and reversed but proved too choppy for the next few bars, got stopped out by re-entered as considered trend to go higher, added to my position at 1777, expecting possible test of high of the day existed at 1779.25...and never re-entered as found myself scalping and timid mode which is not my style of trading. I am not a scalper but rather daily swing trader...if the day is trending. Watched ES for the rest of the session, I got out at 1779.25...but it kept going..all the way over 1793, which is fine with me, I am not in a hurry or I should not be in a hurry to trade just need to follow my setups, it's all part of trading, including not trading or not over trading. I made my small profit, kept my discipline and emotions in check and kept working on my NQ position. *** In the past, if market was too volatile or I was uncertain of expected Macro trend, I would buy 50 or 100 shares of corresponding ETF to serve as my probing trade or "direction indicator" beginning of the week of bot QQQ and SSO both were in the red before starting to turn...it served as my additional confirmation of possible bullish formation, so these positions to stay...and I may add to them. I used to do it in the past...as part of re-evaluation I revisited this approach. Week 5, ending 2/7/14 (-$875) traded 4 out 5 days. Monday's bigger than expected loss overshadowed.
Was a choppy day for me, kept swinging between gains and losses. 1. Discipline - good 2. NQ trades high PnL was +20 points but several stop outs followed 3. ES and YM trades kept going from tiny losses to larger - never made it to positive territory. 4. Satisfied with my trades, no hesitation and no impulse trades. 5. Though traded total of 60 contracts...as I scaled in some got stopped out, plus there were no good breakouts. -$200 for the day...