Only traded part of the day a.m. and last hour which is good because pretty much nothing going on today. Took one valid trade in a.m. that didn't work -5 ticks. Avoided the chop well for the time I was active. Thinking out loud: There are a lot of trader axioms that are easily understood but take time to really burn in to the trader's psyche. Been thinking about Nodoji's reminder the other day that the best trade is sometimes no trade. To know this at the level where one feels no compulsion to take a trade unless it absolutely fits the plan is another learned skill. Seems obvious that if the plan spells out valid trades it should be easy to avoid invalid trades. Not as easy as I thought. There's a feeling of need to trade, need to produce profits that must be controlled. The job is to take entries and manage per plan. Identify the context - trending, ranging, choppy trend. Identify set ups and management for those conditions. If no set ups occur then the job is to do nothing. It may lead to missing some moves. That's ok. At the end of the day you must be able to say you did your job. The rewards are great but there's little room for error.
Not surprisingly I'm not trading with a lot of confidence. It does effect my objectivity I've noticed. But mentally improving. Trade selection was good today. Better job watching context. Still holding some winners too long and some poor exits. That's were I noticed my objectivity going out the window. Breathing easier today and sensing this set back I've created is passing by. Tomorrow day before holiday weekend so need to come in patient and watch volume. Watch context. -12 ticks today 13 trades. No big winners or losers. Today would have been a good day for a scaling out strategy but I need to earn that.
I wonder if all the "great job-ing" I did last week..., has somehow bled over into this week and jacked you up..., or contributed to jack-ing you up I know it possible If so I apologies to you..., and won't repeat it Its been four days of mental turmoil - pull it together tomorrow - and finish this on an up note RN
No reason to apologize RN. This is all my own doing. Last week I was trading a bit sloppy and not as disciplined as I should have been. I got away with it cause market was kind to me offering nice moves. This week my lack of discipline and maybe not seeing some serious chop in awhile was my undoing and my fault. A good wake up call that will and already has made me a better trader. Your encouragement and kicks in the butt are always appreciated ! jas
Still a mix of good and bad. A nervous, exit- too- soon mistake for a loss. Which came after holding a trade for full stop which a wanted to exit sooner. I can see how that may have messed up my head. Some good trades and patience. I can see the mistakes I'm making. Trading a bit timidly. Not anticipating some things. It doesn't quite feel like how I've traded in the past. I know what review I need to do this weekend and nice I get an extra day to do it. Most of these are easy fixes. Just need to go over the trades and my saved chart examples. Need to review HTF S/R . I'm avoiding some trades due to how I'm reading airspace. Need to get that clear. Lots of little PA things need review. Basic stuff. All of that will help my mental game. The biggest problem this week was not avoiding chop. That's a patience thing and paying more attention to HTF. CL volatility as measured by OVX continues to decline. That may impact my targets and time it takes to get there but that's about it. Not as discouraged as I may have thought. First really bad week in many months so just going to study, study, study and fix the issues and move on. -146 ticks this week . yeah, pretty bad. Happy holiday weekend traders !
Hi Jas, IMHO: Friday was not very bad for CL trading. It seems that the basic TA stuff still works. The problem is that if CL chops around for an extended period of time, I get tired easily and lose focus. Then, I tend to miss setup after setup. Need to concentrate better and/or take break during the long chopping period. Have a nice weekend.
Hi Moonmist, Thanks for the comments. I agree. The basic set ups were there Friday and avoiding and staying rested during chop are things I need to work on also. You have a great weekend too !
Best week - worst week - B2B Recall when I stated need to let the good week become a memory and not dwell on it / allow it to affect the current week Same holds true for the bad week By Tuesday it needs to a distant memory..., and just doing our job - at the forefront RN