jasinhbca's quest for discipline, knowledge & profits

You got a positive gain.. very often perfect exits and entries are tough to time. There will be other opportunities. My focus now is to try to get positive gains the vast majority of time. I take profits when I can get them. Be content. Don't swing for the fences. Let the singles add up. If you want to swing for the fences, then become a swing trader or a long term investor. I just don't do that because I want to sleep well at night. But then again, what do I know. From a rookie to a junior trader. LOL

 

Nice entry, I was looking at a long at that area too but hesistated because I wanted a slightly "better price" and ended up missing the whole move. One thing that will really help you is to stay consistent on how you draw your lines. Make it routine, don't wake up one morning and say ok I'm gonna trade off channels today and then the next day do something different. Draw them exactly the same way, each and every single day. The idea here is to eliminate as much ambiguity as you can from your chart tools. The market is chaotic enough, you don't need to add anymore confusion when you're trying to read price. So remember to draw all your lines exactly the same way everyday. And if you can't find a useful way to read price from these lines then find other methods. For me, I use the same set of horizontal lines and VWAP everyday, that's it. I just sit there and let price meander around these lines and tell me what it wants to do. Because I use so little tools in an effort to keep things simple, I rely a great deal on how price behaves around my lines. For example you see how price broke down below Prev HOD during the globex session, that tells me some things about price that I will take into account as I look for my setups and manage my trades. Also, I monitor ES closely as well.

Ok so about your exit. While there were clues in price that could probably get you out a bit sooner, all in all your exit was ok. At least you did not let it turn into a loser. You reference 10+ MFE, but there's no way you can get all that, so don't distract yourself too much with those stats. But if you look at what price did after it broke above the previous high of 2237.75, it consolidated a bit. I put a box around that consolidation in your chart attached. Here's the deal, if I was in your position and I was targeting 2250, I want to see price in a "hurry." I do not want to see it meander for too long. Basically what you saw in this box is the next round of buyers stepping up, but look at how weak they were, couldn't even test the high (2240.75). So the most I want to see price pull back is within this box, thats the most room I'm willing to give with my stop before I'm out. You have to understand that while you are long, there are participants that need to sell for a myriad of reasons, and they are waiting for the highest prices to sell. So when they see weakness in the buyers, which was evident in the box, then they will sell right away. It's important to looks at things from both a seller and buyers perspective, regardless if you are long or short.

Personally as a scalper, once price broke above 2238 I would've just closed in on my stop and take my profit. There's no need for me to hold on to my position just see to if price will go higher, while putting profits at risk. Take profits first, and ask questions later. There is ALWAYS a re-entry for me if price is indicating that it wants to head back up.

Sorry if my post is too wordy, its not easy for me to put this stuff in words.

 

Can't seem to post your chart for some reason, lets try mine.

 

SF,

Don't believe the old saying 'you can't go broke taking a profit' . I need some medium/ large wins to pay for my losses.

But you are right about swinging for the fences. Problem is i've exited too many trades for small gains that then run another 20 points. Crazy biz. Still trying to find the balance there.

GL

 

Not wordy at all. I appreciate you taking the time and posting a chart.

Yes i agree the clues were in the box. I missed them or was locked into a belief.

You've given me some things to think about and some good tips.

Thank you.

'see ya' tomorrow.

 

I know not directed at me but...

Another thought on exits is to simply move your stop to below the previous swing low, in this case just below 2236 after the minor retrace then turn back up. Moving your stop to just below the stalled area just after your entry would ensure a positive trade.

Just another thought....of who knows how many.

 

DblArrow,

Sorry for not responding sooner and thank you. The little swing low makes sense too.

thanks & feel free to post here anytime.

jas

 

No break throughs yet. Still mostly small winning days and losing days. Had a mini blow up week or so ago. Realized after the fact i was tired while trading.

You all know the saying.. a wise man learns from mistakes of others, a fool learns from his own. i'm still aspiring to become a fool. Made that trading while tired mistake several times. I think this time i got.

I've been working on holding trades longer. That was a big problem for me, exiting on slight pullbacks. I've kind of gone the to the other extreme and have held some marginal winners too long. Sometimes 3 pts is all the trade will have to offer.

Today i did have a trade that went +3.25 then pulled back to where i was -.25. PA said to stay in the whole time and was able to exit at +7.50 That's an improvement for me. Before i would have exited at +1 or something.

The next area i need to work on is taking more trades after my daily profit objective is reached. I'd like to get to the point where i'm making on average 5 pts a day. Today after 5 trades i was +5.75 so i wasn't looking as hard for trades. Probably looking more for reasons to stay out. But today was a good day to be more aggressive given the sell off. I need to be more focused on the trades and not being afraid of giving up profits.

 

Really????


That is after the fact thinking…., and trading



What you should have done… and must do – is have a plan – then follow that plan to the letter

Never... or Ever – will we know what the day will be like – it always unfolds as it does

Which is why we must stay the course – by following our plan


Unless you’re fixin to fancy yourself a fortune teller – that is


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On another note;

Can’t argue with remaining focused… and patient… and disciplined

Nor would I

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for giving up profits – that is a belief that does nothing but hamper you – may want to change it

We risk some to make some – and that’s all we do

Conversely

Profit ain’t profit - until..., and unless – it is withdrawn from the trading account

Until then it is simply too damn easy to risk it on a trade

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Always pick and choose your battles (trades) carefully – always

RN

 

Thanks RN,

My ego was very loudly asking me if i wanted to close + 5.75 or possibly only +3.75 today. To quiet my ego (or work with it) i need to focus and get satisfaction on process goals. A pat on the back for following my plan is all i should be striving for i suppose . If i can do that the results should be more than satisfactory.

Jokepie (another ET'er) has said focus on Power of Now. Be in the moment. Another way of saying just follow the plan !

not as easy for me to do it as it is to write it. But something must change within myself if i'm going to make it to the next level.

Hmmm.

thanks for getting me to think through this some more.