CL, your comments are always welcomed and appreciated ! On the long trade i was seeing the 9:30 5 min bar as a 2B buy signal. Fined tuned the entry off the 1 minute. When it failed to quickly take out a res level i exited. I saw that sell signal a few minutes later but just didn't have my head in the game yesterday. I think i was aware the shorts were late in the trend which is why i exited pretty quick when they didn't produce bigger gains immediately. Thank you for taking the time to look and comment !
1st full week back trading; -4.50 pts Missing trades is leading to taking higher risks set ups. Today 1st trade was good. Then I got too conservative and missed a trade i was waiting for. Long story short went from +4.75 to +.75 for the day on 3 trades. Should have been an easy + 10 day. I'm missing pullback entries at S/R in the bigger trend. Happened a few times this week. I can't wrap my head around the idea that the trigger may just be a stall at the S/R level. If the turn happens quick then i wait , and miss, 'cause it feels like i'm chasing. This is what i'm working on figuring out and fixing. chart attached of first 2 trades
Usually my daily goal is to just focus on taking good set ups and exits and not worry about the daily PnL. This week i decided my goal would be to be profitable every day. With lots of luck- so far so good. Even if the gains are small. The drawback to this is that after getting my acct to the plus side for the day i'm not inclined to continue trading. I'm missing some good trades doing this. My percentage of winning trades is too low, about 30%. This indicates to me i'm not taking the best set ups. I expect around 45% winning trades and would like to eventually get to the 50 -60% range. For now, just continuing to take it one step at a time. My in-trade management of the winners has improved fortunately and let me pull out some decent wins to offset the losses. This is a big deal to me. I'm trading more calmly and sitting through normal pullbacks whereas last year i was frequently exiting just to preserve a gain on pullbacks. I'm using exit targets via a placed order on most trades now where before i was trying to hold for a possible homerun too often. This has helped lock in solid gains instead of hoping a level will be taken out for more gains. Tomorrow i trade from home so pnl screen shot from this computer for mon -thurs. Still lots i need to work on and learn.
Damn. I didn't have a good feeling going in today. Attitude is everything and i need to bring it every day. Confidence and patience. -7.50 pts today, +5.25 for the week. Taking trades late in the trend, bad stop placement, bad reads. Amateur mistakes IMO. I'm currently reading Trading on Target by Toghraie. Think I'll go spend some time with that now. I'm likely going to purchase her study course. I was waiting till my price reading skills improved a bit and then take her course to really get to the next level. Maybe i won't wait. Looking over todays chart all the normal PA clues and reads are there. Always easy after the fact but they're all things i normally look for. Next weeks goals will be to be profitable for the week, to come in with a confident attitude every day and to look to act in the price areas i should be trading and not hesitate. Simple.
Look into Stephan's Deep Thoughts thread if you want to know the proper trading attitude. (imo) (don't stop after the first few posts ) http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=237397
Thanks CL. I've been reading it and admire his professional approach to trading. I'll give it another look from the beginning. Don't think my wife will let me emulate his life outside of trading. Have a good weekend and thanks again.
My goal this week was to approach each trading day rested , focused and with a positive attitude. Seems that i should be doing this all along but i've noticed there are days when i trade despite not being in the proper state of readiness. Part of the attitude i'm trying to develop is the mindset of confidence in my abilities each day as well as to not think about previous days losses. I've also cut back on my alcohol during the week. Only beer or a glass of wine and not everyday. Not that i'm an alcoholic but this is somewhat of a lifestyle change for me. I'm sleeping better too. So, my goal was met for the week. I felt good each day. Had good focus & no stress. Results weren't what they should have been. 27 trades and -1.75 pts. Tons of opportunities but missed them for various reasons. Several times i was in a move too early. I would get stopped out or exit then take a break or review then miss the next chance at the same trade. Some trades i miss due to uncertainty of price action. Oh, here's another example. In the overall down trend I was shorting pullbacks (or trying to). Sometimes i would sell at resistance then end up exiting as the market chopped around then turned lower. I find it's a fine line between picking a top and getting the right pullback entry. Waiting for a lower high can increase the probablity but some of the reversals happen quickly with no LH. This is what i'm studying now and what i paid the market (more my broker) this week to learn. I think it was a fair deal. Next week my goal will be to again come in each day rested, confident and focused. I also want to push myself to take more of my set ups. Cheers traders ! Tonight is Martini night !
Yes, Still here. I increased my # of monitors, but then every hour or two all of them would go black/blank. So after a week or two of in and out of the shop, the computer guys say the new graphics card is bad and have ordered another. But, whew, this has been hard on my trading. And I have a lot to learn yet even under the best of circumstances. So I am trading limited hours off my laptop... and have taken the time to read Mark D's 'trading in the zone' with much more time for thought than the prior 2 or 3 times I've read it. I realize I cut corners with his exercise and am going back now and re-doing his exercise with all the consciousness I can at this time. It's making a world more sense than before. --laughing-- of course, that may be because I'm actually doing it. Still have not reached 20 trades in a row yet, but on track to do so this week. This is cool. For example, Two losses in a row and I start doing other things related to trading, but not actually placing trades... Once I started seeing that pattern.... and understanding possible reasons why... Now I'm moving forward again. This is working. So having this time is a gift. Well, I guess I was put off posting in Et when NoD left. She talked to me once on the phone and I still draw strength from that conversation. I'm even trading CL now... finally! But I do find Xpurts insights and attitude helpful. His 'emotional TL's' I find often accurate and useful, among other things. So time may heal and will post more as it makes sense. I've looked at this tread also a time or two to see how you are doing... glad you are here, all the best.