I got a good laugh out of that "BREATHE". I thought I was the only one who believed that a stop loss was far less likely to be hit if I held my breath long enough
Yep, tapping the foot rapidly also helps to protect those stops. I don't do that anymore Only the 1 trade today.
Hard to sum up the day. I felt calm and well aware of what I should be doing. The action was a bit choppy and I kept thinking of rollover week and how this may lead to poor PA. My first trade I moved my stop closer too quick and the second trade I exited out of plan based on the PA showing strength counter my position. Both of these trades would have hit target had I managed them properly. My last two trades were executed perfectly. Despite the mistakes I wasn't rushing decisions. It was mostly calm observing and reacting with the plan in mind. So even though I didn't execute properly I was at least thinking of what I should do. Not sure if this is making sense. It's a subtle but important difference from how I was trading last month. I'm not going to beat myself up over the mistakes today. It was a learning experience and actually a confidence builder. I was -19 going in to the last trade. Tempted to exit at the stall +15 and then +10 but stayed with the plan. Got +25 and called it a day with +6. If I remember correctly the laws of physics are different between Newtonian and quantum physics. I'm thinking PA rules also change around HOD/LOD vs within the days range. Nothing concrete yet but I'm mulling it over.
I'm trading too cautiously. After booking some profits I kinda think , "Well, I'd be happy to finish the day just like this." Sort of a go slow build confidence approach. But I need to keep trading the plan, accumulating stats and getting the practice in. Plus, today it would have led to more profits. So, I'll need to make more of a conscious effort to stay focused and continue to take valid trades. 3 trades today , +23 ticks PnL attached
Funny, we were in at the same prices but different times. I was long @ 93.83 at 7:50 your time and long @ 94.42 at 10:08 your time. (BTW, 94.60 was a key level in line to be tested on the 60-min chart, last Monday's swing high from pre-market; initial visits back to these key levels tend to hold on the first approach). You're definitely front-running me Be careful about squirreling away profits and calling it a day. Be aggressive on clean price action days so it pays for the choppy days
I had posted earlier in the CL thread that 94.60 was a target. (The same reasons, hourly upper channel & that swing) Then when it got there, IDK if I forgot about it or gave it one of those- let's see what happens. I think more of the latter which is my plan for now. Early exits when my minimum target is not looking likely to hit I need to figure out. Right now I just bring my stop up. Yes, some easy money trades today I did not take. Another area of discomfort i'll have to push through. (continuing to trade) Thanks, ND !
1 trade, -10. Rollover week choppy. This might be a borderline set up. Technically I can't fault it except the pullback wasn't real "clean". Two reasons to exit earlier than I did but stayed with the structure stop. Unless anybody sees anything terribly wrong with this i'll put in the category of they can't all be winners.
The environment at the time of your trade was wide range. Approximate range low was 93.80 and approximate range high was 94.25. The spike through the range high during your 9:52 bar was a failure; it met with immediate selling, so clearly not a signal to look for longs. In fact, the selling took it right down to the range low. If the trend is your friend till it ends, then the range contains price pretty nice. Just as I've learned that a trend is intact during any pullback until a key S/R level breaks with some conviction and that level then acts as the opposite S/R, I also assume that a range is intact until it breaks with some conviction, price pulls back to the breakout zone and price then turns back in the direction of the breakout from that level or close to it. I don't see anything particularly wrong with selling a pullback to the previous 1min support/price turn between 93.95 and 93.97 (which also happens to be the 1-min 20EMA that I use for this purpose), but keep in mind that there's a 5-min containment bar with a high of 94.01 (10:00 your time) and once this level breaks during your 10:15 bar, that's a signal for me to wait for clarity in a range like this. So I'd be looking to scratch a short position if price couldn't break 93.93 downside, and begin watching for a long entry to position for an excursion to the range high. I didn't get long until price closed above the 1min 20EMA and that level began acting as support (around 10:35 your time). Once that happens then the natural behavior of the range environment indicates that price is more likely than not to try for that 94.25 range high again. It looks like you took a short position after the 5-min level broke upside. If I wasn't already short, that upside break would be a signal for me to wait before taking a position. Again, nothing inherently wrong with the trade and the risk is very small. It's just that in a range there's no team that's in control of the game.
Nothing wrong with that one my Friend... or with the way you been trading these last few days (yeah I've been lurking) You read it / traded it / and exited when it quit working Ya done good We can hindsight em to death - or go make more Keep on Truckin RN