thanks RN. Green but not my best day of focus. Late start today, 2 losses pre fed then I sat on hands. After the Fed minutes waited for volatility to taper off then caught a late in day long. Exit was after price made a new bull mkt high by a couple ticks and stalled. + 4.5 pts for the day. The positives : In the past I would either chase the up trend with a poor entry or just watch thinking "it had gone up enough". Today I was patient and went long with a proper entry despite an uncomfortably extended move.
7 Trades -6.00 pts First trade I forgot about news at 7:00 am and got filled on a long that got stopped out quickly -3.00. Nice set up , wrong timing. A few mistakes and few a trades I definitely should and did take but they just stalled out. Another uncomfortable trade taken that worked. Despite the loss and the mistakes I maintained good focus and calm, patience. No frustration. I do notice I lose some objectivity in trades. I was long at one point and noticed a possible sell signal setting up but waited for more confirmation before I finally exited. Had I been flat it's a short entry I like to take. Who's knows if I would have taken it but I need to switch mental gears faster. Lost .50 on the trade + opportunity cost.
Today NQ had about a 15 pt range ,the smallest range since January. + 4.00 today. There was a buy I missed around 7:53. Not sure why. Can't remember if I got distracted or lost focus in the somewhat sloppy bars. A short around 8:30 briefly considered but didn't like price was in middle of OR. I can see why my first trade did not work but at the time it was holding support so it was a long entry. Nice job today exiting the long and switching gears to be positioned and in a short 15 seconds later. Stopped trading around 11:00 pst due to so much boredom I could no longer focus Seriously, not looking for excitement, this was clearly a market with few opportunities.
yesterday very narrow range. 4 trades , BE less commish. ======== Today first trade I hesitated then asked myself if it was a set up and would I feel uncomfortable taking the trade. I answered "yes" so placed the order. Got filled moments later and it worked well for + 9.00 That was the good today. My short trade I ignored the sticky note on my computer that says "Where should price pullback to after entry ?" Trade went positive reversed at support and I thought scratch to maintain my +9.00. Wrong. Where should price pb to ? It did then went lower. Lost some focus after that so no more trades. Excellent opportunities today too. Been awhile since I've seen a nice down move in NQ. Might have been a little out of practice with those moves. Going forward I expect better focus from myself. Might need a mid session pep talk.
Take a step back, look at the bigger picture. You will grind your account into dust trying to scalp like this.
He made 9 points.... doesn't look like he's trying to scalp. He scratched the next trade because he thought it was going to reverse. Yeah, he was wrong but I don't see any issues with his trading yesterday.
Thanks for the post Mo. I watch a 5 minute chart for set ups and a couple HTF's. Trades entered off the 1 minute going for hopefully 5 -10+ pt targets. So, my intention is not to scalp but I guess it depends on ones definition. It has been suggested before to me that I try HTF and longer holding periods and thus bigger targets. Right now I'm still committed to trying to make my plan work.
+1.75 Seeing set ups better. Noticing 3 reasons to enter, aware of being uncomfortable, then entering. great. pleased. Targets. moving them still. I've never liked targets. Goes against what was ingrained through the Market Wizards books. Let profits run. Well, I'm a better trader now so targets are not arbitrary like they may have been before. I now see that the targets I'm picking have a logic for being a potential reversal area and it seems frequently price does in fact do that. my first and last trades s/h been exit at +5 target area vs my +1.75 & +2.25 actual Exits. I'm not applying the uncomfortable feeling on entry to exits. Got uncomfortable in choppy uptrend and exited when I should have let price test support. Also last trade since didn't exit at target got nervous on the PB and exited. Will start to paying more attention to the uncomfortable feelings. second trade not a good entry. Good focus today, good attitude, all long trades, not fighting trend. Confidence plays a big part in trading. Improving there.