Recap for the day. as previously posted -1.25 on first trade 2nd trade was an embarrassed- to- post- chart long trade stopped out -2.25 3rd went short about 12:22 and exit 12:57 for +6.75 Net for day +3.25 My entries still need work. I'm hesitating about 30 seconds to a minute +. Pretty decent exit on the last trade. priorLOD was taken out but price stalled. I soon exited. Big range today that i should have been able to get more of , IMO. My concern is that when the small range days appear again i won't be able to catch any thing but losses. We'll see. I think as long as i'm patient my set ups will work fine. Very pleased to end the day positive.
No focus today. A bit tired maybe. Missed a good long entry and then didn't feel like chasing the trend although that's what i should have done (up to a point) So no trades. Last week i talked about keeping track of my "psych. issues" so i printed up a calendar and i'm keeping track now. Last friday was a "R" "P" day. Revenge trade and profitable for the day. Today 'N" and zero day. No focus and zero trades. Easy to keep track. I'll see what develops. I also keep track on my trade worksheets the mistakes i make on entry and exits which are not necessarily psych stuff; like: exit too soon, hesitate on entry, bad read etc.
Today i was patient when i should have been entering and entering when i should have been patient. 2 trades - 3.00 total. I haven't seen such a wide choppy range before that i recall. Lot's of opportunities but missed them. I'm still having a problem acting on what i see sometimes. I hesitate waiting for more confirmation then price moves quickly. I don't want to chase from the ideal entry point but sometimes the late entry would have worked out just fine. i expect more screen time and further review of my set ups will eventually correct this. I think i have a decent understanding of what i should be doing. Hopefully it will all come together soon.
I think you are doing fine You will get that hesitation out with more experience i.e. screen time. Psychologically --- "IDEAL" is what is to "YOUR" own "SYSTEM". it has nothing to do with the market and where is it going. Pull that trigger next time and let market tell you "YOu are wrong, I am going the other way" and then you follow it that way. If you were right, Find a Guide (i use a close SMA) as your gaurd rail and stay in the trade as long as the rail on the right side. If you do enter everytime you feel "IT". only thing you will do is increase your number of trades, its OK if you manage your risk and reward properly.
Oh, i just had a flash back to sim trading when i had that 'how tough can this be attitude" I think i did something like 20+ trades in two days and 90% losers. That'll wake you up. But you're right. My instincts are a tad better now. Thanks for the support, JP !
Nothing exciting to report. 3 trades, - 1.25 total. Still feeling out of synch a bit. My regular workload is increasing and is probably a source of distraction. Even if i'm devoting the first couple hours to trading there's still other work to be done in the back of my mind. No worries though. I'll find a balance.
Psych issues today. I hate seeing $$ left on the table or the points i could have made if i had entered when i first thought about it. Today: Missed a trade short. Next went long and got stopped out but quickly reversed short. The second trade was good for 9.75. So now i'm up +7.5 for the day, which is very good for me. Normally i'd be very happy. However, that second trade i covered at 2304.50 (Todays low 2258) Missed another trade short around 2295. Not sure why . I may have taken a quick break but i know i only missed by a fraction and didn't want to chase. So that's about when discipline left to get an early start on the weekend. 3 more short trades after LOD made trying to catch the 'crash' that were all stopped out. R/R wasn't bad on them but the probabilties of them working weren't great I suppose. Ended the day + half point. Lessons learned today: 1. Get over missed trades and points. It's part of the business and the goal is not necessarily to catch every move. 2. Good trading begets more good trading. If i had taken the entries i should have, there would not have been a need or desire to force trades later on. Still thinking about multiple cars which would allow a scale out and chance to ride the winners longer. Again though i want a bit more consistency first. I hope the rest of you made lots today !
Trading is so easy......after the fact. 2 trades net = 0 pts, Errors = 3 ? 1st trade went + 6.75 MFE . I thought about exiting at +6 but decided to use PA for the exit. ended up +2.25 My ultimate goal is to make 3-6 pts a day. My current goal is to become a profitable and consistent trader, which includes trying to let profits run. Seems they may be conflicting goals. It brings up scaling out concept again which i tried in sim but didn't find a big difference. Profit targets ? Maybe. 2nd trade -good entry but price stalled. The premise for this set up suggests it should go higher quickly. Should have exited when premise failed. could have got plus 1 or BE.
As someone said somewhere in some book quote "Because he is prepared to run quick -- say, stop his loss at two points when all he hopes to make is two points -- he hugs the fallacy that he is merely taking a fifty-fifty chance"