This is going to be a journal of my trading of the ES & NQ. I've just started trading futures intra-day this year and have been struggling with getting consistent results. I feel like keeping a journal and having the trades written down in front of me for later review will help. I also feel like doing it in a public forum will make me sharpen my focus and hold myself accountable for the results. Just for some quick background in case there are any questions. I've been trading for over 6 years now full-time and I've never had any other kind of job after graduating from school. This futures account is something I've been wanting to do for awhile but it's not necessary to my earning a living. For now I'm just going to be posting my trades for my own review along with some reasoning why the trade was entered. I've never kept a trading journal before so this could all change as I start it and move along.
Missed a nice buy opportunity from the 807 area in ES that I would have looked to cover around 815. I'm usually pretty busy at the open doing a few other things so I often miss the first trade of the day in futs.
Short NQ at 1155 as the first half hour run-up looks to have weakened and might be rolling back over. *edit* - stopped out at 1161, market acting really strong with ES leading the way.
Finally got the rollover from this mornings first hour run- up. It moved too quickly and I missed the low-risk short so now I will look for a pullback.
That rollover from the first hour ended up being just a flag formation which should have signaled a continuation to the upside. I did not believe the flag and passed on the long trade at 810.25. The biggest thing I need to remember is that I don't know what is going to happen next and I shouldn't put a bias into my decision making. If I just follow the price action which I should be doing then the trade is obvious. This mental block is the biggest hurdle for me.
Going long at 818.25 on the small pullback here after that strong run to new intra-day highs. *edit* - cover at 820.75, first trade that I followed my plan on all day.
Getting short the ES on the pullback at 821.50, we'll see if this down move has one more leg down in it. *edit* - cover at 818.50 for 3 points. My target was 817.50 and it came within a tick. *edit 2* - should have just kept my profit target of 817.50 in there. I do this often where I end up missing a point here and there and at the end of the day it all adds up.
Looks like there might be another flag formation in the making just like this morning as long as the bottom of this channel holds. *edit* - scratch that as we went shooting down through that lower trendline!
Looks like a lot of volatile chop at the moment and it's probably no coincidence that it's during lunch on a Friday.
A pretty impressive melt-up this afternoon, I wouldn't exactly call it a rally. I'm going to stay nimble and try and find some good trades in the last 90 minutes. This rally seems like it's losing steam but I'll just take my cue from the charts. *edit* - We finally made a lower high in both ES and NQ and the previous swing lows are being taken out so I'll be looking to short into a pullback.