Sorry only made 6 trades since this thread started, so far no losers but will attempt to make a loss next week.
Thank you. It's actually how I work for myself all the time (Morge inspired): each day becomes a collection of 10-20 such screenshots (after deleting the redundant ones that don't contribute much) which I archive in a handy PDF. I like annotating what I see as it happens; it keeps me focused. Disk space is cheap and it's the best way for me to later review everything I did. The prior day was the first up day in a very long time, so I didn't have a larger timeframe trend in mind. (If anything, shorting the supply line we partly see would've been interesting.) I like starting fresh most days anyway and just trade what's in front of me. I mostly take note of the prior day's high and low, and then look at behavior at the open (9:30 Eastern) and at those levels for a while (could be hours) until something becomes obvious to me and affordable enough. Part of my edge is in being picky. On this day we found buyers first, so I was then biased long, but we found strong sellers, which put me in neutral until one side would show a stronger hand. While waiting for that tell, I noticed that we had two level tops and bottoms, forming a wide enough range (20 points), so I bet on price continuing to range. Not my favorite setup, but since I want just 10-20 points per day it would've been fine. Afterwards, my stop was the tell to short, and at 10:40 I had a setup, but the only safe target was prior day's low, yielding a mere 2:1 reward, so I passed. Turned out to be the only setup for the 55-point move down, but I'm happy that both this loser and my lack of entry short thereafter, albeit frustrating, followed my plan. It kept me out of plenty of trouble already so I'm not in a hurry to change it.
thanks VPhantom. you cut your losses quickly on that, so that's the main thing. I wonder: would others such as RedNeck or Brian or Turvey have taken the same trade long that you did? If not, who's right? Maybe no one is right and it all varies with the trading plan? I have my own view but would rather let ppl discuss. Would be interesting to see what they think, but I didn't want to put you on the spot too much. how about this, take a look at RN's losing trades. Would you enter where he did?
A comment regarding some of the charts annotated. Those of you using platforms that do auto-annotation why do you self annotate?
I annotated the losing trades myself, because if I auto-annotated it would also show winning trades. That's not what this journal was asking for. Only losing trades....
Mav1 I personally would not be comfortable answering this..., and here's why I wasn't there when the other trader took the trade (so what the hell would I know) I would never second guess another trader (too much mutual respect to do that) I have the benefit of hindsight (no benefit whatsoever to what I would have.., or would not have - done) We all trade differently..., we all see things differently ============== You are correct about it not about being right... Rather it about conducting one's self correctly..., and in accordance to what is unfolding on the chart - right here..., right now jmo Sir RN
It doesn't always work: I been doing this set up long time. But funny when works in other Indexes and markets.
Handle, I mean this only in the best of ways: I find your charts really hard to decipher and I'm guessing I'm not the onlyone. I realize you don't owe anyone anything on ET, but if you ever are up to it, would you consider annotating your entry/entries and exit/s? Maybe a green arrow or line for entries and red for exits. If you just don't have time, never mind. Just thought I'd ask because if you're taking the time to post charts, then you don't mind people reading them.