Off to a good start. Made 68 ticks. However, I'm not liking the way I traded. I didn't wait for better set ups. Part of the problem is that the first 30 minutes or so, around the open, I don't really have a grasp of where price is going so I do a lot of guessing. After that time, it's easier for me to trade with my system. I don't want to stop trading the open, I think I need that experience, but don't want the losing trades to count against the rest of the day, so I think the best solution is to go back to using one account for tracking the trades around the first 30 minutes of the open, and a 2nd account for trend trades. The times might overlap some...sometimes, like even today's last trade, would be better to stick into the "trend trade" account....basically, an account that I want to be able to trail trades for a while on a 5 minute chart. So, I'm going to be flexible with the timing of when I stop with the "trading the open" account and start with the "trend trades" account. However, the rule that I know I'll be tempted to break, is the rule of taking more than 3 losing trades. I do want to keep to that....and if I'm not strict with it, then it's not doing any good to have such a rule. So, 3 losing trades, 20 ticks maximum, per day, in each account. And just for honesty's sake, I will, at times, trade in another account, where I don't bother with the amount of losing trades, but I work on refining and fine tuning entries...that's more of drill practice account, and I have certain rules to follow, and the point is to learn to catch the initial burst of a move, so that my trades won't go into drawdown. Making money is not the objective in that account. That account I will not be keeping track of or posting about on here.
Couldn't get my 2nd demo account working this morning. It turns out I had to download the latest version of Sierra Chart to fix it. Now it's working. So, the trades taken today were during the open and should have been in the 2nd demo account. I want it like that because the 2nd demo account doesn't work as reliably as the main platform and I view my trades around the open as experimental and a learning experience, not my strategy. So, today will mess up tracking my statistics. Didn't place any of my "trend" trades today, although I was watching and trying. The problem was that I wasn't sure enough of when and where to enter and didn't want to risk getting stopped out on guesses.
Discovered Sierra Chart has TICK-NASDAQ and TICK-NQ market stats. The TICK-NQ was the one I had tried to make sense of on Monday and couldn't. The TICK-NASDAQ seems like it could be helpful. I think add it to what I'm already doing and see if it makes a difference.
Today was disappointing. I was stopped out quite a bit for using a 20 tick stop loss before changing to around 35 ticks. I used the TICK-NASDAQ some. I honestly can't remember how much it was influencing the trades because I was concentrating on price action the most, but I do remember thinking that the NQ was going up before 9 am Central time and the TICK was remaining mostly below the zero line and that did 2 things. 1. It didn't "feel" right for trending higher with the TICK so low. 2. It almost made me short when price was moving up. So, for today, at least, I would say it seems helpful, but I need to use it cautiously.
Really had a hard time with taking Trend trades most days this week. I didn't place any today. I don't do very well in down days and also the price action seemed a little choppier than normal....or was that just my excuse for not reading where to enter? I did have have my finger on the mouse in the Trend Account and nearly took a long around 8:55 CT just before it dropped. Thankfully, I didn't take that trade. The NASDAQ TICK on the 5 min chart supported the trade idea...so when the drop came it seemed to come out of nowhere. The Trading the Open account still felt like guessing, not trading.
I'll need to rethink how I'm using the Nasdaq-Tick because it really threw my trades off today. Might get rid of it.
Made 18 ticks today. Didn't use the Nasdaq TICK at all...I think I'm done with it. So, let me explain something. I like having a tight stop loss. I really don't know why, but part of it is the challenge of it. Part of it is that I don't like to lose money and a larger stop loss terrifies me because a long losing streak using $300 to $500 stop losses would be very costly, well, maybe not if I stayed in micros, that would be $30 to $50 per trade...I'll have to think about that some more. Here's what my trade potentials were: 1st trade: no potential, full stop out 2nd trade: with a 30 tick stop loss had the potential to make 618 ticks 3rd trade: with a 20 tick stop loss had the potential to make 521 ticks 4th trade: with a 144 tick stop loss had the potential to make 316 So, today, taking the same entries, could have been managed differently to bring in a LOT more money. I need to figure out how to do this. One thing that has been stopping me is that I don't know how often I'm right about the overall trend direction. So, if time proves that I am right more often than not, then manipulating the stop loss and trailing the stop to capture a large part of the trade potential will be the next thing to work on. Another, easier way to do it, would be to start using 2 contracts. The only reason I haven't is because with 2 contracts a losing streak is very costly. However, I'm really not worried about any of this. It might take a while, a few months, maybe longer, but I think I have learned to trade the NQ well enough to be profitable. I'm not basing that on today's Trend Account results, but my overall NQ record. I didn't trade in my Trading the Open account today because price was too volatile. I didn't take any live trades today. Here are the trades I took in the Trend Account:
Made 25 ticks. Price wasn't trending and I'm really trying to be careful to trade only when it's trending.....and actually, the 2 trades I placed were from a loss of self-control because I had already decided it wasn't trending and I needed to wait, but when I thought I saw price action that I thought I could read, I entered. So, even if the market takes off and I miss out, I think it's best to stop early. I'm a little skeptical of trends that start a bit later in the day, although I know sometimes powerful moves come after price ranges for a while. Better to stop while I'm ahead. Didn't trade in the Trading the Open account and didn't take any live trades. Even though the trades in the Trend Account didn't make much, I think I'm becoming consistent in being able to get in and out quickly to make a little something. I just have to combine that with finding the start of a trend and then hold onto it.
Made 63 ticks using 2 contracts per trade in the Trading the Open Demo Account. I didn't trade in the Trend account or my live account. I'm not as accurate when trying to find a down trend and so I thought I'd stay out. Also, there's a Fed speaker in a few minutes and that could produce some wild swings so I'm done for the day. I have a lot of other trading things to work on, such as continuing to put more details into my trading plan and studying chart patterns.