Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal

Trading range day. Great opportunities to practice some trading range fade setup I have been working on. The result wasn’t too great, but got a bit more idea how to play the TR. For now, I wouldn’t trade them in my live account without more intensive testing.

So I made more trades today…

7:55, L2 / wedge bear flag short. Stopped out -10 Pts
Reenter on break out pullback, bull trap, wedge bear flag still valid. Then I saw some buying pressure @ previous LOD, the follow through is slow, So I didn’t hold. +21 Pts

9:35. L2 short. Stop out then reverse to long. Stop to almost b/e on the pullback.

Then I stopped trading and waiting for reports. Then I decided to practice how to fade the range.


11:15. Decided to practice the range fade. Another wedge bull flag long. The entry was aggressive since I tried to buy low of the bear channel. No immediately follow through, I should get out quickly and waiting for more leg down.

11:28 long, got whipsawed. Then reneter, now price grinded up. Took a 12 Pts since the move up is forming another wedge on its way up.

Today’s PnL: -$30, 7 trades 43% winrate

 

The last long is pretty. I think the worst thing i can do in trading range is entering in the middle of the rage. But sometimes it is just hard to find the range boundary.

 

I am not sure if I apply those concepts in a right way, but here is what I think about YTD's trade. And since I am a bad typer and lousy at spelling. I am attaching a chart to explain myself..

Think H1, L1 ,H2, L2 H3, L3 ....... in a bigger picture. H1=A L1=B, H2=C. They are just another variations of ABC correct move. See chart. Large A leg has small abc correct move(dotty line). There is some more to YTDs L2 set up and pattern. The tight trading range that is part of the C leg. The tight trading range has identical Hs and Ls. Using A's term---a ledge, a TR. In large Time frame its a small Doji. It's definitely OK to sell below the bear close bar that inside the ledge when trading with the trend. Or look for small bear body bars that on top of the ledge to sell below it.- It was where I tried to enter.

Also, Bar 1 is a bull trap. the 3rd attempt for bulls to break out then failed. it increases the chance that market would go down instead of going up.

I hope I am clear...

 

look for wedge and 4 pushes up/down of anything then , draw S/R, trendlines, Magetic pull prices, Measured moves etcs.. to define boudaries... I am still practicing the strategies too.

 

Hi Matcha,

Besides being a wonderful PA student, you are also a wonderful fine arts student too! You really can draw very nice pictures.

Thank you for taking the time to put the setup in the microscope. I can now see clearly how you counted the Larger legs. I was counting the smaller legs (dotted line ones) and got lost.

It's good to be able to count the legs correctly so I will have more confidence to take the H2/L2 trades. I understand that Al thinks these are very reliable setups in trending markets.

Yeah! Today I overtraded in the trading range also and I didn't do well, offsetting a couple of profitable trades in the morning.

Thanks again for the L2 explanation.

--po

 

Matcha

That's a very informative recap of yesterday's entry method. I agree with PO, yesterday was a good example of keeping losses small and winning big. Tuesdays' trades were just as "well read". When I trade around whole numbers I respect them (take profits or enter) until prices prove to me their comfortable trading through that level (yesterday 11,100 today 11,000). Looking for a level to take a "late long" yesterday, 11,100 had it's "spirit" broken when you took your short. Just my opinion, with the privilege of 20/20 hindsight!

Today was interesting. The FBI snooping around hedge funds, European debt worries and N&S Korea blasting away. Are you sure you want to go to Seoul? I think the pressure on the Euro will hold for today and with all the news on the docket I look for a replay of yesterday. Don't forget to check your markets closing time, and as we know traders like to celebrate, so volume may dry up a little early.

Again, I sure enjoyed your closeup chart, very nice

 

I did not take any trades today.

But today is another “strong trend at the open then tight trading range” type of day. I had a plan written for this kind of day. If I missed the morning move, I would look for H2 set up, M2B EMA, and look for buy set up around 11:30 bull/bear trap. There were a few this type of pullback opportunities, but PA didn’t set up the nice pattern I feel comfortable to get in. So I choose not to chase. I didn’t want to make some bad trades then carry some bad mood into holiday!

Week result.
PnL: $146
# of trades per day:3
40% winrate

Have a nice holiday! C ya all on Monday!

 

The 11000 number does it's magic work again today!

I will take the risk going to Seoul I have made a whole list of things and places to go... and got Rain's(Korean pop star) concert ticket too

Hopefully everything will be fine there and you will see me back here in Jan...

 

Don't feel too bad. Learning for us now is very important than making fast money. Yes, our goal is avg $100 per day with high winrate. But we should also learn to trade or not to trade in different market. No need to trade if the market environment is not in line with your PB set ups. It's OK to only take 2-3 PB trades a week too.

Ytd will be priceless if you learned something!

I traded poorly in TR too. I have the set up that I am practicing now. But I may not finally to trade the setup if the result is bad.

I like Wentfishing and Nodoji's Max Factor analysis. I am working on mine now. You may want to try it out too!

 

Hi Matcha,

I agree with you that there are more than 2 choices when making a trade decision, other than going LONG or SHORT, the 3rd and sometimes better choice would be NO TRADE. You are right that in the long run, by not taking those "iffy" low probability trades can have a positive impact on our PnL.

The last couple of days, it wasn't very good for DAY Traders who like to trade with the trend. All the major action was during the overnight session. May be we should change to become NIGHT TRADERS.

Ha! Max Factor sounded like cosmetic products. Seriously, I, too have trouble letting the initial stop to take out my trades especially after facing 3 or 4 straight MAX stop losses. As I have tried so many times in the last few weeks to not move my stops and ended up max limit loss for the day. It will be great to hear your thoughts on this.

I will take this opportunity to thank everyone during this Thanksgiving Holiday. Thank you very much for all your help.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

--po