Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal

I am still testing and trying to quantify the critieria for limit order entry strategies. If anyone has a great method, please feel free to share. PM is welcomed too.

 

Hi Matcha,

Agreed with you. Move on tomorrow!

Today was a choppy day for me too. 3 strikes for me. Got chopped and stopped out in all 3 for -4.5 ES pts max. loss.

--po

 

PO, looks like you and Matcha always have same result, if she made money, then you made money; if she lost, and you lost. We are trying to learn some setup from Matcha for YM trading, could you post your ES trading charts too, and we can learn some from you for ES trading?

 

Yeah I dropped a few pts too yty but earlier in day on FESX. Some days our reads are off and sometimes emotion comes in and clouds our judgement. It's just something we have to work on so as to keep the damage as low as possible. Even the best atheletes in the world have bad days.

Good luck today and wish you a great weekend.

 

I only watched market today. Don’t feel like my emotion has been adjusted from YTD’s crappy performance.

But I did try the limit order strategy to get in long at 7:20 but due to my lack of experience I couldn’t get the order in. I kept switching my ideal “limit price” then I ended up missed the move.

I don’t think I am going to try to do more limit order testing any more. I only make it worse. I will only stick to “stop” order for now and still try to get most of my trades in at the AM session. Then stick to only one setup. I am just a new trader and I need to stop being “smart” and creative.

The biggest challenge is now trading in BW/horizontal flag pattern when they are part of the 2 leg pullback. This will be my major focus in the next few weeks. Got to lay down the rules on when and where to take or pass on the trades.

Another challenge is in the AM sessions, the setup always looked “dangerous” and happened fast. For example, today at 7:15. Market sets up a first pullback at MA and H1 buy, I was thinking it might be too high to buy--again. So I tried to “limit the risk” by entering “limit order”, then I missed the move since it just happen so fast. I just couldn’t react on it. It was not the excuse of “missing the move”. It’s the lack of experience. I will keep doing more back testing and forward testing to be more proactive on it.


Here are the stats for this week.
PnL: $86
Pts: 23pts
Avg Trades per day: 3
Winrate: 58%
Profit factor: 1.39
Largest losing position: $62
Largest winning postion: $122

Had 3 days no losing trades, then only gave back all the gains on the 4th day.

Have a great weekend!

 

Hi Matcha,

First of all , congrats to another winning week! Especially the very nice profit on your LIVE trading day.

As for using stop orders or limit orders, I find it easier (for me) to get into a trade using STOP orders when I am doing with-trend setups. I use LIMIT order sometimes when I am doing trading-range setups or if the market is slower moving. Majority of my orders are now stop orders because I focus on with trend trading lately. By using stop orders, I tend to anticipate the price moving in my direction and "sweep" me in (just like Al said). This way, I will not miss any orders. But whether the order is going to be profitable is another story.

My trading today:
- I feel really bad about myself by allowing yesterday's "3 strikes" max loss performance impacted me today.
- I was very cautious all day, hesitated a lot both in entries and exits.
- Took 2 LONG trades today including the one at 7:20am p.t. But, I was so determined not to lose (due to the max loss yesterday) I took a small profit too too too early with a +0.75 pts gain. The other trade at around 10:40am, a M2B Long setup. I did the same, hesitated and scratched the trade with a +.25 pt minute small gain.
- Day's net +1.00 ES pts! Both trades had the potential to make significant pts. The only thing I did right today was to trade only in the LONG direction.

Lesson learned- I don't even know if I am ever going to learn - I need to let go of the previous day's loss and not allow it to impact me. Discipline, discipline, discipline, follow my plan, follow my plan, follow my plan!!!!!! You know I am pretty frustrated with myself.

Have a nice weekend!

--po

 

Yeh, I am going to forget "limit order" for a while.

Consider yourself did well to day. But it's not a very good habit.

I think for me, to not let ytd's losses impact today's trades seem so impossible. I have to admit that. Subconciesly, I was "scared of losing more". I just think the experience will finally let us totally single past month, past weeks, past days, past trades out and make objective decision on current trade.

So best way to do that now is to SOH and only watch the market and learn if I feel little "off". But this again will require dicipline.... I had to always tell myself to look at bigger picture. I want to be CP in the long run. I don't want to take emotional trades just to get something back or take scared trades when past losses impact my decision making....

We will learn.... I just don't hope its coming from hard lesson...

 

PO, totally understand your feeling. Once i have a big loss day, I feel mental frozen in the next trading day. I can't pull the trigger when my set up shows up, then i miss the big move, and get pissed off. Sometimes i start to do some crazy thing which leads to another big loss.

Matcha, congratulations to your discipline. You did good job!

 

Hi TraderHarley,

I am still a learner myself.

--po

 

Hi Matcha,

Thank you very much for your support. I've got to kick that "not very good habit". I should not allow the bad trades to impact the subsequent ones. Otherwise, there is no place for me in this business.

I think as of now, one of my worst obstacles is I often do the opposite of what I have learned, instead of "cutting losses short and let the profit run", when I am behind, I allow my losses to continue, subconsciously "hoping" it will turn around and not being decisive enough to cut the losses sooner like you often do. And when I am ahead in my trades after a losing day, I will be very reluctant and hesitant to let the profit run. I, too am afraid that I will lose it back like the previous trades. I know very well this is not going to work in the long run, but it is just so hard to change that mindset. I often asked myself, "why do I do that?" This subconscious thing is so in grained inside me.

Ditto - "I want to be CP in the long run. I don't want to take emotional trades just to get something back or take scared trades when past losses impact my decision making...." Let's make this happen.

Thanks again!

--po