NoDoji's Day Trading Log

Why force a decision? Your hesitancy is speaking to you.

Stick to what is working. You seem to have an edge trading your stocks to watch and are in rhythm with this. It is the same for ES, you have to be in rhythm.

One year out does not a futures trader make. Learn the rhythm of ES, watch it like a hawk for another year, use it as input to the day. Know it.

Or, if your platform can, replay each day, bar by bar and see where you would place trades 'live'. Replay random days. Build confidence and performance.

Why fix what ain't broke.

Soothsayer BH will say this type of advice, or anyone saying lay off ES for a while is laden with psychobabble projection. It is not easy and should no be presented as such.

--If someone is mentoring you in ES then ignore above advice and go for it.

 

Thanks, David. I haven't made the full step forward yet, which would be taking my signals quickly (the trade always looks scariest there), and taking them all!

Today was a total mindf*ck for me in pre-market. Anyone who follows this journal knows that I like to put on end-of day short positions on strong runs at the top of a strong run up on the daily chart. 99% of the time they retrace nicely on open the next trading day and provide a quick profit. I shorted HAR mid-day last Friday, and exited b/e with a tight stop. At the end of the day I came so close to shorting a decent size position, that I'm still in shock over what transpired this morning.

Early this morning I see HAR is up a bit, not down, and that just seems wrong. This company has no fundamentals to base this run off of, and it's still climbing?? Then suddenly before my eyes it's in the 30's, reaching 38.00 on NO NEWS. I realized that all the stops in the world wouldn't have helped me in AH trading and I would've likely been scrambling to cover in the high 30's.

I really don't know what stopped me from this trade Friday other than seeing a large empty zone between Friday's closing price and next resistance in the 30's. That bothered me enough to cause me to pull my offer and save my trading life. I think I would've called the game this morning.

So futures looks more stable than ever for me at this point, strictly day traded.

Too many close calls in stocks for my comfort, with STEC's $5 gap last week being another example of an "almost trade" that would've done me in.

 

I believe someone is mentoring me, but I believe he is possibly a figment of my trading imagination. I want him to tell me exactly when to put on a trade and when to exit, but all he does is hand me a sponge and say, "Wax on, wax off".

On the other hand I have been in the company of some great traders over the past many months who call their trades all day, but I have a stubborn mind of my own and almost never mirror anyone's trades unless I came to the same trade idea on my own.

This is how I am.

"You are pure Taurus!" my mother used to say, "Stubborn as a bull!"

How ironic that I have a short bias...

 

that is why I said it many times, when you have an opinion or view, you will try to fit your theory into the market, you are not
trading, you are trying to prove your thoughts/ideas/thoreys.

free up your mind, you will not be stubborn, you will be objective.

stubornness comes from your inside: views, opinions, concepts, thoughts.... if a bottle is full, nothing can be put in, that is stubbornnes; if a bottle is empty, you can easily put anything in.

 

tomahawk...............thks , i will try that.

Nod,

YOU!!!! Stubborn, no way.

Satchel has good advice, and i have said it before, also i did it myself in days gone bye. You can not force the learning curve, we all learn at our own pace. I was no speed demon myself and my learning curve had periods of laying low like a lawyer hiding in the weeds waiting to pounce when the situation was right.

Nod, check this out. That book you will be receiving is made for you. Brooks ( i did not realize this when i bought the book but i have always been a trader that believes each and every bar is talking to you), Brooks says he is mainly an ES trader that also swing trades stocks to help fill the trading day. He goes on to say " if i just focused on the ES i would make more money but yet i continue to swing stocks", paraphrased.

I picked up a few pointers on scalping that Brooks uses to scalp a couple handles here and there. I have always concentrated on catching the "RUNS" yet was aware there was some "gold flakes" left behind just looking for the "gold nuggets". I will have more fun scalping a couple handles here and there added on to the runs. Actually, if we get to be in for smaller range days that will be fine. 2003 etc we were slower in ES, but even then it was possible to do good.

The problem with the book at first is his "WTF" did he have to remane everything we know with nutso names. Maybe the copyright laws, HA.

What i am saying to you is simply this.............it is your style and i think you will enyoy the book. Tough read as it is and all.

Tell that person who does not tell you in and out of trades he/she is doing you a favor because you have your own style and it is on the right track. Satchel is right, it takes a little more time. yes i know you are pushing 50. (ha)

PS: you are also correct about daytrading, lot safer than overnights. heck, there is enough action in daytime to satisfy anyone. Forget burnout, RTH is plenty. Come 1600 call it a day and have a regular life. Fundamentals mean nothing in daytrading, like they say. "do not trade the mkt you want, trade the mkt you have on the screen"

PS: I still like bar charts better, ha

 

Hog, I know you're doing me a favor, and thanks for everything!

(trade on, trade off, trade on, trade off...)

 

I have also been reading Brooks' book and wanted to mention a couple things. There is an ongoing discussion about his approach here:

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f104/futures-i-trade-show-brooks-book-6008.html

On pg.2, there is a post w/ an attachment which provides links for two videos by Brooks. A link is also provided for downloading the necessary SWF Flash Movie viewer. I believe these files to have a limited life span, so you may want to dl at your earliest convenience for later viewing.

There are also 8-10 pdf file links available (articles by Brooks for Futures magazine) The easiest way to locate these is to find the page directory near the top of each page, and to the far right is a button which will bring up a separate window containing all the attachments within the thread. It shows a paperclip, and currently w/ numeral 136.

As far as charting the ES - have you considered feeding your IB data into Quotetracker. It's free ( provided you would not need more than two days tick data) so it would just require some time to learn your way around w/ it.

I'm not a regular here so if this is old info, plz excuse the intrusion.

 

Thanks Mephisto! Coincidentally, I just registered with traderslaboratory about half an hour ago.

I have QuoteTracker on my second PC and I'm somewhat familiar with it.

I'll check out these resources!

 

Thanks mephisto, i will look later today after the close at those.

 

+$113

I was very tempted to fade ES pre-market, but decided to let the market talk to me first.

Short ES @ 950.75 on breakdown of -6 line, covered @ 948.50 pivot from deep spike below lower channel for +$108.

A downtrend was clearly established and I watched price action when the bounce approached the 20 EMA. The downtrend quickly resumed off that level, but I didn’t put on the trade because I don’t have full confidence yet, being quite new at this.

Short STEC @ 32.77 pullback from failure to make a new high, trailed a stop, wicked out for +$27. I hate using stops with STEC, but I’ve seen what it can do (just take a peek at the later b/o), so c’est la vie.

Nice hammer left below the lower channel line on ES, but I did not go long, again lack of confidence. This led to a rally that pulled back just above the upper channel and did I take that trade?

No.

Here is the major difference between paper trading and live trading for me: Paper trading I jump right in, as you can tell from my recent posts; live trading I second guess every setup and sit on my hands.

The pullback from above the upper channel was above previous resistance, meaning price should pull just back to the lower channel line and resume the move up, which it did almost exactly. I had no expectancy either direction at this point, so I watched the action for quite some time. It was actually very educational for me to watch the action today, drifting lower for quite some time off each move to the 20 EMA.

Watched it drift lower and then find support @ 939.50. Why, I wondered, was this the reversal point? I looked at a 1-week chart and there it was: previous support almost to the tick.

This made me realize I need to watch multiple time frames; I’ve been too myopic and missing key points in my time frame provided by the bigger picture.

Once this level provided the first hint of a reversal since morning’s lower high, I saw a higher low established just beneath the 20 EMA before 2 p.m. and that was a long signal for me @ 942.50, but again I did not have the confidence to trade it, missing a huge move to the long side.

Hog, please come to Tucson for a week, stand over my shoulder and make me trade my signals. I’ll provide really fine home cooking and a nice cool swimming pool.

Short MFE @ 43.25, pull back from lower high, stop @ 43.35 above the HOD, hit after quite some time for -$22. Didn’t seem like enough upside to play the double stop, so called it a day here.