Nice job today! Like kid said, stick with catching the big moves. Once you get better you can scalp but work on having big wins (10-15pts) and a bunch of small losers (2-3 pts).
Dobbes This is probably a stupid question but how do you blow up or expand your charts and data so I can read it??Or do I need to change my settings? I can see the charts but cant make out the notations...
5/19 Anchor Entry PnL Net 11.37 after commissions Today was interesting (its always interesting, I say that a lot about the trading day). Not a lot of big moves. There were two smaller moves in the morning that I got pieces of. Should not have taken my first, third trades. First trade, tried to jump the gun without a lot of confirmation, and third trade, was impulsive and out of boredom. I also had an entry on the W that I closed to minimize my loss because it was still going against me, and vowed to reopen on a retrace, which occurred about 9 seconds later. Sonuva B. I was -3.75 - commissions going in to that last trade, which was quite a blessing. Thank you NQ for not being a total bastard today. Six trades is too much, I could've done a better job waiting for the right moment, but I kept my losses from those shenanigans small, which helped a lot.
5/20 Anchor Entry PnL Net after commissions -9.4 Hit daily stoploss. Too many trades. Last trade was the only good entry. The other were me seeing things that simply weren't there and getting stopped accordingly. I've noticed daily stoploss days come after days where I do well. No idea, what the hell. I'll spend the rest of the day figuring out what exactly my problem is.
That is euphoria. You are feeling good because you had two good days in a row. Focus your efforts on mentally separating out each trade and trading day/week/month. That will help you have an approach that treats each upcoming trade/day/week/month as a unique entity. ie. you're not going to continue your winning streak because you're hot or vice versa for a losing one.
5/21 Anchor Entry PnL Net after commissions, -10.15 No idea. Lots of chop at this level. Should've just closed NT when I looked at the anchor to prep for the morning. Looked awful but I tried it anyways. Pretty disappointed, not sure what I'm going to do to improve.
Hi Dobbes, I am a recent price action convert. However, I found that I get chopped up on the entries due to lack of skill. I found that using a MACD for potential entries with confirmation from price action helps out. MACD lags, but it also would have gotten you in on a short on the second lower high of the run up this morning. I use a 500 volume chart on NQ. Haven't tried 1000 share chart but it looks good.
Hi greddy, I've used MACD in the past and not found it very useful. I threw it up on my 1k chart just to check it out and its exactly like I remembered, generating signals right before retraces; would've been a disaster.
Seriously try the 15 minute time frame for a while. I have the impression that you are getting nowhere with this charting setup. I see things that would even distract me and that is precisely what should be avoided. Again, you don't have to look at the market in such detail. Tick charts, volume charts ... dump them. These are of no use if you trade according to price action. The vicious sell-off below 2014 in the NQ was so obvious--didn't you take it? Here are the S&R levels that you should note in the NQ: 2021, 2014, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1986, 1982, 1974 Draw them out in the 15 minute chart and see how they work for you. Price always moves along these levels and they are permanent. Perfect reference to find a target upfront. If you need more of them, just let me know.