Note, by making the right decision Friday not to hold, I got to reshort at an even better price today, and 1 small profit + 1 small profit = 1 medium sized profit. These were both day trades, but only because that's what the market gave me. Thanks market.
Not a huge issue but I like to think about the basics a lot. Let's hear what y'all think about the second part of this quote (in bold): The first step for a trader is to determine the current trend of the market. The second step is to determine one's place in the current trend. The third step is to determine the proper timing of one's entry into whatever it is he's trading.
Yes, through IB, and i'm actually trading the mini (E7 and J7) but making calls off the pit traded. Thus the risk on one of my trades is about $350 per ctc, targets about $1000 per ctc.
What I think. Each of us has our own idea of what a tradeable trend is. From this point, we have an idea of what it looks like in the beginning, middle, and end. A stair step trend, looks and acts differently than a reactionary trend. So if you're watching a stair step trend, you'll not be able to enter on a reaction ( pullback). So once you know your tradeable trends, you will also know how far they are likly to go, from where it is at, at the moment. Clear as mud?
My interpretation: After determining what the current trend is, then try to ascertain where in the larger trend the market currently is trading. In other words, the longer term trend could be up, but the market might be at the top of the upward sloping channel (i.e., not the ideal time to buy in a longer term up move, if price may well soon head down to the bottom of the channel).
Even though it shouldn't have, because I did the right thing, the 100 pip drop in the Euro overnight really pissed me off. The right thing to do when angry is... anything else besides trading. Despite this I traded anyway. Fortunately, the one legitimate trade (attached, NQ) covered my losses and then some from the other three illegitimate trades I took today (not attached, why bother-- Selling support, buying resistance, that sort of thing).
In poker, when I fold 7-2 os I don't get angry if the flop comes 7-7-2 or 7-7-7. In trading, I have a harder time in the same situation. At the root of it, there are no hard statistics in trading as there are in poker. Well, you can compute all the statistics you want, but they change, unlike cards.
No trades today. I even searched a few more markets, still nothing. Hey, that's being selective all right! Curiously, everything i'm looking at is trend down (60 minute highs/lows) right now, and at or near the lows of the last 20 bars. I guess this means i'll be shorting the hell out of everything in a few days. That sounds fun. NQ (naz 100) YG (mini gold) ZC (corn) EUR (euro) JY (yen) ZB (10 yr notes) <--- maybe moving sideways