Become more selective about your trades. A big lesson for me (and one I'm admittedly still am learning) is that you shouldn't be in the market all the time. You need to learn to sit on your hands for hours and just wait and observe. Only trade when you get a good signal.
exactly right & easier said than done. i overtrade. 3 tips: a) now i ask myself, "do I have an edge in this trade, yes or no?", meaning strongest outlier clean charts only b) is S&P outside prior days range, and the chart I'm trading? out days are best c) time of day here 20 years daytrading & same: 9:35-10:15am ET best timeframe; i get shaken out often if i trade 1-3pm so i try to avoid it.
%% LOL. I never called it revenge trading.But getting oversize, trying to make up for losses doesn't work.LOL Actually a top trader[ interviewed by jack schlager] had the solution = ''stop trading'' BUT don't try the ''stop trading '' with DAL, AMR, Bear Stearns, LEH, they went belly up bankrupt...………………………………………………………………………………………………..
heavenskrow, I do not see any chop on your chart. You entered a trade short. Next thing and only thing you can do from there is wait to get stopped out or profit target to hit. I think you was being impatient expecting the market to go to your profit target very quickly like the run up earlier. Unfortunately, day trading does not work that way. Now if you want to put a time stamp on your trades if they do not hit target by X amount of time, that is fine too.
This morning in NQ is the real definition of chop. The picture you had above still has some continuation. Look how tight that range is. But in theory, one could buy the lower range and sell the upper range. But it's all hindsight.
%% QQQ looks about the same/chopSlop; its 10:51 CST,. Looks like QQQ is uptrending again, today; + above open price, +last close price/eod, +200 day moving average . NOT a prediction. Based on hindsight + year$ of Stock Traders Almanac/Hirsch,