Quiper emini journal

second part of the day:

 

2010/11/10
Very undecided opening. TF gapped up (by few ticks), YM gapped down by few ticks. ES opened without gap. TF showed some strength after open but non of the other indexes followed. Was tempted to short TF, but stayed with the plan.

Trade 1 Short pullpack to the main S/R. Got out on B/E. +6 USD

Trade 2 I really saw the 723 as main S/R area, all other markets were going down I shorted again. This time I was very relaxed with my stop. Got out with profit +236 USD

Trade 3. ES made double top, TF higher high. Got short on TF. Bad exit. I was targeting 721.6 and got out the trade too early. The reason I got out so early was due to bad entry. I entered bellow the S/R level and had to take quite of heat (80 USD) - I was almost stopped out (my stop was 100 USD from entry). The correct exit would be B/E on this trade.

I did not like the price action after the trade 3 anymore. Tick was just all over - it was going from -400 to +400. Market didnt have any bias. Took break and just when I came back I missed the entry long @ pivot 728.8.

P/L +278 USD

 

US bank closed today – was expecting low volatility day

Trade 1 - Very narrow opening. ES and YM were weak. TF returned back to Open. Shorted open, but the reaction of the market was very weak. Was trying to get at least few ticks out of the trade, but no fill on exit. Got out at B/E with slip. -4 USD.

Trade 2 - Waited quite a long for entry at 727.7 (retest of previous swing low). Got filled, very nice trade that took away very soon. Was targeting at least 725.7 area. The market was so undecided that I didnt touch the trade. Well got out at B/E +10 USD. Market just didn’t went over Today’s open. When I will trade this situation with more contracts I have to dump some on such a strong S/R area.

Trade 3 – The markets were slowly rising the whole day. I waited for YM and ES to make also new High of the day (as they were channeling th whole day) and then started to get ready to get into position on TF. I waited for pullback to the 731.7 area and got long. But I still have to learn how to trade in such a low volatility. I was watching several markets (ES, NQ, etc) and they all did just opposite – some did tick up, some did tick down. Just very low volatility. I got a bit of heat on the trade (40 USD) and I decided to close the trade when market ticked into profitable area. I was aware of potential spike up (that would generate me profit), but the market could easly go down as well.
Well I am learning and cannot expect too much of my performance. But I was close to some profits today …

Total P/L: +18 USD

 

second part of the day:

 

2010/11/12

Trade 1: 723.8 was todays open. Market got over this S/R level and was testing it several times. Bought it but didn’t like the overall situation. Had more bearish bias. Was waiting for some spike up, but didnt happen. Killed the trade at first sign of weakness. The trade management was not good - I should have get some small profit from the trade. -4 USD

After that I did not have any entry signal. I went out to sport a bit and I took a small signal by the evening:

Trade 2: Breakout trade – market did break the last swing, I got short with limit @ 721.5 that I was viewing as a S/R area. Volatility was really low – got out as soon as the momentum died. Good trade. +126 USD.

Total P/L: +122 USD.

 

afternoon trade:

 

Short Friday evening recap.

Here is equity of all the trades I took live since 2010/10/26 I have started this journal.

I will do my weekend review but have to say that so far keeping this public journal really helps to keep my discipline with live trading. I know that the profit is noting comparing to profits of profitable traders, but I am just building my way and trading with 1 contract only.

Although I am pleased with the results so far, there are some major issues I have to work on. I simply take too much trades – to make 741 USD after commissions I took 58 trades and my average trade is just about 12.7 USD.

The profit factor so far is 1.74, I have 55% profitability and 1:1.4 Risk reward.

I will publish detailed overview of my performance over the weekend as well as the task I will have to work over the next week.

Enjoy Friday’s nigh everyone.

 

2010/11/15

I traded VERY badly today. These are the days they stress me for some reason and these are the reason I cannot move to trade more contracts. It just happens that in some day I just go like crazy and loose half what I made previous month.

What is really interesting markets behaved quite strange and didn’t really offer me any good setups. NQ for today very weak, YM quite strong, TF somewhere in middle. Maybe when I do not see real setups I start to look for any reason to go into market.

Trade 1 – I was buying S/R at open of the market. This was OK trade. Market was still very undecided – ES did new low, YM
didn’t. -64 USD.

Then I was watching the market fall thinking about all the problems with Ireland and thought maybe we have some strong down day. I always get trapped in thinking like that… What should have warned me that Euro and Crude Oil where quite quiet. So I was planning where to short market. I decided to short it at pullback to pivot @ 721.40.

Trade 2 – Market didn’t really looked like it will come to pivot and I shorted it earlier after I saw the price has problem with the level. First stupid trade. This one was still cheap -14 USD.

Trade 3 – I shorted the pivot area. This was OK trade as It was planned. Well what happed I used too tight stop and I didn’t pay attention to it. I saw market is not going down and clicked to close trade in the same time my stop was executed – I got long…. Both trades -108 USD (-54 USD was a trading error).

Trade 4 – To be honest I do not know why I entered there long. I was getting too emotionally involved due to previous trading error. -64 USD.

Trade 5, 6 and 7 I was shorting today open. On two trades I got MFE almost +100 USD to exit B/E. The third was small loss -34 USD.

Trade 8 was just stupid play without any S/R level . Of course the market turned on me with very volatility candle. -64 USD

Trade 9 was trying to buy S/R level, but this was just obvious that the market is too volatile for that. -54 USD.

In summary, just the trade 5 was really correct and good trade due to my rules. Trade 1, 3 were OK. So I should ended with some small loose, instead I stop trading at -380 USD. Cannot imagine to behave like that trading 5 contracts or so.

P/L -380 USD

 

2010/11/16

My mind was too influenced by Monday loss. Although the market was nicely trading I didn’t trade well and stopped trading after first serious mistake.

Trade 1. Very nice trade. Got my setup, went short. I was not greedy, and when the market stop I took my profit +96 USD.

Trade 2. Short on weak setup. I have to review the setup but still OK entry. The trade management was poor. I was just waiting too long when the position went against me. Got out 2 ticks before the market did go into my direction. -104 USD.

Trade 3. Stupid, stupid trade. Traded against such a strong downtrend. -64 USD. This was kind of revenge trading. I stopped trading for the day.
Total P/L: -72 USD

Plan for next few days: I plan to take it really very easy. I want to continue to trade live, but will wait for really strong signals.

 

2010/11/17

Actually very good day. I was very disciplined and did do any trades as the market was dead.

I have started to watch volume profile with the PA (not on the screen).

What was interesting – I noted area 708.5 as potential entry for short about 1 hour before the market get there. As potential target I marked 707 level as this was the heaviest traded level for the morning session. I didn’t trade the signal as price got to the level after I called my day. But it actually worked very well.
The 708.5 level was based on yesterday volume profile (area of acceptance) and the fact that ES didn’t have the power to make new high – thus my entry would be based on the assumption that market will just test area.

P/L: 0