Even when I prop traded and floor traded for tics - I never used a 5 minute chart. I used longer timeframes because I wanted the sense of perspective. Yeah, I could scalp off a 30 or 60 minute bar a long time ago. No wonder you're so anxious and living and breathing with every uptic or downtic (at least to me I got that sense that you were incredibly emotionally invested in your trade as you described it in your posts - let me know if I'm not correct). My sense from reading your posts was that you were very uncomfortable holding a trade that was underwater. Markets "breathe". Very rarely will you be able to put on a position and it not be underwater at some point during its' lifespan. At least half that volume you are trading against has a much different trade timeframe hold priority as compared to yours - they could be holding for hours, days, weeks, months. They iceberg orders - let's say within 5 tics a big trader wants to put on 1,000 lot position. You've got basket arbitrage going on with NQ. There's just so many participants with very different objectives than yours. Some others here suggested charting longer timeframes. As you can probably tell, I would not disagree with that sentiment. Maybe keep your 5 minute chart, but put a 30 minute chart up next to it for context or perspective. Another possibility is to use stop limit orders for your loss and your profit levels - then minimize the screen or even walk away from the desk.
I get all the perspective I need from a 5 minute chart including the larger context. Not interested in 30 minute or 1 hour chart. I scalp 1 to 4 points. All day when I have time. I don’t believe there is any noise in the markets. So every tick is important. Most every bar offers a trade. But I cherry pick ...usually 8 to 20 trades a day. I, at times, scale into losers. To do so the larger context has to be right and I mis-judged the entry but the orginal read premise is correct. Markets do not breathe. Price goes up or down. I am interested “how” it did so as much as the fact that it did so. My style of trading isn’t for everyone but neither is gardening. LOL
Are you a mean reversion trader or a trend follower? from what you posted, it looks like you are a mean reverter. If so what are your choice instruments for mean reversion? What do you do when you average and the position keeps moving against you. When do you take so much pain that you bail out only for the prices to reverse at the last possible moment. Your ES chart posted showed you averaging quite early. You must have a lot of confidence in you forecast for the next few minutes...
Your post isn't very clear. Your entry was excellent. It was only 6-7 5 min bars before the downmove of your chart started. You had very little heat on the short trade. (if the yellow arrows are long then you had a nice profit before the short trade and an excellent close. -- Why would there not be stop-running? Posted (or "hard stops") are available information at the exchange and by your broker. Your entry was on a green (shown dark grey) bar. After that there is a large red bar and a short red bars - where many other retail traders entered. Then it when sideways for 4 bars. This is 20 minutes. If it doesn't move away from the high for 20 minutes more and more (retail) traders will be coming into the short trade and entering stops. So for 20 minutes (plus the two red bars= 30 minutes) more and more stops are being entered above the high. Since you know that "they" know this (whether its an algo or "floor" trader) doesn't matter, you should expect this. As a result you can either: Wait for this setup, meaning a peak and then sideways again or Sell one where you did and another at the second stop-running peak. ================ IF you have a strength of feeling :you know where price is going to go" then just team-up with someone else each contributing their strengths to the venture.
So frustrating.... here is a few examples from today. Bought at yellow arrow, if you look at the tape from before yellow, every tick up was getting rejected..... so of course I wasn't so sure on my entry although I believed I had a high probability, then initially it did go up a lot but got rejected and similar to the past few minutes, the sellers stayed in control at my entry so I got wishy washy, and 2 bars after entry, you can see it breaks support level that I had set for myself..... but then it closed above the area....and 2 bars after that again, finally starts showing strength and blasts off..... I could of been 2 contracts deep but sold 1 for very tight loss, and the other i couldnt hold long at all because the psychology of the past price action led me to believe the smarter money was still selling.... Then at 935 PT, I sold due to my edge..... and some confirmation with price action..... well sure enough we chop forever, and the psychology of holding on to a position is making me wishy washy again on the position. My entry wasnt top tick, so as it goes against me I'm debating if I am even right at all..... Then it starts going down and I'm feeling good about this position as I believe market will go a lot lower from here....However market holds support levels in which it bounced off around 11PT. (I know there is a possibility the market can bounce from here, but my belief is that this should go lower) but then sure enough.......market went all the way back to my goddamn entry I held from 935..... so now my 10 pt winner went all the way back to entry for 0 profit. And as it goes about chopping at resistance(LH), it finally sells off at the close..... What am I doing wrong? I have relatively decent entry spots. Just the psychology of holding onto a position, trade management(when market comes back all the way to your entry even though you believe it should go further), and dealing with chop is frustrating. How exactly should I be attacking a trade when I never know if I am "right". Do I just need to realize that I need to play my own hand and stick to it? Do I need to realize that there are traders with a lot more capital(millions-trillions) who don't know what the market is doing and hence being the ones causing these chop situations? Do i need to realize that the market is simply a battle of bulls and bears with both good reasons for placing a trade, and to just be patient until the "idiot sheep" finally realizes where market should go or Do I simply need to be committed to a certain direction/play/side of the market and attack when "the sheep" are selling when I want to be buying?
Without volume nor annotating a chart, you don't ever see what's actually there. Trading while in this condition will create more frustration and trauma.