A Beginner's Price Action Trading Journal (mostly es, Al Brooks style)
- Thread starter futurescat
- Start date
good analysis. Did you do this live while trading or do you do it in hindsight. the thing with price action discretionary trading is you can always find something after the fact. So, were you able to make money using your price action real time analysis.
12/15 FRI
did not manage today's TR well. bar-by-bar notes show I did not find good entries around several TR MR locations. systems sputtering a bit in today's trading environment; I need more calibration.
early on during the AM session was trying to trade single stock markets that exhibited trendier characteristics (was in BA, pulled ORCL). spread too thin, distracted. PM--missed B49 short entry and then messed up the rest of the day (review slide notes).
5m es
did not manage today's TR well. bar-by-bar notes show I did not find good entries around several TR MR locations. systems sputtering a bit in today's trading environment; I need more calibration.
early on during the AM session was trying to trade single stock markets that exhibited trendier characteristics (was in BA, pulled ORCL). spread too thin, distracted. PM--missed B49 short entry and then messed up the rest of the day (review slide notes).
5m es
12/18 MON
morning trading wasn't very smooth. big storm in the area, I had to check on a down fence and some trees a few times (became safety hazards) which did not help.
highlights today / from the weekend: ran more analysis based on @Georpe 's last comment (thanks for often stopping by and nudging me in the right direction btw); set my daily process goals for 2024; reviewed my playbook trade and tested more out-of-sample setups.
5m es
very few trades today bc i wanted to see if i can stick to my process goal and focus on playbook trades-- took the B29-30 long, it was a playbook trade and i managed poorly (out too soon, even for the scalp portion) --> lead to a discovery that i don't have a rational or complete execution management process after a playbook trade sets up; to bridge the gap, i did some work to define that decisioning process today
morning trading wasn't very smooth. big storm in the area, I had to check on a down fence and some trees a few times (became safety hazards) which did not help.
highlights today / from the weekend: ran more analysis based on @Georpe 's last comment (thanks for often stopping by and nudging me in the right direction btw); set my daily process goals for 2024; reviewed my playbook trade and tested more out-of-sample setups.
5m es
very few trades today bc i wanted to see if i can stick to my process goal and focus on playbook trades-- took the B29-30 long, it was a playbook trade and i managed poorly (out too soon, even for the scalp portion) --> lead to a discovery that i don't have a rational or complete execution management process after a playbook trade sets up; to bridge the gap, i did some work to define that decisioning process today
12/19 TUE
running experiments in single stock markets today.
pros:
-- they teach me a more diverse set of lessons about my playbook trade in a shorter period, i am picking up the fine line between working variants and false positives faster;
-- they gave me ideas to add to future playbook repertoire;
cons:
-- spread too thin. e.g., es morning leg offered an excellent trading environment/market structure for playbook trades, missed them.
5m es
running experiments in single stock markets today.
pros:
-- they teach me a more diverse set of lessons about my playbook trade in a shorter period, i am picking up the fine line between working variants and false positives faster;
-- they gave me ideas to add to future playbook repertoire;
cons:
-- spread too thin. e.g., es morning leg offered an excellent trading environment/market structure for playbook trades, missed them.
5m es
12/20 WED
Turnaround Wednesday? Haha. Interesting day.
Constructive day for me: a new playbook trade type I was working on tested well in field today, then I took the PM off to run a few holiday errands. The first playbook trade type continues to fire in markets i watch. Missed a good one in CL even though I had my bias on sides-- i did not recognize its logic in real-time and hesitated when a reasonable setup presented itself. <-- the same logic later appeared in es when it rolled over. i worked on a solution to address similar scenarios (so that i can recognize them faster next time).
WRT es, in hindsight, I likely would not have caught any of the PM bear spike. Knowing myself, I usually freeze when a serious volatility expansion program gets activated. I would just have watched, wondering when we would test the bottom of the bull channel (and then proceeded to be surprised when we got there basically by the end of the session).
Today's process score is low--in the past, i would have called days like this a decent day (bc trades went my way, system is working, and management is decent), but the process scorecard doesn't lie-- took too much personal time in the afternoon, cutting corners in slides and setup analysis, skipped backtesting session. I had a very extensive planning session covering several more markets the night before which delayed bedtime, and led to a late start the next morning. Now i plan to go to bed on time (attempt to) and tighten up my process tomorrow.
es 5m
Turnaround Wednesday? Haha. Interesting day.
Constructive day for me: a new playbook trade type I was working on tested well in field today, then I took the PM off to run a few holiday errands. The first playbook trade type continues to fire in markets i watch. Missed a good one in CL even though I had my bias on sides-- i did not recognize its logic in real-time and hesitated when a reasonable setup presented itself. <-- the same logic later appeared in es when it rolled over. i worked on a solution to address similar scenarios (so that i can recognize them faster next time).
WRT es, in hindsight, I likely would not have caught any of the PM bear spike. Knowing myself, I usually freeze when a serious volatility expansion program gets activated. I would just have watched, wondering when we would test the bottom of the bull channel (and then proceeded to be surprised when we got there basically by the end of the session).
Today's process score is low--in the past, i would have called days like this a decent day (bc trades went my way, system is working, and management is decent), but the process scorecard doesn't lie-- took too much personal time in the afternoon, cutting corners in slides and setup analysis, skipped backtesting session. I had a very extensive planning session covering several more markets the night before which delayed bedtime, and led to a late start the next morning. Now i plan to go to bed on time (attempt to) and tighten up my process tomorrow.
es 5m
12/21 THU
not my best day. biggest takeaway today is--must focus on being where I have an edge. there were markets on my scanner that featured more promising environments for my playbook trades. instead of being where my systems have the highest probability of profiting, I was forcing trades in es. ironically, es was in a Z day as I had planned; I often get such day types right and execute poorly <-- a psychological flaw, and I understand the exact mistakes I often repeat on those days. (e.g., they often have a trending TR transition/crossing leg esp when the open range is in the sweet spot range, those are often efficient swings, and forcing trendy trades after a highly probable second leg trap is often a bad idea. in addition, they often look like a good with-trend signal bar on 60m tf, only to trap in traders wanting a second leg in the spike direction). a reasonable solution is to avoid those days /day types as they only drain my focus and emotional capital that can be better applied elsewhere.
trading will probably be light tomorrow. Happy Holidays & a profitable new year to you all!
es 5m
not my best day. biggest takeaway today is--must focus on being where I have an edge. there were markets on my scanner that featured more promising environments for my playbook trades. instead of being where my systems have the highest probability of profiting, I was forcing trades in es. ironically, es was in a Z day as I had planned; I often get such day types right and execute poorly <-- a psychological flaw, and I understand the exact mistakes I often repeat on those days. (e.g., they often have a trending TR transition/crossing leg esp when the open range is in the sweet spot range, those are often efficient swings, and forcing trendy trades after a highly probable second leg trap is often a bad idea. in addition, they often look like a good with-trend signal bar on 60m tf, only to trap in traders wanting a second leg in the spike direction). a reasonable solution is to avoid those days /day types as they only drain my focus and emotional capital that can be better applied elsewhere.
trading will probably be light tomorrow. Happy Holidays & a profitable new year to you all!
es 5m
12/25 MON
Had the sweetest Christmas. Returned from a trip over the weekend a moment again. Friday report was incomplete--did not trade on Friday before xmas holiday, tested a few more system variants, updated playbook library. Tuesday plan: no trading plan. administrative work. will be back to the usual on Wednesday 12/27.
Had the sweetest Christmas. Returned from a trip over the weekend a moment again. Friday report was incomplete--did not trade on Friday before xmas holiday, tested a few more system variants, updated playbook library. Tuesday plan: no trading plan. administrative work. will be back to the usual on Wednesday 12/27.
12/27 WED
A trading range day.
es 5m
almost fully recovered from holiday hangovers!
A trading range day.
es 5m
almost fully recovered from holiday hangovers!