Birth of a trader

Quote from Picaso:

Great resilience keeping yourself together after 6 (kind of) losers in a row.

That's one of the hardest things, congrats.
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It's easy in sim. In real life, I would have stopped trading real money after the 3rd loss in a row. And if I wasn't smart enough to quit then, my daily limit would have been hit after the 6th trade.

I'm still on the fence about managing the trade. This would have been a winning day if I refused to let my stop get hit when I had the chance.
 
I look at it like this. We all know that your trading capital won't last long when you are positive then let it come on your stop loss for a loss. I unfortunately did that for a couple days myself when I was live back in Sept. Moral of the lesson was "protect your capital" I don't mind moving to BE or BE+1 soon after price moves in your direction. The worst thing that will happen to you is you pay for comm. and can trade again.

Just yesterday I had trade on ES that bounce between my original price and Stop loss for 15 mins; then moved in my direction. However I didn't wait that long. I put my target at my entry and protected my capital.

I don't like taking bullets from point blank. I would rather make them glance off me if at all possible; just my two cents.
 
Started off OK, taking my signals, but didn't take the 3 most profitable ones because ... hell I don't know.

Trade #1
Entered a long buy limit at 87.28 based on overnight support. Was filled and took 10 ticks of heat for a few bars, then the trade started moving my way. I had a 25 tick hard target in and price got within a tick. I moved my stop up to +14 and was taken out. Didn't follow my trade management rules, otherwise I would have gotten my target on the next bar. +14 ticks.

Trade #2
After the oil report, I entered a sell limit at 88.94 based on yesterday's HOD. Was filled and took few ticks of heat, then switched to the 1 min chart to manage my exit. +2 ticks.

After the peak, I sat on my hands and let 3 short signals pass me by. Even though the trend was up, there was plenty of room down towards the EMA.

Trade #3
Price looked like it was holding the EMA, then got a couple of bars making HH's and HL's. The 09:00 bar was a strong green bar. Went long at 88.57 with a tight stop and price came crashing down. I was filled and stopped out in less than a second. Very impressive violent move. -9 ticks.

Trade #4
Price moved sideways for 1 hour, making a few head fakes. The 10:10 bar looked like a bear continuation, but ended up green. The 10:15 bar broke the most recent pivot high and closed above the EMA. Went long at 88.50 with a fixed target of 25 ticks, which was 1 tick under the high of the 09:00 bar. +25 ticks.

Finished up 3 ticks for the day because of a 23 tick loss on 6E.

Overall, I'm not too happy about the way I traded. I mismanaged my first trade and it cost me 11 ticks. The 3 trades I ignored were each winners. I'm trying to keep an awareness of where price was to 'help' me with where price might go, and that did get me a couple of small winners, but today it seems I would have been infinitely better off if I had blinders on and just traded every signal.

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Have you noticed that most of your with trend trades happen closer to EMA that are profitable?

Have you noticed that most of your counter-trend trades winning trades happen when close is going down when you buy?

It is the nuances of trading that makes you a better trader. Like if where I enter is too far from recent pivot extreme, I will place a limit order lower so I can reduce my risk, so if you are risking 11 tics, you want to place PS 2 tics below the ie.pivot low, so you entry can not be more than 11 tics from where you are placing your stop. But on counter-trend trades I always risk less than what I risk on trend trades, which I have to buy lower, closer to pivot low, and if price holds, makes for good support.
 
Overall I'm happy with my CL trading, even though I only ended up 2 ticks on 4 trades. I managed the trades well and didn't jump to BE at the first opportunity. The one mistake I made today was a failure to note the S/R areas on my chart (got distracted with email). This caused me to take a long trade just under resistance that failed. On the bright side, it's nice to see something fail when it's supposed to.

Trade #1
Had 3 big green bars up. Didn't get filled on my first attempt at entry, but was filled on a second try. This was just under the aforementioned resistance area. Got a full stop. -9 ticks.

After realizing my mistake about noting R/S areas, I saw a support area at 80.08.

Trade #2
Wasn't filled on my first attempted short and price rapidly approached support so I didn't attempt a second entry. Entered a buy stop at 88.08 and was filled on the big drop at 07:00. Price bounced off violently, then came back down just as quick. I tabbed over to forxex. com to see if I missed a news event, but didn't. When price moved back up, I moved my stop to BE +1 and was stopped out. +1 tick.

Price went crazy on the 07:05 bar and made a massive perfect doji. Checked for news again, but didn't see anything.

Sat out the next 40 minutes or so, waiting for the market to make up its mind.

Trade #3
Price surged up over the EMA, then on the next bar closed under it. The next bar was red, so I entered a short at 88.08 with a tight stop. I felt that the repeated puncturing of the support at 88.08 was now greatly diminished, and the rejection of the EMA was a short signal. Also, I felt that the range created by that big doji might still be in affect, so I adjusted my target to 15 ticks with a 5 tick stop. Got stopped out. -5 ticks.

Trade #4
Got a long signal a couple of bars later, and I forgot to adjust my stop and target from the last trade. It hit my target quickly. +15 ticks.

Did +16 ticks on 6E

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Quote from frank8800:

Price went crazy on the 07:05 bar and made a massive perfect doji. Checked for news again, but didn't see anything.
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That was Philly Fed, which can be a real market mover at times.
 
Trade #1
Short at 87.48 at resistance with a 9 tick stop. Got stopped out with 1 tick slip. -10 ticks.

Trade #2
After price popped through resistance, when long 87.60 and took some heat. Price turned around, then moved my stop up and got out. +4 ticks.

Trade #3
Another counter trend trade with a tight stop. Had 18 MFE and moved stop to BE+1. A mistake I made was not adjusting my target to reflect the fact that this was counter trend. +1 tick.

Trade #4
Played another counter trend trade off a strong resistance area. Right idea, but a little early. +1tick.

Trade #5
Got a shooting star that poked just beyond the resistance area. Entered a sell stop a few ticks below at 88.29 - not very aggressive. Hit my hard target. +25 ticks.

Made 16 ticks on 6E.

The good - profitable day and managed the trades well.
The bad - I seemed more focused on counter trend trades and really should have been looking to join the trend.

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I am not a big fan of counter-trend trades in crude unless volume sets up right and pivots distance getting tighter at tops. Crude is a very good trending market and works well using trendlines and double bottoms and tops. And I think that is counter-trend trade taken, stops have to be reduced.

Have good weekend all.
 

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I like what you have to say about the counter trades. Here's my chart.

I made one goof today at the very end with a counter trend trade forgot about the pull back and it cost me 10 ticks. Figures since I was trading outside my zones; that's what I get!

I'm going to start drawing trend lines on everything I think!!
Been looking at a tendline add-on, but not all that excited about it. Nothing like doing it manually.

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