Sometimes when I enter in a trade I am very confident it will go my way and reach my target. Those times I will sit through volatile movements without a worry. I watch the market still, to see if some big move is brewing - someone going for some stops or similar - you never know. But as time passed and the reasons for me entering my trade still are there - and I still could enter at new/current level with a clean conscience - I will be very calm towards the normal smaller fluctuations.
This used to be how I traded initially - but watching and trying to learn more about the flow in EuroFX and seeing spread/differences between spot-dealers and CME futures to try and understand what kind of pressure was mounting. Also trying to predict what type of traders got into trades is important to me. If it was part of a larger order, I will be looking for further pressure in the direction of the big trader.
Having some kind of "stop-alarm" where watching subtle changes in volume and hints to who gets into new trades at which levels - and trying to see understand what has been traded before makes me decide for or against the continuation of the trade is part of when I get some passive cardiovascular workout.
When I started EuroFX I was very strict with not trading more than a few trades per day - almost like I remember experiencing small details in nature as a kid, eager to learn any new fact or discover something to watch, smell etc. If you remember how you looked through mundane details with a gluton mind as a kid - stuff you now hardly remember doing and routinely ignore as unimportant information - then you can relate to how I was observing the EuroFX book and trades initially.
I realize that I cannot "deprogram my mind" into the novelty I experienced and was observing at first, but I still think I can take the some of the best information I was pondering back then and embedding it into a strategy with some similar rules I applied initially.
The most important one - taking profits and not letting a trade go negative when it has ok profits is the one which saves my neck most times. Most times your trade will fluctuate between profits and loss several times - depending on stops etc. The shit hits the fan when it starts getting a defined reaction and is leaving the micro-range where you entered (as most of the action is confined into micro-ranges for very small time periods) - and on top of that leaves the range in the opposite direction of where you were trading.
Trying to decide when it's going to leave is most times extremely difficult as the move comes very sudden most times - triggering some light stops. Therefore I find it much easier to say that I will not normally allow a trade which has started to show profit - turn into losses. Better exit quickly - watch what happens and possibly re-enter at a better price, or take a pause - DO NOT TRADE OTHER DIRECTION as first action - analyze first, take some time; with important questions like: "why did the trade start to falter", and "what is happening now" to be answered first.
Well, I had a strong conviction that the 1.2355 level would hold before the european open with some good defense there and some lgihter defenses easily been overcome on the way down. Some ok 12 tick profits was booked on something I was planning on seeing to possibly around 1.2395, but I will prefer to sleep through most of the mornings action. Letting traders get into trades before one takes a decision yourself makes it much easier to relate to varying markets. I let the trade roast for some considerable trade - so I won't call it a scalp - although the light profits booked - but had a 1.2395-ish target - which I won't shepherd right now. Since it was kind of a "position trade" it was also micro-size for me.
Coding on some new patterns and signals for my charts and T&S scroll - along with something which resembles a bar-code scrolling as a novelty which I will test for "feel" to order-flow. Trying to calculate some intermediate "open interest" into a visual and fast-moving information display is very appealing.
Well, EU-open soon - time to hit the sack. 03:40 ..
At least I have the 30+ deg. Celsius to look forward to every day, although I absolutely hate it for Christmas time. :eek:
