Futures began the session with a down move of about 3 pts.
At 9:47 there was a 5m PSAR cross that indicated a long position at 930. This was confirmed by 5m SST (OS) and MACDh (crossed the zero line). Got as high as 937 w/in 30 minutes. The existing home sales number at 10:00 contributed slightly to this run-up. I hesitated, though, and didn't take this trade b/c the price had run away from me.
At 10:47 there was another 5m PSAR cross, this time indicating a short at 935, which was also the R1. Simultaneously, TRIN was just starting to bounce up off of the lower BB on the 5m and TICK was dropping. 5m SST was overbought and its lines had just crossed as well. ES dropped nearly 7 points down to 928.25 w/in 30 minutes. ES continued to sell off, getting down to 923.25. Didn't take this trade either for some reason. Just watched it all the way down, thinking, "Damn, I should have taken that trade." Am I paralyzing myself with too much information, too many indicators? Perhaps.
Now that we were trading around the area of primary support, I started looking for a potential reason to buy in the area of 925. Finally, I found my reason in the form of a bullish TICK divergence between the 12:00 low and the 12:30 low on the 5m chart. It was by no means a major divergence, but in my mind it was a good enough reason to take a stab at S1. Went long at 924.5. After a long wait, the price started to improve slightly. At 1:26 the cash index hit the upper BB and I started to get a little uncomfortable, so I moved my stop to breakeven. I thought to myself that if this trade was not to be, then let me get stopped out at my entry price. Was targeting the pivot at 931. Got a little impatient, though, and sold at 927.25 for a gain of 2.75 pts. Price eventually went on to hit my intended target. Note to self: Need to become more comfortable with sitting tight on a breakeven stop and letting the market work for me.
At 2:10 I tried to impose my own will on the market and entered again on the long side at 930.25. There was no real reason behind this trade outside of a nagging feeling that there was upside momentum to this market and we would get back to 936. I remained in this trade until 2:24 when I exited because there was a lack of any price advance. Gained a single tick on this one.
Overall, I'm pleased with today's results, but I wish I had had more balls in the morning. I recognized two good setups in the morning, but I fell prey to hesitation.
2 RTs
+3.0 pts