I'm going to try to put up my blotter from this morning. As anyone can see it has basically been a break-even morning, which is not surprising at all looking back at the action. Much of my trading is batting 1-2 pt winners back and forth until a bigger trade unfolds. Anyway, nothing very exciting so I'm hoping for a better afternoon.
Jeff's Trade Journal
- Thread starter NDJeff02
- Start date
Oh yeah, I would definitely agree that it's been trending up the entire day. My problem with today though is that there doesn't seem to be much volume or conviction in the uptrend. We make a high by a couple ticks and then retrace a point or two and repeat that over and over. I don't mind at all buying pullbacks in an uptrend but today there just haven't been any for me to buy.
My kind of market has a little more volatility and conviction on either side of the market. I'd like to see a new high made by a couple points and then a solid retrace,etc. Normally I have found that I take between 10-20 trades during the day depending on the action.
Since about 10am we've been in about a 6pt SP range. Now if price had some volatility in this range I could probably get a few good trades but my chart is almost a 45 degree line, not good.
My kind of market has a little more volatility and conviction on either side of the market. I'd like to see a new high made by a couple points and then a solid retrace,etc. Normally I have found that I take between 10-20 trades during the day depending on the action.
Since about 10am we've been in about a 6pt SP range. Now if price had some volatility in this range I could probably get a few good trades but my chart is almost a 45 degree line, not good.
I think I'm only going to stick around another 45 minutes here. Trying to stay focused while ES bounces in a 2pt range over the past hour is no easy task. I never have high hopes coming into Mondays so I just chalk up a day like today as the cost of doing business.
These are the kinds of days I just need to keep my discipline and not get myself chopped up, so I'll take this as a minor victory.
These are the kinds of days I just need to keep my discipline and not get myself chopped up, so I'll take this as a minor victory.
Yup, these are the days that can just grind you down. For me it's all about just keeping myself in the game on a day like today and moving on to more opportunities tomorrow.
That chart you posted definitely looks nicer to me. You just don't see very many days that look like today where we just go straight up with zero pullbacks/volatility. I basically like the days more where we just have some swings during the day.
That chart you posted definitely looks nicer to me. You just don't see very many days that look like today where we just go straight up with zero pullbacks/volatility. I basically like the days more where we just have some swings during the day.
dude, considering SPY/ES was up 85 cents/8 points at 9:30 from Friday's close and not even pretending like it wanted to come back in, a breakeven day is ok. i mean, a sloooow, methodical climb without anything more than a 20 cent/2 point pullback, takes a lot of patience just to stay in front of your screens, don't you think?
yeah, i understand your thoughts on the futures friendly 60/40 tax treatment as to why you would rather trade them instead of SPY/QQQQ. for me, i made the mark-to-market election a few years ago when i figured i would just stick with the stocks so i am locked into that thus no chance to benefit from the tax benefit that you do. good or bad, we work with what we have.
may tomorrow have larger swings and enough clear signals to get into those moves at close to the best price
good luck
Yeah, I agree that it was definitely a difficult day to stay focused the whole time. I cut out early too and unfortunately the best signal of the day came at 3:30 for a great long trade that I could have just held into the close. It would have been good for at least 3 pts. Looking back over my chart for the day there were only 2 opportunities for me to get long in ES the entire day but they both would have been good 2-3 pt trades with minimal heat.
I'm looking forward now to getting to bed early and making sure that my focus is 100% tomorrow. This was one of the worst days I've seen for my trading style in a long time but there were still opportunities to make money if I had hung in there all day.
I'm looking forward now to getting to bed early and making sure that my focus is 100% tomorrow. This was one of the worst days I've seen for my trading style in a long time but there were still opportunities to make money if I had hung in there all day.