Trades for 1-6-04
Although today I did not end up being gross profitable I felt I made some major advances in my trading, and I learned more about myself and my method as well.
Trade #1: Short @ 1117.25, stop @ 1119.75, stopped out, -2.5 pts
7:08: I began the day with a big time bearish bias. I knew we were overextended and felt that we were due for a correction, once again this was sort of the hero trade, although it did follow my parameters for entering, I held on for too long but still obeyed my original stop. After I entered price never really came back, I realized we were in a choppy market and there was no absolute direction at this point, but I remained in the trade because I kept clinging onto hope that my trade would come back. Obviously it never did. This trade taught me something about playing the first hour and playing the chop, this led to some new rules for my trading plan. This trade basically screwed me on the day.
Trade #2: Short @1119.5, Cover 1119.5, scratch
8:24: Oh man great entry, Great setup, just being stupid, I got frightened because I had yet to book a profit trading ES so far at this time. Price came down a little bit and then I got scared really scared when price barely went against me. My initial stop was never in jeopardy whatsoever. But I chickened out on this trade, when I entered my profit target was 1118-1118.25 which of course was eventually hit.
At this point I took lunch, well actually second breakfast and thought about what I needed to do, I envisioned myself as the trading sniper, stalking my pray patiently then pulling the trigger (exiting) when my profit target came through my sights. This vision while sort of strange really helped me. I was having trouble with the conviction in my trade profit targets because of yesterdays mishap with trying to be the hero. But I realized that today I was creating realistic targets for myself. This gave me the confidence to get back on the battlefield and begin trading again.
Trade #3: Short @ 1119.75, stop @ 1121.25, cover @ 1118.25 +1.25 pts
10:21: All I can say about this trade is GREAT DISCPLINED TRADING will equal profits. I took this trade missed my original entry point, but stuck with my profit target which was hit quite quickly. I got out and booked my first profit ever on the ES. This was the confidence booster I needed and helped to fuel the rest of my trading day.
10:50 There is another signal here I did not take, I was too busy stalking the market from a short perspective waiting for a breakdown to take it, more on this in my rules down below.
Trade #4: Short @ 1119.75, stop @ 1121.75, cover @ 1120.25 - .5 pts
11:12: Despite the fact that this trade was a loss it was still a good trade. I executed well, and did not get impatient I knew that if we really broke down through 1119, then 1118 would likely follow, but it didn't happen, instead I saw the beginning of buy signal forming on the 3 and 5 minute charts. I jumped out of the trade knowing that we were now changing directions no matter what I thought.
Trade #5: Long @ 1020.25, sell @ 1121.25 +1 pt
11:40: This was simply the reverse from the trade I had taken earlier. Same thing good trading equaled good profits and I was able to pull a point from the market here and was very satisfied with this trade. After this trade I got no signals early enough to be taken before the close, also I was hesitant to step in front of the very unpredictable stampede of bulls that took off this afternoon.
Well that about sums up my day for today, and besides trades 1 and 2 I am very happy with the progress I have made today. Tomorrow the goal is once again to trade again in an effort to stop the bleeding.
Profit/Loss for the day -.5 pts
I have several new rules to add to my trading plan.
- Avoid the open, it is deadly and unpredictable for my method. I am going to avoid the first 45 minutes of trading until I can figure out a way to profitably trade it. I rarely get good readable signals from here.
- If the market is chop you must get out, no hoping for a turnaround because in the chop there is no turnaround. THis would have saved me on the first trade, but because I learned this early today I was able to use it this afternoon when I felt my surroundings changing.
- Do not let preconcieved biases about the market stop you from taking a strong signal, If the market wants to go up it is going to go up no matter how overbought/oversold it is. Trade what the market tells you not what you tell yourself.
Tomorrow I hope to improve on my trading using my new rules.
