Maintaining Self Discipline

[studentofthemarkets]

Yesterday was spent studying charts and working in a different, practice demo account, so no trades were taken in the accounts I'm tracking on here.

Today was disappointing, yet also very encouraging. I had 1 losing trade in my Live Account and still liked the set up, so switched to the Main Demo Account where that trade also lost. However, price only moved against the live trade by 18 ticks and the demo trade by 12 ticks, and then made an amazing 278 tick climb! I got the trend direction right, even though the 2 tries were stopped out.

 

[Zodiac4u]

Yesterday was spent studying charts and working in a different, practice demo account, so no trades were taken in the accounts I'm tracking on here.

Today was disappointing, yet also very encouraging. I had 1 losing trade in my Live Account and still liked the set up, so switched to the Main Demo Account where that trade also lost. However, price only moved against the live trade by 18 ticks and the demo trade by 12 ticks, and then made an amazing 278 tick climb! I got the trend direction right, even though the 2 tries were stopped out.

Ouch! that hurts and I've felt that pain before. Meaning missing out on a move that was a home run because your stop was too close. But also that's why i don't use 5 minute time frames especially candles. But the thing to remember is that today's markets are trading off of Trump tweets, and on top of that when your trading markets that have a bit of momentum in there shorts, the larger time frames can and will hurt you when you are using a bar/candle signal. Larger time frames have longer movements, but not saying the smaller time frames can't and they can. Great job but I'm still seeing you trade the later time session and not the earlier time session. Maybe you need more warm up? if you do than get that out of your head, but if its work related? than i get that. Cheers

 

[studentofthemarkets]

Ouch! that hurts and I've felt that pain before. Meaning missing out on a move that was a home run because your stop was too close. But also that's why i don't use 5 minute time frames especially candles. But the thing to remember is that today's markets are trading off of Trump tweets, and on top of that when your trading markets that have a bit of momentum in there shorts, the larger time frames can and will hurt you when you are using a bar/candle signal. Larger time frames have longer movements, but not saying the smaller time frames can't and they can. Great job but I'm still seeing you trade the later time session and not the earlier time session. Maybe you need more warm up? if you do than get that out of your head, but if its work related? than i get that. Cheers

Well, I post the 5 min chart on here, because that's the time frame of the trend I'd like to be catching, eventually, but I actually look at a lot of timeframes....15 min, 5 min 1 min and smaller charts are all open at once. The smaller ones help a lot with getting a trade inside the 5 min candle.

I have my charts set to Central Time, so it looks like I'm trading later in the day, but it's really the open or a little before when I start trading, and you're right that I do tend to do a lot of watching and waiting before getting in, although I've been practicing trading the open in a separate demo account. I'm just unsure of how to enter because the NQ starts moving and doesn't look back oftentimes and it's hard to know how to get in, so I tend to wait until I think I can find an entry without guessing as much.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Zodiac4u]

Well, I post the 5 min chart on here, because that's the time frame of the trend I'd like to be catching, eventually, but I actually look at a lot of timeframes....15 min, 5 min 1 min and smaller charts are all open at once. The smaller ones help a lot with getting a trade inside the 5 min candle.

I have my charts set to Central Time, so it looks like I'm trading later in the day, but it's really the open or a little before when I start trading, and you're right that I do tend to do a lot of watching and waiting before getting in, although I've been practicing trading the open in a separate demo account. I'm just unsure of how to enter because the NQ starts moving and doesn't look back oftentimes and it's hard to know how to get in, so I tend to wait until I think I can find an entry without guessing as much.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Central time yes for sure, but I gauge some of my entries off of larger time frames but when I enter its based on the 1mn and I only follow ES.

 

[Overnight]

Yesterday was spent studying charts and working in a different, practice demo account, so no trades were taken in the accounts I'm tracking on here.

Today was disappointing, yet also very encouraging. I had 1 losing trade in my Live Account and still liked the set up, so switched to the Main Demo Account where that trade also lost. However, price only moved against the live trade by 18 ticks and the demo trade by 12 ticks, and then made an amazing 278 tick climb! I got the trend direction right, even though the 2 tries were stopped out.

Today was an unusual day, wholly affected by news.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

Live Account: no trades taken
Main Demo Account: 5 losses and 5 wins
Practice Demo Account: 2 losses and 8 wins around the open

Trading the open seemed easier today than its ever been before. I hope it's because I've learned to trade it better and it's not just random luck.

The rest of the day was spent trading in the main demo account. Out of the 5 losses, 3 were in the right direction to have made at least 10 ticks, but stopped out because I didn't have a precise entry. Some would say to increase the stop loss, and that would have worked, but one of the purposes of this journal is to record my progress in becoming accurate with only 10 ticks as a stop loss. 2 of the winning trades had nice potential. 1 for 50 ticks and 1 for 212 ticks.

 

[Zodiac4u]

Today was an unusual day, wholly affected by news.

maybe so, but bull bars or bear bars still show there colors when they want to.

 

[studentofthemarkets]

Today was very discouraging. My entries aren't anything at all like the method I'm trying to trade should look like. I will likely take a few days off from trading next week and spend time going over good and bad trades and trying to find out why sometimes something will work and sometimes it won't.

Live Account: 1 losing trade I changed my entry rules a few days ago and entered according to the new rules, basically trying to trade tops or bottoms. And so I'm changing my rules back to only trading after a new trend starts, then try to enter in at a reversal.

Main Demo Account: 4 losers and 2 winners. 28% win rate for the day. The problem wasn't that it was after NFP, there was enough movement that I should have been able to trade it. The problem was that I thought my entry criteria would work and it didn't. I need to do more counting of how many times a certain "look" works and how many times it doesn't.

Practice Demo Account trading the first 45 min of the open: 18 losses and 12 wins. Time to set some rules in this account for what I'm looking for around the open and limit how many trades I take. I guess yesterday's nice profits at the open were simply due to randomness, not any trading skills.

I'm really hoping if I stick with this longer I can get consistent with 10 tick sl and 10 tick tp on the NQ. I'll give it a little more time and if there's no improvement I may have to make some adjustments. But not wanting to change anything for at least another month. Even if I can't improve, I think studying 10 tick price moves on the NQ has been worth the effort.

 

[Zodiac4u]

Today was very discouraging. My entries aren't anything at all like the method I'm trying to trade should look like. I will likely take a few days off from trading next week and spend time going over good and bad trades and trying to find out why sometimes something will work and sometimes it won't.

Live Account: 1 losing trade I changed my entry rules a few days ago and entered according to the new rules, basically trying to trade tops or bottoms. And so I'm changing my rules back to only trading after a new trend starts, then try to enter in at a reversal.

Main Demo Account: 4 losers and 2 winners. 28% win rate for the day. The problem wasn't that it was after NFP, there was enough movement that I should have been able to trade it. The problem was that I thought my entry criteria would work and it didn't. I need to do more counting of how many times a certain "look" works and how many times it doesn't.

Practice Demo Account trading the first 45 min of the open: 18 losses and 12 wins. Time to set some rules in this account for what I'm looking for around the open and limit how many trades I take. I guess yesterday's nice profits at the open were simply due to randomness, not any trading skills.

I'm really hoping if I stick with this longer I can get consistent with 10 tick sl and 10 tick tp on the NQ. I'll give it a little more time and if there's no improvement I may have to make some adjustments. But not wanting to change anything for at least another month. Even if I can't improve, I think studying 10 tick price moves on the NQ has been worth the effort.

(live-5mn) Since i'm out of this Box you are in, why did you enter at that point? or what was your signal?

 

[studentofthemarkets]

(live-5mn) Since i'm out of this Box you are in, why did you enter at that point? or what was your signal?

1. I was expecting a bounce from the lows, based on the 1 min candles having double bottom 12 minutes apart with a rejection tail on the 1 min. I waited for a small retracement to get in on the next 1 min candle and that was stopped out.

2. Price was definitely in a downtrend but in an area where buyers had come in just over an hour earlier after the lows at the open.


I know the obvious things wrong with the trade. I tried to buy at the bottom. I had just changed my rules to allow for that. I'm changing back to no more buying bottoms or selling tops.


Other than making a double bottom on the 1 min chart, and a tail on the 1 min chart, there weren't any other good reasons to buy here, especially considering sellers were very strong.


So this is one "look" I hope I don't ever trade again.