Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal

Quote from PatientOperator:
I spent some time watching Al's trading videos on youtube. You are correct that they are for more advanced traders. I think he is a very good scalper. He probably makes most of his profits scalping more than swing trading. He often said that making one point a day trading 100 ES contracts can make 7 figures a year. It make sense to work towards increasing the size rather than to increase the number of trades.
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I think Al 's method is great for beginners too. So we learn PA first rather than exlporing too many indicators. I kind of regretted that I started his method too late. But there is just one thing about his method-it only fits certain type of personality. If it's not a right fit, it won't work. You either hate it or love it to death! you have to take time, patience and passion to learn it. It's complex. Actually the book isn't complex at all after a 2nd read and lots of screen hours. The more complex concept is to "apply"... If you are interested, you could start to look at his bar-by-bar anaysis on his website.
I dont think scalp is good for beginners though...

Marcel Link also mentioned that [page 33] "The best day traders try to hit a lot of singles in their trading and keep booking modest profits. When you swing for the fences, you tend to strike out a lot more; it's better to hit 3 or 4 singles in a day than to go for homers. Going for the smaller waves is safer and usually more profitable.".... I have been re-reading this paragraph and think it suits me quite well even though I love to have those home runs. It is not just letting profits run but knowing when to take the profits is just as important.
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IMHO, This can't be read too literally...

Scalp and swing are different approach. Scalp you have to be right more than 65% or more . Swing you probably only need to be right 50%-55%. Whether taking small profits or taking big profits are really depending on the market most of time. if trend is strong, why out? why not hold first or 2nd pullback? if buy in a range, why hold and hope for more?

I have never thought of hitting a homerun or anything. I just need 15Pts -20Pts per day....I just want to be available when trend is there. now i can barely break even and my winrate is lousy......:mad:

That's why trading is hard... Got to be very flexible in different situation. got to know when I am trapped and when the others are trapped..... And there aren't too many chances for us to make mistakes...:mad:
 
Quote from dcbrown:

Do you have a rule about trin? Would you have done better with your short entries if you knew you would not take any long entries because of the high trin value?
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>2.0, only short

today is a bit different...start from 2.0 and <2.0

I do have a rule. but i see some days price are trading in a range after a gap up/down when trin is more than 1.5..
If price is in a large range like today, i think it's ok to trade both side....
as you can see my entry were wrong for the 2 long trades around 7:30-8:30. the direction was ok
The last long trade is a pure reversal play though.

Although if looking at $add today.... only shorts...<1000

I think I might be stopping working on reversal trade, it doesn't seem work very well to me. Maybe only take reversal trade on real paper! :p
 
Quote from tlow:

Matcha,

Im getting ready to start a pity party...want to join? :)

From my newbie/struggling like crazy point of view...it looks like you are trying to do too much...

you have bull/bear traps, wedges, triangles, vwaps, Market profiles, s/r lines, fibs all sorts of stuff written in this journal.

From my experience with the emotional up and downs, try and keep them under control or walk away...Im still trying to heed to my own advice :eek:

I find myself getting more confused and frustrated and doing too much or analyzing too much when my emotions are running wild.
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true. i agree. might try to take a little break and just watch the market for a few days to clear my head

always nice to join a party. hopefull we can all have a winners' party soon
 
Quote from Picaso:

Matcha, don't despair, it was a crazy day. You should consider it a success that you only had a small loss - many people got hurt badly today.

Tomorrow is another day, just make sure to start with a clean slate. :)
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thank you!:p
 
Quote from Matcha:

Today is the day that nothing seems working for me.
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A rough day for sure. I give you credit for putting up a good fight with the bears today. Just remember you can make as much money loving the bear as you can loving the bull. You've posted a 5 min chart, but I sense your trading decisions are coming from a shorter time frame chart. You have a lot of technical knowledge and a understanding of many different set ups. I was at work today so I didn't follow markets. My wife said news seemed to roil the markets today.

After the fact chart review is always like shooting fish in a barrel. The 010 and 954 levels seem to tell the tail of the trade for today. My instincts suggest that you were working too hard studying the shorter time frames to see the larger frame picture. I do love the 1200 short and your instincts regarding the double bottom around 1230.

Win rate tells the tale. Today you were not really in sync with the market. Everyone has had days like that. A good nights sleep, fresh mind, fresh eyes always works wonders. (A day off has never killed anyone either - to my knowledge :D).
 
Quote from Matcha:

Today is the day that nothing seems working for me. It is the first I felt a bit emotional. Discouraged, disappointed and beat.


......

If I can’t adjust tomorrow, I might take a few days off. It will be a bad idea to trade with despair emotions, even in SIM. Then I am just going to disappoint and doubt myself even more. But I will still be watching market and learn.
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Hi Matcha,

Don't be despair!

Today was a challenging day. It trended up in the morning and then started to reverse to the downside and at the very last half hour, it went back up quite strongly. When I saw the reversal right at 12:30pm p.t. on the 1 minute chart, I thought you may have taken advantage of it. I remember you mentioned a few times about the 12:30 reversal.

The emotional feeling is part of our training of our MIND. One of the 3 M's for trading success as mentioned in Dr. Alder's book - Trading for a Living. The other 2 M's are Method and Money (Management). I think over the past few months, you have developed some good Methods for yourself and you have great Money Management. We have to develop discipline and to avoid the traps of emotional trading.

I have learned to accept that all these hurdles are part of my training and have prepared my mindset for all these "struggles". And I know it takes time (10,000 hours!!!!!) You are a very discipline and smart person. I know you have done better than me in most of these 3 areas (the 3 M's).

Best of luck!

--po

P.S ..... where there is despair, hope......
 
Quote from Matcha:

I think Al 's method is great for beginners too. So we learn PA first rather than exlporing too many indicators. I kind of regretted that I started his method too late. But there is just one thing about his method-it only fits certain type of personality. If it's not a right fit, it won't work. You either hate it or love it to death! you have to take time, patience and passion to learn it. It's complex. Actually the book isn't complex at all after a 2nd read and lots of screen hours. The more complex concept is to "apply"... If you are interested, you could start to look at his bar-by-bar anaysis on his website.
I dont think scalp is good for beginners though...


IMHO, This can't be read too literally...

Scalp and swing are different approach. Scalp you have to be right more than 65% or more . Swing you probably only need to be right 50%-55%. Whether taking small profits or taking big profits are really depending on the market most of time. if trend is strong, why out? why not hold first or 2nd pullback? if buy in a range, why hold and hope for more?

I have never thought of hitting a homerun or anything. I just need 15Pts -20Pts per day....I just want to be available when trend is there. now i can barely break even and my winrate is lousy......:mad:

That's why trading is hard... Got to be very flexible in different situation. got to know when I am trapped and when the others are trapped..... And there aren't too many chances for us to make mistakes...:mad:
More...

Hi Matcha,

Thank you very much for your input.

I am working hard on NOT repeating my mistakes. :)

--po
 
Quote from PatientOperator:



The emotional feeling is part of our training of our MIND. One of the 3 M's for trading success as mentioned in Dr. Alder's book - Trading for a Living. The other 2 M's are Method and Money (Management).

P.S ..... where there is despair, hope......
More...
Nice references. I've always been a fan of Dr. Elder's. He's got an amazing story to tell. The accecdotal connection between psychology and trading has been around a long time. More than anything else, this confirms that the mind's preception is colored by current emotion. If you've ever read any of Timouthy Gallwey's inner books (Inner Skiing, Inner Tennis, etc) they delve into the connection between performance and mind. Great stuff. Elder's contribution as far as I'm concerned is his recognition that all 3 M's have to be in place to carry the day. Too many books tout psychology as the superior element of success.

Another interesting author briefly discusses (amoung many other topics) the 3/21 day memory phenomenon. A quote from The Traders Edge: Ask any professional trader what is his toughest day and he'll say, "The day after the market has beaten my brains in". The painful memory of one bad trading day can cause market paralysis or erratic trading for up to three weeks. Unless you are throughly convinced of the validity of your trading methods, you will be sorely tempted to drop out of trading or at least "modify" your methods to "prevent further losses".
 
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