Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal

Quote from Bolimomo:

It's the mirror trick again. (Measured moves)

AAPL peaked at 265.00 yesterday. Day support was around 261. When the market sold off and this support was broken... 4.00 down would make it 257.

Plus: AAPL's S2 was at 256.87. (Those are daily pivot numbers). 265.00 early in the morning was at R1.5 (close to R2). For some stocks to traverse from R2 all the way to S2... it was a big range day. Very likely to have some kind of bounce at S2.

The actual low went to 256.40... for less than 1 minute. Yes I know because I was trading it long. My long entry was at 256.80 and still it dropped 40 cents on me. But in the overall scheme of things it's not that much, considered that it bounced to 258... then 259.

Experience will help you. Gradually build yours up.

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Thank you for great chart! I hope I can build up my experience sooner!
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

It's the mirror trick again. (Measured moves)

AAPL peaked at 265.00 yesterday. Day support was around 261. When the market sold off and this support was broken... 4.00 down would make it 257.

Plus: AAPL's S2 was at 256.87. (Those are daily pivot numbers). 265.00 early in the morning was at R1.5 (close to R2). For some stocks to traverse from R2 all the way to S2... it was a big range day. Very likely to have some kind of bounce at S2.

The actual low went to 256.40... for less than 1 minute. Yes I know because I was trading it long. My long entry was at 256.80 and still it dropped 40 cents on me. But in the overall scheme of things it's not that much, considered that it bounced to 258... then 259.

Experience will help you. Gradually build yours up.
More...

Now I look at today's overall action, The measuered move is applicable again...:)
 
Lousy weather, lousy day. I am still struggling with time frames and entry.

Trade 1: This used to be my favorite set up but it turned out to be a Scratched trade.
Trade 2: An even better set up. Price made ABC retracement. 10109 zone is also 61.80% of the previous swing. Price tested the 10109 supply zone 3 times. All the indicators are lined up for me. The larger time frame and smaller time frame chart are both lined up. The trade turned out to be a winner.
Entry: 10108
Exit 1: 10114
Exit: 10148
46 Pts
Trade 3-Trade 6. All messy, reckless, brain-damaged trades. Around 11:00am. Price pulled back to 10108. It looks like a long set up. Plus all the indicators are lined up. Price tested the level twice again. I entered the long position with 7 tick stops, it stopped me out. Entered long again. Stopped out again. Then I looked at the smaller time frame- looks like a short set up, but then the longer time frame still signal a long position. So I entered the long the third time with an extremely wide stop. Needless to say, It stopped me one more time. The 6th trade was an error. I mistakenly press the buy instead of sell. I was out with another 7 tick loss.

For the messy trades I took around 11 am, if I don’t look at the larger time frame, I would have taken a short position after being stopped out, it was a clear signal that the short position needs to be entered. But I was so confused by the conflict message of the larger time frame.

So -$263.40 today....

Tomorrow I will try only look at one time frame-300 tick chart.

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What a wild ride day today. Market was still very volatile to me. The first trade was stopped out immediately with 2 contracts. So I decided to only trade one contract with a wider stop.

In a volatile market, when looking at the choppy 300 tick chart, I just couldn’t define where the swing low or swing high should be, I couldn’t even see a clear picture on long or short… I think there is a Chinese saying that said” When the situation is unclear, territory is unknown, STAY AWAY. Only foolish army would jump in and fight.” But somehow I always decided to fight since I thought I knew, I thought that “should’ be my set up, turning point….

Trade 1: 7:58am, took a failed short position at 9839 with 2 contracts, stopped out. This should be where I should have stayed away. Price is making channeling down-Bull flag. This was never my strong suit.
Trade 2: A break out trade. I usually take channel break out-pull back trade. But this time, the up trend is so strong, so I decided to go in and fortunately, it worked.
Enter: 9847
Exit 1: 9854
Exit 2: 9869
29 Pts

After the 2 trades, I decided to take only one trade. The volatility to me is too rich.

Trade 3 is a quick scalp I tested on 100 tick and 300 tick chart.

Trade 4-Trade 8 were killed by the volatility. They wiped off all the earlier gains. I was so defeated and decided to quit.

Around 11:40 am, there was a great set up, but I was still in the early loss mood. I lost the courage to take the trade.

Trade 9: Price is making a strong rebound. The trend is very obvious now( Price hasn’t touch the 33EMA).
Entry: 9929
Exit: 9954
25 pts

Trade 10: Stopped once.
Enter: 9950
Exit: 9989
Yes, I was out too quickly. I was scared by this volatility.
39Pts

Tomorrow, I am going to stick with one contract. My entry, exit , time frame are the biggest challenges to me. I am not sure what I need to work on to get more accurate and precise besides practicing. Any advice?


Today, +$221, 45% winning rate.

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A little busy this early morning got to get some work done. I only traded the last 2 hours. It’s probably better than trading the whole session.

Trade 1 was a greedy trade. I wanted to be in with the set off, so I sell into the yesterday’s close.

Trade 2, 3 was where I tried to adjust between minute chart and tick chart, so I lost focus.

Trade 4 was my favorite set up and it worked well
Enter: 10054
Exit: 10003
This time I took measured move into consideration. I should taken profit at 9941(pivot point, also the measurement move point). But then I thought the 10000 was the psychology level, people might want to buy into this level. So I was out too quickly again.

Trade 5 was a quick scalp, Price break previous high, took profits at the 33EMA acting as the resistance level.

I traded 3 min and 5 min chart and I couldn’t find any set up. So I switched back to 1 min, the 1 min chart gives me a lot of set up-including my favorite ones. And the risk is small. I understand that I couldn’t have more stop outs, more trades and small profits. But I think it’s OK for me now. I will have a 3min chart on the side if the 1 min gets choppy and trend isn’t clear.

I like to see those obvious patterns and candles. 5 min chart is a little hard to read at this point. I am either very late to get in or I am often hesitated to put a super wide stop.

+$248, 60% win rate

Off to Boarders study Al.
 
Hey, good trading Matcha!

I've got big Al's book, too...just gotta get back to reading it...not easy for a beginner like me.
 
Quote from pookie:

Hey, good trading Matcha!

I've got big Al's book, too...just gotta get back to reading it...not easy for a beginner like me.
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It was a difficult reading for me to. I almost fell asleep in coffee shop today... I am in the Chapter -Trend Reversal, I still only get 10% of what he is talking about. I am going to skip to "best trades" Chapter tomorrow....
 
Matcha, all the best in your pursuit. I also trade the YM. I've been doing it part-time for a few years. Daytrading is tough but I think you are on the right track studying bar to bar. I also started Al but put it down for some time as its very badly written and I already have some setups that I have been working on that are bar/candle based. I really believe every candle is important. Especially while scalping. I use a 5min chart as I think there is too much noise in the 1min. I also used 42ticks and other tick variations. I think I've tried a zillion different approaches. At the end of the day I believe you need to keep searching until you find something you like and feel comfortable with. Then its all about the money management.
 
I don't think Al Brook's bar-by-bar approach is good for anything less than 5-minute bars (or even 15-minute bars). The main reason is time. We don't have enough time to analyze each 1-min bar (or sub-minute tick bars). The market just zoom by you when you are measuring this and measuring that on the bar. Oliver Velez advocates the 55% mark on a bar. Imagine doing that on a 1-min bar with your calculator (and the bar is still forming).

I trade AAPL on 42-tick charts (not 42-tick alone but it helps me time my entries once I have a bias). It can be 10 bars in 1 minute. a bar will zoom you by in less than 10 seconds.

It takes only 1 trader somewhere in the world to invalidate what you think as the "support" and "resistance". LOL.
 
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