Matcha's Dow E-mini Journal
- Thread starter Matcha
- Start date
Quote from PatientOperator:
Hi Sis ~~~,
Thank you very much for the beautiful beautiful art works by Vincent van Gogh and the very very soothing song by Don McLean. Now I am calm and.
--po
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi PO ...
Your sis here (ME) is a "Music" & "Arts" fanatic LOL ... :eek:
PO i think You are also a very romantic person beside being an engineer and a trader LOL ...
11.8. I am back to my journal after taking 2 weeks off. The past 2 weeks intensive studying PA has been very rewarding to me. It calms me down. It adds more perspectives and depth when looking at the market. I also gain some confidence when taking the trade and reading the market context. The discovery of the reason why most of the past trades didnât work well in variable market environment is precious. Although there is no way the PnL will increase dramatically due to 2 weeksâ study, but I believe I will slowly drive some better result.
To summarize what Iâve learned in the past 2 weeks:
Trading range and trending trading range day- canât predict what the day is unfolding but can trade what in front of us. Lots of doji bars open and large bars with overlapping behavior signals the trading range. Pattern at the open with YTDâs close signals whether itâs in a trading range.
Be prepared that a trading range leads to trending trading range or a trend.
In a trading range, be ready to sell above the range and buy below the range. Buy low sell high. Or look for entry in 1 min or 2 min chart. Taking failed break out setup rather than break out setups. Take scalperâs profit. (Now I figured out why most of my BO trades were failures)
Pay attention to opening range and measured move.
Always think where the bulls are and where the bears are and where they will possibly be. Are they equally balanced? If so, wait.
When take counter-trend trade, always look for H.L/L.H after trend line break, always make sure the counter-trend party showed the prior strength. Be ready to get out quick without follow through.(Nodoji reminded me this great tip before)
Trading range acts like a magnet which will pull the price back in to the range. Pay close attention to the magnetic area.
M2S and M2B are very reliable trades. -2 leg pullback on moving average in a strong trend. Great for beginners to trade.
2nd entry is more reliable.
All of the above are from thoroughly reading and taking notes from Alâs book( I am in chapter 5) . Filled out a big note book so far; reviewed and highlighted 100 charts(both from his book and my past YM charts) bar by bar in the past 2 weeks.
I will try to get into more details in my daily trades. Please forgive me if I tended to be over the place sometimes going forward. I am still learning⦠Learning trading is an endless job!
However, I didnât do too well on my first day back to my journal. But one dayâs result doesnât really matter that much to me. Trading a bit too much today is what makes me feel shamed of myself!
To summarize what Iâve learned in the past 2 weeks:
Trading range and trending trading range day- canât predict what the day is unfolding but can trade what in front of us. Lots of doji bars open and large bars with overlapping behavior signals the trading range. Pattern at the open with YTDâs close signals whether itâs in a trading range.
Be prepared that a trading range leads to trending trading range or a trend.
In a trading range, be ready to sell above the range and buy below the range. Buy low sell high. Or look for entry in 1 min or 2 min chart. Taking failed break out setup rather than break out setups. Take scalperâs profit. (Now I figured out why most of my BO trades were failures)
Pay attention to opening range and measured move.
Always think where the bulls are and where the bears are and where they will possibly be. Are they equally balanced? If so, wait.
When take counter-trend trade, always look for H.L/L.H after trend line break, always make sure the counter-trend party showed the prior strength. Be ready to get out quick without follow through.(Nodoji reminded me this great tip before)
Trading range acts like a magnet which will pull the price back in to the range. Pay close attention to the magnetic area.
M2S and M2B are very reliable trades. -2 leg pullback on moving average in a strong trend. Great for beginners to trade.
2nd entry is more reliable.
All of the above are from thoroughly reading and taking notes from Alâs book( I am in chapter 5) . Filled out a big note book so far; reviewed and highlighted 100 charts(both from his book and my past YM charts) bar by bar in the past 2 weeks.
I will try to get into more details in my daily trades. Please forgive me if I tended to be over the place sometimes going forward. I am still learning⦠Learning trading is an endless job!
However, I didnât do too well on my first day back to my journal. But one dayâs result doesnât really matter that much to me. Trading a bit too much today is what makes me feel shamed of myself!
Took 2 short trades at the open. Breakout pullback short from YTDâs range at the Close. First trade was whipsawed. Re-entered, but was out at a minor loss before stopping out, the bottoming tails are too strong. I thought I couldnât have held at least for a one more leg down. But market made a micro-wedge shape reversal, the bull reversal bar is very strong. So at that point, I thought that today it could be a trading range day and I will be ready to look for some failed B/O. -13Pts on 2 trades
Had to leave my desk at 7:00 Pst
Back trading at 10:30Pst
Saw bull made a 3 pushes up wedge then formed a D/T or it could be viewed as 4 pushes up. Bear got a bit aggressive when price hit 11372 level the 2nd time, filled the morning gap but couldnât break out of 11372. Day is still acting as a trading range day. 11:50 I took a short at a lower high. The risk is small, but no follows through. I was out quick enough but then I made a foolish bet that I re-entered and shorted again. The re-enter is purely a prediction⦠wasted 7 ticks on the trade. I am glad I wasnât too foolish to place a tight stop.
Last trade, 11:25, a small wedge reversal up. Then price formed a Failed BO pattern. I took a short here. This was also the 3rd time market tried to break to the up side. A 3 tick failure. The large bear trend bar with small tails got me to believe that itâs worth to hold retrace and a one more leg down. But the next leg down became a double bottom pattern, buyers again showed strength. So I had to get out with only a small profit. Then I decided to stop trading for the day. There is just no great price action.
PnL: -$82, 5 trades, 20%winrate.
A bit over trading today.
Had to leave my desk at 7:00 Pst
Back trading at 10:30Pst
Saw bull made a 3 pushes up wedge then formed a D/T or it could be viewed as 4 pushes up. Bear got a bit aggressive when price hit 11372 level the 2nd time, filled the morning gap but couldnât break out of 11372. Day is still acting as a trading range day. 11:50 I took a short at a lower high. The risk is small, but no follows through. I was out quick enough but then I made a foolish bet that I re-entered and shorted again. The re-enter is purely a prediction⦠wasted 7 ticks on the trade. I am glad I wasnât too foolish to place a tight stop.
Last trade, 11:25, a small wedge reversal up. Then price formed a Failed BO pattern. I took a short here. This was also the 3rd time market tried to break to the up side. A 3 tick failure. The large bear trend bar with small tails got me to believe that itâs worth to hold retrace and a one more leg down. But the next leg down became a double bottom pattern, buyers again showed strength. So I had to get out with only a small profit. Then I decided to stop trading for the day. There is just no great price action.
PnL: -$82, 5 trades, 20%winrate.
A bit over trading today.
Hi Matcha,
Welcome back to the journal!
Today was indeed a very narrow trading range day in 2 level of narrow ranges. There was a good TR failed B.O. at 8:00 pst. It showed up on the ES chart but didn't make it to the YM. The failed B.O(s). later in the day were a bit narrow to trade. It did exist in both ES and YM but the potential were limited.
I traded the whole day using the TR techniques. Had some small profit in the 1st half. Took a foolish trade in the afternoon to trade WT B.O, ended up the day -0.25 ES points. In retrospect, should have kept up with TR trading till the end of the day. But, it was good to be able to identify the TR day early on.
Best trading to you tomorrow!
--po
Thank you very much Matcha for sharing your 2 week quest of studying Al's PA trading method. I think you can market your "BIG" notebook. I know it contains a lot of priceless PA knowledge in there.
You are correct that "Learning trading is an endless job!" You are making a big progress towards becoming a CP PA trader!
--po
Matcha - Glad you are back and well rested. I liked your summation of lessons learned during your break. With the mid-term elections over and the Fed on record regarding QE2 all market participants have a bit more clarity. Welcome Back
Welcome back, Sweetie!
I gotta say this: I think candle-stick thing is overrated. I am not kidding when I say this. And I also would say Brook's bar-by-bar is also overrated.
I think bar-by-bar, and candle analysis are only useful on daily charts. Once you switch the time-frame lower than daily... not that cool. The reason is on intraday charts, 1-min versus 5-min versus 10-min... how a bar forms and its shape depends on the starting point. Shift the starting point for your 5-min/10-min/etc chart the candles will look different. Prices moved how they moved... but the candles will look different for the same period of time.
Especially to me as a very short-term trader, candle and bbb have no practical value. Sorry.
I gotta say this: I think candle-stick thing is overrated. I am not kidding when I say this. And I also would say Brook's bar-by-bar is also overrated.
I think bar-by-bar, and candle analysis are only useful on daily charts. Once you switch the time-frame lower than daily... not that cool. The reason is on intraday charts, 1-min versus 5-min versus 10-min... how a bar forms and its shape depends on the starting point. Shift the starting point for your 5-min/10-min/etc chart the candles will look different. Prices moved how they moved... but the candles will look different for the same period of time.
Especially to me as a very short-term trader, candle and bbb have no practical value. Sorry.