MES Journal - 2020 Dec

gerryhoho said:
BOT 1 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3653.25 USD GLOBEX 22:53:44 0.47
BOT 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3650.75 USD GLOBEX 22:52:34 1.41
BOT 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3648.75 USD GLOBEX 22:52:14 1.41
SLD 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3647.25 USD GLOBEX 22:47:50 1.41
SLD 1 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3645.50 USD GLOBEX 22:44:12 0.47
SLD 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3651.00 USD GLOBEX 22:41:54 1.41
BOT 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3650.75 USD GLOBEX 22:41:48 1.41
SLD 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3650.50 USD GLOBEX 22:41:46 1.41
BOT 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3650.50 USD GLOBEX 22:37:02 1.41
SLD 3 MES Dec18'20 @GLOBEX 3648.00 USD GLOBEX 22:30:49 1.41

P&L -$111
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You traded MES rather heavily on 2 Dec during the US session.
I didn't trade ES on 2 Dec (asian, Eur, US sessions) at all because its movement
was rather sluggish/lethargic.
I'd avoid such a market at all costs.
Do note that such a difficult to trade market is rather common.
Don't apply RS, price action, AlBrooks concepts blindly.

But there are other markets that were trendy and easy to trade.
Things that moved on 2 Dec during there US session
were NQ, USD based like copper, eur, gbp, oil, Natural Gas.


Learn to recognize the above 2 types of markets.
A lot of books incl AlBrooks don't teach you the distinction between these markets.
This is the most important skills to develop.


So on 3 Dec, will MES behave that badly again?!?
The probability is very high unless there is some major news, events,
powerful presidential tweets ...

all the best mister!
 
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gerryhoho said:
I am trading live money unfortunately
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Don't.

If you actually want help - I suggest you give us all an introduction about yourself and your current methodology, market experience, expectations and so on.

The brutal truth is that successful/consistent trading requires expertise. This takes a long time to acquire and by the time you've done so, you're no longer asking for advice because you asked the right questions yourself and found the answers yourself.

If you want to go down the 'price action' route you need to seriously study 'price action' and backcheck/back-test a lot. Be methodical and write down your observations. If you search up the poster NoDoji, she had a manual method of backtesting all her set-ups where she'd scroll from left to right on a historical chart and write down every time her set-up occurred and what happened. This gave her statistical data, 'ingrained the pattern in her mind' and other valuable information such as stop placement, targets and so on. I'm sure she also discovered a bit about what works and what doesn't.

Unless you can do this full-time (and probably still then) - live trading is a waste of time and inefficient use of your time. With back-testing/back-checking you can maybe do 5 days in the same amount of time. So, 35 sessions over the course of a week. 140 sessions over the course of a month. This lets you learn a lot in a relatively short amount of time if you're smart about it.

Do that for a few months and start building a plan based on the observations/studies you've done. Start trading it in simulator mode. Start trading it with 1 MES if your results are promising. Back to the drawing board if you lose money or notice other flaws in your approach. The latter is a common one by the way. Often, it's in live trading you notice where you're lacking.

Sounds like a lot of work? It is. :)
 
gerryhoho said:
Em... I did observe quite a long time but not actually capturing the charts.
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Don't trade after observing the market you want to trade. Instead, gather your statistical analysis via backtesting your trade method so that you can remove one key possibility...the trade method doesn't work.

In addition, if the statistical analysis shows you the trade method does work but you're then unable to apply it correctly when you simulate trade it or trade with real money...you will then know its not the fault of the trade method...the problem is just you.

Trading on observation is a dangerous way to trade without any statistical analysis about your trade method when someone is new to a trading platform and/or new to trading a specific market.

At this point, you don't yet know the overall market conditions and how its impacting MES...

Simply, only an experience trader can navigate the current crap or at least know when not to trade it or not to be trading with size above 1 contract.

Summary - You should be on simulator and gathering data about your trading and trade method considering you do not have any statistical analysis to help you navigate the MES market.

Overall market volatility has been slowly creeping lower the past few months...an experience trader will know that type of market condition makes trading the MES / ES futures much more difficult.

Lets put it another way, I know successful traders of MES / ES that were trading much larger position size early in the summer and have now been reducing their position size since the U.S. November elections while the markets has been trying to navigate around vaccination news, failure of a stimulus package and a difficult lame duck President on his way out the door.

My point, its going to take some time for you to understand how the overall market condition moves MES / ES futures around...right now...focusing on just the price action while ignoring the overall market conditions and position size management...typically produces losing trading results.

Switch to a simulator...protect your trading capital...wait until the overall market conditions clears up and/or MES breaks out above or below the current funk its stuck within. If you were an experience trader...you could ignore the above advice.

wrbtrader
 
gerryhoho said:
Thanks! My beginning move was to short the market which I did in 1&2. 1 was stopped out quickly and I tried again at 2.

ES turns out to be stronger than YM and NQ. At one point 2 where I short @ around 51 has gone down almost 9 points and I was expecting it goes a bit more where it didn't and I ended up losing $111. Its a fair results as I had two attempts and 2 I had loaded up with 7 MES contracts.

The only concern I had for the day is I know ES cannot go down more and I was looking to long. (@#3)
But in real time for some reason I just find it difficult.

View attachment 245463
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Here is some advice - 1 minute candles are for 1 minute trades.

As others have stated, you need to test, test, test. And be clear what it is you are testing. Is it the price's reaction to the shape of an insignificant 1 minute candle or the pattern that 3 insignificant 1 minute candles make? Is it the significance of the longer term support and resistance that doesn't give a shit if it is being hit by a tick, minute, hour bar?
 
gerryhoho said:
I would like to record my trading here for a reference.

Aim is to day trade the MES and hope will break even first and improve to make some money

Method: Just using simple R/S and a bit price action trading the 5 mins & 1 min

Currently reading AlBrooks Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar to get an idea how to entry to get in a trade
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1) Your goal cannot be anything other than to run a profitable operation, not a break even operation.

2) Keep S/R super simple: Use Today's 9:30 AM Opening print, prior high(s), prior low(s), prior close(s), last night's Globex High/Globex Low. Draw these on your charts.

3) Five minute chart only and make no decisions until a five minute candle closes. Use the RTH only and other than striking the Globex High/Low on your chart, ignore Globex.

4) Al Brooks is great, but his Bar by Bar book is terrible. If you can afford it, get his Brooks Trading Course video course. It is without question the best price action education publicly available.

5) I prefer live money to sim trading for newbs, but for goodness sake trade a one lot of the micro, and stop trading until you have something of a rudimentary plan. I would advise against trading against trend lines as you did there, and instead rely upon actual market levels, sometimes referred to as "horizontal support and resistance."

Good Luck!
 
gerryhoho said:
I would like to record my trading here for a reference.

Aim is to day trade the MES and hope will break even first and improve to make some money

Method: Just using simple R/S and a bit price action trading the 5 mins & 1 min

Currently reading AlBrooks Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar to get an idea how to entry to get in a trade
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bin the book..most of the advice here is also not the best..although some of it is alright like drawing a horizontal line for the ES print at 09.30 !

you need more than 2 charts if you are going to trade..and in relation to S&R lines..they are to be looked at like traffic lights !!

set up ES charts and route your trades from the ES charts and ES DOM trading screen to an MES order with your broker..if you can't do this you have to learn how..you can trade MES charts and DOM for now until you get the ES to MES link working !!!

think about why you are entering..and why you are exiting..if you exit why are you not reversing right now..if you are reversing why so..every action/inaction has consequences..know the consequences of your actions..and..your inactions !!!!

in relation to luck..well..some say no such thing..but others say if you are in the right place..at the right time..you can make your own luck !!!!!
 
Thanks for the charts. Combined with the comments on this thread, I have to say that the advice tendered is useful to newer people like myself, and maybe the not so new.
 
toby400 said:
Thanks for the charts. Combined with the comments on this thread, I have to say that the advice tendered is useful to newer people like myself, and maybe the not so new.
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Unfortunately the OP is not that appreciative.

So no more Comment to O P

We will spend our time wisely rather than responding to unappreciative OP
 
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