My journey to profitable trading: NQ price action journal

[VV Cehpei]

RN, Blackdollars and Slugar - Thanks!

Handle123 - thanks a lot for the help! I think this is definitely a step in the right direction. And yea, I've seen that happen to others, so thanks for the reminder! I try to remain humble because I know I'm still a beginner and have lots to learn.

wrbtrader - thanks a lot for the help as well! And lol, I meant a 'big move' being maybe 10 -15 points!

But after reading what you wrote again I think I know how to manage that. Recognizing that the trend is still in place will come with experience and more studying. And I suppose that once I'm confident in that then I can re-enter a trade and take another piece. But that will come with time.

I'm really happy with the results, so I don't want it to sound like a greed thing. I was mainly thinking out loud in case I end up playing with the stop numbers a bit. But I think I'll keep the stop strategy how it is for now until I have enough trades using it that I can make an accurate judgement on how it's working.

But one thing I know now is that I won't let any trades that go in my favor by a few points turn into losers again! Thanks for the help!

 

[toucan]

I'm really happy with the results, so I don't want it to sound like a greed thing. I was mainly thinking out loud in case I end up playing with the stop numbers a bit. But I think I'll keep the stop strategy how it is for now until I have enough trades using it that I can make an accurate judgement on how it's working.

Nice job setting up your trade management and keeping it constant for some time before deciding to improve.

cheers

toucan

 

[Redneck]

I try to remain humble because I know I'm still a beginner and have lots to learn.

Humility is not simply the way of a beginning trader

Humility is the very cornerstone of all consistent traders

=================

They say doing something once - is luck

Good job today - now make it routine (take it one trade at a time)



RN

 

[VV Cehpei]

Toucan and RN - thanks guys, glad to have this week over. I need some time to relax!

Today went ok. I placed 4 trades.

The first trade didn't work out. After a small retrace it looked like price was heading higher so I went long. Like ND pointed out to me a few days ago, I didn't give myself much 'airspace'. If price had moved just a tick or so more in my favor it would have triggered my b/e +1 stop, but unfortunately it didn't and price reversed and took out my stop.

The second trade was a short that worked out.

The third trade was an early entry of a HL. The stop strategy got me out at a pretty good time for this trade.

The last trade was a long off of a 1 2 3 setup similar to yesterday. I waited for the retrace again, and price moved very quickly off the line I drew, and I ended up entering a point or two above where I had wanted. I didn't have a limit or stop buy in place for this trade.

My nieces came over a bit after noon, and I started to feel a bit under the weather so that was it for trades for the day.

Today's results:

4 trades: 3 wins, 1 loss

1st: -5.00
2nd: +3.50
3rd: +2.25
4th: +2.50

Net P/L +$49.88

 

[Handle123]

Toucan and RN - thanks guys, glad to have this week over. I need some time to relax!

Today went ok. I placed 4 trades.

The first trade didn't work out. After a small retrace it looked like price was heading higher so I went long. Like ND pointed out to me a few days ago, I didn't give myself much 'airspace'. If price had moved just a tick or so more in my favor it would have triggered my b/e +1 stop, but unfortunately it didn't and price reversed and took out my stop.

The second trade was a short that worked out.

The third trade was an early entry of a HL. The stop strategy got me out at a pretty good time for this trade.

The last trade was a long off of a 1 2 3 setup similar to yesterday. I waited for the retrace again, and price moved very quickly off the line I drew, and I ended up entering a point or two above where I had wanted. I didn't have a limit or stop buy in place for this trade.

My nieces came over a bit after noon, and I started to feel a bit under the weather so that was it for trades for the day.

Today's results:

4 trades: 3 wins, 1 loss

1st: -5.00
2nd: +3.50
3rd: +2.25
4th: +2.50

Net P/L +$49.88

View attachment 145357

First trade didn't retrace, the highest bar, following bars were inside this bar, retrace means going below low of highest bar, plus was a Head & Shoulders pattern to sell. 3rd trade you counter trend again, this was a retrace for continuation of downtrend. The lows at 10:32 made another Head & Shoulders for easy five points. Need to be working the chart while you are watching, move trendlines before price comes back so you are ready to just have an order waiting for price.

Congrats on good week.

 

[oraclewizard77]

Couple of things to ponder. Did you check other futures before settling on NQ. Personally I don't like NQ but if it works for you then fine. For example, if you made 2 points on ES for 1 contract, you would have made $ 100 not $ 82.

Another thing, I don't like your charts. Unless you are not posing what you really use to make trade decisions, I think they don't provide enough information. However, again, if it works for you then fine.

Finally, I would play around with stops and targets. How far can price move on average before any pullback, that might be a standard target. As for risk, how far does price need to move before the market has proved that your bias was wrong and then that could be your standard stop on average. Also, do you have a set number or trades where you stop per day or you trade every setup?

 

[VV Cehpei]

Hey Handle thanks!

Ok I'll keep that in mind about retraces, and I'll also have to keep my eye out for the h&s patterns more. I'm used to seeing them as top patterns, but I really need to recognize when they appear as bottom patterns more, because to be honest I rarely ever notice them. I've just started to notice the 1 2 3 patterns more lately. Thanks again for all the help.

Hey oraclewizard77 thanks for the feedback!

I used to trade Nasdaq stocks and some options years ago so I've always been a bit partial to the nasdaq, but I might eventually trade the ES as well. But for now I'm fairly happy with sticking with the NQ.

The charts I post are automatically generated by Ninjatrader and it plots out all the trades for me.

Things have been and will continue to change, but right now I use the 1 min, 5 min, 60 min and daily. I draw some lines on the 60 min, but the other charts I leave pretty much blank. The past 2 days I have marked the 1 2 3 setups on the 1 min, but other than that I don't really put much on them. I reproduced my 1 2 3 markings on the computer generated chart I posted of course, but my 1 min during the day looked exactly like it.

I'm sure I will change how my stop strategy is set up, but my plan for now is to leave it so I can get a significant enough amount of trades and data so I can go back and judge it's effectiveness and then make any changes from there.

Lots of things have been changing recently, but I think I'm heading in the right direction for the most part. I still need to work on my entries though and make sure I'm trading with the trend.

 

[Turveyd]

If I think Oracles issue is it's naked, your trying to trade entirely PA but drop a 10SMA onto that same chart and that down move becomes something you can enter as it's going and ride for a lot of pts.

Compromise a little, momentum is strong at the moment milk it while you can and we go back to ranged markets.

 

[VV Cehpei]

Turveyd - Thanks for the suggestion! I've used MAs before on my charts and I've been drifting towards having less on my charts lately. Who knows, I'm always open to trying so I may end up putting one back on the chart and see how it goes.

Week 9 Results

21 Trades: 11 wins, 10 losses

Monday: -$78.90
Tuesday: -$167.56
Wednesday: -$6.46
Thursday: +$158.66
Friday: +$49.88

Net P/L -$44.38

$15 for that CME data fee got charged to my account again.

Have a good weekend all!

 

[Turveyd]

I only have 42sma and a 10sma envelope, any more hides the price data and gets confused.

At the moment if 10gets a direction odds are its going to keep going that way, making it all to easy.

Happy i trade spot no data fees.