PA Journal
- Thread starter pabeginner
- Start date
Some output explaining what the chart is meant to show would help because a quick glance appears to be 4 losing trades?
If you are trading PA, a few things stand out.
1. If you consider the high at 37.80, this stands out as an area of resistance that is later tested again and fails. When you take your long after 11:10, this would be a long after a breakout of this resistance. Most breakouts fail, so this is something to consider.
2. If you drew in a channel after the low at 37.60, then where you take this same long again as in #1, this would essentially be close to the top of the channel. If you are to believe in this channel since you drew it in, then you have to assume that at the top of the channel, price will drop, and you are going long just before the top of the channel.
3. When you take your long at 11:22, price has tried twice to go above 37.92 and it formed a double top. Of course it can break higher, as price can do anything, but once again, since this is a double top above an area that looked like resistance, and the expectation favors more of a failed breakout, then this isn't the best place to go long. You're going long just above a breakout level and you're going long after a double top which isn't a great combination.
4. Your 2nd trade, the long after the failed short, you closed this trade at break even is seems. The trades where you lost, you held them to where they hit a stop, but this trade you closed at BE. If its in your plan, that's fine, but notice that this trade went at least 2x your stop on the other trades. If you always hold your trades to hit the stop, but also move the stop to BE too quickly, you will be having a hard time ever catching some winners.
1. If you consider the high at 37.80, this stands out as an area of resistance that is later tested again and fails. When you take your long after 11:10, this would be a long after a breakout of this resistance. Most breakouts fail, so this is something to consider.
2. If you drew in a channel after the low at 37.60, then where you take this same long again as in #1, this would essentially be close to the top of the channel. If you are to believe in this channel since you drew it in, then you have to assume that at the top of the channel, price will drop, and you are going long just before the top of the channel.
3. When you take your long at 11:22, price has tried twice to go above 37.92 and it formed a double top. Of course it can break higher, as price can do anything, but once again, since this is a double top above an area that looked like resistance, and the expectation favors more of a failed breakout, then this isn't the best place to go long. You're going long just above a breakout level and you're going long after a double top which isn't a great combination.
4. Your 2nd trade, the long after the failed short, you closed this trade at break even is seems. The trades where you lost, you held them to where they hit a stop, but this trade you closed at BE. If its in your plan, that's fine, but notice that this trade went at least 2x your stop on the other trades. If you always hold your trades to hit the stop, but also move the stop to BE too quickly, you will be having a hard time ever catching some winners.
Thank you for your good wishes. Green triangles are longs Red ones are shorts. I am trading PA, my stop loss is essentially the last swing extreme and my target depends on where for example in a trend channel the target would be the opposite extreme of the channel.
Hi, those where just the trades of the day, and yes they were 4 losing ones. I was just putting it out there. Nothing special to show.
1. If you consider the high at 37.80, this stands out as an area of resistance that is later tested again and fails. When you take your long after 11:10, this would be a long after a breakout of this resistance. Most breakouts fail, so this is something to consider.
Yes, here I was essentially taking the long after the retracement that followed the break of this Resistance level,
2. If you drew in a channel after the low at 37.60, then where you take this same long again as in #1, this would essentially be close to the top of the channel. If you are to believe in this channel since you drew it in, then you have to assume that at the top of the channel, price will drop, and you are going long just before the top of the channel.
I did consider the channel, but given the distance to the top, and the strenght of the upwave from 37,60 I decided to bet on the continuation of this trend, at least to the top of the channel.
3. When you take your long at 11:22, price has tried twice to go above 37.92 and it formed a double top. Of course it can break higher, as price can do anything, but once again, since this is a double top above an area that looked like resistance, and the expectation favors more of a failed breakout, then this isn't the best place to go long. You're going long just above a breakout level and you're going long after a double top which isn't a great combination.
Yes, at the moment it seemed like a good idea to reenter the trade, and then I realized the double top was gonna be problematic, but the trade was in and I should follow procedure so I held until a lower high reconfirmed the congestion.
4. Your 2nd trade, the long after the failed short, you closed this trade at break even is seems. The trades where you lost, you held them to where they hit a stop, but this trade you closed at BE. If its in your plan, that's fine, but notice that this trade went at least 2x your stop on the other trades. If you always hold your trades to hit the stop, but also move the stop to BE too quickly, you will be having a hard time ever catching some winners
YES! It was the mistake of the day, given the speed of the upmove I should have expected price to test the last swing low before moving higher, much more after making a higher high 1 minute before. I guess I wanted the trend to move faster, but then again, price does what it wants not what I expect.
Thank you for your valuable input.
In order to explain what I am doing I will comment the trades:
1. At the open price moved rapidly higher, but I did not take the first retracement, becuase there I was following a Trend Channel from the premarket (blue one) and I was at the top, given yesterday´s experience I decided to first wait for a break out and a new retracement before taking a shot at the long. That is the first long shown in the chart, but it failed immediately breaking the uptrend.
2. This uptrend break triggered a short, but it also failed right away, as traders refused ti revisit the longer term Trading Channel (5 minutes)
So now I had a small congestion.
3. Waited for the break of the congestion and took the first retracement, I made a mistake and closed the trade, so I reopened it. Given the Higher High, I traded it as a trend channel and gave the trade more room, in order to avoid yesterday´s mistake. But it eventually failed.
4. I guess I was stubborn, and saw an opportunity in what appeared like another attempt to break out, but it failed immediately.
5. So I decided to leave it alone until something happened at the opposite extreme of the trading channel. And after prices fell rapidly breaking below the blue demand line, i took a short with the expectation of a break below the demand line of the green channel, but it failed there.
6. I took the long after the Bottom of this channel (visible from the 5 min chart) provided demand and a higher low to close the short and start a long. Here I managed the trade until 11, where i decided to move the day to break even and was stopped out. This was a mistake from the PA perspective, as I should have waited for the test of the gray channel demand line before closing the trade. Had I done this I would have moved my stop to 05, where it would still be at the moment, with prices 40 ticks above. ;( .
Ok but the point of asking for input is difficult without knowing what your PA analysis is there. Each of those trades look like they are in the middle of movement or away from support or resistance so curious what prompted the trade. No worries.
In my second chart I posted what I was thinking so it is easier to understand what was crossing my mind at the moment of the trade. You are right I am still taking trades away from significant S/R levels, I think is something I need to improve on.