Please help me fix my #1 trading problem - I keep getting messed up in chop

Stop chasing the markets, you never know if a trading day is going to be volatile or not.
Wait until the market reaches a level you feel comfortable with, take the trade, set a stop and a target and just let it run. If it doesn't work out over time you need to go back to the drawing board and adjust your strategy.

The market is never wrong, only traders are.
 
For me your stoploss must to be too close for this kind of trade and that is why you kept getting stopped out. You got two big consecutive bear bars at the top = selling pressure. Then you get a test of the prev high with three consecutive bull bars. But look at what happens next. The trend continuation fails as the next bar is a bear bar and the one after that is also a bear bar (your entry bar). This is called an L1 MTR (lower high, low 1, major trend reversal). It is an ok entry for an aggressive trader. However, if I entered here my stop has to be above the two big reversal bars where I placed the red dot. If that risk is too much for comfort then I reduce my size or wait for an L2 entry.

For the aggressive trader another optional SL could be placed just above the swing low (yellow dot) above the bar before your entry bar. This is a tighter stop but with such previous PA (tight bull trend channel) I would run the risk of getting stopped out if I used that yellow SL. However, in this case the yellow SL would have held.

Another option is to wait for a L2 entry which came 7 bars after your entry bar. Aroubd that blue dot. L2 gives a little more confirmation of a reversal taking place and the yellow SL would probably be fine here.

16FE4C3E-7BC1-4AB7-81ED-3F16A24BEFB2.jpeg
 
heavenskrow said:
So last time I talked about chop, one trader on here recommended by looking at the 1st hour's range. If it is very large range, then I can assume a non choppy day or something like that...

Anyways, the first 2 hours was relatively huge, so I assumed we would be getting the same kind of moves.... An opportunity presented itself for counter-trade so I took a short at arrow marked below. My target area was the white line area which where I would cover and possibly rethink of going long based on market action at that level.....
(Which actually did end up happening but overnight when I am sound asleep)
However, it took 5+ hours of chop and I actually ended up getting in and out a ton of times which chopped my P&L into pieces. It didn't even reach the target by the close, so I just gave up by close although market was going towards my direction.

What exactly am I doing wrong?? If I see a market is chopping beforehand, I usually don't waste my time with it unless I see a breakout waiting to happen..... But if a market is MOVING, like the open yesterday on Russell, I expect the same movement until the bell closes??? And maybe I don't realize I am in chop since I have the recent movement in my most distant memory???

Someone please help me from chop....Once I get away from this #1 mistake, I can really improve my results, thank you.
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I don't know what is this chop nonsense.
This is not the way to day trade.
You need to stop listening to nonsense, and devise your own trade plan.

on 28 Aug Wed, when US market opened, price started to go up.
The big boys were very keen to long Russell.
You failed to long Russell.


About 2.5 hours after US market opened, Russell has reached it destination.
And the big boys went for long tea break (or perhaps they went home early).
Unfortunately, you did not go for tea break but you shorted Russell.

You made total 2 mistakes (first mistake you failed to enter.
2nd mistake supposed not to enter but you entered).

Personally if I wanted to short Russell after decisive uptrend,
I would trade with reduced quantity because chances of failure is very high.

You need to understand market behaviour, personality, characteristics, emotions ....
Trading based on technical doesn't mean we draw lines here and there,
fibo here and there ...
 
Last edited:
maxinger said:
I don't know what is this chop nonsense.
This is not the way to day trade.
You need to stop listening to nonsense, and devise your own trade plan.

on 28 Aug Wed, when US market opened, price started to go up.
The big boys were very keen to long Russell.
You failed to long Russell.


About 2.5 hours after US market opened, Russell has reached it destination.
And the big boys went for long tea break (or perhaps they went home early).
Unfortunately, you did not go for tea break but you shorted Russell.

You made total 2 mistakes (first mistake you failed to enter.
2nd mistake supposed not to enter but you entered).

Personally if I wanted to short Russell after decisive uptrend,
I would trade with reduced quantity because chances of failure is very high.

You need to understand market behaviour, personality, characteristics, emotions ....
Trading based on technical doesn't mean we draw lines here and there,
fibo here and there ...
More...

I actually made a lil shorting NQ today. Nothing to write home about. Just a few points. Not a big short. But I picked my spots very SELECTIVELY...
 
heavenskrow said:
So last time I talked about chop, one trader on here recommended by looking at the 1st hour's range. If it is very large range, then I can assume a non choppy day or something like that...

Anyways, the first 2 hours was relatively huge, so I assumed we would be getting the same kind of moves.... An opportunity presented itself for counter-trade so I took a short at arrow marked below. My target area was the white line area which where I would cover and possibly rethink of going long based on market action at that level.....
(Which actually did end up happening but overnight when I am sound asleep)
However, it took 5+ hours of chop and I actually ended up getting in and out a ton of times which chopped my P&L into pieces. It didn't even reach the target by the close, so I just gave up by close although market was going towards my direction.

What exactly am I doing wrong?? If I see a market is chopping beforehand, I usually don't waste my time with it unless I see a breakout waiting to happen..... But if a market is MOVING, like the open yesterday on Russell, I expect the same movement until the bell closes??? And maybe I don't realize I am in chop since I have the recent movement in my most distant memory???

Someone please help me from chop....Once I get away from this #1 mistake, I can really improve my results, thank you.
View attachment 208007
More...
%%
Well let see, SPY , QQQ, SPXL, UPRO are in an uptrend,
[2] above 200 day moving average
[3] all your moving averages are going up
[4] most/biggest of the moves on your chart are up.

[5]SPXL+UPRO are up over 50%, YTD; you are either trading way to much which sounds like that is your main problem/ or action addict.AS far as running around in shorts, in a bull market- better leave that one to the pro trader.
But being an action addict is fun; done that- but dont live there.:cool::cool:, :cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
 
RDK91 said:
Stop chasing the markets, you never know if a trading day is going to be volatile or not.
Wait until the market reaches a level you feel comfortable with, take the trade, set a stop and a target and just let it run. If it doesn't work out over time you need to go back to the drawing board and adjust your strategy.
The market is never wrong, only traders are.
More...
My 2c, if; 'One never knows if a trading day is going to be volatile or not', it therefore stands the premise; 'The market is never wrong, only traders are', is not true.
Numerous times I hear of traders beating themselves up because; 'they got it wrong'.
There is a large amount of randomness in every price move, some would like to debate this fact, but it's true. One moment to the next predicting a move is futile. It cannot be done. All we have is probabilities.
Therefore when a trade goes pear shaped suddenly it is not necessarily because a trader got it wrong.
An example to highlight this is the 80-20 rule, 80% of profits come from 20% of trades.
That's how the odds are stacked.
 
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