Price Action Journal V1.5
- Thread starter TraderKaizen
- Start date
The visual-smoothing is the big thing for me. My main problem has been that I'm always getting in too early. I simply found HA a useful means of telling me "OK, it's time to be in the trade," given of course that highs/lows, trendlines, and the moon are all lined up.
Others here use 3BRs for pretty much the same thing. In the "Day trading 2.0 for small traders thread," jjrvat suggests that one can use any entry method one chooses (MA crosses, Stoch crossover, or whatever) so long as you're watching highs and lows, formations, and S/R.
Not my best day today. This was my first day to trade after a weeks vacation last week, so I felt a little rusty out of the gate. My first trade was a loser today, so I took a full stop on that trade and was down 18 ticks right out of the gate. After looking back again, the signal was good, and I was following my trading plan, so I didn't make a mistake or anything. It was just a failed break out that didn't follow through.
On the second trade, I meant to go long, but clicked the right mouse and accidentally shorted the market. I watched it a few ticks, and then decided I needed to cover since there was no valid reason to be short the market at the moment. Had I gone long as intended, I would have had a much better day, because I would have made back all the losses from the first trade. Regardless, it was a loser, so I was down around $300.00 right out of the gate today. I started to close shop, but decided to give it one more try for the day.
The remaining trades were all winners, and I ended up making +6 ticks as of Noon today. I'm probably done for the day, but may see how prices react after the lunch hour. While it was not my best day trading, it was still a positive day and since I came back from being down quite a bit, it still felt like I went out on a positive note today. No losing days for about 3 weeks straight for me now. I'm getting better at this and hope to turn it up another notch soon.
My chart is attached.
On the second trade, I meant to go long, but clicked the right mouse and accidentally shorted the market. I watched it a few ticks, and then decided I needed to cover since there was no valid reason to be short the market at the moment. Had I gone long as intended, I would have had a much better day, because I would have made back all the losses from the first trade. Regardless, it was a loser, so I was down around $300.00 right out of the gate today. I started to close shop, but decided to give it one more try for the day.
The remaining trades were all winners, and I ended up making +6 ticks as of Noon today. I'm probably done for the day, but may see how prices react after the lunch hour. While it was not my best day trading, it was still a positive day and since I came back from being down quite a bit, it still felt like I went out on a positive note today. No losing days for about 3 weeks straight for me now. I'm getting better at this and hope to turn it up another notch soon.
My chart is attached.
By the way, I did try to go short on the first Lower high after the DB, but I didn't get a fill and the market took off without me. I've been using the 3 bar entry, and this will happen some times. I thought I would throw that out if anyone was wondering why I didn't take that trade.
Arnie,
Interesting chart. Actually I've also noticed the pattern. For me I have some difficulty to identify a good entry location. What's your entry method to trade this pattern?
Thanks.
MDL,
Here's a quick summarization of what Arnie was describing:
Widening/Capitulation/Congestion = Market Contraction
Market contraction is the name coined for rangebound price action conditions. Attempts of price movement outside of this area of congestion is rejected; thus the trade strategy would be to fade the Highs and Lows of these ranges IF they hold. Horizontal TLs are best suited for trading these conditions.
Expanding = Market Expansion
This is what it's called when price breaks, and continues, outside areas of contraction. Diagonal TLs are best suited for these conditions WITH RESPECT to areas of Horizontal TLs; especially where they intercept.
Take care,
Tex