I am currently finding ES too hard to trade. I have been focusing on CL with a wider stop and letting the trade take more time to get to a target once I feel strongly I have determined the trend. My risk to reward right now is negative, but my win % is higher.
Giving an example, let's say I go long and I believe the trend to be long. However, main support is lower than my entry so I did 1 contact and was willing to add 1 more closer to the support level. Now if my 2nd contract is filled and both contracts get stopped out, I will of course take a bigger loss then my gain for my 1 contract reaching target.
If I used a standard stop and target on my current trade tonight this is what would have happened. I went long, trade went my way for a bit but did not reach my target, price then went below my entry and continued down for CL. Now, if I had used a standard stop at this point I would have been stopped out but I was not.
ES reached a new high, and started to go down down. Was thinking some bad news came out, so I shorted ES. ES misses my target by 1 tick and goes against me, so I kill the trade for 1 tick loss. CL starts to go back up. ES then went to my target without me. ES then started to go back up, so I went long and took 1 tick of profit to bring myself back to break even.
I even wrote in my Trade Setups to stop panic selling ES when I am long CL since the markets are not totally correlated and I just end up taking minor losses in ES which I need to make up in CL.
Then my internet cuts out. I do trouble shoot problem on Windows 10. Says dns server can't be found or something like that. I call Spectrum. They say Internet and TV are out in your area.
So I close my computer and start to watch a DVD. Suddenly I notice the cable box is starting to finish it's reboot. So, I go back and restart the modem and computer. I then log back into Ninja Trader and see my CL target got hit. I notice that ES spiked below support before going up to make a HH. However, CL never even filled my 2nd contract. My first contract was fine.
The thing I do need to try to work on is maybe adding another contract to CL so I have 2 contracts at the start if I am not too far from a support level so that if price were to continue in the direction of the trend I could then do better with my 2nd contract. I have not seen many trades where my 2nd contract gets filled if I am in a winning trade at the start.
I used to keep spread sheet for each trade I did, and would write notes on the trade. Now I just keep up to date my Trade Setups document where I write down what rules I am following.
Another issue for me sometimes is when I have a winning trade, I don't feel like taking another trade, but if I have a losing trade I look for another trade.
I need to be more consistent, either take all setups for the day or limit how many trades I plan to do for the day so that I prevent my main problem which is over trading / revenge trading.
Hope this helps.