Quote from murrica:
It looks like Silver (symbol /SI in TOS) could be at or near resistance, currently.
This is the part of my trading that I need to improve. Entry and risk management are dependent on the analysis (in this case, "at or near resistance") and being a trader is a completely separate thing altogether.
Trading with a style that has discretionary components with regard to trade management also could be dependent on the analysis (e.g. has key resistance been violated? Should I still be in this trade?), but my shortcoming here was in not setting up a trading plan for this kind of trade that was properly coupled to the analysis.
Specifically, in this case, I failed to trust and/or refine my analysis to see that resistance was actually a 'range' of 24.5 to about 25.0 or low 25's. Doing so would have given a more appropriate vision for how to tackle this kind of trade. This means that a stop loss of up to 0.75 points or so, or better yet, waiting for the final push within hours to 25.x (along with a tighter stop of 0.25 - 0.5), would have been the most appropriate. I have tried to use the quick fire approach but this seems to not work well for my personality.
As an example of my failed attempts at using the quick-stop approach, I got chopped repeatedly on an awesome, clean trade idea recently that would have been a huge winner.. I kept getting stopped out at what was a similar or even progressively worse entry price, whereas the total retracement from my first attempt was *less* than the total of all stop losses.. the only advantage afforded by that approach was that my exposure was reduced in the sense that I avoided being in the trade at the maximum possible worst retracement point, but had I simply used a much wider stop on a *single* attempt, the net risk in terms of points would have been less than the sum of the stops that I *did* take, and the trade would have worked. Again, this is just what is appropriate for my personality.
For me, for my style/analysis, thinking about freight trains or days of new highs simply do not work, nor do they necessarily matter. They might be good things to at least consider or second-guess a particular trade idea in some circumstances, but ultimately my analysis over the years has never depended on such things.
Anyway, the input from az54 and murray is greatly appreciated. However, I firmly believe now after experimenting with various trading styles this year that every trader needs to develop their own style. Thus, one must be careful to understand that any advice they receive needs to be adapted to one's own personality and personal trading method.
Hope the rambling helps someone.. it's helpful for me to put these candid thoughts down here on ET.
Good trading to all.
Wisdom is profitable to direct.