Started the Trades

+7

With an account running on fumes, I put in just enough to be barely over 25K so did one trade only as I had to leave to attend a tax session. Got in and got out. Got scared on the pullback and opted to get out. May have to go back to the small gain days for a while until I have some more room to work with.

Sold Short 123.20 10:36
Bought Cover 123.15 10:35
 
+20

A lot more of the same old channel and chop. Tough to trade on this pattern. Just getting out early now to try to build up some breathing room. I know that I'm getting out early. Sitting through pullbacks has been tough especially in a choppy chart.

Sold Short 120.95 Sold Short 120.83 Sold Short 120.34
Bought Cover 120.86 Bought Cover 120.80 Bought Cover 120.32
Sold Short 120.34
Bought Cover 120.32
 
+24

My losing trade of the day was trying to buy at a support level. I didn't do any line calculations as I was trying to do it quickly before the price got there but I was wrong in that it went past my entry. Way past my entry and I just held on to exit with a .01 loss. Had I waited (which I hate doing), I would've been able to get out with a scalp like I originally intended. Note to self: When trading counter trend, do line calculations and not just sit on an assumed support level. I'll post a chart of it later on. It's been extremely choppy with trading ranges last few days. All the bars seem to overlap. Too tough to trade.

Bought 119.03 11:33
Sold 119.02 11:40

Scalps
Sold Short 119.51 Sold Short 119.32
Bought Cover 119.48 Bought Cover 119.27
Sold Short 119.48 Sold Short 119.47
Bought Cover 119.44 Bought Cover 119.43
Sold Short 118.26 Sold Short 118.03
Bought Cover 119.24 Bought Cover 118.99
 
Correction on scalp written as: Bought Cover 119.24

Sold Short 118.26
Bought Cover 118.24

Of course when I'm away and return. The choppiness and channeling subsided on its rally up. Too late now.
 
Losing trade of the day. Was meant to be a small scalp with counter trend buy/sell entry. I could've gotten out with the scalp had I waited. However after it not moving for a while and concerned that this was its consolidation point. I took a slight loss and didn't want to chance it. I was down for a while too as I waited. I didn't do the trend line calculation and had I done it, it would show where I should've entered.
 

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+26

Mixed bag today. More trading range activity but the bars didn't have too much overlap which was good. Could've held on for more gains but I still need more breathing room on my account. Calling it a day. Don't want to push my luck and don't really want a negative trade to report and make a chart of.
Sold Short 115.9036 Buy 116.53
Bought Cover 115.88 Sold 116.58*
Sold Short 116.68505 Buy 117.21 Buy 117.22
Bought Cover 116.64 Sold 117.26 Sold 117.25
*Should've held on. That was an excellent trade setup with 4 straight prior green bars.
 
Quote from sfbayarea:

Losing trade of the day. Was meant to be a small scalp with counter trend buy/sell entry. I could've gotten out with the scalp had I waited. However after it not moving for a while and concerned that this was its consolidation point. I took a slight loss and didn't want to chance it. I was down for a while too as I waited. I didn't do the trend line calculation and had I done it, it would show where I should've entered.
More...

SFbayarea,

Looking at your chart I see that sellers are in control, and even you admit that since you considered it a counter trend entry. Then go look at a 60 min chart, clearly you can see sellers are still in control there as well. Now, I get that you want to buy it a support, but what makes you think that the support line you drew is gonna hold in the face of selling on your chart as well the 60min? Furthmore, When price fell to that support line, there was no evidence whatsoever that buyers stepped up at that line, but yet you bought it pretty much by yourself. That's pretty much stepping in front of a freight train. For you to have a shot at even a scalp off that support line, at the very least you need to see buyers step up and spike the price and break above those ema's and hold, then look to buy it as it falls back down to those ema's. And even then you would only want to treat that as a scalp and nothing more, because you are trading against the 60 min downtrend.

So in conclusion, if you believe that trading has to be about putting probabilities on your side, then ask yourself: how much probabilities did you have going for you when you entered that long?
 
Quote from Instynct:

SFbayarea,

Looking at your chart I see that sellers are in control, and even you admit that since you considered it a counter trend entry. Then go look at a 60 min chart, clearly you can see sellers are still in control there as well. Now, I get that you want to buy it a support, but what makes you think that the support line you drew is gonna hold in the face of selling on your chart as well the 60min? Furthmore, When price fell to that support line, there was no evidence whatsoever that buyers stepped up at that line, but yet you bought it pretty much by yourself. That's pretty much stepping in front of a freight train. For you to have a shot at even a scalp off that support line, at the very least you need to see buyers step up and spike the price and break above those ema's and hold, then look to buy it as it falls back down to those ema's. And even then you would only want to treat that as a scalp and nothing more, because you are trading against the 60 min downtrend.

So in conclusion, if you believe that trading has to be about putting probabilities on your side, then ask yourself: how much probabilities did you have going for you when you entered that long?
More...

You're right.. it was hastily done. Usually when I traded counter trend, I would go in on an overshoot. I would set a limit order price beyond the trendline and if it over shoots, it goes right into my price because I know it will correct 90% of the time (How much? That is a different story). The problem here was that I was experimenting and using a support level as my entry for a counter trend trade. Bad idea. It did go past its microtrend line but not the overall one as laid out in the chart. I contemplated taking a bigger loss on it but knew it would get back to the EMA. I call myself fortunate to escape without too much damage. The moral of the story is to not use some previous support level as an entry price unless you see a rebound off of it like you stated.
 
-26

Tough day. Although all of it is due to commissions. Got myself into a couple bad trades. I worked all day to get some of it back. I gotta let go of the scalping. A couple big losses kill the scalps.

Bought 116.00 12:04
Sold 115.62 12:09

Ouch. One of problems I have is the sometimes I rely too much on one chart. I was look at the 1 min chart and even the 15 min chart and thought reversal bar. I entered 1 tick above the previous green bar. Ouch. Bad Idea since I didn't pay attention to the 5 min chart. The green bar was so long that a stop exit was too much of a loss. Too bad since it went back up later on. From now I on, I rely on the 5 min and 15 min for general direction and 1 min chart for entry points. I think I mentioned it before but I seem to lose sight of it myself. I should just forget about counter trend trades all together.

Sold Short 115.38 12:27
Bought Cover 115.56 12:29

I tried to short it now and it did reverse. At least the bar wasn't big so the exit loss wasn't as bad as the other one.

I will post charts of the losers later.

Scalps:
Sold Short 117.18 Sold Short 116.844 Sold Short 115.67*
Bought Cover 117.06 Bought Cover 116.81 Bought Cover 115.66
Sold Short 115.76 Sold Short 115.52 Sold Short 115.35
Bought Cover 115.73 Bought Cover 115.30 Bought Cover 115.29
Sold Short 114.97 Sold Short 114.84
Bought Cover 114.92 Bought Cover 114.79

*Took a commission loss on it. I forget what my entry price was. I thought it was 115.69. It was coming back up so I wanted to exit. I did a manual exit based on the look of the time & sales. That was one where I should've scalped out but I was waiting for a bigger move.
 
I got caught in two traps today. One Bull and One Bear. One the Bull Trap, I was thinking that it had overextended itself and a pullback was at least due to go back to the EMA. It went one tick above the prior green signal bar so I entered. Tough loss, was thinking it went past it's measured move. Of course it reversed on its next set. In hindsight, I forgot to focus on the 5 min chart that this was after the first green bar in the move down. It goes to show how strong the bear move down was. My stop loss was too wide. It should've been one tick below the entry bar's low. That would've saved me a lot.

On the bear trap. I was trapped as the opposite of the bull loss. Fortunately the stop loss was placed correctly and the loss wasn't too bad. One key element is that it's better to have a smaller signal bar so that the stop loss margin wouldn't be as large. I contemplated doubling the order on the stop in effect setting up an entry in the opposite direction upon exit of my losing trade however I decided not to, I still felt it was too risky given how bearish the day was.
 

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