Trade #4 was the only trade with 4 contracts. Bar 10:12 was a huge BO spike, certainly not an an exhaustion spike. It was the biggest bar of the last 29 bars or so. I missed the initial move because that is when I had chart troubles aka the “disappearing chart” Lol. When I finally got my charts back up I quickly did trades 2 and 3 each of those, 2 contracts. That leads me to trade#4 the 4 contract trade.
A big spike such as bar 10:12 will likely have more than 1 leg up therefore it makes logical sense to load up a little heavier capitalizing on the second leg. Bars 10:16 and 10:18 are what are called “implied” PB bars meaning on a smaller time frame (like 1m or 30 sec) they are actual PB’s. Bar 10:20 was an actual PB on this 2 minute TF AND it ALSO closed above it’s midpoint thus making it an entry bar too (entry for bars 10:16 and 10:18). AND it was signal at the same time for a long entry on bar 10:22. For me in this trade bar 10:20 was my signal bar and My entry bar was bar 10:22. Bars 10:24 thru 10:30 were good places to average down but I did not because I was already long 4 contracts from my bar 10:22 long entry.
Bottom line, the second leg up from the spike was starting. PB’s are being small. It makes logical sense to load up a little more. Therefore, a 4 contract position. Since I am trying to show how a small account can be traded I didn’t want to make the position size any larger than 4 contracts although there was good reason to average down with more on bars 10:24 thru 10:30.
As far as the open goes I will often trade larger right off the bat. The chart doesn’t show it but I think we had a gap up open at 8:30 chicago time. Then it traded down and by the time I got my lazy carcass out of bed and took a few swallows of coffee (I drink the brand…8’oclock coffee…and it is a real eye opener) I could see several consecutive bear bars (bars 9:14 thru 9:22) so it made sense to take a small short position and add to it should any PB occur, and if no PB, then it would just be a straight scalp. It ended up there was a PB and I dutifully added to it (averaged down) careful to observe that 50% PB area of the down move as it pulled back to the 20ema. If it were to pull back 70% to 75% and I had been averaging then time to dump it for a loss. As it was, the pb never made it to 50% before it resumed south on bars 10:36 and 10:38 with enough move for me to get out with a profit on my averaged down position.
So to make a short story long ROFL ….PA and account size determines my size I trade BUT on some days, with some trades, I just feel giddy and lucky, so I up the size. I do pay attention to “how” price is made and not just “that it was made.” MOM often determines if I will press a trade even scaling up by adding to a position that is already winning because it moved in my favor. But I prefer scaling in or averaging down once price has shown me some MOM that indicates to me that any averaged down position would likely very soon move in my favor for a profit. Bars 9:14 to 9:22 showed me MOM. Yes, price could have retraced the entire move down even retracing the entire bar 9:14 but the more likely scenario is either a continuation on bar 10:22 of that multibar down move, or a PB then a move back down. So, I have to consider those scenarios and what I will do. It is certainly BEST to at least have a position on on bar 10:22 in case of an immediate continuation of the MOM on bar 10:22 but have that position small enough to add to it should there be a PB. I did the former then completed the latter.
How is that for making a short explanation long?
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