Ok.. here we go. First picture is the overview. I discovered lots of things doing this exercise. First is that using 30 sec charts leads to lots of work, but also earlier entries. This might help in chop to be in and out earlier, and also to catch the bigger moves sooner. But its lots of work. I definitely refined my technique as I went along. I found it difficult to not notice all the other things now as well, but this was good news. The opening really helps get you in the right frame of mind, or rather, the right side of the market I think. As Db said before, the best moves sometimes happen over night. This was clearly the case before open today, but since I was just using SLA, I only used the most recent info.
Usually my charts are quite compressed, but with trying to really see what's going on, I found into the session that I had to really zoom in there so its spread out over 3 charts.
On the first we have a SL drawn in, A, from just two swing highs. I never quite know how to start, and I don't show the first point of this line, but you can see the top of the spike where it touches. So after I drew this line in, about 7:40 on my chart (just add 1 hour to get NY time as I use the exchange time), I just waited for a RET shown at B with the first down arrow go go short. Didn't trigger and we have a SL break. So then I drew in my DL just above B, with entry at C, which also doesn't trigger. (The blue arrow should be more to the left, I have no idea why its drawn like this now. Also, I see here that I am not waiting for a RET after the SL break, just waiting to get in on a possible up move. Don't ask me why, it took me a while to get into the groove, and this all still before the open)
So then I draw in a new SL just below C, and a possible entry at D which is triggered for short. Now looking at this action, its clearly range bound, and just after D we have a higher low, but I didn't know this at the time of placing the short of course. It would have filled at 39, which is pretty much as low as it got! LOL Scratched at 40.25. (my scratches aren't shown... no good way to draw them in with my software). The break of the SL is shallow, but that higher low makes me think F-it, and also the formation of what looks like a hinge here, practically shown with my SL and DL line. This is clearly not the place to be taking a trade. So we are at -1.25 points.
So we have a new DL, and we even fan it once the action starts to go up. Looking for ways to get in, I wasn't in the groove yet. Finally see a RET and I buy at E, 43.50. Moves against me right away but only touches the line so I hang in there. Makes a HH, but now goes well below the SL, so I'm out, lets say 42.50. Another point lost, -2.25 total.
Well, price just keeps going up, no real SL to draw, so lets fan the DL and call that first break of the DL a RET, and we can get in again above the low of the trough, so a buystop at 44.50. Looking ok for a bit, but break the DL line again and out at 44. Total now is -2.75.
Lets draw in a SL now. Not sure why I am short at only 43.75 at G, but that's what I drew in. Should have been lower to be away by 1 point from the top of the crest. Well that gets broken soon as well, so let say out at 45. Total now at -4 points.
I am driving myself a bit crazy now. These are such small moves that on the 1 minute can't even really be seen. But I like how the 30 sec charts shows the action better, so I'm gotta try to stick with it. Getting me in a trade sooner is more info risk, but less price risk. Since I don't know much, who cares about the info. Even when I have info I don't know what to do with it. So more info just makes me hesitate more. So I figure focus on getting a better price and let that guide me.
So now we are well into the open. Lets move to the next image. After our loss on the short at G, we now draw in a DL after the high of H comes down to form a higher low. The high of this lowest bar is at 46.50 so we place a buy stop at 47.50 and get filled a few bars later. Technically we should have placed the stop sooner, but I wasn't thinking fast enough. Reading how to do this and thinking you understand it is way different than actually doing it in real time. Thank god I have the lines to tell me what to do!!!
We now fan the DL once it takes off. We break around 61 so lets get out. After this move and the clear hinge I would think it best to see where it goes, but rules are rules for the SLA. And of course I'm thinking lets get some profit. So after a 13.5 point move, we are at +9.5.
We form a bit of a DT just before I, but since we broke the DL and have RET, we have that short which triggers at about 63. My SL is drawn in with using the next SL further away so perhaps we could have been out sooner, but lets call this a loss of 1.5 points because I know I wasn't thinking and reacting fast enough. So we are at +8.
Next we draw in a DL and put a buy stop at J and its not triggered. We are clearly in a tight range here. Our DL is broken again, but forget about drawing more lines right now. The low between J and K forms a nice DB and support. The top between J and K has that nice rejection on top.
We get to around K and I figure I should start drawing my lines again. When I draw in the up arrow at K to go long, I can't justify it now. Price is coming down from that Rej a few bars earlier and we haven't hit the higher low yet. So I'm not sure what makes me think to draw in the DL. But its there, and putting a buy stop 1 point above the highs of those bars in the trough would get me filled at 64 a couple of bars later. Price starts to move and we fan the DL to make it steeper. We have a break at, lets call it 70. I am trying to be generous here by making the fills be not so good and taking into account hesitation and lack of speed. So I'm always choosing a price that should be the worst possible to make the numbers not looks so good. In this case, price never went below 70 after the break, so I'm calling this to be the exit price. So we are now at +14.
We start to draw in a SL, once againg using these tiny micro lower highs. The RET at L hits a high of 69.50, so we place a sell stop at 68.50. Now technically, my SL as breached just before this, but I'm gonna be a bit loose cause we just couldn't get above 72. When we hit the high of M, I draw in a new SL from L to M. No idea why, I just figured now is a good time to make it better. This does keep me in the trade longer. Not sure if this is fair as there is no rule for this, but did it so I gotta report it.
SL is broken at around 63, but once again, lets call it getting out at 64.50. I like to see price penetrate the line by a good point. So this is a profit of +4 which brings us to +18.
Now we draw in a DL, we see a RET, and we put in a buystop at 65.50. I know this is hard to see in my pic, but on my chart, I was zoomed in way more by now since I was getting into the grove of micro trading! (not the smartest thing I guess, but was just following protocol with 30 second charts. I should redo this exercise today using a 1 minute chart and see where that gets me)
Shortly after N, saw price drop quickly below the DL, so out at 64, and we are at +16.5.
I continue to confuse myself in that I'm not sure what I am calling a valid setup or not in terms of what my RET has to look like in order to trigger a trade. At any rate, I put in a sellstop at O at 61.25, which does eventually trigger a couple of bars later. Price does poke a bit trough the SL, but this doesn't worry me too much. We do have a solid break though, so the high of this bar that broke it is 61, so I'm sure I would have been out by now on a market order. This is a gain of 0.25 points.. sweet! Total now +16.75.
New DL line now, with a RET so a buy put in at 62.25, one point above the high of the lowest bar in that trough, but no trigger.
After this it gets a bit messy. Price moves quick, so can't draw in a DL after the SL is broken. Eventually I get a SL at Q, but also broken. That Rej at the bottom of 52 is quite nice. Anytime I see this, I pay special attention, and it almost always leads to a good trade in the direction of the rejection for at least a few points. But this isn't in the SLA plan.
We have DL at R, but its kinda random looking at it now cause there is no higher low to really connect. We can draw in the SL, but its sooo steep. We do have a valid RET though, so we take a short at 55.50, one point below 56.50 which is the top of that crest. It gets filled on the next bar, but goes against us right away. This is easily a 3 point loss as price moves quick. So we are now at +13.75.
Instead, we go long at T now at 58.25. I quickly see the DL now, so if I hadn't bothered with the SL, this could be a trigger for a long since we have the RET. This is of course the problem with trading chop. It looks both like a long and a short depending on how you look at it. Darnit, it fails as well, hits 56.50. If I did get out, I have a loss of 1.75 points, so now my total is +12. But the price quickly reverses, so depending on when i hit the market order to get out, I might have gotten a better price. In fact, if I hesitated just a bit, this trade starts to work. But I can't remember now, and seeing as I drew in a new DL, I think I was out.
So the new DL is drawn, we have a RET, and a buy stop at 62.25 which gets triggered. DL breaks quickly and we are out, roughly at 61.25, so another point lost. That's a total of +11 now.
And done! Next post will have just a bit of a conclusion.
