A - This box captures the range of the previous hour. Had I chosen just the past 30 mins, it would be super tight, between about 53 and 55. I mention this because first, overnight wasn't so much a range as a climb up, and second, I am trying to figure out what to look for at the open in order to get into a trade much sooner than SLA would allow me.
O - Here is the opening. Price basically goes up (although in real time, I think there was a bit of a dip down as well, just a little test). Now in this first minute we already break out the top of the of the range pictured, hence a clue.
B - Here is the SLA long. I should have lowed it by a tick when the high on the next bar goes down, but nevertheless, I get a fill at 59.50 a few minutes after the entry trigger.
This is also where I draw in the first DL. We don't have a swing low yet to use, so might as well use my entry bar. It of course does break right away, but this is to be expected.
C - Here is the first swing low that I can use to fan my DL. It takes about 4 minutes for price to finally go above my entry point. In the whole grand scheme of things, this actually is a nice and strong move up with these lows being just ticks lower to create the swing low.
D - Here is the next swing low used to fan the DL again. As you can see, I just drew in new DLs as opposed to fanning them to show how its progressing, a better indication of what is happening in real time.
I gotta say, I was in profit protecting mode. I started sliding my exits up and down, and dare I say, hoping that price came up again hence my exit where you see it, at the tops of the previous highs. Its kind of silly when you think about it because I exit as price is coming up. Of course when its at the low of the bars, its where I would get scared and want to exit, which once again would be at the worst place given this up trend.
So I'm up $81, but there is still pain because of course I was thinking that I'm cutting this far too short. Its just that I waited for 6 minutes for price to go above the previous high, which is stupid, but it is what I thought and how I felt.
Naturally right after my exit price goes even higher. I'd like to think that if I got in sooner, I would have held on longer because I wanted at least a few points profit, but had I been already 5 points ahead, I might have not been so protective.
You know though, I'm pushing myself through these live trades because I really don't know what I would do. I find in addition to coming up with a trading plan, I'm also trying to figure myself out, to see where my strengths and weaknesses are so that I can build a plan around this.
E - This drop here through the newest DL was quite sudden. Had I still been in, it might have caused me to panic and sell, thinking that I was still above where I initially wanted to exit at D if I didn't in fact hit the close button. (protecting profits is I don't think a winning strategy, so I gotta solve this. I think once I see that my entries are good and any small loses I can make up easily, it will be easier to hold on longer)
F - It doesn't take much to halt the fall and we climb back up.
G - Once we go above the previous high, we can fan the DL (or draw a new one in), which connects the swing low at F. Its interesting how this new line works for quite a while.
G - Its such a nice and steady climb up. 30 minutes after my exit, there is another 10 points to the trade. I got a measly 4.25 points, and over 10 easy points was left.
Mark Douglas in his book, The Disciplined Trader, ends with:
"Even after you have learned all of the skills set forth in this book, at some point in time it will probably occur to you that your trading is simply a feedback mechanism to tell you how much you like yourself in any given moment. After you have learned to trust yourself to always act in your best interests, the only thing that will hold you back is your degree of self-valuation. That is, you will give yourself an amount of money that directly corresponds with what you believe you deserve based on some value system you acquired at some point in your life. The more positive you feel about yourself, the more abundance that will naturally flow your way as a byproduct of these positive feelings. So, in essence, to give yourself more money as a trader you need to identify, change or decharge anything in your mental environment that doesn't contribute to the highest degree of evaluation that is possible. What's possible? Stay focused on what you need to learn, do the work that is necessary, and your belief in what is possible will naturally expand as a function of your willingness to adapt."
I gotta say, this worries me. Getting this far has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster to be honest. It shouldn't be like this, and I'm hardly going crazy, but I do feel bad often when I don't make the best choices. I try and separate what I should have seen from what was unknowable at the time and hence not be so hard on myself, but just feeling bad is an emotion that has no place in trading. Cutting my profits so short, as a result of this quote, makes me really question my self worth.
I came to trading because I'm tired of trying so hard at other things and its always a struggle. I didn't want to pick yet another career that would one day become obsolete. In a way, I'm almost happy that things didn't go better in the other endeavors so that I could end up here, but then it certainly puts the pressure on to make it work. Pressure leads to stress and stress is just an emotion I think, so yet another thing to work on leaving behind. I have to try to just focus on moving forward and giving all of these stumbling blocks less energy.
Phew, ok, back to trading.
H - Funnily enough, after I took a detour to start typing all this up, price broke the DL, complete with a lower high. I have clearly not been all that interested for the past 30 minutes since each extra point was $20 that I didn't make.
I - Here is the SLA short that would trigger a few mins later, but ultimately fails.
J - As a result of the SL break, we can draw in a new DL. This one is tight, so no doubt it will be broken, and we are back to the beginning where we will have to monitor if we can fan it or not.
SUMMARY
Its only been just over an hour, but I've already been done for a while. If I held initially, I doubt I would have held much past the DL break after G, so if my exit was around 72, that would be another 9 points ($180), as opposed to just my measly $81.
But hey, each day is a learning experience, and each day I'm up, no matter how much or how little is still a good day.
I think the other reason why I exited so soon is that the entry was 6 points above the opening, so my exit was already 10 points above the opening. I had it in my head that yesterday we only had a good 10 point move above the opening, so in case we had a repeat of yesterday, I didn't want to follow the drop down and lose my 4 points.
On top of all this, we just keep going up, and it seemed like the 3850 was supposed to be some sort of channel top, so once again, I was thinking about a short bias. I luckily took the long as it came up, but just didn't believe that it could have so much steam in it.
How many times have I said that I need to forget what I think!!!!!
O - Here is the opening. Price basically goes up (although in real time, I think there was a bit of a dip down as well, just a little test). Now in this first minute we already break out the top of the of the range pictured, hence a clue.
B - Here is the SLA long. I should have lowed it by a tick when the high on the next bar goes down, but nevertheless, I get a fill at 59.50 a few minutes after the entry trigger.
This is also where I draw in the first DL. We don't have a swing low yet to use, so might as well use my entry bar. It of course does break right away, but this is to be expected.
C - Here is the first swing low that I can use to fan my DL. It takes about 4 minutes for price to finally go above my entry point. In the whole grand scheme of things, this actually is a nice and strong move up with these lows being just ticks lower to create the swing low.
D - Here is the next swing low used to fan the DL again. As you can see, I just drew in new DLs as opposed to fanning them to show how its progressing, a better indication of what is happening in real time.
I gotta say, I was in profit protecting mode. I started sliding my exits up and down, and dare I say, hoping that price came up again hence my exit where you see it, at the tops of the previous highs. Its kind of silly when you think about it because I exit as price is coming up. Of course when its at the low of the bars, its where I would get scared and want to exit, which once again would be at the worst place given this up trend.
So I'm up $81, but there is still pain because of course I was thinking that I'm cutting this far too short. Its just that I waited for 6 minutes for price to go above the previous high, which is stupid, but it is what I thought and how I felt.
Naturally right after my exit price goes even higher. I'd like to think that if I got in sooner, I would have held on longer because I wanted at least a few points profit, but had I been already 5 points ahead, I might have not been so protective.
You know though, I'm pushing myself through these live trades because I really don't know what I would do. I find in addition to coming up with a trading plan, I'm also trying to figure myself out, to see where my strengths and weaknesses are so that I can build a plan around this.
E - This drop here through the newest DL was quite sudden. Had I still been in, it might have caused me to panic and sell, thinking that I was still above where I initially wanted to exit at D if I didn't in fact hit the close button. (protecting profits is I don't think a winning strategy, so I gotta solve this. I think once I see that my entries are good and any small loses I can make up easily, it will be easier to hold on longer)
F - It doesn't take much to halt the fall and we climb back up.
G - Once we go above the previous high, we can fan the DL (or draw a new one in), which connects the swing low at F. Its interesting how this new line works for quite a while.
G - Its such a nice and steady climb up. 30 minutes after my exit, there is another 10 points to the trade. I got a measly 4.25 points, and over 10 easy points was left.
Mark Douglas in his book, The Disciplined Trader, ends with:
"Even after you have learned all of the skills set forth in this book, at some point in time it will probably occur to you that your trading is simply a feedback mechanism to tell you how much you like yourself in any given moment. After you have learned to trust yourself to always act in your best interests, the only thing that will hold you back is your degree of self-valuation. That is, you will give yourself an amount of money that directly corresponds with what you believe you deserve based on some value system you acquired at some point in your life. The more positive you feel about yourself, the more abundance that will naturally flow your way as a byproduct of these positive feelings. So, in essence, to give yourself more money as a trader you need to identify, change or decharge anything in your mental environment that doesn't contribute to the highest degree of evaluation that is possible. What's possible? Stay focused on what you need to learn, do the work that is necessary, and your belief in what is possible will naturally expand as a function of your willingness to adapt."
I gotta say, this worries me. Getting this far has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster to be honest. It shouldn't be like this, and I'm hardly going crazy, but I do feel bad often when I don't make the best choices. I try and separate what I should have seen from what was unknowable at the time and hence not be so hard on myself, but just feeling bad is an emotion that has no place in trading. Cutting my profits so short, as a result of this quote, makes me really question my self worth.
I came to trading because I'm tired of trying so hard at other things and its always a struggle. I didn't want to pick yet another career that would one day become obsolete. In a way, I'm almost happy that things didn't go better in the other endeavors so that I could end up here, but then it certainly puts the pressure on to make it work. Pressure leads to stress and stress is just an emotion I think, so yet another thing to work on leaving behind. I have to try to just focus on moving forward and giving all of these stumbling blocks less energy.
Phew, ok, back to trading.
H - Funnily enough, after I took a detour to start typing all this up, price broke the DL, complete with a lower high. I have clearly not been all that interested for the past 30 minutes since each extra point was $20 that I didn't make.
I - Here is the SLA short that would trigger a few mins later, but ultimately fails.
J - As a result of the SL break, we can draw in a new DL. This one is tight, so no doubt it will be broken, and we are back to the beginning where we will have to monitor if we can fan it or not.
SUMMARY
Its only been just over an hour, but I've already been done for a while. If I held initially, I doubt I would have held much past the DL break after G, so if my exit was around 72, that would be another 9 points ($180), as opposed to just my measly $81.
But hey, each day is a learning experience, and each day I'm up, no matter how much or how little is still a good day.
I think the other reason why I exited so soon is that the entry was 6 points above the opening, so my exit was already 10 points above the opening. I had it in my head that yesterday we only had a good 10 point move above the opening, so in case we had a repeat of yesterday, I didn't want to follow the drop down and lose my 4 points.
On top of all this, we just keep going up, and it seemed like the 3850 was supposed to be some sort of channel top, so once again, I was thinking about a short bias. I luckily took the long as it came up, but just didn't believe that it could have so much steam in it.
How many times have I said that I need to forget what I think!!!!!
