What a shitty day... and I even tried to do everything right!
A - So here is the short I took before open that I already discussed. When you look at the exit, its pretty much right at the top and could have been much better, oh well. Looking at it now, it seems as if I held on too long. It's a small loss though, so no problem.
B - Here would be two places to go long. The bounce at the overnight low is now prominent, we have a DL and RETs now for the long so it looks solid. I figured I would just wait for the open. Of course had I taken it, I would be a couple of points ahead instead of being down $29 to start with.
O - So here we have the open, we try down first, breaking the DL, but then turn around to go back up. I don't even draw in a new DL because its just straight up, so I'm looking for a higher low first.
C - We go above the mean, but turn around and come back down. There is no way to get in if I'm gonna wait for a clear RET in the one minute chart.
D - Here is the first RET. The entry is actually 2 ticks lower. I think I saw price coming down quick again as I was putting the trade on so just put it a point below the previous low as opposed to a point below that little RET. 2 ticks wont matter in the whole grand scheme of things.
As it so happens though, I am selling at the ultimate low. I seem to do this quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I just remember those times when I do to make it seem like it happens to me more often than what is statistically not more often.
E - We break the SL, to be expected as its quite steep, and I even expect to come back up to bottom of the range which is at 3921. We blow right past it and my exit is, once again, at the worst possible place. If I waited just seconds more I could have saved a point or two. It looks as if I took a hit of 5 points on this trade, way more than what I really should have, and way more than if I was just using the break of the lines.
F - No matter, lets just continue. Here a long sets up as a result of the DL now and the RET. I take it, get a fill, and it goes sideways for a few mins. It breaks below the DL, but I hold on and exit just 2 ticks below my entry.
G - Price does go above my entry, and even makes a higher high so we can fan the DL. Should I have considered a re-entry? We technically can't fan the DL until it goes higher, and once it goes higher, it goes past where the entry would be. I suppose going up to where the entry would be does in fact break the SL, so I would at least have that, but well, too much to think of at the time.
H - Here is our first RET. The dip down below did respect the DL, so that is good, but the long didn't trigger.
I - The next bar breaks the DL, and it's top allows us to start drawing in a SL. The short indicated here could almost be thought of as a RET for the short, but this happens before the DL breaks, unless I had a steeper one drawn in, which I didn't or else I would have taken it. I did almost take this short at 3925 but I just couldn't get it in fast enough and price just kept dropping.
J - There is no RET for a short, and right here, we form a DB. The long indicated above this bar would be a decent trade, but I didn't see it in time and my mind was only on the short.
K - This could be another long here. If price hit the entry point, we would have the DL as drawn in with that swing low, but price ended up turning back down, breaking the DL. So I used this area as a lower high to make my SL once price dropped below J.
L - Not a single RET on the way down here, and dropping below the DB sure looked like it opened the door to a further drop down.
M - So we break both SL's, the steep one and the one drawn in right from the top. No RET on the way up.
N - This would be the first RET on the way back down, but it doesn't trigger, and once again, SL is broken, so we can continue with a DL.
P - So here is our first RET on the way up. Perhaps there is one lower down, where two bars have the same top just as the SL breaks, but I didn't see this at the time. Anyway, this long here triggers, and price drops very quickly. DL breaks and I'm looking for an exit.
I should say that I fully realize that we are in a range now, but I didn't want to not take a trade when we could just as easily visit the highs at 3929 again and this could be at least a 5 point trade. As it happens, it seems as if we form a double top at P here (a double top in the middle of nowhere mind you). The trade I took is somewhat legit, and the exit is for a loss of 2.5 points isn't so bad.
Anyway, after this, I'm just about done. This is completely untradeable using SLA on the 1 minute chart. The entries don't come about until the end of the move. There is a general downtrend, but I'd have to be taking different types of entries. Nothing you can do, days like this do come up.
SUMMARY
So I'm down -($201).
It kind of sucks to be down this much money 2 days in a row, but honestly, I am happy to say that I'm not at all upset over this. I'm pissed that the day wasn't better, that there were no entries except at the worst places, but hey, what can you do. In a way, I did quite well because I waited for solid stuff to appear, I was patient through the down moves when nothing presented itself even though price kept dropping, and I didn't stop, even after a few losses. In fact, I have 4 losing trades in a row, but I kept going, following the rules.
First trade before the open I think was solid. It doesn't get any better than price falling out of a range and having a clear RET. It just didn't go anywhere, that's all.
The second short could have been exited sooner, its crazy looking at it now given how far away the exit is from the broken SL.
The third trade was beautiful. Far too often I miss the long after we hit a bottom, but I took it today. It just didn't go anywhere, that's all, and the scratch cost me less than a point.
The 4th trade wasn't so bad either, but perhaps I should have not taken it as we were right in the middle of lots of congestion.
Its easy to look at the chart now and think to just short at the top, but in real time its totally different.
Perhaps the only frustrating thing is watching price drop and not being able to get in. I will go over today on the 15 second chart and post this after I wrap this up to see how different the day could have been. I think the 15 sec will obviously give way more entries, the lines will be broken way sooner, but perhaps it might add up to more points if I keep working hard at it. Let's see!
Oh ya, I should also say that taking that trade before the open was quite nice. It moved nice and slow, more time to think, and more time to exit. Plus it might get you into the move sooner if the trend continues at the open. The only difference is that the margin requirements went up to 3k from 2k, which is no big deal since I'm only trading 1 contract for now and even going up to 2 or 3 won't be a problem. On some days, the overnight action trends nicely, and the opening is a mess, so even more reason to get in early if its a solid trade!
A - So here is the short I took before open that I already discussed. When you look at the exit, its pretty much right at the top and could have been much better, oh well. Looking at it now, it seems as if I held on too long. It's a small loss though, so no problem.
B - Here would be two places to go long. The bounce at the overnight low is now prominent, we have a DL and RETs now for the long so it looks solid. I figured I would just wait for the open. Of course had I taken it, I would be a couple of points ahead instead of being down $29 to start with.
O - So here we have the open, we try down first, breaking the DL, but then turn around to go back up. I don't even draw in a new DL because its just straight up, so I'm looking for a higher low first.
C - We go above the mean, but turn around and come back down. There is no way to get in if I'm gonna wait for a clear RET in the one minute chart.
D - Here is the first RET. The entry is actually 2 ticks lower. I think I saw price coming down quick again as I was putting the trade on so just put it a point below the previous low as opposed to a point below that little RET. 2 ticks wont matter in the whole grand scheme of things.
As it so happens though, I am selling at the ultimate low. I seem to do this quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I just remember those times when I do to make it seem like it happens to me more often than what is statistically not more often.
E - We break the SL, to be expected as its quite steep, and I even expect to come back up to bottom of the range which is at 3921. We blow right past it and my exit is, once again, at the worst possible place. If I waited just seconds more I could have saved a point or two. It looks as if I took a hit of 5 points on this trade, way more than what I really should have, and way more than if I was just using the break of the lines.
F - No matter, lets just continue. Here a long sets up as a result of the DL now and the RET. I take it, get a fill, and it goes sideways for a few mins. It breaks below the DL, but I hold on and exit just 2 ticks below my entry.
G - Price does go above my entry, and even makes a higher high so we can fan the DL. Should I have considered a re-entry? We technically can't fan the DL until it goes higher, and once it goes higher, it goes past where the entry would be. I suppose going up to where the entry would be does in fact break the SL, so I would at least have that, but well, too much to think of at the time.
H - Here is our first RET. The dip down below did respect the DL, so that is good, but the long didn't trigger.
I - The next bar breaks the DL, and it's top allows us to start drawing in a SL. The short indicated here could almost be thought of as a RET for the short, but this happens before the DL breaks, unless I had a steeper one drawn in, which I didn't or else I would have taken it. I did almost take this short at 3925 but I just couldn't get it in fast enough and price just kept dropping.
J - There is no RET for a short, and right here, we form a DB. The long indicated above this bar would be a decent trade, but I didn't see it in time and my mind was only on the short.
K - This could be another long here. If price hit the entry point, we would have the DL as drawn in with that swing low, but price ended up turning back down, breaking the DL. So I used this area as a lower high to make my SL once price dropped below J.
L - Not a single RET on the way down here, and dropping below the DB sure looked like it opened the door to a further drop down.
M - So we break both SL's, the steep one and the one drawn in right from the top. No RET on the way up.
N - This would be the first RET on the way back down, but it doesn't trigger, and once again, SL is broken, so we can continue with a DL.
P - So here is our first RET on the way up. Perhaps there is one lower down, where two bars have the same top just as the SL breaks, but I didn't see this at the time. Anyway, this long here triggers, and price drops very quickly. DL breaks and I'm looking for an exit.
I should say that I fully realize that we are in a range now, but I didn't want to not take a trade when we could just as easily visit the highs at 3929 again and this could be at least a 5 point trade. As it happens, it seems as if we form a double top at P here (a double top in the middle of nowhere mind you). The trade I took is somewhat legit, and the exit is for a loss of 2.5 points isn't so bad.
Anyway, after this, I'm just about done. This is completely untradeable using SLA on the 1 minute chart. The entries don't come about until the end of the move. There is a general downtrend, but I'd have to be taking different types of entries. Nothing you can do, days like this do come up.
SUMMARY
So I'm down -($201).
It kind of sucks to be down this much money 2 days in a row, but honestly, I am happy to say that I'm not at all upset over this. I'm pissed that the day wasn't better, that there were no entries except at the worst places, but hey, what can you do. In a way, I did quite well because I waited for solid stuff to appear, I was patient through the down moves when nothing presented itself even though price kept dropping, and I didn't stop, even after a few losses. In fact, I have 4 losing trades in a row, but I kept going, following the rules.
First trade before the open I think was solid. It doesn't get any better than price falling out of a range and having a clear RET. It just didn't go anywhere, that's all.
The second short could have been exited sooner, its crazy looking at it now given how far away the exit is from the broken SL.
The third trade was beautiful. Far too often I miss the long after we hit a bottom, but I took it today. It just didn't go anywhere, that's all, and the scratch cost me less than a point.
The 4th trade wasn't so bad either, but perhaps I should have not taken it as we were right in the middle of lots of congestion.
Its easy to look at the chart now and think to just short at the top, but in real time its totally different.
Perhaps the only frustrating thing is watching price drop and not being able to get in. I will go over today on the 15 second chart and post this after I wrap this up to see how different the day could have been. I think the 15 sec will obviously give way more entries, the lines will be broken way sooner, but perhaps it might add up to more points if I keep working hard at it. Let's see!
Oh ya, I should also say that taking that trade before the open was quite nice. It moved nice and slow, more time to think, and more time to exit. Plus it might get you into the move sooner if the trend continues at the open. The only difference is that the margin requirements went up to 3k from 2k, which is no big deal since I'm only trading 1 contract for now and even going up to 2 or 3 won't be a problem. On some days, the overnight action trends nicely, and the opening is a mess, so even more reason to get in early if its a solid trade!
