Trading NQ via Price Action

[k p]

A - Shortly after the open, we stop here on the way down. I haven't yet noticed for myself the significance of the midpoints, but price does turn around here at just a tick below the midpoint of the overnight range.

B - This REJ here is too far away from the two levels above (PDH/OH), so it would be difficult to take a short here.

C - This low is now both at the previous low, and also the midpoint again, so perhaps a long here would be a solid trade with a tight stop.

D - Wow. What a perfect place to take a short. When this bar was at the level of B, I was thinking that would be all there was to the up move, so entering the short at 45 would be good for the ride back down to 39. But this was somewhat below the extreme level, so taking a short at 45 means at least a 2 point or more stop to above 47. As it so happens, price shot up instead of coming back down, so the short from higher up was possible.

E - So we only make it down this far. If we look at the move from C to D, this low at E is certainly nowhere close to being 50% of the up move, so we have strength.

F - Given this strength, when we come up again, I'm not as likely to take the next short. We penetrate this level by 3 ticks, but not much follow through. There are 5 minutes of being able to hold at this level, but ultimately we come back down.

G - This level here looked like it would hold as a higher low from E, but wow, look at that next bar. Shame I'm not taking these REV trades off the levels.

H - So right about here is where we need to look for a halt in this drop, and sure enough, it does happen. Price does go 2 ticks below C, but then attempts to recover.

I - Well, even the low at H can't hold. This is turning into quite the cascade, and an easy 10 points if the short at the PDH/OH was taken. I think I personally would have exited at H since I would have seen that level of support given the previous lows at A and C.... eager to collect my profits!

J - As we get to here, I'm thinking this is an odd place for price to stop dropping. We are two points away from the overnight low, not quite close enough, but lets see what happens.

K - Just one tick lower from J and we have 3 bounces from 34.50.

L - Watching this bounce here in real time, I'm thinking this is less than 50% retrace of the down move, but its also roughly the support level before which could become resistance now. Hmm... is this solid enough to take a short here? Nope, after the pause and a little dip lower, price does go up.

M - Now this here is the 50% level of the down move, but this doesn't hold either, so I guess we have strength in the up move. Of course the long trade is already gone, and price didn't turn around at an important level for me. I could make a case for the range that formed between 34.50 and 37 at the bottom there, and so once price was leaving the range perhaps that looked like a good move, but I better stick to my levels game plan for now and make that work.

N - So we went above the PDH/OH, but if I am now using the level of F as my level now which is a few ticks higher, this high is one point above F. So perhaps taking a REV trade again, another short, would work again. It doesn't go far mind you, but price can't stay above this level long so its a trade that still works, just doesn't go anywhere.

SUMMARY

Shame I didn't take any trades... the REVs from the PDH/OH worked beautifully again today. I should hopefully have something solid for next week. Taking the trade is easy, what I need to figure out is where should the exit be if its not working, and when the penetration of the level is solid, where do I take the trade that now goes with the direction of price (ie. when my short fails because price does penetrate the level, at what point is it safe to now take a long). This is mostly why I am not taking trades yet... I haven't worked out all the parameters.

 

[k p]

A - Short not taken. Got to within 3 ticks... maybe was waiting for it to go a little higher. I had my STL button dragged over the price ladder at 4051.50, but just didn't drop it to actually place the trade. Then once price moved even lower, I was hesitant to get in given that now my risk was higher with each lower tick. Now I sit here kicking myself for missing out.

B - We hit a low here, no idea why.

C - Nice higher low here, great confirmation to be out of the short and into a long.

D - This is the 50% level of the down move, and going higher so there is no strength in that short. In fact, coming up to here, price has been trending quite nicely given the HL's and HH's.

That's it... nothing more to say. I really thought today I would get back into putting some trades on, but alas, an ounce of hesitation.

Maybe I should stop posting for a while. I feel as if my job is to do a splendid job of the analysis, and I am not focusing enough on taking trades now that I have a few things worked out. I feel as if I accomplish something by doing a great post analysis, but trying to sound so smart is causing me to not take any trades. I think I need to switch gears and put energy into doing something, not just write what I should have done and the way I saw things as they presented themselves.

But just to finish off...

E - Totally forgot about the 10:00am Fed minutes until about a minute later after this drop.

F - Seeing a pretty big hinge form... nobody knows what to do.

SUMMARY

Ok.. I'm done. I don't know what to do with all of this now anyway.. my best trade is already gone. Next week will be more about doing.

G - Well... we broke higher out of the hinge and bounced off 52. Will have to see if it does continue down or not.

H - Goes a little higher and bounces again. But who cares, I'm not making any money off of this anyway so I need a break.

 

[k p]

Here is what I'm looking at for today. At "A" there is what looks to be a successful test of the overnight high, and this price level was quickly rejected, hence successful This makes me draw in that lovely SL (not exactly correctly drawn mind you since the correct SL would be broken already). Just as I write this, I think its getting broken, but the level to watch is so far the high at 77.50, not the line itself.

At "B", there is this yellow line. Not sure if I should call it support yet and hence color it in cyan, but there are multiple instances of price just not being able to penetrate 68.

I will say I'm going into today with a bias though. Although Db doesn't seem to be posting these days about trading, I did find a post where he mentioned that 4080 was a channel top a day or two ago. Since these channel lines are diagonal, that number is perhaps just a bit higher today. Traders can of course do anything, but those following along and have read up on AMT would see that given that we are at the top of the channel, eventually we will have to venture down to at least the mean or the lower line.

I'm not exactly sure how this channel is drawn, and I myself haven't used these channel lines in the past few week since I've been too preoccupied with proper entries, but I understand the significance of this. Of course if we make it up to 77 again and go higher I won't ignore seeing price go up, but given AMT, and given how we have just been going higher and higher for the past 2 weeks, taking a trip back down is more than likely. I of course just don't know when, so I cannot say if today is the day, but I will be looking for evidence of it.

 

[k p]

A - This line was drawn in after the drop, but I just wanted to see what this would look like. Today clearly wasn't a day with lots of follow through, but I've seen lots of charts like this where a tight line following price up sets up a good move once price breaks the momentum.

B - Drew in this hinge as it was forming, and while I like the upper line, I don't like the lower line too much. Price drops out the bottom, the way I have it drawn, but then comes back up again.

C - If instead my bottom line included this low here, then price just appears to go out the top, but then the higne isn't very symmertrical.

Its a good move up, but stops short of the overnight high. After this is just a series of mini ranges, turning into bigger ranges, but really, its all just a 5 or 6 point trading range.

D - Price got very close the overnight high here, but it was here for only second. Unless I've already got a standing order a few ticks away from this level, its really hard to get in as you watch in real time.

I did manage to take a short a little bit later as you can see. Its taken at 76, which is 1.5 points below the level, but still not bad. I know my exit will be about a point above the OH of 77.50, so I have about a 3 point loss that would be my line in the sand.

E - The exit happens here. First, price didn't drop right away which is what I'd like to see in a REV trade. 2nd, this whole day has been full of these mini ranges, so no reason to think why it would all of a sudden start trending well. Sure the bounce off the OH could start a nice move down, but since I gave it a couple of minutes already and it didn't take off down, I'm happy to get out.

So I'm at +$11.

F- I do have another chance here, but its gone too quick, and for the reasons outlined earlier, today isn't a good day really.

I also have to ask myself that if I'm given another opportunity to short, it means price came back up. So why did it come back up again in the first place? Perhaps the second REV trade is just as likely as the first, but one would think if price keeps coming back up then buyers are supporting it or sellers aren't that motivated to sell.

But at the same time, who cares about all this. If I know that these trades work at least 50% of the time and the profit is 3 or 4 times the loss, then I just gotta do it over and over again.

G - This poke here is 3 ticks, still wouldn't trigger an exit for a loss.

H - This poke is a whole point... would I exit at one point loss? Its not in the trading plan yet, and my feeling is that 1.5 points is better, but this of course means bigger losses each and every time. Should I even have a set standard point loss above the level or should I let the tick chart show me given how price is moving?

SUMMARY

As it so happens, one point is the most that price went against me if I just took automatic REV trades at the OH. I'm stuck between wanting to just take automatic trades, removing myself from the whole process since I think I really have something here, but I also think that if I watch a tick chart, I might be able to decrease the instances of taking a REV trade that isn't going to work if the tick chart clearly shows too much strength and hence a REV shouldn't be taken.

I'm bummed out when I see price sometimes just hovering around the levels that I draw in because this would leave me getting chopped up, but its important to remember that, something that I keep trying to drill into myself, I don't need to be right every time. Even if I'm only right 50% of the time, as long as my loss is only 3 points or so but the trade when it works nets 10 points, then I've really got something here.

So I end at +$11.

 

[k p]

Wow.. things really started to move. The attached chart is the 5 minute chart.

A - This hinge really jumped out at me, and at exactly when it dropped out the bottom, I was in the kitchen getting some food. By the time I came back, price was down 4 quick points, which is actually quite a bit today.

B - The first time, it stopped here. I tried to figure out why. Since the 5 minute chart shows most of hte overnight data (on the one minute its already off the screen), I could see multiple REVs at this same price level at C and D.

E - When I go back even further, this range here really stands out, and the midpoint of this range is almost exactly this price level of 4070.

As I type this, price just keeps dropping, and although there are multiple places to get into a short, I don't take any!

F - Wow... an initial bounce from the PDH. Lets see where this goes!

 

[k p]

A - Almost shorted here before the open given the several previous attempts to go higher and couldn't.

O - We open here, and you can see a trade just below. I intended to short, 1.25 points below my level, but close enough I guess. Only trouble is that I entered a long by accident. Had an exit for +$6 at least. Then I just took a few minutes to watch.

B - We cannot make it past here, which is only 1 point above the OH. Had I entered short where I wanted to, I wouldn't be happy, but should still be holding.

C - A lower high here, and a good REJ bar given the open and close on the low.

D - By the time we get to here, I was strongly considering a short. Seeing we were in a bit of a range from the open, it made sense to wait to see which way it would break, but given the lower high at C, given that after breaking the OH there was no more momentum to take it further, shorting at the top of this little range made more sense than at the lows at 70.50 or a break below. Of course I'm just a few seconds too late and once price started dropping there just wasn't any good place to get in.

E - We made it this far down, still a bit too high to consider a long for me given that we are close to the OL, but not close enough.

F - Going back up does bring us above the 50% level of this drop, so this shows strength.

G - I think there was a piece of news here given the sudden drop and the time of 10:00 ET.

H - Price is able to turn around here, one tick above the low at E. Given the quick drop though, no way would I be able to see this as possible support and hence even consider a REV trade.

I - We only make it to the 50% level of that down move and turn back down.

J - And we break lower. Watching the tick chart though, the breaks below was very weak, so I'm not surprised by the lack of follow-through. This REV happens even close to the OL, but for some reason, I'm just not in a long frame of mind.

SUMMARY

Well nothing for me here. I am quite sleepy so no point in dragging this out for now... might come back in the afternoon. The best trade of the day for me is already gone, that short from the top around 4072. Shame I didn't consider longs from the bottom given that they happened just above the OL, but oh well.

K - This level of 67.25 is providing excellent resistance. Its still too much in the middle of nowhere for me, but the market can certainly set up its own levels to watch out for, so one day I know I won't just have to rely on OH's or OL's, or the PDH's and PDL's.

L - Hmmmm... will this REV trade work as well? Not only is it taking a long at the OL, but its also the bottom of the range that formed, so two good reasons to go long. (yup.. it was good enough for at least 3 points just now as I post this)

Ok.. will have to see how it ends later.

So I finish my day at +$6.

 

[k p]

A - Just before the open we have that little resistance level I mark out. It is unfortunately not close enough to the overnight high, and although it is closer to the PDH, since price broke above overnight, its this OH that I am focusing on. So when price turns down here, its too much in the middle of nowhere for me to consider a short yet.

B - Making it down to the OL, I was considering a long as per the REV trade idea, but no good place to get in based on a tick chart, but I was already having my short LOLR in mind especially given the REJ at A.

C - We do go lower, and since we went well over a point lower, I was now looking to go short since the REV trade for me was off the table now. Right around here is where I considered, but as I tracked price up on the tick chart, it because obvious that this bar here was opening and closing on the high, so this price level was getting rejected.

D - Coming back into the overnight range, but not by much, in fact, just 3 ticks before turning down. So I would say that in this case, with price penetrating the OL by a sufficient amount, the permission to go short is still intact. Of course this OL level is just a random line I have drawn in, but I much prefer to analyze what is going on at a more prominent level rather than just a random swing high or low.

E - I finally take a short here. Price is showing no strength, and since we are well below the OL, and yet still above the PDL, I think there is lots of room to go lower.

My trade is on for only 2 minutes as I started to second guess my rationale given that I didn't get in close enough to the levels I should be taking trades at. Price of course goes lower after my exit.

So I'm at +$21.

F - We turn around here, a bit too far above the PDL to consider this a major turning point. Had I still been holding the short though, I would more than likely exited upon breaking a SL down on the 15 sec chart. This would net me about 3 points in total as opposed to just the 1 I got.

G - Curiously enough, if I do draw a SL, which I did just now, and connect the highs at A and D, with pricing bouncing of here at G, the trend down is still intact and we can see that we at least make it again to the lows at F.

H - We form a double bottom here with F, but honestly, I cannot tell what's a DB when its in the middle of nowhere until price is already a few point away, and then the DB trade is gone. When we break the SL just above here, its a good confirmation of a change in trend, hence exit any shorts and think about going long, but if we say this happens at 66 or so, with the DB being at 63.50, going long is a bit risky if I would place my stop at 63.50.

I - Just to think out loud, going long here seems sensible to me. If price triggers here, we have price going above this bar which form a higher low. We also have that broken trend line, and also this bar fully closes above the SL, which is something I think I noticed NoDoji paying attention to.

This trade is too much in the middle of nowhere for me right now, and ultimately it fails, but when I have time to analyze it, I think it looks good.

J - I say that long failed before price went well over 2 point below the entry on its way down to here, but we can still consider this a higher low from H, and price did make it a few ticks above the high at G, so we have almost a rising trading range. Going long at the bottom of the range is of course better than at the upper line of what forms the range, so the entry would totally suck, but price might very well still be on an upwards trajectory.

Looking at the 5 minute chart, I can see we spent quite a bit of time in this area yesterday, during pretty much the first hour as well, so its no surprise that we should have to work through a lot of trades here today as well.

K - Boy, taking shorts anywhere between 67.50 and 68 sure helps rack up the points today. Eventually this range will have to break higher or lower, but in the mean time, it sure looks like scalping for points at the top and bottom of this range would be fun! The lows look like they are slowly creeping up while the highs are almost all at 67.75, so I'm not sure if this says anything or not, meaning is a break out the top more likely???

L - We finally break through here and it looks good. I'm a little sad that I am not taking advantage of this range even though I see it set up well in advance. And wow, it really does take off nicely.

SUMMARY

Not a bad day indeed... and sigh, only $21. I notice that not only do I take too long to make a decision, waiting for more confirmation, but I also don't give time a bit of room. The higher lows from H and J provided good opportunities, and even though the long I pointed out at "I" was a bit too high above that double bottom, the long was still a good trade if you had 45 minutes to wait around. This long in particular had price going against me 2.5 points so I double I would still hold it, but I figured the lows at F and H was the stop loss exit, and this held up well, so it was just a matter of getting a better price for the long. Well... the learning continues.

 

[k p]

A - Took a short here before the open. Was quite confident in a short and upset that I didn't get in higher up at 59.50 when I first wanted to. Managed to get out for $1 profit!

B - On the 15 sec, this forms a triple top actually. Will have to see what price does if it comes up here again.

C - Jesus, a REV right off the OL. I hesitated going long here because the move down looked too strong and I thought it would go right through since I did have a short bias. It was only at this level for a second, so I'd pretty much need to have a standing order to go long set already. The only other way I see to make this work is to watch the tick chart and when you see the move back up just go long with a market order. This of course means you're probably already 1 point or more above where the extreme level is.

D - This looks like its a lower high from B, so I'm thinking that going short below this bar would work. Good thing I didn't. And this is after all just a random swing point, no where close to being an extreme, and these are what I look for now.

E - This is where we get our higher high, and right around here is where I also start to draw in a hinge. Its not the best looking mind you, and hence it turns out to be more of a range.

F - Here is a higher low from C. Its one point away from the OL, so perhaps not close enough to take a REV from the OL.

G - Here I see we go a bit above the tops at B but come back down. The very next bar though seems to reject going lower, and after this, price just keeps going up.

The other trades I'm looking for are moves out of a range. When price continually bounces off the bounds of a range, these set up their own extreme levels, and so leaving this is quite obvious and often launches a move. Now this isn't exactly a range, but once the highs at B and G are breached, perhaps going long is justified. At the same time though, with F forming a higher low, going long above that bar was also perhaps justified, and its at a much better price. This would be going long just below what could be the top of the range mind you, so it only looks clear now.

H - Seems to be a bounce off the mean, but I find the extreme levels are more predictive.

I - Seems like a double top here from the high just before H. The first time its hard to take advantage because it happens so quick until price bounces off twice, it really isn't that significant. But price came up again a third time, so after the second bounce, I'm not sure if I should be expecting a triple top, or expecting price to bust through since it came up again.

J - So after this bounce here, we are establishing quite the range.

K - Given that price doesn't make it back up to the top of the range, when it does come back down, I would expect it to break out the bottom since there just isn't enough buying interest.

And this is in fact what happens. I really have to go through my charts and test this idea.

SUMMARY

Ok.. this is going nowhere. Dammit, such a good trade to take the long from the REV at the OL. Given the long weekend, if I don't solidify my plan since I have lots of time, someone shoot me! Next week there will be no more excuses.

So I finish my day at +$1.

 

[k p]

Got up late today because the power is out, so as crazy as I am, I am working on notebook power and cell phone for internet. Now this is called dedication!

A - So here I notice the bounce 1 point above the OL. If I got up at my usual time I would have seen it coming down but of course the question is, what would I do about it? Often price comes to within 1 point, and I consider this close enough. This REV happens at exactly 1 point above the OL so if I had an order waiting to go long here, it just might work.

B - Price stops coming up here. Is it anywhere significant? Perhaps I can make a case for this being the mean of the preceding trading range overnight between 78 and 82, but this is more so fishing, and in no way would I be expecting this and hence be able to use it in real time trading.

C - Price drops ever so slightly below the opening low, and before this I would have been favoring a short, but now I see the short should happen much higher up when the up trend from the open is broken... if I wanted to get into these micro trends that is. This low is also at a random point.

D - Lower high here from B.

E - Here we drop below C, but this is quickly rejected on a huge spike up. In real time, this was quite dramatic.

Price just settled back into this range that is forming. It seems to be between 76 and 79, with spikes above and below, but the bulk of the trades are within these two bounds.

I haven't studied ranges enough to know if I should use the extreme levels as my bounds, or if I should chop of the extremes and look for trades just beyond this. At the end of the day though, it seems obvious that once price leaves a range, it really leaves, but you don't want these little pokes to fool you into a trade that reverses back into the range, so I'm not sure where the safe entries are yet.

F - We drop below, and at first we come to rest one tick above the low at A. I'm watching the tick chart, and just not sure if I should buy right here, thinking it will reverse up or not. There are two dips below to 73.25 to exactly match the low at A, and then we break higher. So now we are too far away, which I know would happen, and so these trades are only good when taken automatically.

So the REV trade at one point above the OL is a good once, especially since it matches with the previous bounce at A, but this trade only works for a little while because price comes down again, this time really breaking through the OL. I think I know this though.... to take profits quickly if the initial bounce starts to fail, which here was good for 2 points, and if price comes down again, you have to wonder why its coming down so don't be as quick to maybe enter the long again but look for confirmation on the tick chart as opposed to taking an automatic trade the first time.

G - I felt that we were sufficiently below the OL, so as part of the plan, if the REV doesn't happen and price penetrates, look for a way to get into the trend, which I do.

I get filled at a weird place, and of course its because of the delay with my internet given that its via the cell phone. I don't panic since I have the auto trades for a 4 point stop loss already set in case something doesn't work out, but clearly this isn't good for actual trading, so I slide up my profit target and get out just 1 point below my short entry. I do think this down move is solid, and I wouldn't be surprised to see price drop dozens of points by the end of the day going into the long weekend, but who cares what I think, and this isn't a good way to be trading anyway, so I think the exit in this case is justified, even if it is rather quick like all of the other scalps lately.

H - We turn back up here, and seem to make it back up to the OL. Will this be just a test of the breakout level??? Hmmmm... Now of course I'm not sure where that level is. Is it the OL at 72.25, or is it the 73.25 which was the two swing lows that formed formed the resistance level that needed to be breached.

I - So we appear to bounce off here, just slightly above the OL, and slightly below A and F.

This to me beautifully illustrated the importance of proper entries. If you get in right where you should, price coming back up to test your entry point is also exactly where the trade can be validated or invalidated, and hence this test for me would happen close to BE. I doubt I would still be holding on the move up mind you, especially given the higher low below, and especially since I like to take my money right away, but if you wanted to really hold on, with price bouncing off at I, this to me shows strength in the down move, but if I got in even below my entry at G thinking the down move was strong because I waited for too much confirmation, then I'd be stopped out for sure and would cry if I saw price going lower after the bounce at I.

J - Slightly higher low here or even a double bottom. Yup.. can't think there is strength in this down move any more, and perhaps buying above this bar is a good trade, but I think its safer to wait for price to leave this range of 68 to 72 first.

K - Definitely forming a range now.

L - We bounce off here but....

M - On the way back up we don't make it far.

N - So going lower seems to be rejected as well, but if we can't make it back up to at least K then going lower.... yup... we broke lower.. never mind.

So looking at things now, the drop below the OL was solid, and even though this range developed for the past 20 minutes, its only a pause on the way down.

SUMMARY

Ok... I have to end this soon given the notebook battery. The nice thing is in terms of bandwidth, this trading has so far used up less than 10mb.. and that is even with reading some posts on ET!

So I'm up $16 and eager for the next 3 days off to study some more.

I feel like just going short, leaving wide stops open and taking either a 5 point loss or at least 10 point profit, but this isn't my trading style yet so I better just go back to bed and see how this all turns out when hopefully the power will be back on.

Oh, and yes, given the range I identified at 68-72, once price left, it was good for at least a few points. So along with the extremes of the OL and OH, and extremes of ranges, their bounds, should also be good places to take trades... but these unfortunately aren't as neat as the overnight levels.

 

[k p]

A - Took a short here, just over a point below the OH, but since price came to within 3 ticks and turned down, I thought that was good enough. I got in a bit too soon and hence had to watch being in the negative for 3 minutes. This made me slide up my profit target exit to just below my entry because I was worried the trade might be no good.

I felt good about where I put the trade on because I had a clear idea of why I put the trade on and where my exit would be given that great REJ of 96 overnight, so although I didn't manage it well, just putting it on was a good thing.

B - So here is my exit. Looking at it now, this is of course a great place to go short. On the one hand, I wanted to exit for a profit after sitting through 3 minutes of a loss, but once price was coming down, I knew the short looked good so I tried to slide away the profit target lower and just couldn't do it before it was hit.

This is clearly all wrong. I am letting the market decide my exit, and that little bit of worry about a loss put me in the wrong frame of mind.

C - So now I watch price just drop without me. It goes below the PDH, and this level might have some significance still since price bounced off over an hour ago during the overnight session. So watching the tick chart I decided to get in here on a RET once we dropped below. I figured we could at least make it to the OL. My entry was terrible, and although you can't see it in the one minute, on the 15 sec chart, I essentially went short at the bottom of a wave and you can see my exit on the next bar, which is unfortunately at the top of this bar.

D - Had I waited for a clear RET on the one minute chart, I could have gone short here, one point below the bar where I exited, but this too would make me go short just before price went back up. Lets face it, I should know better by now than to get into a move like this. The reason for that short was that I'm missing out, not because there was a solid setup, and even though here the setup is better, I just don't like getting in on a RET anymore if it isn't at an extreme level.

So at first I was up +$21, and now I'm at -$23.

E - We try to go lower here, but the dip below 84 is quickly rejected. This range of 84-88 we had as a consolidation area before the open as well, so this shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

F - Trying to go higher here but can't.

G - After rejecting going higher, we quickly come down to here, which looks like it might bust through now, but we found plenty of buyers at 84 which now really firms up this level of support.

H - Just a tick higher here before coming back down, but to me, the rejections of going lower seem stronger than the rejections of going higher, so the LOLR seems up for now.

I - So here I think to go long. I am unfortunately in the middle of this trading range, not even in the middle, I am closer to the top, which is not the best place to be going long, but I am just hoping for a scalp. I do get my scalp, and collect a whole dollar because I am uneasy about the trade right after I put it on. Sure enough, 2 minute later price did come up and then even kept going, but I am finding this very difficult today.

Such a shame, if I held on just a bit longer I would have been clearly in the positive for the day, but this right here shows why I am struggling. I am trying to just be in the positive without really focusing enough on trading well. On top of this, I can see that I let my loses be bigger than my gains for the past few weeks, which will naturally just bleed the account dry, as it has from where I started.

SUMMARY

Ok... better stop for the day. So I'm down -$22. I did quite a bit of studying over the long weekend and I am actually quite clear on what I'm going to do going forward. Today things seemed to move so quick, and even though I had the right idea from the open, my state of mind and focusing on profit/loss prevented me taking a solid profit from that first trade.

The second short should never have happened, and once I saw that a range was clearly forming, staying clear of 84 to 88 was prudent, but then perhaps going long above 89, once price finally left, could have been at least good for a point or 2. (I may of course trade ranges in the future, but this would take a huge level of confidence and it would only work if you kept taking the trades at the extremes of the range without letting previous trades affect you.. something I cannot do right now)

Even as I type this up now, I can see price came down to J, testing the breakout level of 88, so going long one point above this bar at 90.25 is a good trade. It would fill 2 bars later and lets see where it goes.

Anyway, so although my reading price action skills are getting decent I think, the entries need work, and more importantly, learning patience perhaps while in the trade. I'm not sure what to do. Actually, that is a lie. I could possibly just sim for a week, but then I worry that my trades would be so good and I'd be missing out on making the money. Its like how Db described once how the market trends nicely, and then the eager new trader can't stand missing out anymore, so he gets in, only to get in during chop. Once the poor trader has been chopped up and gets out, the market starts to trend again. So yes, this is my worry, that I would stop trading on a good days, and get back to using real money on tough days. Of course if there is to be any expectation of consistency then a trader must learn to profit from anything, or at least stay out of trouble on bad days, but for now, I feel like I just need a few wins first.

Just before I go, I see price stops here, which could be a double top with the previous high, so perhaps an exit could be made, but its still a trade that was worth a point. Not that I want to be scalping, but hey, a point gained is better than a point lost.