Working on Consistent Profitability

[tlow]

What a frustrating end of the day...Had a great trade in the morning followed by a missed trade in the afternoon. I was gone by 7:40 for about 3 hours and then I was going to miss like the last 10 mins or so of the trading day b/c I had to hop on a plane. So I didn't have real high expectations nor the worry about getting trades in. But that missed trade at the end of the day Im really kicking myself.

Trade 1:

7:00- Long 1114.00 Stop 1112.00 Target 1118.00
7:21- Sell 1117.00

+3.00 pts

So as Matcha mentioned yesterday, a bit slow on the entry. On the close above the 20ema as well as the close above the trendline, I looked to go long...should've bought a 1113.75, but just hesitated for half a second and that was good enough to make a bad entry. As the trade went on I felt like it was a strong trade, but I new I had to leave so once price stalled I just exited. I wrote down, that I wish I could play it out a bit further, but in the end, in was a good call to just exit.

I was back in front of the computer around 11am. Once the PA broke south and headed for the 1116.00 area I intially started looking for a place to go short. But then, after thinking it through a bit, I realized that going short wasn't the way to go...We had an uptrending market, a pullback probably wouldn't be that strong, and the risk:reward wasn't there. See I can learn I was proud of myself for realizing I should look for some bottom work to be put in place instead, find a good entry where there's resistance, go long with a tight stop. I wanted to go long on the 11:50ish bar at 1116.00 and have my stop be 1114.75 with a target of 1122.00. Errr...didn't pull the trigger/hesistated for a second, and the entry went out the window b/c I didn't want to have a 2-2.5 pt stop. So frustrating since I corrected my intial error of looking for a short entry, then set-up the long trade on paper almost perfectly the way it played out, but I wasn't in the trade. Bummer. The good thing is I didn't chase the trade or look to go long when i would have to open up my stop. I am also glad I realized the initial error but it totally sucks missing out on profit

Total Trades: 1
Winners: 1
Losers: 0
B/E:0
Total Points: 3.0
Avg. Win: $150.00
Avg. Loss: $0
Total Win: 100%
Total Profits: $150.00

Heres the 5m chart for you guys:

 

[tlow]

Not really sure what to say about today. Had to crap trades and was lucky to come out at B/E. Im not sure if it was a case of just not thinking things through or not being fully focused or what. But totally worthless...Im a little frustrated with myself because I felt like I was making better decisions but today was a step back.

Trade 1:

12:16- Short 1118.75 Stop 1120.00 Target 1115.00
12:19- Stopped out at 1120.00

-1.25 pts

Not really sure what I had in mind with this one. I think I wanted to go short if the resistance held up at 1118.50-.75 but it didn't and i went short after it didn't. To compound the issue, my entry was a total no mans land. I didn't wait to see if it would come back below and then rehold. Would've been better off doing the exact opposite of what I did.

Trade 2:

12:32- Long 1120.50 Stop 1118.25 Target 1125.00
1:11- Sell on a limit order of 1121.75

+1.25 pts

Again, not really sure what I was thinking on this one. The entry was crap, the exit was crap...crap crap crap Shoul've either played the breakout trade above 1119.00ish or waited for a possible pullback. Then once 1pm rolled around I put in a limit order at 1120.50. Orcl and Rimm earnings were coming out and I should've just put the stop at B/E and then seen how the market reacted to the earnings. So I left a bunch of profits on the table even though this was a crap trade to start. Compounded the bad entry by exiting terribly. I lucked out on the trade swinging my direction and I didn't take advantage of it. Errrr.

Looking at my notes, I took very few notes today. I think it had to do with my focus since the market was so slow most of the day. Further, my lack of notes, I believe directly shows up on my trade sheet on how I traded...didn't fully think things through and didn't focus. I really not even upset I didn't take the long trade in the middle of the day off the bottom...Im realizing that I get way more frustrated/mad at myself for having bad entries/exits vs. missing/not taking trades. Not sure which is better or worse

Man, I just really wanted to keep the ball rolling because I have been doing better the past couple of days with emotions, thinking things through, etc.

Total Trades: 2
Winners: 1
Losers: 1
B/E:0
Total Points: 0.0
Avg. Win: $62.50
Avg. Loss: $62.50
Total Win: 50%
Total Profits: $0

 

[tlow]

Kinda a 50/50 day...Had my first "fat finger", accidental button push, whatever you want to call it. I've been thinking about it for awhile...the button the buy/sell at market is right below the place to select the chart time frame. Knew it was a matter of time before I accidentally hit the button instead of the chart. I use my laptop to trade. Gonna have to get a bluetooth mouse to make things easier. My finger must not have made the mouse move enough on the touchpad and of course it stopped on the "buy" button as I was hitting the mouse button.

Anyway, Kinda a tough trading day in terms of price action, I was looking short almost the whole day since there seemed to be a bunch of downward pressure and the TRIN was in the bearish area. The TRIN was bouncing around a lot, which I can only assume means there were a bunch of stocks around the B/E mark a lot of the day. The early morning trade that I didn't take b/c of the news coming out, I think it was a mistake not to take it. I think I should've taken it and then just made sure I was out 1-2 minutes before the news came out. Of course, it pretty easy to say that in hindsight, but the set-up was there...

Trade 1:

7:01- Short 1118.00 Stop 1120.50 Target 1115.25
7:13- Buy to cover at 1118.25 Fat Finger error, accidentally hit buy button

-0.25 pts

I was trying to get a extension/contiuation of the break down, waited to see if there was somewhat of a pullback and then waited for it to continue lower...Maybe you guys can help me out with this one, the trade set-up seemed like it was there but it didn't work out. What did I miss? I got out of the trade on accident, but actually turned out to be a good thing because I would've gotten stopped out a couple minutes later.

Trade 2:

7:42- Short 1119.75 Stop 1121.00 Target 1118.00
7:46- Stopped out Buy to cover at 1121.00

-1.25 pts

Not much to say about this trade other than I should've been in it. I was going for a scalp type trade with the hopes for a continuation lower, but the problem was it was still in the morning and the midday doldrums hadn't started yet. Also, even with the bad trade, I probably should've had a tighter stop since it was a scalp. Risk:reward wasn't there, etc...Just not the right idea...bad trade.

Trade 3:

11:48- Short 1122.00 Stop 1123.50 Target 1118.50
12:25- Buy to cover 1119.75

+2.25 pts

This was the idea I was going for in trade 2, but this set-up was much better to try and do it. 1123.00ish was the 38% fib ret. from the overnight high and price had bounced down off that area once before. I think this was a pretty good trade, I wanted it to be a bit of a scalp with a possiblity for it to break down further if there was momentum. Price stalled out at 1119.00 and eventually hit my target. Even though price hit the target I don't think I would've been filled and the next bar bounced up to 1119.75 pretty quick. So I don't think there was much else I could do to try and squeeze more points out of this trade...in other words, exiting when price turned positive was A-ok. Even with a 1pt trailing stop it would've wound up in the same spot.

Total Trades: 3
Winners: 1
Losers: 2
B/E:0
Total Points: 0.75
Avg. Win: $112.50
Avg. Loss: $37.50
Total Win: 33.3%
Total Profits: $37.50

Not a whole lot of trading the past two weeks due to broker issues, other commitments, etc but here are the stats for this week plus friday from last week:
Total Trades: 12
Winners: 7
Losers: 4
B/E:1
Total Points: 9
Avg. Win: $82.30
Avg. Loss: $29.16
Total Win: 58.3%
Total Profits: $450.00

Not too bad, definitely nice to see more profit. The past week or so, averaged about 1.5 pts per day. Not bad, need to keep moving forward towards the 3 points a day range. Still haven't caught any major runners and I think once I start catching those, I should creep up towards the 3 pts per day range. Very encouraging to get over the 50% mark...I think if I can stay around the 60-65% win rate and catch a few runners I should hit my short term goals.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from tlow:

The early morning trade that I didn't take b/c of the news coming out, I think it was a mistake not to take it. I think I should've taken it and then just made sure I was out 1-2 minutes before the news came out. Of course, it pretty easy to say that in hindsight, but the set-up was there...

Yeah, me too. Missed the Trade of the Day

 

[Matcha]

Quote from tlow:

Total Trades: 12
Winners: 7
Losers: 4
B/E:1
Total Points: 9
Avg. Win: $82.30
Avg. Loss: $29.16
Total Win: 58.3%
Total Profits: $450.00

Congrats on another great week! Nice job!
I played mostly on long side today. I didn't nail too much profit either. Got whipsawed on first 2 trades which killed my daily profit!

Brave you, thinking of ignoring major news. I still SOH . Market don't act rational when major news released at 10:00am. It could go either way. Please be very careful. It's just like playing opening gap, you need a different strategy.

But if you have done all your anaysis on trading during news, i will keep my mouth shut.

Not bad, need to keep moving forward towards the 3 points a day range. Still haven't caught any major runners and I think once I start catching those, I should creep up towards the 3 pts per day range. Very encouraging to get over the 50% mark...I think if I can stay around the 60-65% win rate and catch a few runners I should hit my short term goals.

Slow down a bit. crawl slowly before you run. I was a girl full of imagination and idealist myself. And I am a goal-oriented person.But in trading, you think postive and you plan the worst. Anything could happen. Don't set up your goal too high too fast. Because you might get very disappointed, then you doubt yourself even more.

Just a friendly reminder. I am not trying to tell you what you can or can't do. Everyone is different. It's just from my past 7 month experience, I have been there.

 

[tlow]

Quote from Matcha:

Congrats on another great week! Nice job!


Slow down a bit. crawl slowly before you run. I was a girl full of imagination and idealist myself. And I am a goal-oriented person.But in trading, you think postive and you plan the worst. Anything could happen. Don't set up your goal too high too fast. Because you might get very disappointed, then you doubt yourself even more.

Just a friendly reminder. I am not trying to tell you what you can or can't do. Everyone is different. It's just from my past 7 month experience, I have been there.

Matcha,

Sometimes its hard to get across what im thinking in a public journal...especially being an engineer type, we aren't the best at communicating

I understand that what I want isn't going to happen tomorrow...its more of "keep an eye on the prize" type comment. Everything I've ever done in life has been goal oriented...I know that sounds kinda generic, but what does it take to meet the goals? What do I have to do day in and day out to meet the goals? Do I still remember what those goals are once I start doing the work day in and day out? Things I like to remind myself of..

I would classify myself as a realist almost to a fault. I sometimes wish I had a little more imagination and idealism...again, probably the engineer in me.

Thanks for looking out for me!

 

[Matcha]

Quote from tlow:

Matcha,

Sometimes its hard to get across what im thinking in a public journal...especially being an engineer type, we aren't the best at communicating

I understand that what I want isn't going to happen tomorrow...its more of "keep an eye on the prize" type comment. Everything I've ever done in life has been goal oriented...I know that sounds kinda generic, but what does it take to meet the goals? What do I have to do day in and day out to meet the goals? Do I still remember what those goals are once I start doing the work day in and day out? Things I like to remind myself of..

I would classify myself as a realist almost to a fault. I sometimes wish I had a little more imagination and idealism...again, probably the engineer in me.

Thanks for looking out for me!

Understand who you are now!

we have got each other's back !

 

[Went Fishing]

Quote from tlow:

I think I should've taken it and then just made sure I was out 1-2 minutes before the news came out. .

Trade 1:
What did I miss?

Trade 2:
...Just not the right idea...bad trade.

Trade 3:
+2.25 pts
This was the idea I was going for in trade 2

tlow

Nice job tlow, You're impressing me with your patience. If you ask most discretionary traders about the news, several will say I get out X minutes before the news. If you can see market depth on your DOM you will see orders leave like birds on a wire just prior to the news release. It's my belief when this happens and the spread widens the machines start doing their thing and if I'm trying to take profits on a position I carried "to close to the flame" I'll get burned. I would caution you on taking a position to 1 or 2 minutes before the release. I've held positions thru the news, got filled in the news and I've gotten shaken out 15 minutes before the news, you never know. If you try it, use a limit order!

What did I miss?
Maybe it just didn't work.... Or maybe it was the U of M CSI

Just not the right idea
I like seeing you selling the tops of channels, it just didn't work. After the fact it looks like the market was still sorting out the news, In a perfect world I look for a 50% retracement.

This was the idea I was going for in trade 2
Agreed. It's sure a beautiful thing....... Well done chap!

I've been wondering how much monitor real estate you're using, A laptop?

 

[tlow]

Quote from Went Fishing:

tlow

.... If you try it, use a limit order!

What did I miss?
Maybe it just didn't work.... Or maybe it was the U of M CSI

Just not the right idea
I like seeing you selling the tops of channels, it just didn't work. After the fact it looks like the market was still sorting out the news, In a perfect world I look for a 50% retracement.

This was the idea I was going for in trade 2
Agreed. It's sure a beautiful thing....... Well done chap!

I've been wondering how much monitor real estate you're using, A laptop?

Thanks for the tips and compliments. The news thing is a tough one...like you said, how early do I get out before the news? Am I going to have trouble getting filled..on and on...

Monitor real estate...I am on a 14"Dell laptop. For the future I need more, but for now, I like it. My mind goes a million miles and hour as it is, so anything I can do to slow down my thinking the better. II think if I had too much to look at I wouldn't concentrate enough on one thing. But for the future, 2 monitors would be ideal.

 

[killthesunshine]

scalping is very difficult and mentally taxing

at end of day i feel like i've been throttled