For a while now I have been lurking around the forum and finding a lot of helpful information. I thought at this point I would benefit from starting a trading journal of my own. I already keep a trading journal with my own with commentary, but I think having others weigh in could be helpful and provide some accountability in my trading.
I began heavily diving into trading about a year ago. I learned a lot out of the gate and tried trading live but quickly realized this isnt easy and that I had a lot more to learn. Fortunately, I didnt blow up my account and didnt lose a ton of money. After many more months of learning and paper trading I am now back at trading live.
Resources I have found Helpful:
This forum futures.io - Thank you!
Al Brooks 5 min to fame and all of his books (I am not a part of his paid courses)
Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas
Jared Wesley of Live Traders on YouTube I like his commentary.
Seems like there is a ton a free information out but you really need to wade through the garbage. I have consumed a ton of information outside these resources but these are the ones I have found myself going back to.
Id like to learn more about order flow but have just been confused about everything Ive read or watched on the topic.
My Objective:
Find consistency in a smaller account and begin scaling up Make money.
Strategy:
It doesnt feel like Ive got some Secret Sauce. I have been focusing on the S&P Micro futures on the 5 min time frame after reading and getting intrigued by Al Brooks 5 min to fame article. I Have found I like his style and he doesnt seem to have any of that guru BS you find all over the internet. I have tried to read his books but they are hard to read (for any significant period of time) pretty dry and very exhaustive. To me it seems valuable to focus on one instrument and learn its character.
Overall my strategy has been to utilize market structure and price action to find a bias (buy/sell) and then use H1s and L1s (Al Brooks terminology) or trend/momentum bars to enter into trades. I look for double tops, double bottoms, pull backs, trend line breaks and breakouts.
Where Im at now:
Currently I have been trading live in the mornings before work, so I dont get a ton of live trade time (~1 hr./day). It seems to me that when I start looking at the market for the hour or so (6:30-7:30 PST) the overall market direction doesnt matter a ton. It seems like you can scalp either direction as the market bounces around. For awhile I was trying to get into the bigger swings, yet I found myself see the market go in my favor and begin to pullback. I had a really hard time deciphering whether the market was in a pullback or if it was reversing. This has led to a lot of inconsistency taking profits too early, exiting at a loss & not following a clear set of rules. I have since switched to a scalping mentality (or at least thats how I define it but realistically its a short swing) where I am looking to exit in 1-3 bars. I figure If I can build consistency there, I will get a lot of trades under my belt and begin to understand when I can try to catch some larger swings or trends.
Fortunately, I havent blown up any accounts which I feel good about. I re-funded my live account on 10/13 ($2047) and today, 11/12, it is at $1872. So, in a month of trading I am down $175 which in my view is a pretty reasonable cost to learn. At one point I was up, and I was super excited about it but that was my demise.
I have been using tradingview for a platform/charts and tradestation for a broker. I haven't found any negative reviews of using tradingview but I do wonder if anyone has an opinion on the platform.
My Struggles:
Getting in too early, not waiting for my confirmation, 2nd guessing what the market structure/price action is telling me and knowing when to exit. By in large I think I am trying to develop too many tools at once so none of them are very sharp.
Do I enter a trade in an area of value (S/R, trendline or EMA) …