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I hope this journal will benefit my trading as well as help others in this forum. Just a quick background of my experience and how I got into the trading biz. I was a self-employed business owner of a marketing company selling LG Electronics commercial goods, which I sold last June. Also owned and operated a local Appliance and Television retail store which I closed last year. Walked away from both with a little money in my pocket.
After finalizing everything in my attorney's office he asked me what my next venture would be. At that point I had no ideas. I just wanted out of working 80 plus hours a week, dealing with dumb employees that I had to babysit constantly, customers that you just can't satisfy no matter what you did or gave them and vender's that break promises. People ask me all the time do I miss the biz? HELL NO!! glad I made the move and I have never regretted or looked back. My attorney had mention that another business client he had started day trading after his business closed. I guess that intrigued me enough to look into trading myself. My thinking was that the best way to get educated was to find someone in the biz and learn from an experienced trader. I looked at several and found guys selling trading systems and they weren't even real traders to real scammers. After three months of research I decided on one and after nine months of losing a small fortune I threw in the towel. The trainer kept saying it was me, psychologically. I new before getting into this biz when dealing with emotions psychology plays a BIG part in this game. But what else can he say? The kicker was when I learned that other students that went as far as having him trade on a separate account on the students behalf and he lost like 30% to 40% of their accounts in like 30 days they left in a mad Exodus and so did I. LOL!!!
I walked away from that bad experience learning nothing about the market dynamics and really gain any knowledge of the market what so ever. It was just trade once this (indee) indicator populates. Damn, my 11 yr old daughter can do that. Oh well, shit happens! About two months ago I met with a 15 year experienced floor trader here in New York. Since then, I feel like I'm cramming for a college exam again. I now trade using only one indee (MACD Divergence) and most importantly using (PA) Price Action and Volume. I have been back testing this system and trading on SIM now for the last two months. My plan to is continue back testing and SIM trade until the end of August and maybe longer. I will start posting my daily trade result and charts next week.
Congrats on starting the journal! The objective is to help you be a better trader, so I would like to suggest that you post as much detail as possible. The journal is what you make of it!
Why do you trade?
Your trading business plan
Your analysis of your edge
How you identify your objective and stop loss for each trade
For each trade you take: Why did you enter where you did? Why did you exit where you did?
If you can do this, you will have a wealth of information at your disposal to improve your trading.
Thank you for your feedback! I came into the trading biz for several good reasons. This is a business that I know of that will give me the opportunity to maintain the level of income and lifestyle that my family has enjoyed, without the overhead expenses of having a traditional business enitity. What makes it even better is the freedom it offers me. It can provide a good income and have a life to boot.
My business plan is to make 2 points per day. When trading with a cash account I will start with trading 2 contracts, when profitable for 2 weeks I will increase my contract size to 3 contracts for 2 weeks and add every 2 weeks accordingly. My initial stop loss is set for 2 points and have my Dom set to move to -1 after a 1 point profit and move 1 tick with every tick until it hits my second target at either 2 or 3 points depending on entry and edge. My trade objectives are PB's, volume spike reversals, but mostly I'm a CT trader at s/r levels and at extremes.
My method of trading is using (PA) Price Action and volume. I only have one indee which is a MACD divergence. I use several (TF) time frame charts. I will break it down by chart.
2) 135 min chart: Same as 405, but this breaks the daily into three sessions.
3) 10 min, 30min and 60 min with a vol profile: This provides me with NPOC's, POC's and Gap's
4) 10 min all session chart which is squeezed together, this provides me with patterns to look for such as H&S, DT's, DB's areas of rotation, etc, etc, etc.
5) 3 min, 5min MACD Divergence charts
6) I use two different 1 min and one 5 min charts to look for my entries. On one of the 1 min charts I have constant lines that show all the LVN's, HVN's, Prior day OHLC, Current day OHLC and I squeeze the chart to give me a clearer picture of the levels I'm looking for. The other 1 min chart has cal devalue area and constant lines which show the NPOC's, POC's, the days and prior days IB hi/lo, the days and prior days o/s levels and gaps. I look for levels with confluence, the more levels in the same price more the merrier and increases the O&P.
Today's Results:
Call me the impatient trader. Volume and PA wasn't what I like or used to. If I don't get the bounce that I like I tend to bail out of the trade. I feel the longer that I am in a trade the lower the O&P. Even thou I have my Dom on auto trail, I will move my stop based on looking at the tape and Dom. I look for imbalance on the DOM and blocks on the tape. Sometimes they can be misleading because of head fake entries by the big players. I was pretty much break even for the day until the 11th trade. The individual trade results are as follows trading 2 cars. The results would have been positive if I had stayed in trades where I had bailed out.
Trade # 7 was a B/E trade, I was in this trade for an hour and I usually don't stay in a trade that long. But I liked it. It was at the HOD, NPOC and I was looking for a 50% retracement because we had a 14.5 point range which is above the last ten day avg of 10 points. It did finally run down for a nice 7 point retracement.
Today's lesson: Learn patients, but not sure if I can learn that. It's just not my style of trading. I have posted my charts below. Looking forward to a better day tomorrow.
Mentally, it was not my best day. I know that I am a much better trader than today's results show. I admit that I am not a very good trend trader. I hate fighting against the hi/lo. Obviously, I have somethings I have to work on. Let's break it down trade by trade.
Trade #1: Went long after mkt opened, reason: had a NPOC above at 1090.50, hit first target NF SL moves to -1 pt, results -1
Trade #2: ss at 84.75 took 7 ticks of heat , ended up -1 pt. What I did wrong: bailed out too early, had I
stayed in would have hit first target.
Trade #3: ss at 1086 at Gap hi, result +1 & +0.75; What I did wrong; had 2nd target at 84, 84.50 seemed to
be support then broke to hit 2nd target. Lesson; need to stay in trades and stick with my decisions.
Trade #4: ss at 1086 result -1.25; reason was at gap hi again and DT; What I did wrong; This was a low O&P
entry, stop should have been 1 tick above resent hi at 86.50.
Trade #5 ss at 1088, reason,expecting mkt to cover some of the gap; results -0.50; What I did wrong,
thinking what I thought the mkt would or should do instead of what the is showing a PB entry.
Trade #6 ss at 1090.5, results -0.75; reason; hit NPOC and same as above. What I did wrong, same as #5.
Trade #7 ss 92.50, results -2; reason, can't think of a good reason other than looking for the end of this trend
and retracement. WORST TRADE TAKEN!!!! What I did wrong; Everything!! No reason to make this
entry.
Trade #8 ss 1095, results +1 & -1 b/e trade. reason; mkt starting to look like its at it's end and retrace; What I
wrong: I let this trade just takes it course, I had nothing to lose other than the 1 oint it made on first
partial and it did make a 2 point run, but I moved the second target looking for more
Trade #9 ss 97.25, results -1; reason for trade; Same as the other trades above, fighting this trend all day
long. What I did wrong: Two things fighting a strong trend and not staying in the trade long, 4 bars
later it made a 2 point profit on the next entry.
Trade #10 BEST TRADE of the day ss 98.25, results +1 & +2, What I did wrong: This was the trade I was
looking for all day, had I let the second target run it would have produced a nice 8 pt profit.
Trade #11 L 94.75, results -0.75: What I did wrong: Fighting the down trend
Trade #12 ss 93.75, results -1.50: What I did wrong: Could make up my mind which way I wanted to go.
Mentally I was done for the day, not using my head
Trade #13 L 95.25, results -1: What I did wrong: Just getting desperate at this point again, not using my head.
Trade #14 L 1094, results -0.75: What I did wrong: Need I say more?
Trade #15 ss 93.25 reversed from #14, results +1 & +2, After realizing this was a good PB entry I just let this
trade run.
I am totally disgusted with my results for the day.My game plan was one sided looking for a range day and was not prepared for a trend. What I need to work on is, if the trend is bullish look for the best resistance area and if bearish look for the best support area.And more than one reason for the S/R. Make sure the O&P are there for a CT. I also need to have more patients to let the trades cook longer.
Tomorrow is another day to improve and make this week profitable. Thanks for read, And feedback is always welcomed.
Good job posting on a difficult day. It is the best way to learn and improve. Once you start to notice patterns, I suggest you make a quick list of the top 2 or 3 things you will work on each day, be as specific as possible on the list and then grade yourself at the end of the day on how well you executed those items (not at all related to the net profit outcome, which is besides the point).
I wanted to make a pre-market game plan in my journal before the open. However, by the time I had my game plan in tact it was 9:30. Anyway, my pre-market game plan was if the mkt opened higher I was looking for the 98.25 area to look for the end and take a ss entry and if the mkt opened below, I was looking for a L entry around 1071 - 1069. We had LVN's below at 84-83, 74.25, 71.25, 69.25.Above 1101.50, 1102.50 and 1104.25. HVN's below at 1074, 80.75-1080. Above 99.25, 1107.5, 1111.00. Yesterday's POC at 1093.50 POC from 8/11 at 1090.50, from 7/30 1095 from 7/29 1100 from 8/12 1081.25. We had a Gap of 1088.75 to 1086.25.
Changed strategies a little from yesterday, kept first target at +1 and second target for +3 to +5 depending on setup and entry. When in a tight range, I would tighen my targets to +0.50 to +1 to +2 depending on setup and entry.
Here we go trade by trade breakdown:
Trade #1 ss 1086.25 results +1 & +0.50. Why I made entry: Had a drive out of open, PB entry looking at 1083
area. What I did wrong: Moved second target to +3 and never made price objective.
Trade #2 ss 1089.50, results +0.75 & +1. Why I made entry: bounced off IB hi, open at 1090.
Trade #3 ss 1089.75, results +0.50 & b/e. Why I made entry: second bounce off the IB hi and open at 1090.
What I did wrong: moved target objectives too tight
Trade #4 ss 1090, results -1 on both cars. Why I made entry: same as #'s 2 & 3.
Trade #5 L 1091.50, reults -0.25. Why I made entry: PB entry and looking at yest POC at 1093.50 used tight
stop low O&P.
Trade #6 ss 1091, results 0.25. Why I made entry. Off the HOD and LVN at 1091.75. What I did wrong: Did
allow trade time to ccok.
Trade #7 ss 90.75, results +0.75 & -0.50. Why I made entry. DT at HOD and LVN at 91.75.
Trade #8 ss 91.50, results -2. TODAY'S UGLY TRADE. Why I made entry. same location as # 6 & 7
Trade #9 ss 96.75, results +1 & -1.50. Why I made entry. DT from yest, bounce off HOD. What I did wrong:
Two things first the O&P where not the best should have made both targets tight and secondly
failed to move stop to b/e minus 1.
Trade #10 ss 96.75 results +1 & -0.25. Why I made entry. DT at HOD.
Trade #11 96.75 results +1 & +3. BEST TRADE OF THE DAY!!! Why I made entry made the area that I made in
the premakt prediction would be the area for ss entry. What I did wrong: Did'nt stay in trade long
enough, initially had send target at 90.75. But overall a good trade. It was geting late in the day
and just wanted to take my profits.
Summary: Almost made my daily objective of net 2 pts on the first trades, then some small losers to have a DD of 1.50 per car and then finshed the day in the black for a small profit, but commish would take the account in the red for a small daily loss.
I plan on being better prepared mentally tomorrow.
I really didn't want to post this, but decided that this is for me to improve my trading and not to hide my bad trading days. In fact, I haven't had a winning day yet this week. Not trying to make excuses or anything, but my day just started off bad. Had a doctor's appointment at 9:00 AM and didn't get back until 10:30 AM. And the news from the doctor was not the best. It wasn't detremental, but I had some concerns. Maybe more than I realized, I'm usually very good about shaking things off like this. Anyway, I should have realized that I was not on my A game. Because, like I said yesterday 1075 was an area of interst to me. So when price was getting closer I grabbed my mouse to bring up another TF chart and accidently triggered a buy order at 76.25. I didn't even know I did it until I looked at the Dom and price was 1 tick away from stopping me out. That was like 5 minutes after I sat down at my desk. That alone should have told me to not trade today, but I did and got my bawl's bashed in. Anyway's the next 2 trades were winners first trade +1 & +2, the next trade +1 & -0.25. Had it not for the first entry by accident I would have been done for the day. SHIT HAPPENS!!!
Then took a loser, winner and 2 losers. Down by 2 points. Got back to almost +1 points and that was the end of it. Just didn't have it in me to make a come back. I should have told myself to stop when I was +1. It would not of made my daily objective, but the day would have ended better than it did. Beside's coming from -2 points to +1 point is a 3 point swing. I will be looking over my trades tonight and review my mistakes. I decided to take tomorrow off and play golf with my family, take the weekend to practice on market replay and learn from my mistakes.
I am not posting charts today, too many trades to list on here. I do need to cut down on the number of trades per day. Lesson #1 DON'T OVER TRADE.
Have a good trading day tomorrow and a good weekend.
The best thing you can do is be honest with yourself. Then go back, and review the posts later, and make an action item list that will emphasize your strengths and de-emphasize your weaknesses. Make it very straightforward actionable goals, and grade yourself on them daily. Do not make the goal about net profit. For instance, one goal could be "do not trade if not in 100% frame of mind for trading".
I decided to take yesterday off. I did watch the market at times, but I was up several times during the night with my sick dog so I didn't get much sleep. Also, I had several business and personal phone calls to make and things that needed to be done. I still have some things to do today so I'm going to be very selective on my trades today.
The bear market continues in the overnight session. Below I am looking at the 1051 and 1039.50 area's for support and above 1065, 1074 and 1079 area's for resistence. NPOC at 1039.50
