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Teajay's trading journal

  #21 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Today was a real interesting day... Still only managed to get one trade in as I was mostly watching the action on my cell phone while commuting, and then I was busy for the afternoon session.

Including all my raw notes this time for completeness since there was so much interesting action this morning, directly relevant to the trend reversal chapter I had just finished in Brooks...



Bars 1-4 - Slowly going to EMA. Large wicks. Bulls trying to take control but cannot.
*
Bar 7 - Low 1, bears may still have it. Need a second entry of sorts.
*
Bars 9 & 10 - Big Bears, seems buyers have given up

Bars 11-12 - Small inside bars that cannot break above the EMA. This is probably the second entry from Bar 7.
*
Bars 13-14 - More big bears. Overshot bear channel, so look for correction, maybe two legs.
*
Bars 15-19 - Strong bull movement. Roughly two legs if you count the doji. Took out the previous lower low and lower high from the bear trend down. Possible trend reversal, but expect a correction. Given the volatility, the correction is probably tradeable with-trend (bear)
*
Bars 20-26 - Two legged correction down. Formed a higher low. Further confirmation of the trend reversal.
*
Bar 30 - ends first leg up, nice pause at EMA. Breakout above would be H2 @ EMA.
*
Context change, bull trend…

Trade: Entered on the H2 @ 2471.25, exited shortly after @ 2472.25 when we were close to overhead support (2472.5 or 2472.75).

Points: +1

For July
ES: +2.25
NQ: +5.5

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  #22 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

I'm noticing an interesting pattern in my trades that is problematic. I am quick to exit winning positions as price approaches S/R levels. I'm getting burned when price cuts through them and I get left out of the market. A better approach may be to hold on to see if they bounce off the S/R and then consider exiting. Would likely get the same price and let some of the winners run longer...

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  #23 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198


A couple trades today that resulted in a breakeven day for me and a couple bucks for IB

Context was a gap open lower - not a ton of reason I could see, except perhaps cooling down from a couple big days. Will let price lead the way today. First handful of bars didn't really have a lot of conviction, so I was still in a bearish mindset.

Trade #1 (-0.25 pts)
By bar 7 a reasonable leg down had finally been completed. The bar #7 was a large doji, almost looking a bit like a reversal. In any case, it was the second time that buyers pushed up a large bar and we were now pretty far away from the EMA20. Paired with bar 8 that was a small inside bull bar and I was anticipating a pullback up near the EMA so figured we were good for a quick scalp of a point. I was slow getting the order in so got a fill at 2465, one tick above ideal. I had a limit order to sell at 2466 but we only touched that level for a second, and I didn't get filled. The next bar was ugly inside bear and scared me out of my position. My exit strategy was poor however - I kept moving my limit order down by a tick only to watch price also drop another tick. Eventually I settled with a one tick loss, where the correct thing would have been to just exit immediately at market which likely would have yielded a tick or two in profit.

Trade #2 (+0.25 pts)
A trendline break and nice leg up changed my context to bullish. Was looking for a good entry above EMA. Found one after a nice pullback to 2468. Held on for a couple legs up, but then a trendline was violated, and action was very rangebound on the bottom half of the EMA. I just exited the position at market for a one tick gain. I really missed the best entry for this trend, the first pullback to the EMA about 45 minutes before, but I wasn't at my computer. The price you pay...





Points for the day: 0

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  #24 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Three trades today. Two losers and one breakeven.

Trade 1 (-1.25pts):
Bear channel had been established. Sell off a Low3 (was tough to count, but this is my best guess) after bouncing off top channel line. Continuing with my desire to stop scalping so much I swung the position for a while and then got stopped out on a strong channel break. The warning sign of a bull trend change could have been spotted by observing the channel turned into a wedge, and that we were approaching the low of yesterday's session. I figured the reversal wouldn't be so abrupt so I could keep an eye on things. A better approach for getting out my scalping habits may be to start scalping part of my position and letting the rest swing w/ a breakeven stop.

Trade 2 (-1.25pts):
After the breakout from the channel / wedge I figured we were good for a pullback to either test the extreme or create a higher low. Plan was to scalp this one since possible trend reversal. It looked like we had two legs up (counting the doji after the breakout), including an EMA gap bar so I shorted on the new low right below the EMA. Action very quickly stopped me out and the trend reversal was swift and strong.

Context changing to bull, start looking for long entries...

Trade 3: After a really long advance there was a two legged pullback to the EMA. Bought the High2 and action just sat in a tight range for over an hour. Given that we were in such a tight range I didn't have an opinion any longer on where price may take us. Figured there might be a false breakout that I'd be able to play, so I just exited my position at BE to wait for a more confident setup. Sure enough, the moment I sold price takes off so at this point I'm frustrated and call it a day. After revisiting the chapter of ranges tonight I realize I might have been OK keeping the position since the range was on the top side of the EMA, meaning a breakout up was more likely.





Points for the day: -2.5

For July:
ES: -0.25
NQ: +5.5

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  #25 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

One trade to write about today with both a scalp and swing portion to it...

Massive gap higher on the open today. Two legged correction down towards the EMA. Didn't quite reach it when the High2 showed up, but close enough so I went long with 2 contracts, getting filled at 2474. Immediately placed a limit order at 2475 to scalp a point for one contract and swung the other with a breakeven stop. A couple hours later I got out at the first lower low just as a pullback started. There were a few reasons for the exit really, none much stronger than the other: 1) We've already had at least two legs up, more like three, 2) Depending on how you drew the trendlines this was a wedge at the top, and you could also plot price as having just overshot the channel line (required a bit more imagination), 3) We were heading into the middle of the session which has been real dry of late, and 4) I was happy to pull 4pts out of a trade these days even though that wasn't explicitly a profit target.



Points: +4.75pts

For July:
ES: +4.5pts
NQ: +5.5pts

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  #26 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

No trades today - market was too tight for any entries in the morning and I just gave up on looking for the afternoon.

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  #27 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Only one trade to write about today as I only had a bit of time to sit in front of the computer.

This will also be my last journal entry for the July competition as I am going to be away tomorrow and Monday. I'd really appreciate votes for the competition here: . It's been a great experience this month being super rigorous with the process.

Trade #1 (+1pt):
I feel like a broken record writing about this trade. Gap open higher, two legged move down to the EMA. Buy the High2 with a stop at 2477.25, set a limit sell order for 2478.25.



Points for July
ES: +5.5
NQ: +5.5

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  #28 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

I've spent the past couple months trading NQ exclusively using naked charts and Al Brooks price action methods... Here were the results for the month of October. I keep everything in a spreadsheet these days - faster than typing posts on here I find, and my stats get collected at the same time which I need to do anyway.

Trades 19
Wins 12
Losses 7
Win % 63.16%
Loss % 36.84%
Avg Win 5.54
Avg Loss -5.79
Avg Risk for Wins 5.33
Avg Risk for Loss 5.5
Avg Risk 5.39
Win pts 66.5
Loss pts -40.5


Notes:
- The winrate seems a little high to be sustainable.
- Would like to get Avg Win > Avg Loss.
- Looking at the logs I see a couple examples that might explain this. Occasionally I'd exit before the profit target was hit because of something I saw on the charts (BE or small profit). In almost every example I ended up being wrong and the target was hit. On the flipside, I *never* exited before the stop was hit when things started moving against me. So... I always lose 1x Risk, but was not always making the ~2x Risk of my target.

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  #29 (permalink)
 
teamtc247's Avatar
 teamtc247 
Fairburn, Georgia
 
Experience: None
Posts: 980 since Dec 2012
Thanks Given: 644
Thanks Received: 1,116

Thanks for sharing, Teejay.

At one point in my trading, I was so fearful to put on trades and was filled with hesitation. I have a couple of journals on here; I was borderline nuts I guess I still am. I think it stemmed from not knowing what I was doing regarding technique. As there is so much BS out there on the web, books, and youtube full of S. I mean they are good to learn from, the theory that is. As years progressed, I still hesitate, but I think what helps is just pulling the trigger on valid setups holding to your targets and working towards being better every day. The more you do that, the more brain muscles you will make. Fall get back up rinse repeat. You will fall, I still fall, things will click, you'll make mistakes, and then you'll get back up and go at it again. I think folks often focus too much on the emotional aspects of things; I know I did. I think it's good to be aware; I am probably more aware than the common person. Tell yourself just to think technical, and everything will be alright. Trading opens your mind up and makes you question the mental conditioning you been indoctrinated with from birth. Anyways, keep moving forward, growing into that person you want to be. It may not be tomorrow, but that doesn't mean it can't be. One other thing that might help you grow is finding a good mentor that trades for a living. There are people out there that will help, and they aren't selling BS systems, and it won't cost you 5k up front. Just remember if it doesn't work in any time frame just say no. The last thing I will leave you with is "Get comfortable being uncomfortable." Bust out the Les Brown, Team Fearless, Eric Thomas, or anybody that motivates you. Keep grinding and keep hustling.






teajay View Post
In this instance of “Man, I suck at trading” we see how a lack of confidence can cause you to miss a good entrance, how getting married to an idea can cause problems, especially when you stop following your system and revenge trade. This was a pretty bad meltdown in terms of consistent errors made. I am writing about it as a way to review the mistakes and for accountability. In terms of impact on account balance, it was negligible - I was trading 100 units of SPY, so the damage was small despite the compounded errors. Just happy I wasn't doing this with ES or CL... :S

Yesterday SPY gaps open, and then does a nice drop back near the open. I like to monitor bounces like this and enter trades when a ‘V’ formation breaks back above the initial rally. In this case, that would have been an entry at 244.30 around 9:50am. I was distracted taking care of some family matters so missed my entry (should have been done via buy stop placed a couple pennies above the line anyway). A lack of confidence I’ve been experience these days kept me from jumping in at some point in the steady uphill climb to 245. Should have assumed the trend was intact and entered on any of the small pullbacks. Basic stuff...

Here's the chart, the horizontal line would have been an entry, and you can see all the nice retracements...




The resistance off 245 as a major round number was expected. I built a hypothesis that the action between 11am - 12pm seen on the 5 minute chart was a small consolidation/accumulation before we would take off again toward 245. Buy limit order placed on the 3rd bounce of the channel line and gets filled at 244.60. Place a stop loss at 244.48, so risking 12 for ~40.



Downward breakout of channel happens, stop gets hit, that’s ok… In hindsight, should have waited for the pattern breakout to form my opinion, think the nearby overhead resistance tempted me to enter the trade on the bottom of the formation. But here’s where a series of new mistakes begin.

1) I’m hung up on the fact that it was an upward trending day that had a strong gap open. Staying committed to my opinion and not willing to accept that the downward break\out may be indicative of a stronger correction. My mentality is strong in “find other buying opportunities"

2) Stopped following my system. It has me buying on oversold stochastics across multiple timeframes. These conditions are in fact true, however, I normally wait for the middle timeframe to start exiting oversold, which I don’t do here. Place another order at 244.50, and for reasons I can’t explain, fail to put in a stop. Things go sideways quickly as you can see in the 5-minute chart above and I finally bail out with a market order just below 244.00. That was just stupid.

3) Revenge trading / not willing to walk away - Convinced that things possibly can’t still be in a downtrend, I see a trend line on the 15 minute chart (below) that is about to be hit. Place another limit order on it that gets filled 243.40. Price blows below this line without even slowing down, so I exit at 243.30.



Walk away (as you can see I didn't continue drawing the trendlines for the rest of the session)...


Process oriented goals #1.
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Last Updated on January 18, 2018


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