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Breakout Journal - a journey to full time trading


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Breakout Journal - a journey to full time trading

  #651 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
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Silver Dragon View Post
I had a chance to place a trade earlier in the day. This was a low risk trade (IMO). Price was rejected twice on the upper trend line. I took the short. I added the the position but I think I added too late. (I think). News came out and pushed prices lower, near the lower trend line. Decided to get out there because price was moved by volatility instead of normal price action.

I did not have a target in place for this trade. I honestly didnt think price would get there as quickly as it did.

On my list to learn: How to scale into a position.

Robert




Just suggestions....

I think add on's should be at locations you would otherwise like to initiate a new position if you weren't already in one. Or you can add to it on breaks of significant levels......

Here's a chart with three possibles...


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris

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  #652 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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PandaWarrior View Post
Just suggestions....

I think add on's should be at locations you would otherwise like to initiate a new position if you weren't already in one. Or you can add to it on breaks of significant levels......

Here's a chart with three possibles...


Thanks Brian! This makes sense. Interestingly, when you highlight the suggested entry points I can see it.. but take the arrows off the chart and I am clueless. Clearly, I am newbie!

Found this while searching the webinars:


Going to start with this and your comments and begin the learning process.

Robert

nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
  #653 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
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Silver Dragon View Post
Thanks Brian! This makes sense. Interestingly, when you highlight the suggested entry points I can see it.. but take the arrows off the chart and I am clueless. Clearly, I am newbie!

Found this while searching the webinars:


Going to start with this and your comments and begin the learning process.

Robert

hmmmm, didnt know he'd done a webinar like this....I might watch it tomorrow just to see....but I'm not an Al Brooks fan as such at least in terms of his teaching style....(boring) but still, hopefully there's some value there.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #654 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
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No trades tonight. Price is coming to the end of a flag pattern, not much movement. Looking to enter a longer term trade if it breaks out.

Robert





nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
  #655 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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Yesterday I took a live trade. I wanted to make sure my account was setup correctly and orders were going through properly before starting next week.

Trade went as planned. The entry was slightly late (a couple of ticks) but the target was spot on. Had this trade been in the middle of the week I would have held through the close because I felt price could have made it back to the middle of the range. Instead I took a profit where I thought price would pause. There is to much going in the world to risk holding through the weekend.

On the Daily chart; Price has broken out of both sides of the flag formation. We are now in a range; 8850 is the upper end of the range and 8650 is the lower end of the range.




nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
  #656 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
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My self evaluation before starting live trading.

I will be starting my live trading next week. Below is my self evaluation of where I am at.

High Level
I have confidence going into next week. I am nervous, but its not the fear which has plagued me in the past. Not worrying about how much profit I want or have to make has taken a huge weight off my shoulders. This has allowed my to take good trades without hesitation. I now have setups I believe in. This has helped overcome my hesitation and second guessing when taking trades.

My Edge
I have one! So here is mine: I believe in my setups and that over time they give me clues to the direction of the market and allow me to take advantage of price movement.

Goals:
My first goal is to gain confidence and take trades consistently. This will be my foundation. The next goal is to try different types of trades and increase size with scaling in and out. Once these goals are reached I will re-evaluate where I am at and determine the next steps.

Old Habits
This week I felt myself falling back into old habits; wanting to change my charts; wanting to rush into longer term trades(wanting to change!!); worrying about being right. For the moment, I have squashed these emotions.

Doing too much!
One of my biggest faults is getting totally immersed in whatever it is I am doing. I tend to go full steam ahead learning as much as possible. This leads to changing and adding things to the original process as I go. The downside to this is I never give my original idea enough time to see if it even works before I start modifying the process. The last two days I have spent hours trying to enhance my setups. I stopped this immediately when I realized what I was doing.

What I am learning
  • Scaling in and out of positions
  • Letting trades run
  • Better stop placement
  • Short term and long term trades; trades lasting several days to several weeks.

Best trades I have taken:
  • I had entry rules defined
  • I waited for the setup.
  • I diagnosed the market prior to taking the trade.
  • Before taking the trade I listed out the What, How and Why I was taking the trade.

Worst trades I have taken:
  • Trades where I did not define the "Why" I was taking the trade.
  • Trades where I ignored my instinct.
  • Trades where I ignored my rules

Trade entry types which are working:.

Trade entries which are not working:
  • Break of support / resistance. I tested several trades this week and they failed miserably. I had no confidence in these trades.

Conclusion;
When taking trades where I believe in the setups I have a much better outcome. Defining "Why" I am taking the trade keeps me from making a emotional decision. If I cannot write down why I am taking the trade then I should not be taking the trade.

Robert

nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
  #657 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
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Silver Dragon View Post
My self evaluation before starting live trading.



I will be starting my live trading next week. Below is my self evaluation of where I am at.



High Level

I have confidence going into next week. I am nervous, but its not the fear which has plagued me in the past. Not worrying about how much profit I want or have to make has taken a huge weight off my shoulders. This has allowed my to take good trades without hesitation. I now have setups I believe in. This has helped overcome my hesitation and second guessing when taking trades.



My Edge

I have one! So here is mine: I believe in my setups and that over time they give me clues to the direction of the market and allow me to take advantage of price movement.



Goals:

My first goal is to gain confidence and take trades consistently. This will be my foundation. The next goal is to try different types of trades and increase size with scaling in and out. Once these goals are reached I will re-evaluate where I am at and determine the next steps.



Old Habits

This week I felt myself falling back into old habits; wanting to change my charts; wanting to rush into longer term trades(wanting to change!!); worrying about being right. For the moment, I have squashed these emotions.



Doing too much!

One of my biggest faults is getting totally immersed in whatever it is I am doing. I tend to go full steam ahead learning as much as possible. This leads to changing and adding things to the original process as I go. The downside to this is I never give my original idea enough time to see if it even works before I start modifying the process. The last two days I have spent hours trying to enhance my setups. I stopped this immediately when I realized what I was doing.



What I am learning
  • Scaling in and out of positions
  • Letting trades run
  • Better stop placement
  • Short term and long term trades; trades lasting several days to several weeks.



Best trades I have taken:
  • I had entry rules defined
  • I waited for the setup.
  • I diagnosed the market prior to taking the trade.
  • Before taking the trade I listed out the What, How and Why I was taking the trade.



Worst trades I have taken:
  • Trades where I did not define the "Why" I was taking the trade.
  • Trades where I ignored my instinct.
  • Trades where I ignored my rules



Trade entry types which are working:
.



Trade entries which are not working:
  • Break of support / resistance. I tested several trades this week and they failed miserably. I had no confidence in these trades.



Conclusion;

When taking trades where I believe in the setups I have a much better outcome. Defining "Why" I am taking the trade keeps me from making a emotional decision. If I cannot write down why I am taking the trade then I should not be taking the trade.



Robert


Robert,

I think your there....it's been methodical, well thought out process to get back live.....

If you don't mind, could you reply to this post with 2-3 examples of the break trades that failed? I would like to see how you approach this and perhaps offer an outside view in either why they failed or perhaps a different way to approaching this to test in the future.

All around excellent job!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
  #658 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
Legendary Master Data Manipulator
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TastyWorks / NT
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PandaWarrior View Post
Robert,

I think your there....it's been methodical, well thought out process to get back live.....

If you don't mind, could you reply to this post with 2-3 examples of the break trades that failed? I would like to see how you approach this and perhaps offer an outside view in either why they failed or perhaps a different way to approaching this to test in the future.

All around excellent job!

@PandaWarrior

Brian,

Thanks for the feedback!

Below is an example of a trend line / support break. Perhaps I should have waited for price to close below the support and lower channel line.

Robert




nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread
Thanked by:
  #659 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404


Silver Dragon View Post
@PandaWarrior

Brian,

Thanks for the feedback!

Below is an example of a trend line / support break. Perhaps I should have waited for price to close below the support and lower channel line.

Robert




Ok so these trades you've shown used to drive me nuts...the support or resistance was in fact broken....but what I noticed was this....IF you enter the way you did in these trades, you should use a reasonably small stop.....because these are often head fakes just enough to take out stops, trap people in the wrong way and then head back the other way....

But the for me, the correct way is to wait for a close of the bar BELOW the support, and then look for a lower risk entry after that....

Some including me have an entry of the break of the bar that closes below the support....or a BOB trade....break of the bar....

Another way to do this is to wait for the close below support, wait for a pull back to the support and enter on a limit order at that price.....this seems to work pretty well.....

hope this helps a bit.....

Here's an example from Friday.


Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
  #660 (permalink)
 
Silver Dragon's Avatar
 Silver Dragon 
Cincinnati Ohio
Legendary Master Data Manipulator
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TastyWorks / NT
Broker: TastyWorks /NT
Trading: FX, Stocks, Options
Posts: 2,107 since Feb 2011
Thanks Given: 6,422
Thanks Received: 5,238


Below is the first trade of the week. Lost 5 ticks on the trade. I did not let the trade develop as it should. Price is currently nearing my original profit target.

I am debating if I am going to continue to post nightly. I may do it once a week. My judgement was clouded tonight because I wanted my first trade "posted" to be a win. I need to remove this from the equation. Prior to this week I have not even thought about it.


nosce te ipsum

You make your own opportunities in life.
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread

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Last Updated on February 2, 2015


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