Speaking of POT, I released 1.0.3 which adds paintbars. i got tired of drawing those circles.

Download: Pace of Tape This indicator will show the # of ticks in the last x seconds. At key turning points, professionals will start scaling in and/or reversing. This will cause an increase in the activity in terms of the number of ticks. When you get a peak, the reversal … personcunparis

First trade of the day, a quick dax scalp. This was almost a perfect setup, some buying came in so I took what I could get.

Notice that I'm not taking trades on every POT signal. that's really important. I really want to stress this. It's just a heads up. I was ready to take a signal around 4:05 but I never got a setup on the ladder so I just waited for a better setup which I finally got.

+150 euros

A quick explanation on the trade management:

My first target was at 7 and I moved it down 1 tick to get it filled.
Then I was patient but buyers came in and I wanted to take a 2nd off. If price hesitates I want to start getting out to protect the profit from my first target.
Then I put stop at BE. It almost got hit but no. Price moved down and more buying came in so I took profit on that one.

To manage these trades I'm watching:

- ladder
- DOM
- Time & Sales

A repeat of the first dax trade.

+100 euros

When POT signalled a long it was a reminder for me that it was time to take profits on the 3rd target. It went real fast so I didn't get out as fast as I wanted.

And again..

+83 euros

A trade from the TPO. The TPO is often early so I wait for a HH or LL confirmation. So far I've been breakeven but I'm learning how to use it.

+90 euros

You can see it has signaled a long, I got my buy stop in.

Double whammy trying to trade the top.

There is some story about a news release that was leaked an hour early, that's what could have caused the bottom. What's weird is there was very heavy buying at the top.

This will probably be the last trade on the dax. I finish +50 euros which is a shame because I started so well. Lets break today down:

Scalp P/L: 187 Euros 2.2 Profit Factor
Longer Trade: -200 Euros 0.47 Profit Factor

My analysis of today is that I should just focus on scalping. Let's see what this week's data says:

Scalp: 762 euros 6.08 PF
Longer trade: -800 euros 0.26 PF

On CL the performance is equal, about -$150 each.

That said I'm going to focus on scalping and I'm not going to go for any runners until my scalping is consistently profitable. I am confident that will not be too far away.

This is a process of self-discovery and I'm learning a lot every day. The journal is encouraging me to examine myself in much more detail, and hold me accountable for my mistakes.

Have you done this type of analysis? Have you compared scalping to longer-term day trades?

I haven't done the analysis for myself, but I would say it also depends on the market. Your results are from the last week, when the DAX has very tight spreads in morning sessions. Probably it is in context with the options expiration on friday. Should the spreads been larger, you could have got different results imho.

hinode 

I haven't done the analysis for myself, but I would say it also depends on the market. Your results are from the last week, when the DAX has very tight spreads in morning sessions. Probably it is in context with the options expiration on friday. Should the spreads been larger, you could have got different results imho.

This is a very good observation. The dax has been very tight lately. And that's another thing I've observed about my trading: I tend to do better when the market is cycling in a relatively small range.

We'll see how it goes next week after the dax rollover. On CL as I mentioned my p/l was the same for scalping and longer setups. Which supports your theory.

I finish the DAX only +75 EUR today. I screwed up early morning trades :-(