papa15 

Az I have had these kinds of days, too many times to count. Taking time off to clear your head is the best solution. Just remember what Dr Rotella talks about in staying in the present and having a selective memory......

Thanks.....it means a great deal to know others have experienced the same mental errors....

I went for a bike ride soon after I closed down the charts. I used the time to verbally vent my frustrations at both myself and the mistakes. As I rode and vented, the anger and frustration flowed out and the sense that this is just a passing issue flowed in. I knew as I rode that venting was the right thing to do....not internalizing it and using it to second guess myself or ascribe some kind of self worth to the episode.

Slowly the feelings passed and I began to see it for what it was, just a couple of mistakes and then I began to affirm myself and the fact that I do what I am doing in terms of finding the right set ups, executing them properly and patiently waiting for the trade to play out.

Tomorrow is a new day, a new set of opportunities and a new chance to prove myself once again in the competitive sport that is trading. The nice thing is I do not have to beat anyone else besides myself. I compete against myself for the right to declare victory......... and I get to decide when I have either won or lost.....and today, I did win a small battle....

After the first missed trade at the very top of the sell off, I began to be tempted to chase. I did not but I did try to fade the move....first mistake.....then after that stopped out, the old feelings from last year's revenge trading episode moved in on me......I recognized that feeling straight away and just got up and walked away.....I continued to trade poorly but I recognized the revenge trading feelings immediately and was able to nip that in the bud.....so a small but important victory for me today in the midst of a losing day.

Morning after trend day and inventory report. I was pretty certain today would be a consolidation day. And the morning certainly was. However, the inventory report seemed to cause a spike in the wrong direction and so I just stood down.

All in all, I made 3 trades, one BE and the 2 twenty tick winners for a total of 40 ticks today.

I now have two valid methods I can trade. My normal range bar set ups which I have modified slightly to include color changing MAs. And a slight modification of the @MWinfrey method. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at it, trading it in sim and this last week trading it for real and have decided I like it very much.....my modification of it is not worth mentioning the details of due to the extremely minor change I made....suffice to say, it is slightly more aggressive than his. I simply do not require the wick of the candle to pierce the MA. Touching or even almost touching is enough for me.....assuming we have met the remainder of the rules......

I will be trading both methods over the next few days and I may or may not end up on just one. Today the 5Min chart was quite choppy and produced very little trade opportunities this morning while the range bar method produced several within the 5Min chop.....I did not trade them but just watched.....and concluded if a valid set up occurs on the range bar, I will take it and same with the 5Min. I like them both.

Thats it for today.

aztrader9 

Morning after trend day and inventory report. I was pretty certain today would be a consolidation day. And the morning certainly was. However, the inventory report seemed to cause a spike in the wrong direction and so I just stood down. All in all, I made 3 trades, one BE and the 2 twenty tick winners for a total of 40 ticks today. I now have two valid methods I can trade. My normal range bar set ups which I have modified slightly to include color changing MAs. And a slight modification of the @MWinfrey method. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at it, trading it in sim and this last week trading it for real and have decided I like it very much.....my modification of it is not worth mentioning the details of due to the extremely minor change I made....suffice to say, it is slightly more aggressive than his. I simply do not require the wick of the candle to pierce the MA. Touching or even almost touching is enough for me.....assuming we have met the remainder of the rules...... I will be trading both methods over the next few days and I may or may not end up on just one. Today the 5Min chart was quite choppy and produced very little trade opportunities this morning while the range bar method produced several within the 5Min chop.....I did not trade them but just watched.....and concluded if a valid set up occurs on the range bar, I will take it and same with the 5Min. I like them both. Thats it for today.

Yes, Yes!!! a range chart with the 5 minute!!! Trading nirvana!!!

A good day for me overall.

I missed a great entry due to hesitation and vowed I would not do that again today.

I traded as well I think I have in a several weeks today. Only one small loser. -2 ticks....I got in, it stalled and I felt like it was over, so I just bailed. Then entered again at almost the same price later on in the same direction. The first trade would have stopped out anyway and the second was a pull back on a break of a resistance zone....

Overall, I am very happy with my discipline today. I did take profits early on two trades right toward the end of the day but I did that on purpose....I was getting close to 50 ticks per contract of net profit and was unwilling to let any slip away from me in the slower pace of the action near the close. So two smaller trades that both paid a full 20 ticks but no matter....I got what I came for.

I used a 5M chart to gauge my entry area and then entered on a 12 range bar chart. It worked to near perfection today.

Cheers....

Awesome ! , Congrats

Not much to report today. Early on I was undecided about what direction to go, so had a missed trade and then price ran away from me so just sat it out.

Then had to be out of the office for a bit and then I ended up on skype talking to my best friends wife about his cancer.

I took a couple of trades during that period but nothing special.

No charts today as I don't feel like it after my conversation with her.....

Sorry about your friend, AZ...Hope things work out as well as can be expected.

H

I missed a trade at the open and then waited patiently for the next one.

I give myself an A today for following rules, sizing, stop placement, etc....all for naught. I had three losers and one winner and hit my daily stop. Every trade had some profit at one point and they went for losers.....such is trading.

No chart today since I am sure you know what a CL chart looks like today...very nasty.

I did mark some trades after the stop was hit to just see how I would have fared had I kept trading and it was really no better than before....just more commissions....so glad i stopped.

Here's hoping tomorrow has better follow through.

HI az,

Did your trading performance make your trading account grow?

Spent the day back and forth between the 5 min chart and the range chart. Ended up taking most trades off the range chart today but using the 5Min as the filter for the most part.

Was back and forth early and then got a string of winners to finish the day nicely profitable. +54 ticks net.

My only real mistake today was using a smaller target instead of my normal 20 tick target. To be honest, I was a little gun shy after so many signals yesterday resulted in a string of losses. So I did go in conservative on my targets and that was not justified today.

I got up early yesterday to start exercising again and I went to bed a half hour later than normal so I paid for the schedule change by oversleeping a bit today and so got to the charts late and missed the normal premarket move between 5:15 and 5:30 AM. I don't always take this trade but it shows up almost every day.

Tomorrows plan is back to holding for 20.


Cheers