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Zimmer's Journal: Naked Chart Reading


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Zimmer's Journal: Naked Chart Reading

  #211 (permalink)
 
mtzimmer1's Avatar
 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
Recovering Method Hopper
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TOS
Broker: TD Ameritrade
Trading: Equities, Treasuries, Gold
Posts: 840 since Dec 2018
Thanks Given: 2,201
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FDX gapped down big and then started moving lower aggressively off the open. The broad market advance-decline was moving lower as well. I only consider shorts at this point. Price hits my target line from 3 Year low and I take half off. I am willing to give back half of my profits to give myself the chance of a larger breakdown trade. I end up getting tagged at break even after the FOMC meeting. Accidentally buy to cover 150 so then sell 100 to get flat.



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  #212 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
Recovering Method Hopper
 
Experience: Intermediate
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When I have the long basket in play, this is where I'd be selling a SPY call. $ADSPD divergence in the area of interest to sell, at the recent high.


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  #213 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
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Experience: Intermediate
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ES poised in a range. Overnight low tested the POC from two weeks ago which happened to coincide with a RTH low from last week Wednesday. We now have three important levels all stacked within 1 point of each other. I don't have a directional bias on this open but anticipate that we will either test Y_VWAP or the ONL as the first move of the day. What happens at those levels will determine my bias for the session. If we break through the ONL/POC/RTH low level to the downside with support from internals, then I expect a swift extended bearish move. If we break small, and then trade back above the cluster of levels I will anticipate further bullish participation, possibly to test the region of Y_VWAP and ONH.



I will likely be trading equities today if I see anything I like. I will reference ES and only look for trades in the direction that the broad market seems to be headed towards.

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  #214 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
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Experience: Intermediate
Platform: TOS
Broker: TD Ameritrade
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Once the market opened and internals turned positive, my plan and expectation was for ES to trade up to the ONH and Y_VWAP. I began looking for long trades and found this entry in MO.


Now there are a number of great things about this trade and a great deal I can learn from it. Lets start with the good.
-My entry was, dare-I-say, perfect. Trade went against me by 1 cent.
-My first target was hit and I took half off, also good.

Now for the not so good:
-I did not rebuy on the retracement because I still have yet to break the mentality of "once you buy, you're a seller." In this case and many others, it would pay nicely to add to winning positions rather than reducing exposure.
-I was committed to my second target and refused to close the trade 8 cents shy of target when I clearly noted a large volume order and price holding beneath the large volume. I thought to myself, "hmm that looks like a large seller entering the market." I did not act on this thought because we had not hit my target, which is the area that selling would make sense to me.
-Because of this decision to hold I ended up riding the stock back down below my first target, expecting a bounce at VWAP, and eventually took the trade off because I was just done with trading for the day.

Takeaways:
-Locked in profits are only a bad thing if the decision is emotionally driven. If there is a real reason to take risk off, then take the risk off, regardless of if we have hit target or not.
-Short-duration trades may be better for my personality as I tend to lose interest when holding for multiple hours.
-Locking in profits on an initial move in favor, followed by adding to my position on the next pullback may be a good method to employ in the futures.

Second Trade: TGT
I still have yet to write down my new ruleset, as I have been trading somewhat "discretionally" recently. I thought that one good trade per day would be a good idea and then I began to feel FOMO while waiting for MO to do something. I began to look for more trades. I found a few good setups in TGT, and let them pass. Finally the trade I took was the loser. No harm done, as I am keeping size small, but plenty to learn from the experience.

First Entry:

Result:

There was another leg up that I didn't screenshot but you will see it in the next screenshot which contains my trade.
My Trade:

Takeaways:
-Stocks moving up like rocketships eventually have to fall.
-If I feel that I have missed the move then I probably have.
-Don't enter late in the move.

Solid day of trading. I will keep feeling this new style out with discretionary trades and eventually will formulate a playbook of rule-based signals. Once I feel 'established' I will begin my Elite Journal, and that is where the real magic is going to happen.

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  #215 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
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Experience: Intermediate
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Overnight, ES tested the POC from two weeks ago. ONL falls right on Y_High meaning we have tested the Y_High in the overnight session. My bias is neutral and I will wait to see how the session develops.

My first levels to be tested are the ONH and ONL. If we breakout from either of those we have extended targets on both sides. Bullish targets will be RTH high from Friday. Bearish targets will be Y_VWAP. As usual, I will trade equities in the direction that the market is showing strength.


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  #216 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
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Market began to trend lower aggressively. I was eager and entered a short on CAT with a tight stop. Reward:Risk was 10:1, so the loss is not unexpected nor a 'bad' thing.



TGT was the next entry. I was trading the smaller swing with a larger position. The other option, and what actually played out was the larger swing. If I had taken that trade with my stop beyond the larger swing, I would have had a profitable trade with MUCH smaller size on. Reward:Risk was 3:1 on this one. Honestly I did not even consider the larger swing as a possibility at the time. Probably a reminder to always expand my timeframe and be aware of other possibilities.



Finally the breadwinner, short INTC. The only problem with this trade is that I did not add to it where I definitely should have. I could have kept my risk the same at the noted level and tripled my position size. This was immediately before the big drop. Now for how I mismanaged this trade, just like MO yesterday: I was swinging for the fenced and did not take any off at my level because it hadn't hit my 2nd target yet. This would have been a fine practice IF I had added to my position where I should have. If I had added, then I would have been able to take some of the position off at the first target, and still had plenty left on for the larger swing which I would have held overnight most likely for the 49 target. Main takeaway here, just like yesterday is to be aggressive with my entries/adds on trades going in favor. Once I open a trade, and it begins to work, my objective is to ADD, NOT reduce exposure until I hit saturation or there becomes a reason to exit. Tight initial stops to take me out of trades that are not going to work right away, because I have found that my largest winning trades take little/no heat.

The last exit on INTC was a mistake. I had to leave at 2pm to pick my brother up, and during that time some news came out that sent the market higher. When I checked my phone I cursed and closed the trade, accidentally selling, hence the -400, followed by the +800 to close. Of course, in hindsight that was the worst place to close, as we sold off and tested LOD again. Unfortunately I was on my way to do a job and didn't have time to manage the trade better. In the future I would like to decrease my trade duration, and simply aim to capture the meat of the move.

Despite the poor management and lack of adding, this trade still covered both of the aforementioned losses. Net scratch on the day, but my longer-term short on Russell did quite nicely today!



Cheers, MZ


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  #217 (permalink)
 
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 mtzimmer1 
Upstate NY
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Hi all!

Today is my last day as an employee at my current corporation. In less than one weeks time, my girlfriend and I will be leaving on a 2-3 month trip down the east coast of The United States. The trip is equal parts leisure and location scouting. With any luck we'll find an area that we can envision calling 'home' for a couple of years. To all my U.S. friends, any can't-miss places on the east coast?


With that said, I will be putting my day-trading career on hold. One thing I have learned about myself throughout this learning process is that I have a difficult time detaching. If I was consistently banking money every week, it would be a different story. I am break-even at best, and for that reason feel that trading would just distract me from the intent of this trip and detract from the whole experience.

I love trading, and know that it is what I want to do for a living. This three month break should serve as a nice 'recharge' for that passion. When I return, I will start a new journal in the Elite Section and figure out how to make the market my personal ATM machine.

I will continue updating my new automated trading journal as the time investment is approximately 15-20 minutes per day. Additionally, I have zero emotional response to the results of my automated trading because it is backtested and I believe in the system(s). I feel that taking 15-20 minutes a day to manage these positions will not distract me from my vacation!

With all that said,
I want to add a big THANK YOU to everyone who participates on this site and especially to those who have commented on my journal here! See y'all in 2020!


-Zimmer

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Last Updated on September 30, 2019


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