I'm creating a challenge for myself to see how far I can take it. I've put $1k of my own money into NT8 and looking to see if I can grow it to $100K. I won't be looking to do it in a day but my thought is that I'll get rewarded with more contracts to trade if I do this right and will punished with less contracts or even a $0 balance if I do it wrong.

Main focus will be on the NQ futures contract but will also look at oil, currency, and ag futures for opportunity. I like faster price action which is why NQ is my main focus and honestly I like RB futures over CL although the slippage is greater in RB. The advantage of CL for now is that it requires $1k in the account while RB requires $2K so I have some time before that becomes a consideration.

My main strategy is to highlight the daily trend and then review a 30 minute chart for support and resistance spots and then a 1 minute chart for entry / exit points. I've built some logic in Bloodhound from SharkIndicators to create my daily bias and then some intraday logic for some entry points on the 1 minute chart. Going forward here I'll likely create an AM summary of thoughts and then a PM trade summary of the day.

Community - feel free to join in on the fun. I'm all ears if you have advice or have some kind words on bad days. I'll also take bad words on bad days too.

Last point before I begin - If I'm able to make $1k in a short while then I may withdraw that so I'm playing with house money. I'll keep track of daily PnL and any withdrawals here so it can be considered 'legit'.

That said, let's get going!

NQ Daily: Logic says to look for long signals today. It's OPEX day so have to be careful on whipsaws and liquidation breaks. Buyers so far holding in the upper range of yesterday's session but sellers have come in around the 7980 level over the past week so we need to get over and hold above that hump. A stronger sell-off would break under the 50 DMA which has held as support 3-4 times this month depending on how you want to look at it (lime green MA in chart). Daily ATR is coming at 82 which would place the high / low ranges for the day at 8000 and 7836.

Question for Community - how do we insert pictures in this journal? I could only get it in as an attachment but I've seen people post pics in their post before. Thanks.

Boilmakrjs 

Question for Community - how do we insert pictures in this journal? I could only get it in as an attachment but I've seen people post pics in their post before. Thanks.

Up to a certain point it's the same process.

- Attachments button (paper clip icon) -> Manage Attachments window

- Choose File

- Upload file. File will now show in "Current Attachments" section of the Manage Attachments window, half-way down.

- Now the secret trick: Click the "Embed" button in "Current Attachments.". A link will be placed in your post at the current cursor position, and that's where the image will appear when you hit Preview or Submit Reply.

That's it.

Bob.

bobwest 

Up to a certain point it's the same process. - Attachments button (paper clip icon) -> Manage Attachments window - Choose File - Upload file. File will now show in "Current Attachments" section of the Manage Attachments window, half-way down. - Now the secret trick: Click the "Embed" button in "Current Attachments.". A link will be placed in your post at the current cursor position, and that's where the image will appear when you hit Preview or Submit Reply. That's it. Bob.

Thanks I'll give it a try!

No trades today and given this big sell-off in stocks it looks like that will remain the case going into the weekend and my daily chart went to 'no signal' around 10:30 as price was breaking down before the sharp sell-off.

7800 continues to look like the 'line in the sand' for September as today's immediate sell-off stopped short of breaking through it (chart attached).

If price action continues to break down early next week then it could be the case that the daily chart will turn into a sell signal. Hard to gauge with all the whipsawing of price on any trade war headlines that come through. Sellers back at the 7980 level are now starting to get paid as well and a break under the 50 DMA could see some capitulation from people who got long there early in the month. For now we're in a range trade after breaking out from the August

You can't control result, you can control your actions.
Put you focus on process.

Tomorrow I will do :

1.
2.
3.

And when tomorrow ends you have done 1,2 and 3.

Bulls were able to hold support at the top end of the August 'chop range' on Friday and are holding above it again overnight although they've given up initial gains from the Sunday open. Daily logic still says to hold off on new positions after bears broke down the highs on Friday. Will likely be a volatile week with month / quarter end coming up and trade talk a constant factor.

I would expect price action to get more bearish if we break back in that August chop range and I would look for shorts if we do break back into that zone. For now the market still seems to be consolidating the breakout to the upside for the month with bulls holding onto 7800.

Daily NQ ATR is shown to be 107 which puts the high end at 7937 and the low end at 7723.

May be another no trade day which doesn't put a lot of excitement in this journal so far. Slowly but surely...

No trades taken again today as the daily logic said to stay out. There was a buying opportunity right above 7800 but I didn't take it as the logic said no and there was potential for a bigger liquidation break if 7800 was indeed broken. Still expect to see some good sized chop / volatility as the end of the quarter approaches but today wasn't the day.




Taking some time for some intraday review - I like to look at how prices reacts to the opening day range. I use the first hour of the day (9:30 - 10:30 AM) which may be a little too long for some. Today we had price break out of that opening range high going into the EU close and we'll see the top end of the range holds as support going into the close. If so then I think that will set up a nice rally day tomorrow especially since people selling this market can't break 7800.




Still a boring journal entry. Here's hoping for a trade or two that I can write about this week...

Sometimes I feel like I should sleep during the day and trade at night to catch the big moves instead of the chop. Anyway, bulls were able to hold onto the top end of the opening range for the most part at yesterday's close and then we had the magic lift-off toward 7900 shortly after the evening open. I was feeling that today would be bullish given the hold above 7800 during the yesterday's session and then the move to opening range highs after the EU close but we may have taken a lot of the juice out already. Plan today is to see if bulls can recapture those highs and move forward but I may be more on the side of taking a reversal trade if they fail around the 7900 level again. I'll need to see confirming evidence from RSI (move back under 70 if overbought) and a lower high on the cumulative delta in order to take any short trades.



Daily bias - the chart still shows 'no signal' which is also pushing me to maybe attempt some reversal trades today. We are still in the middle of the consolidation range of the August break-out and we could easily push to either side of the range with some trade headlines as we go into month / quarter end. It will likely take a nice strong push to the upside in order to get the daily bias to turn green again so let's see what the bulls can do today.

No trades again today. The plan was to try a reversal if bulls failed around the 7900 mark - which actually happened - but unfortunately I got pulled away from the desk and by the time I got back she was already gone. I could've followed the market lower but the move seemed to be violent and I have learned that my stops typically get taken out quickly during these news headline drops so instead I just watched the market the rest of the afternoon.

Daily Bias - still shows 'no position'. For me it seems to be working well as it kept me out of the chop so far and also put my bias on the short side today if there was a failure of the bulls to take us back to the upside. The daily bias is likely going to turn red soon if bulls don't pull back up quickly which was a condition I was worried about when I first started this journal. On a technical note, we have now broken back in the August 'chop range' (highlighted in the yellow dash lines) and the target would be to hit the bottom end of the range near 7400 which is also almost right in line with the 200 DMA (salmon colored line). If bulls can jump back out of the range to the upside in the near future then that could prove to be a very bullish sign and would like to take longs there.

I'm also including a snapshot of the account size just as something else I can keep track of as I go through the process. Note that I'm slightly over $1000 as I added a bit more only in the case there were some fees taken along the way.