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Today ends the eight week after starting journaling. It was quite a restless week where I had to trade a couple of days after an appointment (on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) and I missed the first hour trading and could not prepare well. Just like the weeks before I did not do optimal but ended positive. When looking back on my trades I am still not very satisfied with my entries and exits. A little weird that I think my entries & exits are not good, or at least they should be a lot better, but still end up making profit. That's why I like to think there is a lot of room for improvement.
Despite the tilt day on Tuesday I ended the week with a profit of +41.75 pts ($83.50). Lower than previous week but still the fifth week in a row to end profitable. Expectancy is still positive. This month so far only two days ended with a loss (of which one major) and thirteen days ended with a profit.
For next week I intend to improve my entries & exits and just follow my rules.
Trade 1: Long for test high. No immediate follow through (2 bars sideways) and possible resistance above. In hindsight closed too early (0.50 pts)
Trade 2: Long BO. Entry is too early (away from ema20 and near Keltner-channel) and due for a PB. Closed on impulse up to 1H level (green line). Better wait for a PB long (3.50 pts)
Trade 6: Long 5m PB (Al Brooks H1). Trailing stop hit. Profit could have been more with a sell-lmt target order but trailed my stop for a possible bigger swing to next one hour level so gave up some profits (2.50 pts)
Trade 7: Long 5m PB (Al Brooks H2, 2-leg PB). Took profit near IBH and Keltner-channel. Market rallies 33.25 pts straight to the one hour level. I should have used a trailing stop here because this 5m H2 PB continuation had a much better chance (compared to trade 6) to reach the 1H level because price pulled back to 5m ema20 and this was also a BOF (clearly to see on the 1m) which trapped early shorts with buy stops above swing highs fueling the move up (6.00 pts).
Total for the day +30.50 pts ($61). (7 Winners / 0 Losers. Max MAE was 2.50 pts)
$61 may seem not a lot but one needs only $50 for margin to trade one lot MNQ. That's an 122% ROI. Or on a $1000 account it's still 6.1% in one day. This $61 also allows me to trade one extra lot from now on if I want it to. Like small losers add up to a considerable amount this is also the case with small winners.
Trade 1: Long 10s CPB for MR to 5m ema20 (-6.50 pts)
Trade 2: Re-entry (8.25 pts)
Trade 3: Long 10s PB for MR. Closed bc 4:00 pm eco news (4.75 pts)
Trade 4: Short 5m PB taken on 10s chart (5.25 pts)
Trade 5: Long CPB (and BO 5m triangle) (-0.25 pts)
Trade 6: Idem trade 5, long PB. Almost same situation as trade 5 (-3.00 pts)
Trade 7: Long CPB, just kept trying to find a long entry for a test of IBH (0 pts)
Trade 8: Long BOPB for a test of IBH (5.00 pts)
Total +13.50 pts.
Market is in a range, lot of BOs fail, lows get bought and highs sold. Fickle market! Not easy to trade, close my trades very quickly (win or lose). In this kind of market one can lose a lot of money and at the end the market has gone nowhere.
Trade 9: Long 10s PB for 5m Mean Reversion (MR). It was possible for the market to pullback to 5m ema20 but we just broke out to the downside on the 1H and there is room below so I closed this counter-trend trade near Keltner-channel and scalped a couple of points to secure a profit in under 30s. If it does pullback to 5m ema20 I really don't care and will look for a with-trend short entry (6.00 pts).
Total for the day +19.50 pts. (5 Winners / 3 Losers / 1 Breakeven)
"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out" - Robert Collier
Tough day. I scalped a lot for some small winners and losers trying to catch a decent swing. At one point I was down -15.25 pts and then up +5.25 pts. After 13 trades the score stood at break-even (0 pts). Not going very well. Then I hit 5 losers in a row. After 23 trades and 3.5 hours trading I was now down -20.75 pts. I decided to take a time-out and maybe quit for the day to prevent overtrading and tilt and eventually ending with a big loss.
After almost two hours I decided to take a mean reversion trade with only a small risk. I closed the trade for +5 pts to see it tank another 54.75 pts. One could say that today I've lost it on my winners. After that I did two more trades for a total of +9.50 pts. I am happy I was able to recover some of the losses and kept the total loss for the day limited.
Total for the day is -6.25 pts (12 W / 12 L / 2 BE)
"the only way you get a real education in the market is to invest cash, track your trade, and study your mistakes... It is emotionally difficult to review your mistakes, since the speculator must wade through his own bad trades and blunders. And these are not simple blunders; these are blunders that cost money. Anyone who has lost money by investing poorly knows how difficult it is to reexamine what occurred. The examination of a losing trade is tortuous but necessary to ensure that it will not happen again."
"Successful trading is always an emotional battle for the speculator, not an intelligent battle... A man must know himself thoroughly if he is going to make a good job out of trading"
1. Short PB (breakout triangle). No follow through (+3.00 pts)
2. Long BOF (bought low range for test high) (-5.50 pts)
3. Short BOPB. Closed too early (+5.00 pts)
4. Long PB (-5.25 pts)
5. Re-entry long PB (+6.00 pts)
6. Re-entry long PB (+8.75 pts)
