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I took two trades on ES, one during Sunday evening session and one during globex this morning before heading into work. The result was 1 winner and one loser, -7t.
Trade 1: Thought that there was a reversal at 1605 and entered on a nice bull bar at 1705. However, bears sold it down immediately with the 1705 bar. I thought that I might get away with my poor timing where it looked like a double bottom with the 1715 bar. But no real follow through on a tiny rally and I was stopped out for -12t after a selloff.
Trade 2: The bears came in with urgency at 445 and I was looking for a good place to short. I took a short at 535 and I was on follow through watch. The bears went away over the next few bars and I covered on bull weakness at 610.
Lessons learned:
1. I Need to be a little more patient with setups. There was a sweet higher low long setup made at 1845 that preceded a sweet rally. The setup I took was actually marginal at best (probably poor in actuality).
I'm a little behind on journaling due to work. In fact, I have only been able to squeeze in a few trades here and there because I have been run ragged. I do construction inspections for an engineering consulting firm, so the billable hours come feast or famine style. Meaning, sometimes I get to trade a bit and other times I don't (or shouldn't).
On March 19 (Tuesday) I placed four trades during globex session. 3 losers, 1 winner (more like a scratch), for -19t.
Trade 1: I guess I woke up hell bent on two things. 1-fading that overnight rally and 2-breaking rules. Momentum was slowing up and I thought it would be a good idea to jump the gun on fading a lower-high--even though one hadn't been made yet!! -7t.
Trades 2,3: More rule breaking. I'm not really at the point in my trading career where I should be trading expanding triangle trading ranges. But there I was, doing just that. And it went as it should. -13t.
Trade 4: The best set-up of four bad setups. After strong selling up above the EMA I entered short. After a cool one tick profit, I left for work, psyche shattered. +1t.
Lessons learned:
1. Rules are a bulwark to protect against rampant idiocy. Respect them. Later that night I went over my trading plan and reviewed rules and acceptable setups to take. It was a good review, should I ever decide to trade the plan again...
This trade occurred during the evening session of March 19, but it hits the books March 20. 1 loser, -5t.
This was a good setup. There was a reversal off a double bottom so I joined it at an OK spot. I was a little farther from the EMA than I would prefer but it was OK. I entered and then immediately got stopped out at a one tick loss!! I had been tinkering with ATM. So this was a mistake. I got back into the trade. However, I again got out too early. There was a slight pull back and the ES was bid up a little overnight.
Trade 1: Double bottom reversal from globex. I put a limit order in during the 610 bar and did not get filled. Steamed for two bars and decided to wait for the open before trading. Open-drive price action and took a f#@$-it style entry at 645. +24t.
Trade 2: Nice trend in process. Market order entry after a 2-legged pullback for a little scalp before having to go to work, +11t.
Lessons learned:
1. Sometimes it is better to get in with a market order.
For what it's worth, and don't take me as a model by any means, with a market order you will always get in, and almost always have a little slippage. With a limit order you will get the exact price you want, if you get in, but you may not get in the trade at all.
Generally when traders are trading for a reversal off a s/r level, especially when trading inside a somewhat tight range, where there may not be much room to accept much slippage, they will use a limit order and let the trade go if they don't get it. Generally when traders think they have a bigger move or a trend move going, they will prefer to just be sure they are in it and will accept a few ticks of slippage because they are willing to have a less-than-perfect entry, just so long as they have one. This will work if the move is big(-ish), but it won't if it isn't, so you need to weigh these things against each other.
I for one always just use market orders, but I don't trade against the market very well; I prefer to go with it. This does not always work out, of course.
In this case BW, I tried to use a limit order to enter in the direction of the market. WTF? Classic Salao maneuver. Sometimes I feel like my journal reads more like a trader blooper reel . I suppose I was trying to grab an extra tick or two. In the process I had forfeited a trade that actually had a really favorable expectation (in my humble neophyte estimation). I can't afford to do that my friend.
4 trades taken on ES, 1 winner and 3 losers for -47t. The damage was done quickly in what became a comedy of error and the piper was paid.
Trade 1: Not a terrible entry but not terribly good either. I entered in the direction of the globex trend at 540 after. But bull bar at 545 pretty much signaled the end of selling, for a bit anyway.
Trade 2: Why not enter long (555)? A few closes above the MA. Seems strong. Trading range type price action for the next few bars. Maybe not so strong...exited.
Trade 3: I was pretty certain that the first hour or so would develop into a trading range so I set the stop wide and I was determined to let things develop. No trading range, just a sell off. This trade was a massive rule violation as well.
Trade 4: I entered in the direction of the trend and had chance to make back some, or all, of my losses today. But there was a pull back to the MA right before I had to go to work. So I closed with only a few ticks profit. I suppose I could have left this on as I went to work...
Lessons learned:
1. Greek-tragedy style over confidence from yesterday. I was confused by the early morning price action. Overconfidence led me to make poor decisions, when I should have just taken the morning off. Emotional/Mental awareness, across multiple domains, have always been my achilles heel...to borrow from the greek-tragedy world...
. +1t. 
