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Market wasn't good for my trading method, yesterday was better but I barely had setups, I had one good and all others were mediocre, and it shows. I have my live account with Patak already but yet to make any trades in it, as I can't see good opportunities.
My trade log
I was giving much thought about how to better keep my trading journal, made an attempt to add setup screen shots into a spreadsheet but it's not convenient and useless when printed as it is not possible to see anything. So I will resume keeping my trading journal here in blog format. I will make an effort to comment on every trade with accompanying screenshot.
The only real good trade day before yesterday, good level proximity (magnetism) and quick buildup with lots of pressure on DOM. There was another potentially good trade when pushed HOD, but I bailed too quickly and then made an attempt to jump in again, only to lose twice. This is an important lesson to learn - you can enter the same river only once! I was stalking a good setup for the whole afternoon but it never came to play. Only after market reopened late into O/N session it did play for 100 ticks. It happens.
Trades overview from yesterday. Again, just one good trade, and multiple of break evens and few fails.
First trade went my way but reversed very quickly. The entry pattern was there but no strong level or favorable volume profile shape, I just relied on downward direction. I got hit by trailing 6 ticks stop , had I have manual trailing with my concept of moving stop after retests/moves, I would be likely safe. I reverted to manual trailing after that.
Second trade went very well, I did not anticipate such a big move so had my default target, it could yield much more that 12 ticks. There we had a combination of LVN, VWAP and previous swing high with s tiny consolidation and considerable pressure on DOM.
Here it was a decent attempt, no strong levels but very nice consolidation, it was just that market has died after triggering my entry. I moved to BE+1 but it slipped me back to BE.
I have missed this excellent setup by mere sub-second, I was waiting for a formation of mini-range with a mouse hovering over the price note and hit it only as price raced up so my entry was invalid. But there was no strong premise to enter earlier as formation only built up as it moved.
Here I was worried about next mini swing high in just 5 ticks from my entry and was right about it. Closed trade manually as it made few ticks into black and reversed quickly. In hindsight it gave a chance to close at BE later but that would be a pure gamble. Right call to close. Should not enter it at all.
This setup was ok, no strong level but there were good signs of reversal and it could make a good trade. Unfortunately market became very sketchy by this time so I had to do some damage limitation once it turned to be a fake out.
Overall conclusion - strategy is good, risk and targets are good, it just I have to be much more selective in this holiday market. No big damage this week, but I am not in a business of bleeding accounts slowly either. Will focus on taking only the best trades.
I'm glad you guys find it helpful. It is helpful for myself too.
Today I wasn't expecting much and rightly so. LOL. Wait! Actually it was ok. I did only 2 trades and given the day and mostly ranging price action with lots of back and fill, this type of day is easy to get choppen for sticks.
I traded live on T4 today for the first time. I am glad that slippage wasn't dramatic despite a fast move, it is definitely tradeable. I only feel sorry I got in 12 ticks, I originally set a target for 20 but somehow I pulled all orders when got flat on my first trade that came at break even and when I resent order I did not change the default 12 ticks.
Still the risk-reward was very good.
Trades today (practice)
This is a day's overview. Lots of move on chart, but swings are not large and inside there is a lot of back and forward moves, barbwire price action.
I had my chart set up during the trade to 6 sec and it did look like a better setup. But it could work, I got slipped 3 ticks right to the bottom, the was hard to salvage, but I close the trade after I dealt with its live copy, which I closed at BE (it slipped 2 ticks), so I lost bit more. This trade was purely about damage limitation.
I waited for this trade since the beginning of the day. It lined up today's high and yesterday's high, all stars! I should have taken 20 ticks if I would edit a new order, but it is what it is.
This was a potential setup but market got very slow readying for FOMC. Would have worked though but likely to stop me out around BE.
Back into action today. Typical holiday markets, low volume, smaller range.
I have to say learning from CTD makes me reconsider some things and forms a stronger view of the market. However, I will stay the course with my method for now, and will only consider anything new on demo for a while.
what is the time interval when you use to look for the traded volume(just the open,during all the day...)?
What is the average volume for gold in order to determine if it will be a good day to trade or not?
There is some website or tool which you use to get the exact traded volume?
Thanks in advance
I look for volume traded between the Globex open and Comex open. If it is something like 40-60k then it's small and little participation, expect market either to range or make unsustainable moves. I would prefer to either fade or play stop hunt, not joining any break outs or looking for a sustained momentum moves.
If it is 90-100k or more - there is a lot going on, if market moved quite a bit already on that volume, I would expect a good breakout day and look for momentum rides.
Many days will be something in between, so you should look how Globex has traded and take it from there. There is no definite formula how to determine it. Also remember it can all change later, especially if market was just waiting for some news.
Some of the trades I have done yesterday on demo. Few of them were copied live too. I am learning from CTD and from Bob Iaccino directly (after being invited and accepted into Iaccino group) and it reflected in my trading.
Wasn't an easy day today. I did just 2 trades live, -3 and +4 ticks. Movements were small and there was not much to work with after the slippage. Did few more on demo, they worked better. Did some discretionary trades on personal live account, went well.
No opportunities after FOMC release, gold was way too volatile to make any sense of it.
I am going to trial few additional strategies, so stay tuned, I will publish details here and you can see them developing. I plan to add two "swing" strategies and one scalping strategy to my portfolio.
