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BigKahunaDogs Journal

  #1 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

Hello from Honolulu, Hawaii.
This is my journal.
I have several reasons for my journal on the forum, personal growth through public accountability, positive feedback/questions, stimulate thought, like interest.

Logistically, I am a work in progress. I will attempt to use SNAGIT and SNAGIT video at this point. I will review other journals on the lookout aor take suggestions for a more efficient method.

At this point I plan on doing at minimum weekly analysis, with video aor pics of S/R, potential price action, potential identification of bull and bear locations, potential locations for further study and following.
I may post Daily and Intraday charts.


I have not decided if I'd like to do a journal with charts, as of yet. Part of the reason is some of my methodology is momentum scalping. I also do follow pullback trend trades and will attempt to identify where I am projecting possible bull/bear biases.

EDIT-
As of this time I take two types of trades
Pullback value type trades
Momentum breakouts

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  #3 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412


CL - Monday and possibly part of Tuesday I am expecting a possible pullback or sideways market. If it pullsback I am looking for bears to push it down to 104.20-103.80. On Tuesday I am looking for the daily trend to resume up for bulls to buy it in that area targeting 108.20. If 108.20 is bought with momentum and volume I am entertaining a push(after small pullback) to 110.50,
weekly r2 at 110.55
weekly ATR(14) is 486(4.86)... with 7/15/13 open at 106.05, that puts it at 110.91 which is with in the ball park of my current projection.

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  #4 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

uh terrible.
wrote out a ton of journal stuff and I hit something and the internet ate my post.
Note I'm demo trading for this week minimum, due to damaging discipline and psyche by blowing up an account.


7/14/2013
CL-My initial bias was down for mon, maybe tues.

trade1
4hr LH was forming in ASIA.
Shorted using bracket order, the 2nd touch of 4hr break was shorted. Other side of my bracket was a fib which failed to trigger first.
SHORT 105.73, 2013CST
exited at 105.70, 2201CST
trade initially went my way, hit support of psyche number 51(50), then bounced and I had moved my exit to break even.
+3 lame, missed my target by 3 ticks which was 105.48, and reversed at 105.51

trade2
failure of my 4hr LH in ASIA, and time of day when more money would begin to be injected as well as PA, prompted me to look for session long to attempt to continue Daily trend up.
Long 105.68, 2206CST
exited 105.93 2304CST
trade went my way, hit 106.05 then reversed and failed to make HH, I had moved my exit up as I had a feeling if this failed price would move sideways.
+15 lame, stopped out, again my target was actually 3 ticks away at 106.08-106.12 depending on the volume and momentum. Initial push of trade would have potential of 37 from entry at 105.68 to 106.05. I was looking for a LH, but not by much from 106.17...feeling 106.08 - 106.12 would give me enough margin of error to exit with a decent profit.

trade3
tried a fib entry as I felt this was direction market wanted to push it due to failed counter trend earlier, and Daily trend up.
Long at 105.94, 2315CST
exited 106.00, 2354CST
price failed and imo stalled as well as volume and momentum so moved my stop exit up.
+7 lame again.

Price edged up eventually with much sideways action. It was untradeable for me as for R:R due to time of day, week and light volume.
Price did make a higher swing high to 106.38 during Frankfurt OPEN(0200EST).
Then proceeded to drop through London OPEN(0300EST)
I see Londons target of 105.25-105.35 to hit the WPP and between 50-61.8% fib of current 4hr swing

ASIA
+3
+15
+7
=25 x 2 contracts(demo).

The way I seem to be losing ticks to reversals and pullbacks makes me reconsider T1 be set in stone at 25ticks. I should consider T1 20-25ticks and watch short term PA and volume. Then let T2 break even or hit T2 which is often set using fib projection, pa and s/r. EDIT- 25ticks for T1 is not set in "stone," it is just the number I found to be appropriate for these types of trades...I got to consider market conditions, I am wary of using 25 for countertrend trades, but for trend trades I expect 25 to be hit.

No London OPEN trades for me. My brain, eyes and energy is fried.
My London OPEN CL trade would have hit if I took it. +15 for initial burst hitting both T1 and T2.
My 30min CL OPEN trade would have hit as well with T1 +25 and T2 +50.


I am going to wait till NY OPEN trade for CL

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  #5 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

I rested through NY OPEN, I needed it.
in retrospect-
NY OPEN looked like an awesome setup. Opening on prior support at 0845CST, entering using short term price action would have been difficult if one didn't account for the market about to OPEN on support. One would have to have put trade on based on time of day, even minute and had faith that short term support and opening on this support for a Monday would have been enough. The SL would have been the tricky part, possibly requiring an SL
of 22 ticks which would have been below some recent historical 30min swings. After initial response of first thrust, trade may have been scaled to allow one to maintain SL but be breakeven even if trade went slightly against one.

NY lunch
trade1 momentum trade 2 contracts
+5immediate fill and price hit in 31sec
-2 T1price hit then I moved my second contract to -2 where stop loss was immediately hit

trade2 2 contracts double header
-14 classic entry price would have brought me T1 for +5 for first contract but moved entry lower due to short term support that I felt needed to break...upon being entered price immediately went +2, but then sideways and eventually stopping me out of both contracts. In retrospect and further investigation, I missed my entry due to not blowing up my signal chart, and had a line visually blocking another level of support that could have been seen if I had enlarged chart. This would have given me +4/5 for 1 contract and a break even/-2 for other contract. Due to the counter trend nature of the double header I should have considered moving my stop earlier.

todays total for ASIA and NY is 2 contracts at
25ticks in ASIA
+5, -2 = +1.5 ticks for 2 contracts, then -14 = -12.5 for NY
+25 then -12.5 = +12.5

I'm done trading for the day. Next session will be ASIA where I'll do some homework checking Mondays price action.

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  #6 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

CL ASIA
7/17/13(7/16/13 for me. demo)
Bias was long for ASIA due to Hammer on Daily and yesterdays pa.
longed 106.40 due to time of day and short term(1min) HL
-9 immediately.

PA and momentum had me then think down due to hammer on 4hr.
SHORT 106.29
scaled half 106.17 due to wicks and o/c of prior(4hr) bars immediately.
exited other half 106.08 manually.
I had order at 105.95, due to 38% fib of 4hr at 105.93. 106.00 broke, but PA had me watching the chart to diligently. sigh. PA and Time of Day could make it go either way. 106.04-105.98 would have been better target. 106.04 if momentum wasn't with us and it just wicked. 105.98 to get broken SL by bears.
+12
+21

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  #7 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

CL LONDON (demo)
7/16/13
We were coming on LONDON open, about to open on psyche number, 1hr was creating a hammer, DPP was at 105.90. Basically imo opening on support in a Daily uptrend.
Long from 106.03
Exit @106.08
+ 5
EXIT @ 106.37
+34

done for the night...going relax play some video games and sleep. Might take NY Open off, I think the bulk of the move occurred, we could go higher to 110 as my earlier projection for the week, but I am leery of contuining to buy without a better pullback.

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  #8 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

I need to start posting charts...going to play with pics, video and snagit these next few weeks.

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  #9 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412

Weds
7/17/2013 DEMO
-10 failed HigherLow on short time frame of visual support. good trade.
-11 same^ good trade.
+17 GC... immediately went my way, within 2min. I was too slow to move my target in a fast moving market. Must work on better target projection...I was using an ATM strategy to keep my SL within reason, but failed to get good projection. This spiked a little over 60ticks in a fast market... 50 ticks would've been my exit point for this type of trade.

NQ missed spike by seconds(0935cst on NT)... easy open off support(30min), missed a 8point trade by 1 tick. I had my limit 1 tick lower than what triggered(my limit was 3076.50, when it went from 3076.75)

Thurs
7/18/2013 DEMO
-16CL good trade mechanically bad time of day
-10CL ^ same
+1 eur/usd in London open, looking for a 4hr to daily up(spot to swing) trade... went +30, held on in hopes of it hitting a double top +- 100pips. I recognized the LH coming on London lunch, but held to +1. I accept this trade overall as a good entry and ok/good exit. An alternative could be recognizing the potential for lower high (in this long)as I did, to just scale out at known resistance, then to scale back in on further HH and HL. Good time of day, but trade went sideways, indicating mixed interest which gave me caution.

+105CL momentum trade from range breakout. I exited on LL, toward London close/NY lunch. Trade went 200ticks, to my visual support(a little past) of 108.25(weekly zone). I had drawn this long zone on sun/mon. I'm a little annoyed I didn't use a trailing stop. For Friday I'm not sure at this point if we can go to 110 or going to get covering due to 108.25 being the weekly target. As in target is hit, we may need a deeper pullback or news for spike thru 108.25 to 110.

The psyche is progressing ok to good...
It's the acceptance that profits are rarely milked for top tick, when they do it's more a matter of a rarity than something to strive for. I still strive for the zen like mentality of not a lot of exuberance or despair. It is not that I don't quelch the notion that I feel pleasure or pain, but to limit the amount thatI feel these by self talk-thought, and most of all limit to eliminate their ability to affect my actions by using a more mechanical system than intuitive one. I watched a video another poster sent me of some trader psychology this week, I found it intriguing but not in tune with my own personal view of life and the markets.
Now one would ask what credentials or credibility would a unknown single trader have vs a well known trader with a unique approach even Sigmund like to the trader psyche? My quest is not to be zen like in that I feel zero emotion, it is an acceptance of these emotions and factors, but mentally limiting the extremes these can create by, acceptance of risk and reward, breath control which may limit adrenal response either way, and greater mechanical than intuitive system.
I could see how an intuitive trader could use a different psychological strategy. For some one that digs to the root of their initial responses to life's stressors and parenting triggers.
Why my own feelings and approach to trader and life psyche? Research and case studies by Laurence Gonzales, Gavin Debecker, Gary Klein, Amanda Ripley, even Ericssons deliberate practice. All these studies imo point to similar findings. These studies often relate to life or death survival situations, but I liken death to avoidance and denial.
With a traders psychological failings relating to E Kubler-Ross's DABDA.
What I did rekindle from watching the video is to monitor my own feelings and to document them. I plan to do this for each trade and even market actions. I plan on using 1-10 and a face for various metrics - mechanical entry, psyche of entry, mechanical exit, psyche of exit. The scale I liken to the pictures in doctors office used for pain for non English/speaking persons.

In retrospect I think a large part of my recent failing was bad money management which became the catalyst to create a break in my psyche at the time. Part of this was allowing myself to be over sensitive to dollar value by having the dollar amount visible in NT chart trader. My policy now is to turn chart trader off after the trade has triggered, aor keep it on +- tick value.
EDIT- even though I blew up my account initially, I had many trades(5-10) after that blow up that could have helped me get to break even, but I chose to try to milk more ticks out of these (base hit+20-30ticks) trades that ended up turning them to +1 and even negative in some.

I'm sticking with my breathing and meditation of 100 each day...I feel there's many benefits including getting into various brain wave patterns easier. I missed my meditation yesterday, but will continue the exercise, at this point indefinitely.
On a side note, 2 kids at my sons practice yesterday hyperventilated due to being overstressed. In my day job I see a lot of these panic attack cases. I think this can/has become habitual for some. Living a life of being high strung, substance abuse and overly medicated.

Some may find this book intriguing and useful, it is not in direct regard to traders, but military, police and fire personnel.
Warrior Mindset.
Warrior Mindset: Dr. Michael Asken, Loren W. Christensen, Dave Grossman, Human Factor Research Group: 9780964920552: Amazon.com: Books

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  #10 (permalink)
 
KahunaDog's Avatar
 KahunaDog 
Hawaii at the beach
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: Nt8, MotiveWave, TOS
Broker: S5
Trading: ES, ZB fine alcohol and muscle cars
Posts: 549 since Apr 2013
Thanks Given: 1,168
Thanks Received: 412


On a related note I am attempting to purge... books, material, techniques and knowledge. (not to say, I am totally disregarding or throwing out, but stowing them away for now).
This is another attempt at
Depth vs Breadth.

I see my collection of books and information as a natural progression of the thought that the more information one has as the better...often the trap of living in the age of limitless knowledge.
In jiujitsu, the white(1st) belt, blue(2nd) belt even some purple(3rd) belt even higher get trapped imo of trying to learn too many techniques. This makes them jack of all trades but master of none. Often giving them mixed results, or good results against weak skilled people. This is not to say learning new things is bad, but it is more a matter of simplicity and efficiency. Being able to do an arm-bar from the top is one technique. While conceptually being able to do that same arm-bar on all people from the top, bottom, side, standing and a variety of other physical positions could be analogous to a trader performing the same technique in a variety of markets aor even market conditions. This may not be an ideal or exact translation, but I am in search of optimizing what I have.
This would be Ericsons deliberate practice.

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