Seventh Try's a Charm: iqgod's Seventh TopStepTrader Combine
People who follow these forums knew iqgod was due. For six consecutive combines, he had ridden in the markets, but the best he had done was a third-place finish every time. And iqgod was zero for six in the combines. He hadn't even been placed in the Hall of Rollover Traders.
"If you keep working real hard and don't give up, your dreams come true," iqgod said after his sixth unsuccessful attempt this year. "I am deserving of this accomplishment, no?"
Though he didn't win yet, take heart, It is iqgod's seventh try. Now that's one earnest effort.
Read all about it here.
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Today iqgod was relaxed, confident, and knew himself and knew his markets.
Started the combine with a 6E long trade with a 10-tick target and a 4-tick stop.
The trade qualified because it was in the EMA, with trend, and was an H2 in Al Brooks parlance or a "Second Break" in Bob Volman parlance.
The trade was exited prematurely because two double tops had formed in 13521 area on the chart due to which the "tipping point" was moved to that place, because once the market broke those then it should continue upwards and not come down like this.
Positives were good entry, good trade management.
No negatives today.
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A parallel long trade was taken in the 6J, as a Double Doji break and a First Break (Bob Volman parlance) in the 20 EMA.
Two lots were taken off at the possible double bottom level which was 10-ticks and the third contract was allowed to continue further till another double top.
This was a nice confident trade with trend.
It would have been possible to scale in after the range break (box) but I did not do so to avoid confidence issues.
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iqgod was relaxed, but slightly impatient - not enough to disrupt him but enough to cause some little damage.
He entered two trades long at 13516 and 13517 at the bottom of the range with a three tick stop.
Though he should have held for ten ticks he exited the first of the two trades at the first signs at 13520.
He however held the second position and weathered the rough ticks till 13523 which was half of his target but still commendable.
He entered quickly at the EMA.
He also accumulated two long positions at 1324 and 13526, but panicked and sold one and then the other at 13527.
Then he repeated himself by buying at 13529 and exited at 13530.
The best part is that he only took long trades as per his plan and executed the teeny scalps well.
The big negative is that he missed his anticipated ARB long trade of the day by not going long at 13530 (instead he exited his long out of torment!)
Thus the big-picture negative is he tried to capture every teeny move and could have held two perfectly good positions from bottom to the top for 10 ticks and 20 ticks respectively which would have been the wisest option. He hopes wisdom will prevail in future trades of a similar nature.
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The main takeaway was that though TST has removed the requirement that two out of three metrics should hold, they still linger in my subconscious thought and I hold on to the lesser trades instead of cutting them at 2 or 3 ticks win (Two lessons actually: 1. I shouldn't have taken the lesser trades; 2. If I have then I need to exit them and not wait for a miracle to take them to a ten tick target).
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