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).
The following user says Thank You to iqgod for this post:
Day 5 was good chart reading and good trade management but started off with a "scared" exit - actually a premature entry with a proper exit and hence the first trade was a loser. However the second trade, an IRB short was a correct read and hence I scaled in and walked away. (a FIRST!)
The result - the market hit my target and then reversed to the tick, and the day was a winner!
I noted that liqudity was not good earlier and stop hunting was rampant as the market moved in volatile swings, which reinforces not trading on holidays.
This day could have been better. As @PandaWarrior succintly puts it, this is a game where constant improvement is the norm: The "sun rising over my improving trading" phenomenon.
Day six saw iqgod badly messing up on a range break trade where he "knew" he should be mainlining discipline and going short as the range broke but instead he went long with a sly look in his eyes "aha, the market's gonna fool all the shorts and then run up".
Lesson: Trade what you see and what you have been anticipating. The market is as intellectual as a fist fight.
The crossed out sell arrow represents a "trade not taken".
While day 7 was a small winner, the mistake that happened was that I entered early and got so exhausted by chop that I was getting out "with relief" where I knew I should be adding on or atleast waiting to simply collect the money that was due to me. Good sense did not prevail and I watched the chart BVP200 go from 13570 to 13580 as expected but I was flat long ago.
The chart of 6E below shows a block break to the upside but I was in early "anticipating" it and because I had no confirmation BVP115 I was out of breath and glad to exit as the market took off at the REAL entry point and I exited where I would have otherwise gotten in.
This flaw has now been presented twice in no uncertain terms (a benefit of journaling).
It was a teeny winner, but the net negative was that iqgod did not hold even though he had utmost confidence in his trade targets.
That is a back to square one scenario but iqgod knows he has made subtle progress and in his future days BVP192 he will be back to holding for target and perhaps even scaling in rather than hastily exiting.
