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Oh yes! This may seem surprising but this blow up had nothing to do with the trade plan, risk management and stops. I have all that in place I just didn't think of it or apply it at the moment. I was to wrapped up in what was happening. Tunnel focused. Prideful. This was pure mental and emotional. I have done several things to help me in this area. I don't know if they all would be helpful to others but I know they should be for me. Here are some:
I have always been a list person. So one thing I am doing is printing off my morning prep list and checking things off one by one - A "To Do List" but when its on the screen I don't use it as effectively
I have also created a ongoing list to use through the day to ensure that I do several things to help prevent this and print it off as well
I am in the process of going backwards day by day for the past month and doing morning prep and actual trades until I have a minimum of 6 to 8 trade setups each day and then I stop for that day - I haven't needed the afternoon session yet? Why am I doing this to prove to myself that I don't have to jump into just any trade setup there is always another one around the corner - Specifically, I don't have to jump into a trade when I just get up in the morning.
As mentioned before I am covering my screens or have them off so I don't see them when I wake up - Some day when we don't have so many people living with us, I hope to move my office out of the bedroom which should help in this area
I have been in a mental fog here for awhile and we think that it might have to do with all the drinks I have through the day which contain aspertame (not sure of spelling) and sucrolose (again not sure). I am too lazy to go and look up the correct spelling. So I am taking them out of my life gradually. Goal now is to get to drinking 1 every 2 to 3 days, then drinking 1 a week and see from there....
There are others but you get the idea. The ongoing list through the day is real helpful.
So far 2 losing trades. It has been a low volume, range bound day with a bunch of bear traps so far. I have been caught in each of them. My first trade was a little aggressive, I took a 1ES SHORT on what I thought was a new developing SHORT Channel. I then missed the 2ES SHORT on that idea which worked for +10 ticks but it was followed by a pullback with a strong SHORT Candle. Anticipating price to drop I entered and was stopped out with a larger stop.
Following my plan I stopped trading and stepped away from the computer. I came back and updated my chart only to see that my short channel did develop and I missed a beautiful 2ES SHORT. However, as beautiful as it was price still hasn't moved down lower, we are stuck in this range. I am done trading until I can see who gets control. Hoping that we don't stay in this range all day but we may for a few hours.
Ugly Day! Back from another break. I was NOT in the grove today. I passed on what turned out to be the best trade of the day and that was the breakout - retest of the range to the LONG side. Then I couldn't find a good entry signal to get in on that move. Once it reached the measured move and range expansion targets and then overshot the channel I started to look for shorts anticipating a pullback to at least the mid-line of the channel. Unfortunately, I was too aggressive and got stopped out on 2 trades a 2nd entry long failure and what I thought was a failed breakout to the upside which turned out to be another breakout - retest of the range. I don't know what I was thinking on that 2nd trade that is not even one of my trade entry signals. I should have entered long there. Price then peaked and of course started its way back to the mid-line. Unfortunately, as price was pulling back a super strong bull candle appeared right off my major moving average so I entered a trade to the long side looking for price to retest the highs. You guessed it! I was stopped out again this time but only with 1 contract. 5 losing trades in a day and I am done in accordance with my plan. I was also very close to my personal daily loss limit of $1,500. I did forget to switch to trading 1 contract once I exceeded a $1,000 in losses. I did so on my last trade though. My new personal daily loss limit until I recover from today's losses will be $600 (2 losing trades with 3 contracts). After I have recouped my losses and am back positive my personal daily loss limit will jump up to $900 and go no higher for the remainder of the Combine. I will post a picture a little later.
1 small loser on 2ES Short that I closed when saw it going against me. Stepped away for restroom and missed same trade that went to target. 1 winner. 1 counter-trend winner for +6.
I blew my continuous combine by over-trading and returning to that mental fog. So, I stepped away from everything related to trading for a couple days. It actually was a very good idea. However, I wanted to get my feet wet again so to speak before the weekend with 1 positive trade. The only problem was early today when I was able to be in front of the computer price was stuck in congestion. A setup occurred just as I had to get ready to leave for my daughter's honors ceremony at school but didn't want to enter the trade because I would be away from my computer and home for to long a period, and much can happen during that time. When I returned I examined the charts and saw that price had reached T2 but price had not yet completed the measured move. I elected to wait since we were so far in the trend to see if price would complete the measured move and give me a possible trade setup for a correction. It did! I took the trade at the early stages of a correction but didn't enter right on the entry signal but instead waited for confirmation. It cost me a few ticks but figured it was worth it to wait since this was an aggressive trade and I didn't want to have my 1 trade be a loser. The trade had a 1:1 risk to reward ratio. My initial stop was -15 ticks, I quickly moved it to -6 ticks and then when a price bar completed with a small wick 1 tick from my target I moved my stop to +1 to be in a risk free trade. My target for the trade was 1 tick before the 43.19 (the fib target 2 and initial target from candlesticks) for +14 ticks per contract. I traded 3 contracts and was expecting price to test the 45.38 level but I didn't want to ride the trade out that long especially being later in the day on a Friday. It's good to be back in the saddle again! Have a great weekend!
