Papa's Trading Journal

March 15th, 2011, 11:17 PM

tderrick

That is killer!! I never knew that was there!

Yup. And a little off-topic now, sorry, but anyone can also create a wiki entry. The result is that the entry phrase is highlighted, too, so mouse over 'wiki' back there and you'll see an example of that.

Mike

March 16th, 2011, 11:27 AM

I did 2 trades today both winners. Based on Aztrader's suggestion, I increased the profit target to 10 ticks. Both trades were successful, so thanks Az, I have 4 extra ticks. As I gain experience with this setup, I hope to be able to increase the profit target while holding the stop loss constant or even decreasing it.

My second trade should have been a couple of minutes sooner than it was. Just as I entered my order, the phone rang. I was expecting a phone call from a medical device company, so I needed to take the call. I canceled the trade, answered the call and came back. All the parameters were in place, so I placed the trade even though the move was a bit long in the tooth.

I stopped at 2 trades. Why? I have found that if I continue on, I get either over-confident or careless and end up giving back. These two trades more than meet my need, so why not quit? If I had some errands to do, I would do those now. Since I don't, I am going to sim-trade, but use a range chart instead of a tick chart to see how well this setup works with range bars.
Papa15

March 16th, 2011, 01:36 PM

Papa,

How many ticks heat did you take on the first trade?

March 16th, 2011, 01:41 PM

bluemele

Papa,

How many ticks heat did you take on the first trade?

I think it was 12. The stop was above the red moving average line (in the neighborhood of 20 ticks). Not ideal by any stretch.
Papa15

March 16th, 2011, 01:44 PM

papa15

I think it was 12. The stop was above the red moving average line (in the neighborhood of 20 ticks). Not ideal by any stretch.
Papa15

As long as that doesn't happen often then you should be plenty good. Seems like from what I have seen that this is rare. I know you have a 'habit' of moving your stops.

Just wondering if that habit came through today or not.

March 16th, 2011, 02:15 PM

bluemele

As long as that doesn't happen often then you should be plenty good. Seems like from what I have seen that this is rare. I know you have a 'habit' of moving your stops.

Just wondering if that habit came through today or not.

No. I did not move it. I put it where the trade would be a failure if hit and left it alone. I did consider cutting early based on the short term ergodic crossing above its signal line, but I held on....
Papa15

March 17th, 2011, 10:26 AM

A little different routine today. I have a luncheon with some friends, so I skipped my morning workout. I watched the data releases at 8:30 and watched how the market responded. After letting it settle a bit, I could not find a good entry. Market just seemed caught in a range. By the time a setup started looking interesting, price would reverse. Waited until after the CL pit opened and gave it some room. Market continued to go back and forth.

I added a 5R chart to the screen just to see how it responded. Was beginning to see a setup around 99.78 and was about ready to jump in, when I noticed the ergodics had a divergence upward, so I stood aside. Had an inside bar setup at 9:30. Placed orders above and below it. Bar at 9:45 was also an inside bar. Price continue to chop back and forth, with pretty good size bars. With the chop such as it was, I cut the profit target. Price dropped through my sell stop and continued on to hit the revised price target. Price reversed and headed up. It chopped around ahead of the news at 10:00 am but just before news release went through my buy stop and hit my profit target. I decided this was enough. I am sure the market will eventually sort out the direction it wants to go, but I will be off at lunch with friends.

This is the first inside bar trades in a while. I noted how the ergodics supported the trades.

Papa15

March 18th, 2011, 09:39 AM

Folks
I decided while watching the NCAAs last night (I really love this time of year) to take today off. I am satisfied with the results of the first week of returning to live trading and I am going to take this morning to do some errands so the afternoon is free for more NCAA watching. Besides, the market probably needs some time to settle down.....
Papa15

March 20th, 2011, 05:37 PM

Folks
If you didn't attend Big Mike's webinar yesterday, please go look at the recording. It was great. It was a bit long (about 2.5 hours) but well worth the time. Many, many thanks to Big Mike for doing it.

Last week was interesting. First week back to live trading in a while and to be honest, my first profitable week in 2011. If you have read this thread for any time, you know I went through a bit of a self imposed walk in the wilderness where I questioned everything about my trading. I went back and read some of my earlier posts, and even I am amazed at far afield I went.

I went back to an old method I used a couple of years ago and I found it fit comfortably now. I think all the stuff I have done with price action over the last year and a half is what is helping with this. My focus now is to concentrate on execution. If I can make the process goals, the outcome goals will happen. My process goals are to wait for the setup, control risk, and trade with the trend (no counter-trend trading). The primary instrument will be CL as long as volatility is not too wild and I will back it up with either 6B or 6E if things get too hectic.

Papa15

March 21st, 2011, 10:29 AM

Today I noticed that CL was barely moving on the charts...could not believe what I was seeing as we all know CL moves. Then I realized, I need to roll to the next month. One of the beauties of ToS is that the chart displays a continuous contract and but orders are sent to the market to the proper contract without an rolling. Took just a couple of minutes to create new charts and I was off and running.

Did a couple of practice (ie sim) trades during the big drop just after 9:15. They were supposed to have been real, but I had been looking at NT charts (rolling forward), glanced back at SC, saw a setup and took it. After the second trade, realized it was sim, so switched to live trading. On these trades, the emotions were exactly like real trading. It actually was good for me as I had waited for the setup and executed the trades per plan. I just repeated that once I was back to live action.

I did 2 trades, both for 8 ticks. Yes, I could have gone for more, but I took what satisfies me. I made enough to do that. I waited for the 233 chart setup, made the entries controlling the risk, took profits, and now I am done.

I hope everyone has a great day and week.
Papa15

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