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FOMC day - will today be as volatile as usual? or will it have little-to-no impact on the market if there is no surprise seeing as how the market is shifting towards election?
Move down to ON low and then move up until market finds strong resistance either at 4770, or 4790 - if it finds resistance at 4750 then don't expect 4740 to hold the second time coming back (unless very strong signs)
Market continues the correction from the later part of the session last night, until it finds strong resistance at either 4770 or 4790, then trends down for remaining of day
Market moves down bear, slices through the 4740 zone and the 4720 area holds, then it moves up to either 4740 or 4750+. If it stops at 4740 we might see 4700
Market opens bull, slices through the 4770 area and doesn't start to slow down until ~ 4785, we are now back into the range we've been in for ~ a month
Low range day - market starts to ponder wtf is going on and that maybe it should take a breather
Setups I'll take today
~4800
LF Sort
You are looking for reversal signs
You might be tempted to take a break-out trade, don't
Safe target ~13 pts, stretch target 4776
~4790
LF Short
You are looking for strong reversal signs
You might be tempted to take a break-out trade, don't
Safe target ~14 pts, stretch target ~4772
~4770
LF Long
You are looking for break-out signs
You want to see that the bull force is strong
You want to see some bullish profiles, or even some 'trend day' type profiles
Ideal stop is behind 4765
Safe target is ~14 pts, stretch target is 4787, 3rd target is 4794
Be careful with greed here, secure a 10pts+ profit is going for 3rd target
Do not take a pre break-out setup UNLESS the market is slicing through this and not showing any signs of slowing
~4770
LF Short
You are looking for signs of reversal
Exhaustion is not good enough to enter, but would be a plus
You want to see some bearish profiles and stronger selling here
Be careful if you start to see a lot of volatility
Stop behind 4776 is ideal
Safe target is ~16 pts, stretch target is 4751, 3rd target is 4743
Be careful with greed here, secure a 10pts+ profit is going for 3rd target
Watch the 4760 area and 4750 area closely for any signs of reversal
~4740
LF Short
You are looking for a break-down trade
This is a very hard setup to take to be honest and you'll need to feel that we are in a very strong bear move to take it
Entry will be tough and you probably shouldn't enter before the 4740 mark. Only take a pre b-down setup if the market is moving very fasy and has not shown any signs of slowing down, 4735 is the lower part of the support zone
Do not take more than 5.5pts of risk here, even more than your normal seems more than necessary
Target will be very tricky, and you'll need to keep a close eye on things
Be prepared to exit at ~ 4725 mark even if you are not close to your target profit as the market can reverse quite quickly
~4740
LF Long
You are looking for signs of reversal
You don't want to see anything fundamental-wise that should lead to selling
You want to get a feeling that the market is comfortable that we have hit this week's bottom
Stop behind 4734 is ideal
Safe target is ~14 pts, stretch target is 4759, 3rd target stretch is 4764
Be prepared to pass up on this, and not take any setups at 4740 should things be very volatile
~4720
LF Short
You are looking for a break down trade here
It needs to break the 4718 area for you to take it
Stop behind 4725 is ideal, but 7 pts of risk is too much
Be careful if you are seeing strong signs of reversal
Safe target is 13 pts, stretch target is 4703, 3rd target is a 'runner' and only if you feel that today we will have a trend day - Look for huge reversal like we did yesterday or leave until close to FOMC
Be prepared to pass up on this, and not take any setups at 4740 should things be very volatile
~4720
LF Long
You are looking for strong signs of a reversal
You want to see higher time frame players stepping in
You need to see high volume on here
Yesterday we hit 10K volume in the afternoon session on a 5 minute candle, which was double the opening candle's volume
Stop behind 4715 is ideal, but might be tough to get
Safe target is 4734, stretch target is 4739, 3rd stretch target is 4747, but you must secure a 14 pt profit to aim for this
Be prepared to pass up on this if things get too volatile
~4700
LF Long
You are looking for very strong reversal signs
Do not enter preemptively
You want to be confident that we are now trending bull to take this
Stop behind 4694 is ideal
Safe target ~14pts, stretch target 4722, 3rd stretch target is 4729, but you must secure a 14 pt profit to aim for this one
Be prepared to pass up on this
~4700
LF Short
You are looking for a break down
There will be some resistance, but there shouldn't be enough to move the market
Take after 4695
Stop behind 4701 is ideal
Safe target is 14 pts, stretch target is 4477, stretch target is 4762
Things to watch
How will the market react to the FOMC announcement? Obviously if they surprise everyone and hike rates then we can expect a bear trend. But what if they don't do anything? Will this be good news that can boost the market into the green? or will this be seen as an opportunity for bigger investors to use the 'bull liquidity' to sell in expectation of next week's election?
Volume profiles - will we see signs of another trend day?
When the ES hits the low of yesterday - how will it react? and where is the NQ at when that does happen?
2 trades max today - unless you won at least 1/2 trades and you have a very good setup - then 3 trades max - This excludes your usual NEWS setup for FOMC
Abide by your new trade management standard
Do not get greedy with any of your trades - see below for more detail
Additional based on weekly psychology goals - If there are strong enough signs that you can take a stretch or a stretch+ target, you need to secure 8-10 pts of profit through your stop (8 for stretch, 10 for stretch+). However, don't do this blindly. If it doesn't look like you will be placing your stop in a good area that isn't likely to be hit, then don't take the stretch targets and stay conservative
Additional target based on market conditions - You are not a pro and you are still learning. If you find that the market is becoming too volatile and unstable and you are feeling nervous, just walk away for a bit. I know that these are the best times for the best traders out there, but for rookies like yourself they tend to be the worst days
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
Got a bit carried away with other stuff today and I won't be posting an end of day summary.
I took 4 trades though, 1 was a fat finger and 1 was a bad emotional trade. I won 1 trade and lost the other rational trades. But I suffered from greed today and it cost me on both of the rational trades. I moved my target on the first trade and the market turned around so I only won 10 pts vs 17 pts I should've gotten if I didn't move my target.
And on the 2nd one I aimed for a 27 pt trade, which was just ridiculous. But the market came within 2.5 pts of hitting it, and then it completely turned around on me and stopped me out. I wasn't watching the trade but I shouldn't have aimed for such a high target.
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
I've been absent from my journal last 2 days and I thought I should post a bit of description as to why.
I've been having a really rough 2 weeks and I'm in full out 'drawdown mode'. I always struggle with this once I get myself into a prolonged downturn. I start to take greedier trades and I keep on pushing up the targets until they are no longer realistic, I start taking more emotional trades, I start taking less 'good' trades and more 'ok' and 'bad' trades, with some 'really bad' trades in there. And I start to think about making up the drawdown as quickly as possible (short-term profits), which goes completely against my goal of long-term growth.
There are also some things that I have to deal with on my personal life that have been consuming my time and my brain power. It's also having other negative impacts on my life such as not eating properly, not working out, not napping, sleeping 4-5 hrs a night, etc. Those things don't seem important while I'm trading but combined they have a negative impact on my mentality, which leads to bad trading. Thankfully I should be done dealing with that tomorrow so it shouldn't have any impact on me in the future.
I decided to take the day today as trading with a bad mentality has led to bad results. I broke my rules yesterday, and I took 4 losing trades in a row. I knew I shouldn't have entered into the 3rdtrade but I couldn't control myself and took an emotional trade. On the 4th trade I was very confident that it was a good setup, and although the trade did end up going my way, it took me out before it went my way, so I lost the trade (in hindsight, I'm glad I lost the trade). However, if I can't follow my trading rules, then I am clearly not in the right state of mind to trade.
I'll take the losses I made this week and look forward to starting better off next week.
It's weird that I'm writing this because at the same time I'm writing my end of month performance from last month and the results showed a huge improvement in every aspect of my trading. I need to finish my end of month post from last month because I always learn a lot from the results.
See you guys tomorrow!
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
Consider implementing some hard stops. For example, 3 days in a row of losses -> take next 3 days off or rest of the week off. Recharge. Review your trades. Don't rush back into action, revenge trading. I know it is difficult to do that, as when emotions start to drive, sometimes it is very difficult to take control of yourself.
And make sure that you are always well rested and in good mental state before trading. If there is something personal going on in your life that affects you, it is better to just take time off from trading. You will be safer and will preserve mental and financial capital. I know it is hard though. At least for me.
Keep in mind that next two three days might be super crazy, I am considering watching from side lines or trading extremely light. With elections going on, I think market will be behaving completely crazy.
Technically I do have something in place to ensure I walk away if I lose a certain %. However, it isn't as effective as I thought it would be.
It's actually perfect timing that you mention that because I will address this in my end of month review, and how I need to change it to something that works better. 3 days of losses in a row sounds reasonable, but like walking away after a percentage of losses, it just mitigates the money component of it, whereas this is showing signs of a psychological problem.
Ideally, I want something that identifies when I am starting to get into "drawdown mode", so that I can react accordingly and prevent this mode altogether. This would need to properly address the root cause of my psychological problem, and not just a symptom.
Continuous trading losses could be just a symptom of being in "drawdown mode", and putting a system in place to mitigate the symptom could just mask a deeper problem. It's like putting a band-aid on a gushing wound. It might feel good short-term wise, but that short-term satisfaction and sense of solving the problem wouldn't adequately address the problem (the wound itself, or even how you got it in the first place), or other things that could arise due to this condition (infection, etc.). My goal is long-term growth so I need to be sure that I am thinking about things like this as much as possible. My drawdowns will only get bigger $-wise as my account grows, so the problem won't be easier to solve in the future.
However, I think that until I do a thorough Root Cause Analysis on this issue, I won't be able to pinpoint the true problem.
In the meantime though, I do think 3 days of losses or something along the lines is what I'll have to do. I do still have to put a band-aid on this wound, I just can't get complacent that it's enough.
I hope that makes sense.
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
End of Month Post
As usual, my end of month posts are very long, but I think that they can be beneficial for you as a reader to go through this in detail. It should give you a good idea of how data can determine where your focus should be, and what progress you are making.
Some thoughts
End of month post is here. This is honestly my favorite time of the month because it’s like I get a detailed report card that helps me improve!
Also, I spend a lot of time every day inputting data, that it feels so good when I can turn it into information at the end of the month. Lastly, I’m a data nerd and just love this stuff,
Technically, ROI-wise this is my best month yet as to when I would consider myself a full-time live trader (August). But just barely (5.13% vs 5.12% ) . However, in terms of my actual trading this is by far much better of a month than when I made 5.12% in August.
Overall, I’m starting to feel very good about how I’ve been trading lately. I feel a lot calmer, I’ve got a clear routine, and I no longer feel like I need to be in a trade to feel productive. I’m also finding that less is more when it comes to trading. Less highs and low emotionally, lead to more ‘good’ trades. Less trades taken lead to better ratio of good vs bad setups and more rational trades.
Overall stats
Let’s get into the numbers! I won’t go through all of them in detail, just the ones I felt were worth highlighting.
ROI in the green, and a pretty decent number at 5%+, definitely a number I’m happy with. This is a 16% swing from last month, which was a really bad month for me. I had to stop trading for 5 days halfway through last month as I was in a very bad state of mind and it affected my trading.
Win% is growing, the highest it has been in my 3 month career but it is still below 40%. I would like a 45+ win ratio though to be honest so I have a lot of work to do in this
Payoff ratio at 2.52 is really good though and a number I’m happy with. This means my wins are 2.5x larger than my losses, which sounds about right for my methodology.
Expectancy at 25.49, wow! This number is probably low for a lot of the traders here, but for me this is the biggest I’ve had trading live! This is significantly bigger than my previous record of 6.04 so I’m really happy for this
Max DD though is the best number I have ever had. 2.71% of a max DD on a 5% ROI month? That’s got to be a good number right? Either way, this is more than a comfortable number for my trading
Last but not least, # of trades. This one blows me away to be honest but I’ll explain why in the next section
Month over month changes – 3-month update
ROI % - Month over Month
What stands out here are not the 2 positive months, but the negative month that I had. I had a lot of issues at the beginning of September, and I had to take a break because I was doing so bad and just in a bad state of mind.
My wins are much bigger than my losses on a trade per trade basis, but on a monthly basis that isn’t the case.
I need to make sure that September was just an outlier, and not a sign of things to come. One thing I’ve done since September to mitigate this has been to take a max amount of 2 losses in a day, and that has helped me minimize my losses a lot.
In September 3 days amounted to 8.02% of losses, which is 70% of my monthly losses. My system of maximum % loss per week did not catch this because this happened over 2 weeks, Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I need to add something as part of my actions to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Win % - Month over Month
With my risk to reward ratio being the way it is, I don’t need win rate above 50% to make a positive return, but the higher the better I do.
This shows how much a 10% difference can make in my ROI (~15% ROI swings in my case from one month data only). This will help me out on improving my edge in the future, but I’ll need more data.
# of trades – Month over Month
This is a huuugee improvement. The numbers I’ve hit the button to enter myself into a trade has been steadily decreasing month over month.
I took 159 trades in August and that is just insane to me. I can’t believe I constantly took 10+ trades in a day, and one day I even had 35 trades.
This is one of the biggest indicators that I am more in control of my psychology in trading. I’ve been consciously making an effort to only take a certain amount of trades in a day and being able to stay within that limit honestly shows I have more control of my own head.
I have lots to go on this but these are the type of numbers I should be aiming for in the short-term. As I grow as a trader, I can start to expand the number of trades per day until I get to the point where the # of trades is not important.
Top 5 Errors in August – Month over Month Changes
So when I started journaling, these were the 5 errors that cost me the most amount of money.
First of all – FOMO. If you read my posts from the beginning you know I struggled with FOMO very hard. I just felt like I always wanted to be in a trade and I didn’t care whether it was a good setup or not. Once I realized how big of an issue this was, I knew I had to turn it around if I wanted to improve as a trader. Step 1 was identifying the issue, Step 2 was putting plans in place to modify the behaviour. I did this by adding a psychology goal to my daily prep and tracking it, every single day! I also added this to my psychology prep so I could remind myself every day that it’s okay to miss a trade. And now, it looks like it is starting to pay off!!! I honestly feel like if it’s not in my trading plan I am not interested in taking the setup or being in the trade. It’s been almost 2 months since I’ve made a conscious decision to focus on changing this, so I’m glad I was able to do it!
Bad read is next – These are the errors that are going to happen. I’m going to read the market wrong, it’s just part of trading. At the level they are at right now, they are manageable and I’m happy with that.
No adapt – These were the errors where I couldn’t adapt with what was happening in the market. Last month these were at 0, but honestly a big reason why is because I’ve consciously fought to ‘adapt’ while in a trade. This is how I combat micromanaging a trade. Is this a win or a loss? Not sure to be honest
Chasing – Chasing a trade not only cost me $ on that trade, but it tilted my performance and put me in a downward spiral. I cut that out so far.
Bad Entry Point – This is the only one that has consistently gone up, and it honestly makes sense. As I start to have less psychological issues and thus less emotional trading, my issues directly related to my technical edge start to show. I don’t know how to read tape so my entry points are not the best. This is a good data point that lets me know I should start to learn this skill. (mention traders)
Emotional trades – Month over Month changes
You all know how much of a struggle this was for me at the beginning, and still is. I set daily goals around this and I try my hardest to not take any emotional trades, and here’s the changes month over month.
First let’s talk about the total # of emotional trades taken per month.
Huuuuge improvements here. In October I took ~93% less emotional trades than I did in August. This is crazy to think about, and it’s a very good trend psychology wise. However, I also did take significantly less trades in October than August, so this doesn’t tell the entire picture.
Let’s look at the emotional trades as % of all my trades for the month, to see whether I just ook less trades but still had the same ratio, or if I am in fact taking less trades due to improvements in my psychology.
The number differences are not as huge as the chart above, but wow they are still amazing. This is a trend that I am very happy with. Even the month where I did bad ROI wise, I still made improvements.
This is a very good trend that needs to continue, the long-term goal is 0!!!
Monthly October Data
Some things I just look at on a monthly basis, so I’ll put that here.
I always like to do some risk of ruin analysis on things such as setups, decision type, direction of trade, etc. To get an idea of things I should start throwing out .
These are just October numbers by the way.
Risk of Ruin - Direction of Trade
The thing to highlight here is that trading against the trend has a higher risk of ruin than trading with trend, this is not what I would’ve expected to be honest.
It sure pays off more, but it’s less accurate. The expectancy is the same for both but risk of ruin is higher. Something I need to monitor more in the future.
I almost always lose trading in a sideways market. This is only 2 trades I believe so it’s not that big of a deal, but I do need to avoid it.
Risk of Ruin - Decision Type
This one shocked me quite a bit.
First, my rational trades absolutely destroyed everything else. 60% win ratio, 3.4 payoff, 150 expectancy? Wow. I do expect this to be my best category, but not by this much.
Mixed trading is the chunk of my trades and would lead me to almost certain ruin.
Emotional trading had a negative expectancy but very low risk of ruin.
I’m a bit puzzled by these numbers.
I’ve mentioned in the past that I think tracking emotional trades is good, but I’m having troubles differentiating between mixed and rational. This is something I need to fix, but it’s just not as important as some of the other things on my to-fix list.
Time of Day
This tells me that I should taking an early day every day
Lunch time can be my crack a beer and stop trading time
Jokes aside, I have made huge improvements when it comes to my 930 setups. I’ve made a point to be more cautious during the open, and it sure has paid off with positive expectancy.
The numbers are quite low because I didn’t take as many trades this month, so this isn’t as statistically significant as I would like.
Trading Errors
This is always my favorite chart because it allows me to see what I need to get rid of!
The biggest thing here is that my 2 biggest problems, which make up 65% of my $ errors are technical and not psychological. This is big!
I have also cut the # of errors to something that is more manageable. This is overall a very good trend and I am very happy with things.
However, one thing I need to improve on are my entry points. @MacroNinja has emphasized the importance of this, and after a brief conversation with @Narcissus and @davidtaylor
I postponed doing this because my psychological issues were such a problem that being the best tape reader in the world wouldn't do much to my edge if a big chunk of my trades were emotional.
I feel I’ve made sufficient progress in my psychology that I can focus on this while still improving my psychology.
Summary of actions from last month
At the end of the month I set actions to improve my methodology to complete by the end of next month. Here are last month's
Here are the updates:
Still on my daily psychology goals
Still on my daily psychology goals
Added, but I need more work around this still
I added it to my psychology prep and I have a trade management standard. However, I haven’t posted it yet so I need to do so
I have not made progress on this – re add to actions for November
Haven’t made much improvement on this, I do think that this end of month post shows that I can now focus on this as I’ve made big improvements in my psychology
Making progress on this
Not quite there yet, but I did only take 2 trades when the market was flat
This one will be tough because my mixed trades are just not defined as well as I would like. I need to do this but I have to feel I need to prioritize other things first.
Summary of actions needed to improve my methodology for next month
And there are the actions I should complete by the end of November
Continue trying not to take emotional trades
Continue trying not to take FOMO trades
Continue focusing on not taking greedy trades
Do something so that I don’t have 8% of losses in 3 days (3-4 day losing as mentioned by @davidtaylor is a good start
I need to figure out a way to start tracking when I micromanage trades
Continue exercising conscious cautiousness during the open
Update my public rules to reflect any changes I’ve made
Buy the jigsaw trading tools and put together a timeline so that you don't rush into anything
At minimum, start tracking as much as you can in regards to your “drawdown mode”, go back to the past and try to think of how you felt and track your performance before and after this happened as part of your “gathering documentation and analysis” phase, this will help you conduct a thorough Root Cause Analysis in the future
Change your PC clock to be as aligned to the market as possible (try @sam028's suggestion first)
Conclusion
These numbers show me I have so much more to grow as a trader, but they reaffirm me that I am on the right path towards profitability. As my favorite quote says, "Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity".
These numbers were excellent compared to my past performance, so they have now become a standard. However, I need to make sure I'm not complacent as they will become mediocre in the future.
Let's remember that I’m only on Kilometer 3 of a 1,000,000 Kilometer journey.
Cheers!
PS- Thanks for your understanding around spelling mistakes / gibberish. If something doesn't make sense please let me know, I probably made a mistake!
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
Aim for 2 RTH trades on most days, and 3 if the market is volatile and you won at least 1 of previous trades (as for ON / Pre market trades, 3 max per week) - There might be an exception to this depending on election volatility
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
The day before the election is here. No big news, no key corporate earnings, just election coverage all day.
This next few days will be traded very differently. I'll be in reaction mode as opposed to trying to prepare for the market as much as possible. This will be a huge test on my psychology.
I'll be watching news constantly, looking at polls as they come in, and seeing whether or not a market will react.
An important thing to watch as well is not just the top of the ticket but probabilities around the house and senate. The market likes a HRC presidency, but not if it also includes a democrat house and senate.
Scenarios
Volatility, and lots of it - Very news driven with areas of res/sup not being respected
The quiet before the storm - Low range day, maybe we stay within ON boundaries?
Setups I'll take today
???
Psychology goals for the day
0 Emotional trades - All of your trades will be 'mixed' today but they need to be backed up by fundamentals of the election
I want to say 0 FOMO trades but if I'm trading based on news, I will enter based on news, wouldn't these trades be FOMO in nature?
Trade management for today - Guarantee profit after 8 pts, move profit up after every 5 pts
We could see some big swings today and tomorrow, but try not to let greed drive your decision making. Ask yourself, are we likely to hit this area? or is my greed hoping that we hit this area?
Re-read your daily psychology prep every 30 minutes to ensure your head is in the game - set an alarm for this
Be prepared to walk away at anytime should the pressure become too much for you
3 Losses maximum today, do not take a 4th trade under any circumstance and completely walk away from your office after your 3rd loss
Be extra cautious around open as we are up 1.6% before open. The market could explode in either direction with very little warning
Do not 'look' for opportunities, play today off as you would any FOMC announcements, excluding the morning where you are looking to hop on board for trends
Here we go
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
Quite the bull rally today. I took the trades I was going to take today and I'm done for the day. Overall it was a good day for me.
I took 4 trades, although 1 was a scale-in but since it's still a separate entry, I consider it as a trade on its own.
Sorry about the crappy pictures, I was trying to adjust my screen so that I could see some of Friday's activity without the candles being super thin, and I wasn't very good at it
Took me some time before I just said screw it, who cares about what happened on Friday when we are up ~100 pts
First trade - Long at the open
This was my "bull" setup. I felt the fundamentals were bullish enough to take this trade, and I only looked for a bit of confirmation from the market. It didn't pay off very well but it was not an emotional trade.
Trade grade - Ok
It may or may not have been part of the plan
Some signs were there, but it felt like a 51/49 gamble
Decent (but not good) target and/or stop
Second trade - Short after being stopped out
This was a bit of a dumb trade. 100% an intuitive trade and I just got into it. I didn't think much and I just found myself in a trade where I was just thinking to myself "WTF did I just enter into?" I should've exited the trade while I was up a point, but I thought well maybe I am getting lucky here. Buuuuuut that's gambling and that isn't very good win or lose
Thankfully, this was a loss.
Trade grade - Really Bad
Not in plan
Knew I shouldn’t have entered
Made execution mistakes
Third trade - Long
This was also my "Bull" setup. Where I feel quite bullish in the market, and I'm not entering in any particular zones. I just look for some confirmation that the trend looks bullish and I enter. It's not as scientific as my other setups, but it's
My snagit had some issues so for some reason it didn't save the picture. But my entry was @ 4737.25, with a stop loss of 4732.75, and initial target of 4764.
The market moved very strongly so I ended up moving my target way up and just managing my stops to protect myself from a major pullback.
Trade grade - Excellent
It was in the plan
Observed signs of entry
Good target and stop
Adapted to the market either by modifying entry for better potential, or exited early/late depending on the market conditions
4th trade - Adding to my long position Entered a long @ 4760.75, I am now in at an average of 4749 with 2 contracts. I wanted to scale in earlier to be honest, but I didn't want to get greedy and end up losing this because I know this would tilt me emotionally.
I waited until I was up quite a bit to take a second contract.
I was targeting 4782 with both contracts, but I would have to watch the 4875 area very closely in case we see a big pullback there.
Did it feel that the bull rally was over? No, I did not. But I wasn't sure that we weren't going to get a 15-20 point pullback that would take out my stops either. I've already made good profit, why risk the $ as well as my emotional stability. I'm here for long-term growth!
Trade grade - Excellent
It was in the plan
Observed signs of entry
Good target and stop
Adapted to the market either by modifying entry for better potential, or exited early/late depending on the market conditions
It's weird calling a 7 pt trade "excellent", but if I didn't exit this trade early, I would've been stopped out on my increased stop loss and would've made less than 7 pts.
Psychology goals today
0 Emotional trades - All of your trades will be 'mixed' today but they need to be backed up by fundamentals of the election- Failed, 2nd trade was emotional
I want to say 0 FOMO trades but if I'm trading based on news, I will enter based on news, wouldn't these trades be FOMO in nature?- Passed
Trade management for today - Guarantee profit after 8 pts, move profit up after every 5 pts- Passed, sort of. Not quite 5 pts but I did manage my stops very well today
We could see some big swings today and tomorrow, but try not to let greed drive your decision making. Ask yourself, are we likely to hit this area? or is my greed hoping that we hit this area?- Passed
Re-read your daily psychology prep every 30 minutes to ensure your head is in the game - set an alarm for this
Be prepared to walk away at anytime should the pressure become too much for you- Passed
3 Losses maximum today, do not take a 4th trade under any circumstance and completely walk away from your office after your 3rd loss- Passed, this says don't take a 4th trade but I meant to say don't take a 4th trade after your 3rd loss.
Be extra cautious around open as we are up 1.6% before open. The market could explode in either direction with very little warning- Failed, I was very eager and not cautious at all
Do not 'look' for opportunities, play today off as you would any FOMC announcements, excluding the morning where you are looking to hop on board for trends- Passed but I don't know that this was a good goal
So hard to judge my emotional performance today because this isn't a normal environment. I think I did decent, but I would give myself a C, C- performance.
My $ performance was pretty good though, I think I walked away with 25+ pts net from the market today, which is not too shabby.
Also, I think my last goal was good, except for the last part where it says "exclude the morning where you are looking to hop on board for trends".
I think anytime that I am actively looking for a trade, I will hop on whatever train comes first, even if it's the bad one.
I am not expecting to take a trade today, unless we get some sort of black swan news regarding the election.
See you tomorrow!
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
At least for me. 
