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Second that! I've been learning the hard way to stay away from some days/setups that are terrible for me, even though they look easy in retrospect at the end of the day, Absolutely no reason to take a trade if you're not seeing a setup that begs to be taken - hard enough to win on those. Good job staying out of trouble!
Maybe I should just tattoo these words on my forehead!!! Today was the kind of day that I truly don't want to journal about...This is how it all went down....
Premarket Analysis: Really ugly day Very choppy and sideways. All TFs but maybe 2 minute are deathtrap sideways.
Really no clue going into the open. I will not trade full size today. Only 2 lots. ( I am so glad I at least did this right!)
Market sort of selling off into the open. Still no firm direction on the open.
8:00 No trade. But then momentum starts to come in and market starts to break through MAs. I am short at 53.13. Ouch momentum immediately turns against me. Maybe 2 ticks in profit momentarily...Blown out for -8 ticks.
Trade 2: Really poor trade location, thought market was breaking down. In retrospect, market really has no defined trend, and is just running stops IMHO. Short at 53.23. I recognize it is not working so I get out for -4 ticks.
Going into 8:30 Probably best trade of the day though that is not saying much. Decent reversal bar off the equity open. No follow through though. Short at 53.29 made a tick Was below VWAP. Lot of volume stuck up at the high. Really think this was a decent trade. Just didn't pay anything.
Now if I had of stopped here, would not have been a horrible day but,.....
Decided to try another short at 53.21, but only one contract. Really just a continuation of the short at 53.29. (in hindsight). It starts to work, so I add 1. Blended entry is 53.18. Not any traction. Market dies. I was coming into long term rising support at 53.14. Should have been more aware of that. I had earlier thought that 53.14 would be good place for long. Forgot it now though.
Interesting sequence of events occurs. I am recording it in BBFlashback, and it is actually back to back frames in the movie I recorded. Jigsaw T & S shows it to be about 1 second apart. I get blown out by 167 contracts which ignites a massive stop run.
I could have walked away down about $280; however, I end up the day down $691.52. This kind of day makes me just despair of ever being consistently profitable! I will persevere
That is what kills our accounts, coulda woulda shoulda! I am still not sure if i will be consistently profitable in the long run, but hey.. being profitable in the first 2 months of the year, with these markets gives me good feeling. I really liked your last statement here, I WILL PERSEVERE... thats the spirit my friend... i am used to feel like you feel right now, 1 loosy day erase an entire week or more of good trading and puts an insidious doubt into my brain about my capacity of being profitable in the long run. Thats why i always keep an excel sheet where i write down everything that happens on my charts.. every trigger pulled, times of being in the market, exits, comments, P/L of the day, scratch trades, looser and winners, everything that allow me to keep in mind that there is and THERE MUST BE always a bigger picture. So long story short, dont let a single day take you down so much... you know tomorrow will be better, you have 4 more profitable days to forget this bad one till the weekend.
Good luck my friend.
Premarket Analysis: Market in UT. However, I have major resistance at 53.70. Worried about buying into that. Still feel like I need to be trading full size for the open trade.
8:00 Market dinks around for a bit, I finally get in long off of buy stop at 53.65. The market just stalls. I try to get out with a limit and T4 keeps refusing the order. Hmm. Finally I just close it for -2 ticks. Ok I think what is happening is since we can only go 5 max contracts, and I already had a limit target out, it wouldn't take another limit order. Put that in the file manager.
Trade 2: I get short at 53.61 after the rejection. I am not happy with this trade because it was too emotional and I was too late. When there were no buyers at the high, I should have been thinking reverse immediately!! or not at all. I ended up scratching this one. The other thing is I should have been thinking of this as a scalp, but I am just not good at this kind of scalping. I seem to gravitate towards wanting to hold for a larger move. Maybe just Hopium...
Trade 3: I get long on the BO, 53.73...again no follow through. Have dropped down to a 3 lot. But T4 will STILL not accept a limit order sell....Still over the 5 contract limit. Should have thrown a 1 lot at it, hard to think of those things in the heat of battle. Finally I just close the trade -3 ticks. Still feel ok emotionally/mentally and focus is still good.
Trade 4: I start getting a lack of momentum and I get short at 53.70. I take some heat and add 1 at 53.76. Start getting some traction in the trade and all seems well. Up about 4 ticks. Unfortunately, buy surge comes in and I get stopped 1 tick from HOD U gotta love it. That's trading. Loss of $300 on the position.
Trade 5: Market starts to fall apart and I get short at 53.71. Solid trade and felt strongly market had flipped to short. May have been a mistake, but I was concerned about the equity open, and wanted to preserve some profits, so I exited with +2 ticks.
Final trade: Short at 53.56. Market moves against me. I am selling the PB into the CWAP. Market keeps going past the VWAP, so I am adjusting my stop. VPOC of swing is 53.63. Should be some resistance there. Market bleeding against me but very slowly. I add on at 53.64. Looks like I am going to be stopped out. I move stop to 53.66, my max stop. I gets me or it doesn't. I survive...Market moves in my favor. I have to go to work. I end up scratching it.
I want to try to simply some things in my plan...certainly needs more thought. I may be looking at too many things. I felt like I had some nice swings at it today, it just wasn't my day.
Quick Summary: Up $165.28. Couple of small trades and then had to go to work. Quick short off the 8:00 open and then a pb short that I closed for +1 because it was so slow.
Like you say .. you survived a long time.
Each time you survive longer you are making progress - and in the end that is what counts, making progress.
Keep looking and searching with a positive outlook and your final success is assured.
(For all who seek shall find and unto all who knock it shall be opened. )
You lost nothing, as the combine was the one you won, isnt it? Have you learned something? Because that's what matters. I really hope to read your journal soon again here... do you need discipline? Build up your discipline but don't stop trading and learning if your goal is becoming a smart trader. It is not THAT easy to burn 3000$ daily neither 4500$ drawdown. Work on this mental wall you may have right now. I know you can do it. Do not throw the sponge, your success could be around the corner. See you soon Danny.
I got myself in a hole on Thursday, and thought I had hit Trailing Max Drawdown. I was just trying to get back to Green or at least above TMD. I am thinking I may have figured it wrong, but even if I had stopped at the $500 loss, I think I would have only had $100-$200 of margin. Almost not worth the aggravation.
I do think I learned a lot from this combine. I did make some money and I survived a lot longer than I ever had before. One of the issues that I think I must address, is simply not getting enough profit on the winners. I think the answer may be partly in waiting for prime setups...that is what I am studying today. My winning trades are only $30-$40 more than losers. I think that is a recipe for disaster.
I am still overtrading and taking too many impulse trades, I will definitely be working on that the next combine. And yes, there will be another LOL...
My combine comes up for renewal in early April, I am trying to decide if I should just close this one out and start another or if I should reset this one. One thing I am considering is that next week is quad witching and also crude rollover week, and this can be a tough week to trade.
Thanks to everyone for comments and encouragement. I truly do appreciate this. Trading is a solitary endeavor and so I greatly appreciate others who are fighting the same battles giving me feedback and encouragement.
