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Teajay's trading journal


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Teajay's trading journal

  #11 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Just one quick 2pt win for today... I would have loved to trade NQ after the ransomware news broke but I had some other obligations that kept me from my computer.

There was a fairly tight trading range for the last few hours of the early morning session before RTH. Open was sharply down - first two bars were all selling. There was a nice support level around 2428.50 on the hourly charts so I was eyeing that for an entry. By the third bar it looked like the selling was slowing down significantly, so I entered an order figuring we weren't going to get all the way to the support, but I would still get a nice tight stop. Market order entered at 2430, and due to some quick action fill was less than ideal @ 2430.75. Wasn't super worried since the stop was still within my normal risk parameter of 3pts. The trade was working in my favor right from the beginning and stayed there so I tightened up the stop to breakeven. 30 minutes later the momentum seemed to be drying up, and price bounced off the open ~2433.50 so I just exited at 2432.75 for a quick 2pts.


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  #12 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Going to try a slightly different format in anticipation of the Journal Challenge. Will include some comments on context for the day, notes about any trades taken and also include a tally of points.

Context:
Today will be about restraint - do not force any trades. Pre market seems to indicate we will make up for some of the loss yesterday, but not expecting too much action. It's a Friday, right before a holiday, which would indicate a quiet day. It is also the last day of the month and quarter, so unsure of how that may also influence the day.

Trades:
Missed the move down - I was expecting a tighter trading range and couldn't change my frame of mind quick enough. Was still convinced we were going to be a fairly range bound day, just maybe now a wider range than originally expected. Bar 10 looked like a good reversal - a new low had been formed, the buyers took strong control pushing it up to break the very steep down trendline. I would have liked to see a larger body but right before the bar closed price retreated a tick or two. Buy stop placed one tick above @ 2421.50 that was filled within a couple minutes. Quick push up to 2423, so moved stop to breakeven. Next bar also couldn't break above the 2423 mark, and this was also the high of yesterday afternoon's late rally so I figured support was good here. Since I wasn't expecting any strong trends, exited @ market for a 1 point gain.




The extreme of 2418 was tested again not long after, with almost the exact same reversal bar setup and bounce off 2423. I was out for a walk with my wife, son and dog so missed it Another time...

Points
ES: +1

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  #13 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198


First entry since the contest begins!

Context - Similar to Friday, premarket moved up but with holiday not expecting a lot of movement.

Trades:
Just one... ES was very tightly range bound and volume was low, so went looking at my recent favorite NQ. There was a big drop that just happened there on bar 2 so keeping eye open for reversal. Bar 3 looks like that reversal, would prefer a green candle, but take what you get. Typo in the order window means i got a fill too soon @ 5672.50 instead of one tick above the previous bar (which should have been 5673.5). Stop placed below the entry bar. Rapid shoot up 5678, a little bit of bouncing around there, and I exit at 5676.25. I realize there was no thought or planning whatsoever on that exit - that was a mistake. The trade happened so fast that I planned poorly, so I just bailed since I would likely rationalize something crazy.




Points:
NQ - +3.75

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  #14 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Context: Based on pre-market we will gap open from Monday's RTH close. Possible action I'll be watching out for is a test of key levels around Monday's close, or a total runaway higher. Fed minutes will be published later today, so expect some calmness in the middle of the sessions. i.e., trade either early or in the closing hour-ish.

Trades:
Only took one quick Al Brooks style trade in NQ today late in the session, despite a couple great setups early in the day.
Generally trend has been up for the day. Shortly after Fed meeting minutes there was a quick 6 bar jump. Then a big bear bar formed at 11:45 so I start looking for some form of pause in the action to jump in. Bears end up taking over for next 30 minutes while I'm still on sideline watching. Prior swing low in the 5642 range is tested, and the bulls now take control at the end of the bar. Thinking a great reversal here... I've got a order to buy at 5647.75 that doesn't get hit. The next bar is a tiny inside bar, and I'm still liking this setup - can get in at a cheaper price, and place a much tighter stop than before. The correct thing might have been to double the size of the stop as a reversal in case of a fakeout (The downswing bars were some aggressive bears afterall).

Drop the purchase to 5647.25, get a fill, and dump it within 6 minutes at 5651 after there was some resistance against the EMA20 right here.




Points:
NQ +3.75 (+7.5 for July)

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  #15 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Context: Really nothing to share here, I was late getting to my computer so thought I would watch the action and let the market tell me. No major releases on deck it seemed.

Trades:
Looking back there were a couple big trends on the day, but for whatever reason I couldn't see clear entry points. A lot of bars I was seeing were ranges and fairly choppy moves up/down. Perhaps I needed to walk away and clear my head a little bit. In any case, I waited it out for 2 quick trades today, both on the ES for 1pt each.

Trade 1:
Open gapped down, and while there was a lot of contention bears seemed to be winning. Trend line had taken shape and there was a small bearish bar on the top trendline touch (ignore the bottom line, it's only touching once). Seemed like a reasonable low-risk place to enter with the trend. Placed sell stop just below it and got filled at 2413.25 @ 7:24am PST. There was still a lot of contention on the next couple bars, despite making one tick lower lows and one tick lower highs. 2412 was showing as support both a couple bars before, and a couple times now since I entered position so I exited at 2412.25 @ 7:37am PST.




Trade 2:
Shortly before close and trend had been down for a couple hours. The trip down was choppy but I still felt like I had missed a couple opportunities (wasn't expecting a third leg down that would create a new low for the day, amongst a couple other things). In any case, proud of staying on the sidelines until I was confident. Now that the previous low of the day had been knocked out I jumped on a full body bear bar. Short @ 2408, covered within 3 minutes at 2407.




Points:
ES: +2

For July:
NQ: +7.5
ES: +2

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  #16 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Two losing trades from yesterday, Friday 7/7 to write about today - one on the NQ and one on the ES. A shame since it was one of those days in hindsight that seem so easy (don't they all? )

Context: Pretty big gap open so assuming an uptrend day, but going to wait for early action to confirm.

Trades:
#1 ES
Pretty balanced first couple bars, a small retracement on bar 3 and then bar 4 looked like a reversal. I didn't take bar 4 as signal at the time because I was expecting a better test of yesterday's close and convinced myself the body of the bar should have been a little larger for a true reversal. Bars 5 and 6 were strong bulls so I've now ruled out a test of yesterday's close and start looking for a pause or pullback. Bars 7 and 8 are the pullbacks I'm looking for so I place a stop to buy a tick above bar 8 close. Get filled at 2416.25. In hindsight, perhaps I should have preferred an entry *after* a bull bar close for higher chance that the momentum was confirmed, or at least waited for a second entry since this was an outside bar. Action immediately went straight down and I got stopped out on the next bar for a 2.5pt loss.



#2 NQ
As I'm finding lately the trends to be more obvious and smoother on the NQ I was also keeping an eye on those charts. After an hour and a half of action there was a really good trendline in place and price was just about to bounce cleanly off it. At 8am PST price touched the trendline and the bar ended on it's high. I couldn't enter with a stop here so went with market and got filled at 5641.25, a point above the last close which wasn't terrible. Next two bars were up so I started tightening my stop. I moved it up to the bottom of my entry bar, just below breakeven. The rationale here is that I'm finding myself scalping too much lately, so I figured if I kept a fairly tight stop I'd be more willing to let the win run. A good thing especially today since we were clearly in a strong uptrend at this point. Anyway, that plan backfired the next bar was swiftly down, retested the trendline and then bounced back immediately. My stop was at 5639.75 but the action was so quick my fill ended up at 5639.25. I am unsure still if this was a flawed plan to have tightened the stop this much - I think so, in that the stop ended up sitting on, or slightly above the trendline which wasn't really giving it enough room ...




At this point I was shaken, so couldn't really focus. Unfortunate because the next bar was yet another great entry point that I just wasn't ready to take, right before a big bounce up. At this point I was down two trades, was upset to have missed the big move so I just called it a day, especially since things started trading in a very tight range.

Points:
ES: -2.5
NQ: -2

For July
ES: -0.5
NQ: +5.5

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  #17 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

No trades taken today as I only had an hour and a half first thing to sit in front of the computer, but a note for completeness...

The morning action was a little all over the place. No big gap open, then a quick up and down, so unclear on trend direction if any. By 7:15 a bit of a wedge was forming, so started eyeing opportunities to trade the range. I was looking to enter short on bar 10 (7:15 in chart) after 2 bear bars off the top trendline. I decided to wait for a second signal because these prior two bars may have just been a retracement of the huge bull bar on bar 7. Shortly after this the action broke out of the wedge, so I was going to wait for a pull back to confirm, or to see if it was a false breakout but then I had to leave the computer.

So, nothing ventured, nothing gained/lost. I'm not sure if I was being too timid by not trading the second up bar at bar 11, which had confirmed the previous bear bars were just a retracement...


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  #18 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

One trade taken today, for a 2pt loss. Haven't had a ton of time to spend at the computer this week, so not a lot of notes to refer back to...

After a big selloff this morning it looked like we were in a downtrend for the day. A big 2pt selloff bar bounced off a newly formed trendline happened right before I sat down, and then a shorter bear bar that also closed on the low. I figured we were good for a short, testing somewhere in the 2410 - 2413 range from the prior selloff. Entered below the bar @ 2416.75, and action stayed below/at the trendline for the next 10-15 minutes before a breakout and I got stopped out at 2418.75 (above the signal bar) as price went and broke through the EMA20.




That was all I had time for... If I could change anything I would have entered after the first bear bar at 2417, but would have still got stopped out at around 2419...

Points for July
ES: -2.5
NQ: + 5.5

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  #19 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198

Had to take a few days off trading as my real job was a bit more demanding, including a few days on the road...

The context I had in mind was that pre-market was in a pretty good down trend and we were set for a big gap down. My assumption was that we would rally at first to test either yesterday's close (~2458) or the low of yesterday's session (~2454 in the morning).

Took three trades today, first two described together and all shown on one chart...



Trades 1 & 2:
Big gap open down by ~7pts with bears strongly in control out the gate. Within the first 30 minutes we rallied close to yesterday's low (still short by < 1pt). A small inside doji forms on bar 5 so I went short on the Low1 at bar 6. There was still a large gap to the EMA, but I went for the Low 1 entry vs. waiting for a second leg based on the perceived strength of the bears. Downward action continues for a few bars but then a big bull bar takes us to the EMA and I get stopped out. Loss of 1.75 points.

Now that we've hit the EMA I'm feeling really good about a Low2 entry at the EMA with all the early bear strength. So, I go short on bar 11 @ 2453. A little bit of sideways action for a couple bars and then a big drop. Plan was to exit before 2450 which I figured would offer some support both as a round number and the low for the day and then go short again on a second leg down once the market broke through my anticipated support level. I exited at the market at 2450.75 and was quickly blown away when price dropped to a new low with barely a pause. Gain of 2.25pts. No second leg down happened so I had to reconsider my opinion of the market/trend.

Trade 3:
I sat on the sidelines during a range in the middle of the session and then a brief downtrend. Once the trendline was broken around 10:15, started looking for a pullback and another short entry to test the extreme. Strong bull action and a High1 at the EMA that didn't form a lower low so it was starting to look like we weren't going to have a big pullback from the down trendline break. Shifting my view towards long entries... Waited for a High2 entry that happened just before 11am. Fortunately this was a new high of the day, so I figured we broke out of the earlier range. Placed a protective stop near the low of the High1 which was 2pts away so felt comfortable letting this one run for a while. Very tight action, trending slightly upwards and I exited at 12:35 before the final action since I didn't have a read on it. Gain of 1pt.

Points:
ES: + 1.5pts

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  #20 (permalink)
 teajay 
Seattle WA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: IB TWS, MC.NET, CQG
Broker: InteractiveBrokers, Optimus/AMP
Trading: NQ
Posts: 125 since Jun 2017
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 198


Only one trade to write about today. I executed my plan in the morning and got stuck on the sidelines in the afternoon.

Context I was operating under was that we were heading into an all-time high so was keeping my eyes open for a good pullback entry and to stay long for a while. Early action was strongly up and we were pretty far from EMA so I figured we were good for a two leg pullback back to the EMA.

After around an hour and fifteen minutes into the session the pullback was complete with a High2 at the EMA. I entered with stop @ 2463.75. Pretty straightforward action upwards including another correction to the EMA. At 8:45 Price was bouncing off 2466.25 (the earlier high of the day) for almost a full bar and it was nearing the lunchtime lull so I exited at 2466.00 to sit out what I figured was going to be a flat range for the next hour or two and then re-evaluate in the afternoon.




Unfortunately price stayed in a pretty tight upward channel without large swings or major trendline breaks but I still couldn't bring myself to enter so missed out on another few points in the afternoon.

Points: +2.25

For July:
ES: +1.25
NQ: +5.5

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Last Updated on January 18, 2018


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