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Hello all, I recently signed up with jigsaw trading and figured it would be good to start a journal to accompany my experience and education over the next few months.
Like many people I have struggled to find consistency and profitability. I have been trading on and off for the better part of 8 years (so maybe 4 solid years). I started day trading after getting involved with wodies cci group. It was a great group and very supportive but after some time I came to believe that the people making money with the patterns that were taught there were filtering their trades with something undefinable, something akin to intuition. From there I began an education in candlesticks and candle stick patterns. Adding different indicators to confirm those patterns. Then Heikin Ashi candles, support and resistance, opening ranges etc, you can tell where this is going. I can say that I was lucky in the sense that I was able to keep my costs low and my losses to a minimum. I would also say that like an new subject I did learn a lot going through everything that I tried.
It was then that I ran across PATs price action trading on here. I bought his course and started following his youtube channel. I even started making my own youtube videos following my trades. I have to give thanks to Mac for doing what he does because Im sure it takes a lot of time to put out videos every day and to try and teach people trading. I find him to be genuine and I dont think hes in it to make money off of other people. My only criticism is that he NEVER talks about actual trades. I believe this is a shame because it would be so helpful to hear a successful retail trader talking about the decision making that goes into their trades, whether they are winners or losers. I still follow him from time to time but in the end, just like the woodies CCI group I was left feeling like there was an intuition going on with MAC that went beyond a simple set of rules. I still like the idea of price action telling you what the market is actually doing instead of relying on a handful of indicators. I would say that Mac's PAT system was better at teaching me general market action than anything else I had tried.
This brings us to today. I found myself believing if I was going to turn the corner and be successful I needed some professional education. After going through a handful of reviews and recommendations I settled on jigsaw trading. There focus on order flow (the thing that is responsible for price action) makes sense to me. After reaching out to them I felt they were very genuine and a good value for what they offered. I will keep my journal up to date on my progress and if anyone has any questions please to not hesitate to reach out on here or better yet [email protected]
So I got everything up and running today and sat down for my first hour of observing the DOM. For the record I am using Multicharts.net special addition (which in my opinion is way better than ninjatrader), AMP futures, optimus futures, and CQG data.
Today was an exceptionally slow day in the ES (the first market I am looking at because I am familiar with it) Even with the lack of volatility I have to say it was pretty awesome watching the market flow.
Compared to watching a bar move up and down on my chart you got to see what was going into each of those moves. Was it aggressive buying overwhelming aggressive selling or were there no sellers and buys were moving up easy etc. I found it particularly interesting when price would get to a level and there was a battle over that price. Buy market order would keep piling in and sellers would keep trying to block them. On the chart that would just look like a pause, but a pause could also be no activity so its like seeing behind the curtain.
Now that being said, interesting and being something that can aid in becoming a successful trader are two different things but Im excited to see what I learn.
So today I tried watching the 10 year bond. Very different than the ES. Price levels seem much stronger and the either hold or they dont. I guess the best way to explain it is less resolution. Kind of like how the ES is compared to to Dow.
I was probably doing more than I should have in terms of observation. I was trying the trading tools etc instead of just focusing on the order flow. I was a little frustrated early but later I did see a couple of interesting things later. One was watching price try to break the high (on the ES) and watching buy limit orders pile on to hold up the floor and then watch sell limit orders peel away indicating a loss of confidence in the the resistance. I took a long position and watched as price broke up. I took a small gain (sim) but it ended up being the biggest move of the day. Later in the 10 year I saw a possible double top short and took it but you could see the momentum swing from aggressive sellers into sell limit orders peeling away and buy limit orders stack on I closed at break even and watched it break up a short time later.
Looking at the chart there was nothing to tell you the momentum was switching other than it wasn't breaking down right away.
I wont be posting every day from here on but will keep the journal up to date.
Overseas markets - mixed Overnight s&p - between overnight 5pt high and low
Overnight bonds - trending up
News - 8am JOLTS job openings
12am FOMC meeting minutes
Expect range day with more range due to news if nothing else
Market opened and closed the gap. It was a great low risk opportunity to take a short there because you had the close, yesterday's high and overnight high all in the same spot. There were a lot of buyers right on the close but they were held and the market turned fast. I was looking at a short at 48.75 but I would have had to act fast, no second chances.
Started my sim trading today. I was going into the day expecting a range day.
Overseas markets - mixed with some 1% moves Overnight s&p - 5 point range opening at the top of the range
News - Nothing major
I had 3 trades for 2 immediate losers and a break even
For the most part I was on the right side of the market, just in the wrong places. I wanted to short the market at the open based on pre-open orderflow and the thought that we were at the overnight highs and people would be looking to close the gap but thats not part of my plan.
8:53 Short x2 -1 pt - off of yesterdays high which we crossed through and retested it failed immediately pulled up a point before actually selling off
9:20 Short x2 -1 pt - I took a short into the Overnight low. This was just a bad trade. Prior to taking it there was a lot of selling and absorption that convinced me to trade. Price moved higher a few ticks and as it came back I went with the shorts. It failed immediately and that low held for another hour before breaking short.
9:55 Long x2 +0.25 pt - I took a long off the bottom that had formed at the ONL. Nothing wrong with this trade, good entry, it went for 4 ticks before coming back to my entry price and which point I got out. It ended up going back up and I would have gotten my first 4 tick target but I had lost confidence in holding it by then.
