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Today was a short day as I only had about an hour to watch the markets before I headed out to work. That amounts to only about 30 minutes after RTH open. Today I did find one trade, a slight pullback, and it was good for +4 on the first contract and +14 on the second for +18 total. The second contract could have run farther but I set a TP just above the bottom of the OR because I felt price would at least test the previous low. It was only one trade, but after yesterday's dismal performance, I at least felt like there might be some hope!
Looking forward to tomorrow. Hope everyone had an excellent day!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
I've mentioned before that I haven't had much luck trading the Asian session, yet when I have time I will still watch the markets during the evening. Last night as I watched, there were some obvious set ups occurring in MES so I went ahead and took a few trades. I ended up going 3 for 3 so I was pleased.
This morning was, of course, all talk about war. I couldn't find any real direction in MES prior to Trump's speech and the very best setup of the morning came while he was still speaking. I should have taken it but I was afraid in his next breath he might threaten to bomb someone so I stayed out. Later I did find one trade and managed to scalp the first contract but got stopped out on the second.
All in all a couple of good sessions even if I didn't get much done today.
Nice trades! I have often wanted to trade Asian ETH but i have been disappointed by the lack of movement so many times that i rarely look now. It has its moments though!
Short day today with only about an hour to watch the markets. MES seemed to be stuck a bit so I looked at MNQ. Now I don't often trade MNQ or NQ because although the overall trend is similar to MES, the movements can be stronger and can stop out a conservative trader. Nevertheless, I did find one setup this morning that looked good so I took it. My first contract hit TP1 for +10 ticks and my second contract ran for a while, finally pulling back to stop me out at +42 ticks for a total of +52.
Felt good about finding the trade given the short amount of time I had.
As I started back on my live account this week I decided I would stay primarily with the micros until I had the confidence to return to the minis. With the exception of one trade today, I stayed with the micros so the dollar amounts were all small for the week, but of course that included my losses which was the whole point of staying in the micros. The bad trades I had this week I was able to see where I went wrong and that is a tremendous help. In the past I have had plenty of bad trades where, even after the fact, I couldn't see what I had done wrong. This week, not every bad trade was necessarily an error, but afterwards I could see where using a different entry or a different stop, for instance, would have made a difference and all of those things can help me make better trades going forward.
Today was a mixed bag and my first trade was, in fact, an error. I was trying to carry on a conversation with my spouse and continue trading at the same time. Not a good idea! And that's not putting the blame on her, I should have stopped trading while I was having the conversation but I didn't. Lost 14 ticks. The next trade was one that I thought was a pullback but instead MES was dropping into a little range and stopped me out for -16 ticks. Not sure what I could have done differently there although my confirmation of the entry was not as solid as it could have been. There's always that balancing act between moving ahead with a trade or waiting for more confirmation and missing it altogether.
I had some breakfast, came back and found MES still ranging so I looked to MGC. I use tick charts and the volume on MGC is so low that in order to get a tradeable screen I sometimes find myself at 50 ticks, and that type of volume can lead to moves that don't follow the usual probabilities. In any case, I did manage to scalp out 5 ticks and then left it alone.
I had seen in my scanner that CL was making some nice moves, so despite my plan to stay in the micros this week, i started watching oil for an opening. Previously, when I was trading the minis, CL and YM had been my go-to markets so I'm comfortable with CL although it can make some wild and unpredictable moves sometimes based on news events. Today I just took a fairly safe scalp with two contracts for a total of 8 ticks and that was enough to put my day and my week into positive territory.
Results for the day:
4 trades (8 contracts)
2 winners: $85.00
2 losers: ($37.50)
Gross P&L: $47.50
Results for the week:
18 trades
9 winners
9 losers
Gross P&L: $17.25
While the weekly results are barely enough for dinner at McDonalds, I am pleased. Pleased because my strategy worked pretty well all week, pleased because I felt in control of the trades, and pleased because the majority of my losses provided positive information for tweaking my strategy. Next week I plan to continue primarily in the micros and to continue repeating my strategy so that I can, hopefully, develop some mental muscle memory so that the strategy becomes second nature.
I hope everyone else had a good week as well and that you have a spectacular weekend!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
I monitored the Asia session this evening in MNQ. When I saw that price had essentially made a double top, I felt there was a good chance that it would drop down to the previous swing low, making a range. So I took the first good entry I found with two contracts, took my TP1 at +10 ticks and then moved my second stop to BE. The previous SL had been in the 35-37 area so I set my second target for 9437.00. Price did just hit that before retreating back. Total 50 ticks.
I'm not sure how much more I'll do tonight. For me, the "sweet spot" for the Asia session seems to be about 4:30 - 7:30 (Pacific Time). If I have my time zones correct, that's about a half-hour after Tokyo opens until just after their lunch break.
Happy trading!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
First trade this morning in MES was a range play prior to the open of RTH. After the reaction to NFP, price had dropped to around 3330 and topped out around 3335. I knew it would only be a scalp if it worked, but I went short at the next best entry I found and put both targets just above a resistance zone. +20 ticks.
After the open, there was a very slight downward trend channel. I found a place to short but I was too slow to adjust my stop and price bounced up and got both contracts for -8 ticks. I use an ATM that has the stops set pretty tight just in case something goes wrong from the start. However, I typically will adjust those to the individual trade but wasn't fast enough this time. The trade was still valid so I went right back in with another short, took TP1 at +4 ticks, and set my second target near the bottom of the trend channel for +13 ticks, +17 total.
My last trade this morning was on a Breakout Pullback. In fact it pulled back so far I thought it might change direction. But I did find a long entry, took TP1 at +4 ticks, then price meandered up and down and finally fell back and hit my second stop which by then I had moved to +2, so a total of 6 ticks.
So, for the morning, a total of 35 ticks and, as I crawl my way toward consistency, I'm happy with that.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
Personal and work obligations have kept me away from the markets for most of this week. I did manage to squeeze in some time on Monday night's Asia session and Tuesday morning for a brief time. During those two sessions, I managed to break my own rules three times on three trades and lost every one. Cam Hawkins on his Trading Nut podcast recently suggested making a donation to something you don't like every time you break a rule. Perhaps I'll start making donations to a particular politician that I despise, that should cure this problem ASAP!!
Anyway, I did have a little time this evening and managed only one trade in MNQ. Price was ranging so I took a short, held on to it for quite a while and finally it did move down and hit both rather modest targets for +10 and +22, total of 32 ticks. And, yes, this trade followed the rules so no donation tonight!
Working again tomorrow although I may have a little time first thing in the morning around the RTH open. Happy trading, y'all!
Mike
NW Trader
There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.
