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Took several small hits today for many reasons. Mainly, pyschologically from fear and lack of focus, but the end results were favorable.You will see something in common that I do is pre-mature entries after I idenify the levels of interest from fear of missing out on the trade or I bail out from fear of being wrong or loss. Maybe even both. Something I continue to work on to strengthen.
I had my trade by trade results just over half way completed, then I lost all the content. That took me over an hour to do, so I am not going to re-write them out tonight. I have other things that need to be done. I will post my charts and hopefully find the time later to re-write my trade by trade results. I believe they are helpful for me to look back on to see why I made the entry, what I did wrong and what I was thinking and feeling.
No come back today!!! It was a see-saw day, took 2 losers out the gate, then a winner, loser,winner, well you get the picture. I was down as mush as -9 points per car and then came back to -4. I took 7 winners in a row. I had to tighten my profit targets, but I managed to make 5 points. It was all down from there. I made good trades at the predetermined levels I was looking for and the setups seemed to be acceptable, the PA seemed fine, then the market blew right past my entries. Some would hit my first target with "NF" then end up a loser. Some for a full 2 pt loss. Ended the day with (21) trades -15 pts. I will be drinking a scotch tonight to unwind. Against my doctors wishes of course, but I cut way down and on my morning esspresso as well, only one per morning.
It was such a bad day that I have to create some new rules. I replied to AZtraders journal the other day and the thread started to make sense to me. So, one of my new rules to take no more than 5 trades per day. "Win, lose or draw" I will stop at 5 unless I hit my daily objective of 2 pts per car before then. With this rule I will not be interested in taking the higher risk trades. Over trading as killed me in the past. The mindset is when I take a loser, I want to get back at the market for showing me I was wrong. The next rule is, when I take a loser I cannot take a reversal or my next trade as a re-entry. This has to be enforced because of over trading as been an issue for me. Looking forward to tomorrow!
It was a hard day for me only taking 5 trades and sticking to my rules. Only one winning trade out of the five made it very hard. I don't want to make any excuses, but I have way too many distractions with kids still home on summer vacation, I lose focus. Mentally, I still have some unfinished business with my old company's and I just want to get it behind me. My family life is struggling because of my lack of time spent with them. I need to make some personal changes in my life to get me balanced. I'm hoping most of pressures in life will be reduced withing the next 30 days or so.
I made alot of mental errors today and again not on my "A" game.
Trade #1 ss 1058.50 (Why I took the trade): we had a DT at the open and O/S at 1059.
(What I did wrong): early entry and then bailed on a winning trade for at least 2 pts.
(Results -0.50)
Trade #2 Long 1057.75 (Why I took the trade): at yesterdays hi, today's open and small gap
above and the HOD at 60.50 (What I did wrong): again made an early entry (lack of
focus)
Trade #3 Long 1053.50 (Why I took the trade): at established IB low was 1053.25, POC
1052.25. (What I did Wrong): Lost focus, didn't pay attention to PA and that the b/o
area was at 1051ish. (Results -2 pts)
Trade #4 Long 1051.50 (Why I took the trade): B/O area (What I did wrong): good trade
setup. (Results +1 for 2 cars & +2.50)
Trade #5 Long 1047.75 (Why I took the trade): NPOC 1047.25, yesterdays IB low and
yesterday O?S hi just below at 1046.5. (What I did wrong): we had a b/o area at
1044ish lack of focus (Results -2 pts)
I have some personal things I need to work on to get my focus back and to work on my trading game. Tomorrow is Friday and very difficult to trade after the first hour. May take tomorrow off to work on personal tasks.
I would suggest that you do take tomorrow off, since you are already thinking about it, and based on the rest of your post if you use it to take care of some personal tasks then it should help contribute to your trading in the long term.
Trading is all about being a better trader than those who you are trading against. While everyone has their problems, I don't think kids/wife/family interruptions are at the top of the list for a floor trader, for instance. So you have to get that squared away. Just because you work from home does not mean you are not actually working. Your family needs to understand that when daddy is in the office, he cannot be interrupted! It is just like you aren't there.
You also need to be sure you are taking it seriously, which will help not just yourself but also your family respect trading as a business. Among other things, it means no trading in your underwear, no talking on the phone in your office all day, no TV, no 'boredom' web surfing stuff, etc. Your family will see that you are treating it seriously, and that should make it easier for them to respect you when you tell them they cannot interrupt you, just like you were in an important meeting at a day job office.
I decided altogether to not trade today and maybe not until my girls go back to school on September 9th. That's another week an half. But there's just way too many distractions no matter how many times I tell them not to come in my office. One of them just does not understand. She is 11 yrs old with ADD and its hard for her to be content. I spent the weekend reading the Psychology section in the forum and George has a very good thread in there and I have already started watching video's on you tube on EFT.
So I have some things that need to be worked out at home, with me personally and other business matters before I start trading SIM or LIVE again. So for the next week or so I plan on studying the market and learn about me psychologically through reading books and finding video's and my meditation audios I have on my Ipod. BTW, I did purchase the Kindle this weekend and excited about getting it.
Looking at today's charts the bias was bearish and see no case to build on to to take a Long trade unless you wanted to scalp a point or two. We left a 2 tick gap above at 1063.50/1064. IB was only 6 pts, the daily range as of 3:15 is only 11 points. I have the 1054 area as a b/o and also 1045ish area of interest if we get that low. I will post a few charts at what I see.
Well, I came back a day early because my girls were not home this morning and I had time to get things in order like I had mentioned and I felt that I am ready emotionally and psychologically, well almost. LOL!!! I will explain. I decided to trade LIVE with only (1) contract to work on the emotional side of trading.
I will be Sim trading the rest of the week because tomorrow is contract Rollover day for the ES contract. The market volume will be split with very low volume and should be mostly trading on the 12/10 contact by Monday.
Trade #1 (Why I made the entry), I had 1098 as a Res level and price hit 97.50. 1098 was yesterdays open. (What I did wrong), Bailed out after price went 3 ticks in my favor and then came back against me by 1 tick. My head convinced me that it was a PB setup so I bailed out at B/E. Only to eventually make a 7 tick profit.
Trade #2 (Why I made the entry), We just established the IB hi and my thinking was the market would retrace by 50% before continuing the bullish movement. (What I did wrong), Thinking that the market would make a move instead of trading what I see. and I neglected to see the NPOC above at 1100.50 and the gap above. Ended up losing -0.84 including commissions.
I had two other setup levels targeted if we got there and we did, but I missed them both. Again due to interruptions. Kids go back to school tomorrow. HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like I mentioned yesterday I sim traded today because of the contract rollover. Out of the 8 trades I made 2 were mistakes as I will outline below.
Trade #1 -0.25 (Why I made the entry) we had a bearish drive right from the open, and 1104.25 is a LVN. It was a low O&P trade, but it was early in the day. (What I did wrong) a) early entry b) bailed out again from fear of loss. Still working on this.
Trade #2 -0.75 (Why I made the entry) We had a strong drive, POC below at 1100.50. (What I did wrong) a) lack of focus. b) bailed out too early again. c) BAD TRADE PERIOD HUGH MISTAKE.
Trade #3 +0.75 & +0.25 (Why I made the entry) IB low, DB, POC. (What I did wrong) a) entry too early b) the market was choppy had second target too far out.
Trade #4 -1.75 (Why I made the entry) BAD TRADE PERIOD HUGH MISTAKE.
Trade #5 +0.25 (Why I made the entry) PA good bounce, looking to scalp a point. (What I did wrong) This was a low O&P trade it was a second drive. b) had a point but again bailed out.
Trade #6 +0.75 for all 3 cars (Why I made the entry) 3rd drive & DB (What I did wrong) once again entry was too early need to working on my timing b) I didn't hold out for a full point.
Trade #7 +1 & b/e (Why I made the entry) H&S pattern (What I did wrong) Good trade
Trade #8 +0.75 & +0.25 (Why I made the entry) Tri bottom (What I did wrong) Didn't hold on my first target for a full point and second target made a 6 point run.
Two very important things I need to continue working on is A) Timing B) Psychologically = FEAR!!!!!!
I may SIM trade tomorrow and test my patience. I will hold out all my trades to either hit my targets or take a full hit and let the mkt take my full stop loss out.
Early day and it's Friday. Best start in a loooooong time for me.
Trade #1 +1 & +2 (Why I made the entry) I had 1102 as a res level with yesterdays IB low at 00.75 with a small 2 pt gap to fill at 1098.
Trade #2 +1 & +0.75 (Why I made the entry) DT with the IB hi at 4.25. Moved my second target tighter because sellers were struggling to take the market lower and still are. In fact 20 min later and my second target still would not have been filled.
Again, its Friday and the volume sux even in the first hour. Back to Live trading on Monday. Have a great weekend.
I hate days like today price action was so slow that I lost interest, lol. I get so impatient waiting for price to move and my head gets second guessing my trade, especially when trading live, even 1 contract.
Trade #1 (Why I made the entry) PB entry, on 3rd drive to the lod and b/o area. (What I did wrong) The same as I always do, bailed out to early. +0.50
Trade #2 (Why I made the entry) a) b/o area and 3rd drive into the area. b) DB, retest of the lod. c) o/s low and IB low. To me this was a good setup with higher O&P with confluence. But it just didn't work, lucky to get out +0.25.
I watched the market the rest of the day waiting for a good setup which I didn't see anything I liked. I also got some personal things done while waiting patiently.
