Cyrass' Trading Journal

May 6th, 2020, 04:36 PM

Hi everyone.

Long time lurker and passive trader looking to share my trades, ideas, and hopefully wins as I navigate through this trading journey. Working from home on the west coast, I'm finding I have spare time to monitor the markets and through this last week I have been able to actually get my feet wet with micro emini futures. Before this, I practiced through simulation through TOS and Sierra Chart.

I've mostly been focusing on Heikin-Ashi charts timed at 256 ticks with an Ichimoku Kinko Hyo overlay. Supplemented with a $NYSE tick chart, and a separate Volume Profile chart (still learning how to utilize this fully).

What I've found is that if I am very patient and strict with my entries, I can easily come away with 1-2 points. The last couple of days I have been up 4-5 points going into 12PM and I get eager to anticipate changes and find myself throwing the rules out the window and end up going negative for the day. I definitely need to hone in on my discipline and need to shut down and walk away for the day when I am up by an acceptable amount.

Here are a couple of my trades for the day

Looking back, if I would have been more patient at least with my second contract, I could have let the initial trade run up to 2867. I like the Ichimoku but I'm finding that it misses out on a lot of big swings. Which led to my next screenshot.

After the bearish crossover above the cloud, I was anticipating a downtrend and entered once the price moved below the cloud. I took a very small profit and got lucky because it ended up bouncing back past my entry.

Here is my last trade of the day where I was trying to be smart but the markets proved how impatient and dumb I can be. Should have walked away for the day. No real explanation here just trying to trade off my gut and anticipating swings towards the end of the day. Maybe only 1 of these trades actually make sense based on the Ichimoku rules.

Thanks for reading. I hope to continuously improve and post to hold myself accountable.

May 7th, 2020, 02:00 PM

New trading day. I was being extra cautious today and missed what looked like a great entry at 8:43. Finally entered short with two contracts at 9:38 after price broke the cloud, Chikou was out in space and Tenkan-sen was below the Kijun-sen. Set my first profit at 5 ticks and second at 10. Done for the day.

I'm trading the micros to try and simulate what it would be to trade the regular. My real goal in trading is to be able to scalp 2-3 points a day to supplement my 9-5 day job. Once I hit this goal I need to just sign-off before I make any mistakes.

May 8th, 2020, 01:46 PM

Two trades today.

I'm realizing I need to wake up earlier to jump on some of these big swings. I am currently taking advantage of working from home on the west coast by waking up at 8AM. By the time I woke up and got to my computer, I missed a big Kumo long breakout. I jumped in at the next cross and adjusted my exits to take smaller profits since the long signals were starting to compress.

Second trade I wasn't too confident about so I only entered with 1 contract. I was hoping to catch a Kumo long breakout. Settled for two ticks since there was too much sideways action. I am done for the day with a profit of 2.25.

May 11th, 2020, 02:33 PM

Woke up around 8AM and the MES seemed to be pretty choppy. Entered long with 1 contract around 8:30 shortly after the cross. I could have entered a little earlier. Exited with a modest 8 ticks.

I had to do a zoom call at 9AM and missed a big 10+ point swing. Oh well.

I'm continuously learning and searching for ways to improve. I came across an old ichimoku thread where someone suggested to shift the parameters to more align with the US trading days (5, 20, 40) instead of the stock figures (9, 26, 52). I'm simultaneously reviewing both charts to see if there is a difference. I ultimately entered short under the new parameters around 11:10 anticipating a cross. Since I was already up 2 points for the day, I exited with a profit of 4 ticks.

Now I'm done for the day. I will continue to monitor the markets.

Cyrass' Trading Journal

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Cyrass' Trading Journal