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I'm going to be posting my day trades not only to analyze them and see what I'm doing right and wrong, but mainly to get feedback and advice from this trading community. Please inform me if you see something that I haven't noted in terms of what I can improve! Thanks!
About my setup:
9 and 20 EMAs
50 and 200 SMAs VWAP
ECI indicator (yellow dots - indicates price contraction, usually followed by a breakout but doesn't indicate direction)
Top indicator (indicates possible breakout with target levels)
Trend pivots
CSA indicator (multi-indicator with trend painting function)
I am experimenting with various strategies, mainly momentum plays, including: ORB
Bull Flag
ABCD
Ascending Wedge
MA/VWAP retracement/bounce
MA/VWAP trend
Reversals
At the open I'm looking at stocks that have gapped up with high volume for ORB or momentum pullback trades. Then I'm watching scanners for HOD moves to enter with the momentum, on pullbacks or when steadily following trend. I'm also looking for oversold LODs for potential reversal trades. I look for key support and resistance levels and half and whole dollars to inform my decisions.
I'm only paper trading for now so I'm not worrying about values and share size- I'm entering with 100 shares of each stock regardless of value. My stop loss is right below key levels depending on the setup. I'm selling half at 1R (a key level, ATR or the value of the stop loss) and raising the stop loss to breakeven, then selling the rest at 2R or letting it ride if there's no resistance.
Right now I'm trying to formulate and solidify a winning strategy. When I get more comfortable executing trades I'm going to limit the paper account size to the capital of my real account (quite small) and work with more realistic values and share sizes.
Entered after 1st bullish candle from ECI breakout / overall uptrend / rising from dip / held VWAP / broke premarket high. Exited near VWAP upper band / break of previous swing high.
Entered at VWAP (false) breakout / ECI indicator / Top indicator. Sold half at first Top target / premarket high. Bought more at dip / VWAP bounce. Bought again at premarket high break. Exited at today's high.
Today my timing was off and I struggled to find good setups. I've also been letting some losing trades run since I'm only using a paper account so I've been losing more than I would in a real account. I think I'm going to stop this and abide by my stops.
I've been using Trade Ideas scans on youtube live streams because I'm afraid Thinkorswim's scans are subpar. However, there's a slight lag in the youtube streams so it seems I'm always a bit behind. Maybe I'll try Thinkorswim's scanners tomorrow.
Today's takeaways:
Don't enter with overhead resistance very close
Enter closer to VWAP/9 EMA.
Enter closer to 5 min Top
Don't chase the trend without entrance signal
Don't enter overextended from 9 EMA
Don't enter after bullish candle
Don't enter without setup on 1 and 5 min charts
I'm not sure about the following ideas. If anyone can share some insight it would be appreciated!
Don't enter at the top of a large candle?
Wait for 1 min pullback?
Don't enter over VWAP top band?
It's a bit time consuming to upload the images of the trades to a website and then link each of them here in this post, so I'm simply attaching the document with the charts if you're interested to see the trades.
Enter closer to key levels
Take some profit at 1R
Pay attention to buy/sell buttons
It seems a bunch of the trades simply didn't go my way. I can't identify anything that I did wrong so if anyone sees something that I could have done better, please let me know!
Wait for bounce off 9 EMA to enter
Pay attention to Buy and Sell buttons
Don't enter after large bullish 5 min candle
Wait for pullback / consolidation
I'd like to give you feedback, but your images are too small. I can't make out timeframes, entries or exits. You'll need to upload higher resolution images.
