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Im really proud of myself right now.
I would be even more proud if I would have done this trade live and not on sim. But even on sim I was panicking and I knew where I would panicked out in real trade. So good that I tried this in sim so I could see what is happening and observe.
I could even have better entry, or if I wouldnt have my rules, I could have add second lot.
We tested HVN ... my rule and confirm of breakout trade. I got in!
I put my stop at low of range. My thinking was if we break this point back into range, no breakout. My target was HVN established earlier ... but like really earlier
We went down and we bounced. In this point I would panicked out in real trade. But I was waiting. If we gonna break we could get 2-3 points.
And this is how it ended:
As you can see it bounced back to low of the range, but it didnt break it back and it quickly went back to HVN where I started my trade. I think This would have been better entry. I could entry at that test of range with really tight stop or after getting back to HVN where I initially started. Or I could add second lot.
I saw huge amount of orders in book. I put my target above. Big order is tricky so just for case.
It actually went to my original target, but I might have not got filled there anyway
I did good with my target, because we bounced back to HVN and from there we even went back to range
Was this a range break? Everything is kinda funky at ETH but this was happening quite often in not really directional days, specially at ETH.
Funny thing is, that this happened again just few hours later. I got work to do so I wasnt trading, but while Im writing this I noticed on my charts.
Ill do screenshot right now and try to sum up what might had happened
I might be wrong here, because I wasnt infront of charts while this was happening, but:
Range
Getting into a break with HVN outside of range. We were testing low of that range as well
In this bar we had HVN slighty lower and we tested previous HVNs. This could have been my confirm if I would have been trading
What I would love to learn is to fade ranges ... Because in ETH it seems like we are ranging all the time. I will try to find some edge how to find out how to fade range. Because if I can find some setup that with small risk I can get like 4 ticks, 4times in a range ... well ... I would win life!
I'd encourage you to keep your journal going, Kubo, even if you don't get lot of response from others. This is part of your technical development as a trader... a necessary journey for anyone who wants to make it as a trader, coming to terms with and understanding the quirks of price action and market behavior.
When you will look back later over journal, you will see how far you've come.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
So ... today I had this feeling that I want to try live trades. I gain courage after another read of range in ETH.
So this is what happened:
Well it didnt went well. But:
Range
We had this bar where we could go higher then intoo middle of range and we builded HVN slighty below range. I thought thats my point and I will wait for reset of that point. Retest came so I got in. My target was swing low at around 4137 and my stop in middle of a range, Because that would be point of no breakout
Well as you can see I got stopped out. I didnt move my stop. If I would I would be profitable ... but I cant do that so good job me!!! So what happened here? Number 2 wasnt breakout yet. But it was a beggining. Real HVN below range came in this bar. We went lower and then back to test it. We tested low of the range and that should have been my entry. But damn I was close! Im actually glad, because I read that correctly. I had my bias I had my rules I even waited. I did all good. Excpet breakout came little bit later. But I was close and Im glad I tried it live.
I wasnt mad at all! I should have waited more. But that is why im writing this so WAIT A LITTLE BIT LONGER FOR REALLY OBVIOUS CONFIRMATION
I have my new rules. I was down 1 point. -5.43$ with commissions. If I wanted I can still do one live trade. I didnt have this feeling I have to gain my lost back, but I still had this courage to try one more.
So the second one:
I missed this breakout of a range that developed. I was maybe a little bit too afraid to try it again and when it started happening I didnt want to catch it, because that is not the greatest idea.
Then we came to this spot (white line) I was watching really closely. It looked like interesting area of support. We tried to broke it, but I saw some absorption on both sides. Buyers started to winning and I already had long bias, because we were just going long for some time. So my idea here was that we either have a long run upwards like we already had, or at least we would have a bounce for scalp. And hah! It went well
This is heatmap for that trade.
Missed break
Range I was looking. I could have gotten in earlier. If I wanted to be more aggresive I could have goot in in that range with tight stop. I waited until we broke swing high. Or at least I waited like 2-3 ticks above that range. I got in and my stop was low of that range and my target was 1:1 RR. I actually pulled away my target but I saw some weird behaviour in book so I put it back and I actually did good. So small bounce scalp.
So today's live trading? Im at break even! Which is actually good! So I have my new rules and Im done live for today. I anyway have to go away so I cant trade and when I come back home I will jump to sim. Im still trying trade ZF and already got some screenshots prepared, but didnt have time to post it here. ZF is completely different. Its really slow ... like really. And then suddenly it moves really fast for 3 ticks. I would love to take those. Im trying. Easy part in ZF is, that you know really quickly that you are wrong. And Im usually wrong But at least I know quickly. So I guess that is one point for a skill set
Thank you really much. I really appreciate it and it means a lot to me. When you tell me to keep going I get this feeling of strength and dont want to stop.
I started writing this because I thought it might be fun. Really. For me and hopefully for others Then of course this whole competition sounded awesome I was struggling to find good education online. I thought jigsaw's one might really help me.
But well what a surprise. This journal already helped me enormously!!! I could not have even imagined. So yes, I will try to keep this up for as long as I can. This is actually my journal about "How I tried trading"
Hopefully in few years when I will be a profitable trader I will read this one and will say: "well that was so much fun starting"
So thanks Mike for this opportunity.
And thank you and others for nice replies and just for reading this
The attitude of 'serious' fun is a good one to have, regardless of any temporary, short-term outcomes.
Though for most of us success can take years, it does not have to be that way. It depends on whether your learning is structured (journal and feedback from others can help tremendously) and whether you are looking in the right place or stubbornly try to squeeze water out of stone with approaches that don't work very well.
PS Nemas za co.
You are never in the wrong place... but sometimes you are in the right place looking at things in the wrong way.
Well at least if I want to learn sth, having fun with it is nice but Im taking this seriously. Funny thing is, that I very often panic also in sim. That means I really take this seriously. But as you said. Having journal and feedback is really awesome!
I guess I should rename this thread to “Look how I trade range breakouts”
I love range breakouts!!! Well maybe thats the only setup that I KINDA see
No Im kidding I think I was fortune enough, becouse there were lots of ranges past days and I kinda was just learning about breakouts So that really helped me seeing them live and also trading them.
Range
I gained long bias seeing we cant get lower then this line
Lets have a look on the same situation but in heatmap
Range
HVN above range
Test of range (aggressive entry)
Test of HVN (better confirmation)
But then I saw this:
This happened 1.5 hours later. And I was thinking … well maybe this was that breakout. Because ETH is really slow soooo
Original HVN
New HVN
Test of range
I honestly dont know. When it was happening I got surprised, so I put one lot there. Sim obviously Also had to go away from pc so I wanted to see how it did when I come back and I didnt have to find and remember specific prices.
But we are not finished with breakouts I got another one here happened during RTH
HVN
Test of range. And I got in aggressively.
High of day so I was afraid we would stop there, thats why that aggressive entry with target at HVN
Test of HVN from high of the day and then book into the moon
Same situation from heatmap
And got last one for a breakout:
But this one was different.
I didnt trade it
Range
HVN
Test of range … but I didnt like it and Ill show you why
Previous range with breakout
HVN
Test of range
Test of HVN
New range … looked little bit funky
Kinda HVN
Well … it was soooo slow I was like … hmmm I dont like this. And it just slowly sliced through that range
I did good Im proud again even tho I did just sim and when I wanted to do live trade I forgot Im on sim and when I switched I didnt want to catch it anymore
But I have to ask this question. Were this proper range breakouts? Maybe I just see them everywhere because its the only thing I can see If yes … then I also want to learn fade ranges. Scalp them for point or two.
Well ... ranges in ES are getting little but boring what do you think?
So I got few treasury trades in my sleeves.
They are really interesting for me. I would love to learn them. So Im trying. In sim for now. I tried like 2 live trades and Im at break even or in a small loss because of commissions.
But I wanted to post few things here
Well ... what is this? Was this some king of news? ES went up as well. This happened few days back
I went short
I cant really remember why I noted these points. Im sorry
Nothing really showed me market is against me. I was 1 tick in red, but still not looking bad.
Well ... we were in range for hours and then in few second 15 ticks move?
This was interesting price. We traded just few contracts there. Long bias again
Huge limit orders at 27.75. We traded like 5 lots and half of them got pulled. We traded back to 27.50 and they didnt push back, so I went in. Stop at 27.00 and target 28.00
We went higher than my target. Im still trying to learn treasuries so as soon as it backticks I was out
Another sim trades:
HVA developed in some time
Another HVA we were trading in. I tried few trades here
Nice long trade. We tried to trade into huge bid at 31.00. Bigs didnt move away. Long bias. Again I got out with few backticks. But nice trade.
This happened on sim and I really wanted to try this live. Just to see how I will behave with live money. I thought I was pretty good at seeing when Im wrong so in worst case I will loose 2-3 ticks, which is ok for my rules -25$ per day.
So I tried:
So as you can see ... we were long ... hard. So I thought we will break this high one more time. Well we didnt there.
We traded into 03.25. Huge offer was sitting there. As soon as we traded there that offer pulled. I saw huge offer one tick above and thought it will do the same. So I went long
Huge bid there. Also in 10 year treasuries. We traded there and those bids pulled away. I started to worry, so I had my stop prepared
There was huuuuuge absorption here. I should immediately get out. But was thinking that if we trading into this really hard, maybe we would just pushed through it and it will be hude run. There was 17k lot trade into 19.50 in 10 years old. Well ... I should got out.
Huge bid there. We traded there and I was watching. If those bids will pull out Im out. And they did so I immediately got out.
I did good here. I read it wrong but still had my bias and was trying to hold this trade as much as possible. Im still new to treasuries and had my bias and wanted to see what will happen. As soon as it looked really bad I was able to got out.
Well ... didnt go as planned. But I tried and Im glad I did it live. I was down 2 ticks and I didnt do any live trades that day anymore.
Lesson:
Well ... I really want to give myself some lesson here. But im not sure yet. So at least this:
Look for absorption and pulling offers. Try to develop a strategy out of it. Try small with 2 tick targets
So I will end this week with .... wait for it ... RANGE TRADE! ... actually not
No range trade today. I tried sth different.
I could really trade during RTH because of band rehearsal and I can not now either. But I made few sim trades today. Wanted to do at least one trade, but this was new and I wanted to try it first on sim.
So lets see
ETH kinda slow and we went up back to a HVA between 4164 and 4167.
Ther was this kinda support zone here. We bounced and I saw some nice momentum in book. I went long here. Was like well ... this might get into range so lets try it
We traded up my direction. Under my price bigger bid appear
There was also this bigger offer. Was waiting what will happen and holded my trade. If we bounce, im out
This is how it went:
Support
Entry point
We traded that larger offer with ease.
We gained really nice momentum, so I pulled my stop higher and wanted to see how we will trade this actually pretty huge offer that was sitting there fro an hour
We break through and even break high of the day, but we somehow lost momentum so I was out. Nice 11 ticks
For me, this was really nice trade and Im so glad I hold it. Well it was sim, but I was still panicking
I know it was just 11 ticks. But if I can always read market like I read it here ... maybe I will learn how to trade
Entry was kinda funky, because I just had bias of range fade and saw this maybe a support there Maybe a really stupid idea of going in. But ... well I did and I tried to managed it. I guess that is a skill too. Maybe even more important ... note to myself here: write a lesson from this
And I made a second trade here. Again, in sim :/
So what happened here. I think I saw a small iceberg or at least some kind of absorption.
Ill show you and if somebody can tell me if it was a real absorption or small iceberg I would be really glad
So we went up in first bar. Then we traded down and in book I saw really hard hitting sellers into bid, but price didnt move at all. We even bounce for few ticks. I looked at footprint and saw this imbalance. I went long
We traded below and I panicked. Yep .. even in sim!
But we bounce back to iceberg zone. We bounced where I panicked. Like on tick! And there was another absorption by buyers. I tried long again
We bounced hard. I saw this price level here where there was some absoprbing few hours ago and that was my target. We bounce from that level and I got filled
This is the same trade but in heat
Absorption zone
Puking out and bounce back
There was also nice momentumn from buyers. I went long
Zone of previous absorption
So thats it. And Thats it for this week as well
First lets write a lesson from this day Lesson:
Managing trades is as important as trade itself! Managing good trades for nice profit and bad trades for small loss is really important!
Try to look more at book! When you see some funky order flow, observe! Try to learn and distinguish between actioning and absorption and icebergs. When they happen, observe what will happen after. AND DONT FORGET ABOUT CONTEXT
Ok so Im done for this week.
First 2 weeks of journal and oh damn! Its awesome! Best thing I could done for my education!
Im really glad for anybody that is reading this and for any kind of feedback. Well, likes are nice as well This actually started as part of competition.
But really. What everybody is saying. Making some kind of journal is one of the best thing you can do. And I really want to learn this!
So thank you all
I will have a break tomorrow. Will try to not look at any videos and try to not look at my previous sessions. But on sunday I will try to read this whole journal again and prepare for next week. Maybe I will sum everything up in some kind of lesson
but this was happening quite often in not really directional days, specially at ETH.
