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Going to make another attempt at this endeavor that I hope many of you ladies and gents are doing well in. At the risk of being embarrassed, going to post my trades in this journal to help others and myself.
It is in hopes that I will keep myself honest and express my thoughts and feelings as a formal record to learn from. Be forewarn that there will be thoughts that my not be as well organize nor expressed clearly as they should be.
My current focus is support : resistance price action, and try to use higher time frame for perspective and execute on the lower time frame.
My goal is keep my ego at bay and be more aware of my emotions and myself during the process. In everyday life, I don't carry my ego on my sleeve so feel free to offer your insights, feedback, comments and constructive criticism. I have much to learn and would appreciate them.
There were two trades last Friday and unsure why NT now shows two shorts for the first sequence though my trading statement shows it as one short and cover, as it should be. First trade was a continuation trade (1 car short - 2236.75), and with my heart racing a mile a minute, I covered at 2233.75. Ideal target is 2232.50, 1 tick above yesterday afternoon pivot level. Second trade was a continuation 1 car short - 2225.75 and covered - 2221.75, around previous pivot low. After that I had to go to work
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Ended the day ($310) before commissions and closer to ($350) after commissions once I get the report tonight
1st trade - look a long at the breakout of intraday high around 10:06 PST with two cars at 2265.75. Put a tight stop one tick below the 2264.50 pivot and got stopped out. Emotions were a lot more under control and was relatively ok with taking that stop, indicating to me that price was not immediately advancing.
2nd trade - put in a sell stop one tick below 2263.75 for two cars around 10:36PST. Prices did not exceed that pivot at the 10:41-10:43 attempt and ran up. As it exceeded the 2266.25, I should have removed the sell stop as the short thesis was no longer valid. I keep it there thinking, or better yet, hoping that the day would fill the gap up. At 10:55 prices fell to one tick below the 2263.75, got filled 2 cars @ 2263.50 and began its run up. Should have put my stop at 2265.75, one tick above the pivot high that was tested at 10:57. And that was were my second error was. Once again, prices ran up and had a hard time taking this loss. Hoping *sigh* that drop.
3rd trade - reversed @ 2269.75, taking a good size loss and now long 2 cars. Prices move up and I immediately moved my stop loss to BE (pivot) and got stopped out.
Big mistake was not putting that stop loss when I should have on the 2nd trade. And the reversal may not been the ideal thing to do though the aggressive stop loss on it was a savior.
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This could quite possibly be the shortest journal on futures.io (formerly BMT) forum. Possibly more ideal situations than day trading and working but the truth is that the majority if not nearly all the responsibility for my lack luster result is because of my weaknesses as a trader. One thing I notice this time around is that some aspects my psychology as it relates to trading is a bit better.
I realize one of the biggest problems I have is the inability to sit and be patient. This is something I've been trying to work on and has gotten a bit better, but far from mastering it. I've been traveling this road alone for a long time and maybe its time to break out of my shy shell. Tiring morning of over trading and hard day at work so I'll just put up a 399t chart showing trade locations and price. Maybe I'll come back to break them down further when I have the energy and if I recollect them.
Here's a short summary:
1- short - stopped out
2- short - covered one and trailed 2nd
3- short - stopped out (stop could/should been a few ticks lower)
4- short - stopped out
6- short - trailed tightly just in case it did not continue after breakout of the day's low.
7- short - covered 1 @ 4 ticks - covered 2nd at -4 ticks. Break even trade.
8- long trying to scalp... bad. Took a lot heat, bad trade, but got out at BE.
I hope everyone is doing well at their trading endeavors and hope others that are struggling can benefit from this journal.
Good chance I may not trade tomorrow. And that's probably when the breakout I've been waiting for is going to occur
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Make sure you are positioned for the long haul, mastering trading takes time. Slow things down, let them soak in, avoid getting caught up in the black hole of changing things over and over, and you'll do fine.
If you are burning through capital then limit yourself to 3 trades a day, no matter what. It will help you focus, and three a day will provide enough education to learn from.
Thanks for the suggestions and encouraging words Mike. Also found your recent webinar very beneficial, and for those that are on the fence about making a contribution to the forum and becoming an Elite member, Mike's recent webinar is worth the price of admission ten times over. Through my personal reflection and some topics from the webinar, I'll be outlining a very simple, basic opening range breakout strategy to trade. I need to break things down to simple components and learn how to crawl before walking, and then running.
There are also psychology topics I'd like to write about for the purpose of bringing clarity and having something concrete down on 'paper' to assist in keeping my thoughts organized. Hope everyone is make steady progress on their trading endeavors.
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Glad you mentioned patience. I struggle with this issue as well, although I think I have overcome some of the earlier issues I had. The two biggest things:
1) Watching price too much. Try to pay more attention to the reason you got in the trade in the first place, what your indicators are saying, etc.
2) I was putting my stops too close to the entry.
Don't mean to suggest you don't do these things. Just sharing what my issues were.