Keep Calm and Don't Move Your Stops.....

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning!

The Purpose of Life is Joy!!

Friday, March 31, 2017

-2.50

-1.25 X 2 = -2.25

Chart tells the story....

Done for the day. I am taking a break from trading next week. Its fair week here and my kiddo is off school plus its likely I will start my new mortgage career next week as well....so I am giving myself plenty of room for error and not trading. Besides I am tired of losing for a while. Time to clear the head.


Thursday, March 30, 2017

+.25RR

Chart tells the story.....

Except this.....If I miss something like the spike up, I tend to begin looking to manufacture something and since I know the 5M will take a long time to manifest a set up, I have taken to dropping down to the lower time frames to "find" something worth trading.

This has resulted in losses nearly 100% of the time. I just figured this out today. (STUPID STUPID STUPID)....So I closed the one minute chart never to reopen. And found the nice little trade I made my losses up with.

Time to make some breakfast.

Cheers


Wednesday, March 29, 2017

-1RR

I slept in today since last night we went to see Ben Hur at the theater. We'd never seen it all the way through. I thought it was a 2 hour movie, turns out it was almost 4 hours. Got home at 11:30 last night, in bed by midnight which means I got shorted 3 hours of sleep for this mornings trading session. So I slept in.

Got to the charts just after inventory and the chart tell the rest of the story. Tiny risk so able to size up a bit on the entry. I think it was great location on a "normal" day but the buyers kept coming in and pushing the price up....I moved to BE at one point but that is not part of my overall trade management plan so I took the stop.

One and done as there was no good long entry location available after the inventory spike.


Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Scratch Day

Seriously?????

I had GREAT executions today in terms of trade locations....those green boxes, all entry areas. I even bought .10 when it spiked down only to be shaken out on the slow price action.....I kept trying multiple times in these areas....some scratched, some small losers and some small winners....No follow through....

And then, I bought one last time in the last green box. I held it for what seemed like way to long considering it sure looked like it should take off right away....and finally I decided it wasn't going to and bailed for a tiny winner....only to see it blast off on the NEXT bar. To say I was pissed was an understatement. This doesn't happen to me near as much as it used to but it still happens enough that I should have figured out something by now, as long as the trade premise is valid, just hold it.....but sitting there watching it fart around drove me nuts today....lots of five minute bars with less than 10 tick ranges....it can be infuriating.

Once it blasted off, I knew better than to sit there and try to find another trade. I'd trade out of anger and boredom and that is an account killer. So I just walked away.



On another note, I'm probably only about 2-3 more days from abandoning my NT8 experiment. I like it overall but small fonts and lack of a couple of tools I use is renders it less than optimal. I'm giving it to Friday and then probably back to NT7 for next week.

Monday, March 27, 2017

+4RR

I am trying out NT8 today. Some tools I like in NT7 I can't get in NT8 yet, plus I don't like the color scheme much and neither do I like the TINY font Ninja uses for EVERYTHING in this version....but I do like the tab feature which I'm not using yet and I like how NT8 seems to be a lighter footprint on my CPU....However, the overall feature set doesn't really seem to be enough to demand making the shift over yet. Configuring NT8 is a pain at least at the moment both due to the steps as well as the small font size. It did perform perfectly today though. Gonna give it another shot tomorrow and see.

One and done today. I left a bit of money on the table but as before, I didn't really have a trade premise below the LOD.


Thursday, March 23, 2017

+3RR

Support becomes resistance. Classic TA. Most of the time it works. Sometimes it doesn't like yesterday.

Today, it was super simple. Small risk, large target. Stay sane and solvent that way.


Tuesday, March 21, 2017

0.00RR

Another scratch day....So strange this game we play. So much of what we do it not mechanical or rules driven but instead is emotional or mental. Our rational self knows what to do and yet the monkey brain interferes so often it feels as though the monkey brain is our true self. Still, doing the right thing is the only way to make money and so the pursuit of rational trading continues.

I left money on the table with the last trade. Quite a lot of it actually but I had no premise below the LOD which meant I exited that last trade a few ticks before the support area. That orange line is yesterday's 50% level. So far, quite a bit of support there over multiple attempts so reasonable to exit there.

Time to pack it in. I'm having coffee with my last surviving uncle on my mom's side of the family. He and my father were quite close and he called yesterday and wanted to chat. I suspect he's missing my dad pretty bad. Anyway, looking forward to seeing him again.


Monday, March 20, 2017

0.00RR

After far to many trades today.....I ended up $35 after commissions. Honestly, it wasn't that frustrating, I was following my 30M chart around like a puppy taking trades on the 1M chart....but the premise of each trade included far to much assumed follow through which ended up killing a lot of trades at BE....along with a couple of losers and decent winners....all of which offset each other.

This is the five minute chart which shows the levels I was watching. Trouble here is this, Had I just traded only the 5M chart, I would have been in the correct longs with no shorts. I'm shaking my head at the inconsistency of the market these last few weeks.

Headed out for coffee with some friends.

Cheers


Friday, March 17, 2017

+1RR

Grateful this week is over. I'm down about 1.5RR for the week due to some sizing issues on a couple of losers. Otherwise it would be a scratch week.

Today I took a small loser on a short followed by a winner long....then a loser long followed by a winner short.

Next week more focus on just following the process, sticking with the smaller chart until the ranges open up again.

Time to pack it in and enjoy the weekend.

Cheers.



Thursday, March 16, 2017

+6.6RRRR

I spent about two hours yesterday having a come to Jesus meeting with myself. I knew darn well the reason I was losing was me and not the market. I was trading out of boredom, trying to make something happen. I was trading from a position of arrogance and not humility. All recipes for disaster.

I determined to be proactive today in how I approached the market. The come to Jesus meeting basically told me there was opportunity these last few days I was just refusing to do what was necessary to capitalize on the opportunity presented.

So today, I did the work, I knew where I needed to do business, I dialed into a one minute time frame to find my entry and the larger time frame for my exit. I also went break even as soon as I was able to get an add on to the position.

That break even was missed by one tick.....sometimes being lucky is better than skill!!

Targets were down around .04 and .92. I ended up getting out a tick or two in front of those levels and with 5 ticks of risk on the first position and zero risk on the second, 6.6RR was the net result.

One and done for the day.

EDIT: I even bought a "trading system" yesterday I was so frustrated. Once I go it loaded on my charts and compared its entry method with mine, I realized I had something simpler and cleaner already and so I only had it on the chart for about 15 minutes. I did put it on this morning to compare with what I was doing in real time but that lasted about 5 minutes. The one thing I did like about it was the use of renko bars that take time out of the equation. I might consider something like that in the future but for now, back to what I know best.



EDIT 2: Decided to take one last shot, risked 5 ticks again based on the one minute time frame, exited same place as before. Only ten ticks of profit but that is a 2RR trade. I'd do that all day every day if that was what was needed to make money. I'm leaving some money on the table from that last trade but I took the conservative exit and that is good enough for today. Now I am done.  

Take a look at this: Does anyone know why this happens?




Wednesday, March 15, 2017

-2.5RR, I think I've had enough

Take a look at this chart, what the hell kind of price action is this.....chop chop chop, new high, new low, new high....chop chop chop...then new low, new high, new low and now it looks like a new high is coming....un-tradeable unless you trade the absolute extreme. I even tried going to a lower time frame to day and that worked sorta of....but not really.

I think I am done for a few days until this chop crap is over. I'll watch the market for sure but I'm not trading it again until "normal" price action resumes. No sense in killing my account like this.



Tuesday, March 14, 2017

-1.5RR

I'm either getting lazy, bored or something. I have my normal way of looking at the market movement and I also have a higher time frame way of looking at bigger picture trades. And I've been missing them like crazy.

Take a look at this chart. The market leaves clues where it wants to go and where it wants to turn. I've missed all three of these whilst trying to manufacture something out of the crap price action we've had lately.

Perhaps a renewed focus on due diligence each morning is in order.


Monday, March 13, 2017

-2.5R

What's with the market lately? Super narrow ranges followed by an large spurt one direction and then super narrow ranges again. Not really suited to my style at all. I was doing ok through some of that by just really waiting until I got a perfect set up and it was working or at least ending in scratches. Last few not so much.

I was down 2RR early, got it back on a long, then gave it all back being short again. Ended up down -2.5RR after commissions today.

In hindsight I did have a couple of execution errors in the early morning, those were stop outs but even with that, the day should have given me enough opportunity to get them back plus some more, that didn't happen today.

The key to surviving market conditions like this is to limit the losses. No big losing days allowed. 2.50RR loss is the largest I'm willing to go for any reason. Don't go crazy and just keep banging away at something that refuses to give you what you want....and I got close to that today....time to clamp down on risk.

On another note, I passed my last math test on Friday. Now I just wait for the college to process my grades and award my degree. Should be a couple of weeks.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Scratch Day

Sheesh, I was long from 49.51, stopped out to the tick and then price ran straight to my target which was the HOD plus some.....but after the stop, I figured I was wrong so I SOLD 49.51 which was stopped out on its way to my LONG target. Down 1.5RR

Then I sold 49.51 quite a bit later, stopped to the tick, Down 2.5RR. Finally sold again held for 2.5R gain and closed out as I ran out of time for trading. Original short target was 49.80 which it finally reached.

BAD execution today, good ideas with poor execution nearly always results in losses. I'm lucky to scratch today.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

No trades today

I came down with a tremendous sinus infection yesterday and I took some meds last night to kill the infection but it didn't sit well on my stomach.  Anyway, I spent the night in the bathroom puking my guts out, (second time in a week) and was totally exhausted this morning. It's 4:30PM and I'm just now starting to feel a wee bit better. My head feels like its gonna explode. I have a history of these sinus infections but this is the worst one I've ever had. I might not trade tomorrow either depending on how I feel. I started a different antibiotic today and hopefully it will kick in tonight and take some of the pressure off.

So cheers for now.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

No trades yesterday

I had a family emergency come up yesterday morning around 6AM which meant I was unable to trade. I had been at the charts for about 30-45 minutes when this happened but hadn't put a trade on even though a set up happened. I just didn't like the way it looked combined with the low volatility lately, just made me nervous so I passed. Turned out it would have been a good winner but thats the way it works out sometimes.

Today the range is only 37 ticks from high to low, its inventory day and so I think I shall sit this one out.

Cheers.

Monday, March 6, 2017

+3RR

Today risk was small, pretty good set up with good timing. Instead of sizing up with small risk like normal, I left the size alone because the price action hasn't been great lately, I figured I'd rather win small than lose big if the poor price action continued plus I was trading into a possible double top and I wanted to be out there any way.

So one and done today. Bought 53.00 and exited at 53.16 with 5 ticks of overall risk.

Today is final exam review day and then final exam tomorrow or the next day depending on how today goes. Then that's it for the degree...its almost over!!!

Friday, March 3, 2017

-1RR

Well sometimes it just doesn't work. Everything was looking short but only the longs worked today. Not sure if my weakened state clouded my ability to see things differently but even after the longs were working, I didn't see a way I could have seen it any differently so no longs for me today.

After nearly 2 months of no losing days, I was bound to have some draw down. I've been wondering when it would happen. Thankfully it ended in a break even week. I can handle that I think.

Hopefully by Monday next week I'll be completely over this food poisoning thing. I'm still pretty weak and my entire upper body feels like its been used as a punching bag. I'm pretty sore.

Have a big weekend planned this week. A birthday party tonight with dear friends, Midnight at the Oasis tomorrow with a Queen tribute band I'm looking forward to and then my wife is signing at church on Sunday. I do the live sound when she sings but I didn't make it to practice due to the food poison so someone else is doing that then a full afternoon of doing nothing.

Time to hit the publish button and take off.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

no trades today

Last night we went to a resturant take over my kiddos class was doing for a fund raiser and I had some food I'd eaten there before only this time a massive case of food poison resulted. I've never wanted to die before but last night I would have taken the one way trip to big trader in the sky if I could have. One of the worst experiences of my life second only to the heart attack....

I'm still very weak today. I have an entire day of just sitting around doing nothing, mostly because thats all I have strength for. What a crazy night....

On the other hand, today was a perfect day for my style of trading. To bad I missed it.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

-.5RR

I forgot it was inventory until just before the number...by then I was down 1RR with a long in progress. I closed it out with .5RR profit just before the number and counted it lucky to be out with such a small loss.

I have a test review today and the final exam due before the 10th of March and I will be done with school!!!. Looking forward to it like I haven't looked forward to anything in a long time.

Cheers.