Choppy day. Not totally unexpected. Setups kept failing, and I kept having to sit on my hands. Probably a good thing though.Stopped out once, and that was definitely the best thing that happened today. Allowed me to get back in the game instead of having to sit for hours to nurse a single very sick trade. Totally been there - too many times - and never want to go there again.
With a safety net in place, I should have taken profit instead of getting stopped out. All the trades were almost immediately profitable - entering on MSL & MSH, inside bars worked well. Missed 2 trades that broke out upwards - I hesitated even though the trigger was an inside bar for both, coz as always, I simply couldn't BUY.
Was convinced by the TICK (which has spent most of its time in the positive region ), eventually, that RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. It's just not a day to sell.
Lost at leaset 5 points coz I didn't take profit the way that I've gotten very good at doing. I let a trade get stopped out, and scratched another instead. All because I was still wanting to give taking profit at target a shot.
I'm convinced now that I have a certain style of trading that I can't change. It's not in my blood to let anything go auto-pilot. A stop only serves to save me from serious damages. The only way that I can trade comfortably is to watch my chart, THE TAPE, and the TICK ,and bail at the first sign of trouble. Scalping is the only mode that I can trade without going crazy.
Will stick to trading the few setups I'm familiar with (yes, I'm scalping high probability setups. What a waste).
Focus is back on achieving consistent results, and if by Sept I don't get another nasty incident, will start adding contracts.
6 comments:
I think you and I suffer from the same problem. I, too, can't hold a trade for the life of me! I was long at 39.75 this morning; exited for 3 points which is a "big" profit in my book since I'm usually covering for +1-1.5 pts. The only good thing is, that both of us seem to keep our losses very small as well, so it ends up working out. This method would fail miserably if the losses were larger than the small gains. I'm going to continue working on holding just a little bit longer.
Hi Jules, been following your trades. You're doing well at controlling losses compared to, say, 2-3 months ago.
You're right about trading style vs. personality - it must fit like a glove. I'm also still in this process and have discovered a lot of assumptions I held about myself did nto apply to my trading.
It can be a great journey given the right perspective, thanks for sharing!
Jules,
Scalping rules. I don't think you need to make any apologies to this crowd. You have to play to your strengths.
Personally I love scalping. I feel so much less pressure and don't ever have to sit in a trade with a sick sinking feeling that it is a loser. If I'm not instantly making money once I get in a trade - I'm out. And if another opportunity comes up I'm ready to take it.
LT
Thanks, you guys. I needed that :-)
LT, I saw your setups and your videos, so I know you're not the kind that goes for home run too :-)
Emini Player, 3 points is A LOT for me too! LOL!
MVW, you saw those stupid trades I made? Gosh..that's embarrassing....
Scalp, scalp, scalp. I love it and think it is the ultimate way to mitigate market risk.
Also, thanks for stopping over at my blog the other day! I like your cat...Mrs. Bluecollar and I have three here.
Oh you lucky man!! Mine won't allow me to have another!
;-)
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