Trades 12/8 (Tues) - Nothing Much Happening

12/7 (Mon) - 12/8 (Tues)

ETF

Long DIG late last night (my last night, 12/7 at 11:30pm; 10:30am ET) and EARLY this morning (my morning, 12/8 at 2am; 1pm ET) but price started stalling after breaking downtrendlines. Both trades were scratched. I needed sleep.

FX Futures
6B
Still bearish on USD. Can't help it. Long 6B during lunch (my lunch time, 12/8 at 12:30pm; 12/7 11:30pm ET) but scratched trade. Waiting for further development. Market's slow and quiet. If nothing good shows up, will spend the day reading Ryan Jones, and nurturing my AUDUSD position.

6B 200-Tick

Index Futures
TF
Nothing on TF. Pivot's below where price is trading now. If it gets a bounce from there, I might get in on a good setup.

TF 15min

FX
AUDUSD (Long)
Never mind.

TF & ETF Trades 11/27 (Fri)

TF 1min

D and I entered into this arrangement with ONE rule that we promised to observe: I give him the entry and profit target, he executes the trade which includes getting in and getting out based on what the tape and the other indices are doing.

I broke that one single rule and asked to take over everything. Bad news was, my chart and IB's BookTrader went out of sync like 70% of the time, and I missed our 580 exit (2 points away from our entry at 578) when I was focusing on my chart at the wrong time (when Booktrader was FASTER than my chart). I ended up having to scratch the trade at +2 ticks.

D was super pissed.

Anyway, I got us a second entry, and this time, D executed the trade and covered where I told him to.

1.3 points, plus a little in ETFs. $190 to end a short trading session. Happy ending! Ha.

No trades from yesterday. TF had a really short session (ICE closed at 10:30am ET) and I didn't bother.

Trades (6B, UWM, QID, FAZ) 11/2 (Mon) - Wrap Up

US session's just a mess. I AM THE MESS. Was all over the place. Kept buying bear markets and sold my UWM before market opened (which wasn't a bad idea coz it didn't really go up with the market when the session started).

Total Net: + USD 273.30

Not showing the TWS platform coz all the records were cleared at 12am my time - I was too busy watching my chart to notice it was near midnight. And no charts for the ETFs coz like I said, I was just all over the place. No loss though. I was adamant about not taking a loss on a textbook u-turn day.

I'm happy. Today's the first day I start using the profit-target template that D created for me. Woohoo!

MM, DT:
will respond to your comments a few hours later. I desperately need sleep again....

UWM Trade 10/30 (Fri) - Buy Order

UWM 10min

Likely to hold over the weekend.

Trades (6B & UWM) 10/30 (Fri)

6B 4hr

I sat and watched the above from 9am to 6pm (my time), leaving my desk only to feed my cats and take 2 nic breaks. Reason: I have no idea how IB's bracket order works. D laughed, and promised to show me exactly how to do it over the weekend.

I wasn't at all thrilled that I was on the wrong side of the market, but it was interesting to watch that intense match between GBP and USD (the rest were falling hopelessly behind, except the yen of course). So yes, I had enjoyed that 9 hours in front of my screen.

Bad bet number 2:

UWM 10min

Total: - USD 212.19

Haven't really much to talk about. Yes, the entries were bad, but I make bad entries more often than I take lunch, and most of them didn't turn out too bad after all...so I'm not going to kill myself this time.

I actually had a really good day. Met up with my cell (NOT prison cell) group mates (the last time I saw them was almost 2 years ago!) for dinner, and they still feel like family, and they still make me laugh.

I've been spending a lot of time putting together a trading plan. It's going to be a 30-page thesis. I think. And I have a separate annex for my 13 setups complete with descriptions and grading frameworks and am in the process of going over ALL the trades I've ever taken so that I can put them in their respective categories and GRADE them. Yes, something like reverse engineering (I never really knew why I took the trades I took until I realized I recognized patterns without being aware of it).

By the time I'm done, I should be able to convince at least myself that SETUPS work for me.

I owe J an apology. I've been a very bad chat buddy. SORRY, J!!!

Trades 10/29 (Thurs) - Wrap Up

UWM (Ultra Russell 2000)

Just too darn agonizing. I'm tired of having to hold another trade for hours. And I'm needing sleep BADLY.

Total: +USD 110

Trades 10/28 (Wed) - Wrap Up

DIG 10min

Decided to take my DIG loss. Not ready to turn daytrades into investments. D, on the other hand, is starting to accumulate toxic assets again...

Was hedging my DIG position with a long in SKF (Ultra Short Financials) before I finally let DIG go. Held on to SKF until it made another new high. Was tempted to hold it to its previous peak of around 26.6, but was really not feeling so good about the chops from 10:30am ET onwards. I've had a long day, and really wanted to wrap up.

SKF 133-Ticks

Nov has been a relatively stress-free month (The period spanning last Dec and this Sept was simply hellish). Moving forward, I'll be focusing more on spots forex and ETFs, and less on futures.

PnL (Net): + USD 53.81

Trades (6E, 6B, DIG) 10/27 (Tues) & 6B Trade 10/28 (Wed)

Oct 27 (Tues):

DIG position opened during US trading session. Stop loss in place - not hit. Profit target not hit either by end of day. Will see what happens today. Might scratch if I have to. Might hold. Likely to hold as risk involved is totally tolerable. I really don't want to turn this into an investment, so am really hoping that I won't lift my stop just coz I think DIG has a great portfolio (not that I like oil companies). I'm essentially a chart reader - if my chart says no go, I'll get out.

DIG 10min

Realized Profit for yesterday: USD 169.85

Oct 28 (Today):

I don't love the 6B in particular, but it's just so resilient compared to the others. I like anything that makes an effort to go up.

6B 89-Ticks

Just a personal observation:

For futures, it doesn't pay to buy after price breaks out from the neck of a "w" formation on most days (except on extremely slow and "tame" days) as a pull back usually tend to want to test the base of the "W" (though I'm ok if the neck to base doesn't cost me more than 2 6B points or 1 6E point). Best to enter on the right side of the pattern on a bullish reversal (bull engulfing, bull Harami - for Haramis, best if the 2nd candle is a hammer or an inside bar).

For ETFs, and stocks trading on high volume, it's better to enter after price has pierced neckline of "w". I personally don't like trading flags (ie. buying a "dip") these days.

Trades (6B, DIG, SKF) 10/27 (Mon) & Wonderful Seabloke

6B 133-Ticks

DIG 10min

SKF (Ultra Short Financials) 10min

PnL (Net): +USD 34.03

I think I'm psychic (I did say bad things WILL happen). First 2 6B trades cost me 3.6 points. Full stop-outs. Took me 8 scalps to recover part of those 3.6 points. Volatile day.

DIG position was opened on Friday before I turned in. Covered 4 10min candles after market opened today. Didn't want to overstay. Volatile day.

SKF position was opened shortly after I closed my DIG trade. Covered way before my target. IT'S A BLOODY CRAZY DAY.

Seabloke's visit was the highlight of my day. She brought me so much food I shall not starve for the entire week! And they are all my favorite! The best has got to be cheesecake flavored yogurt, and a gigantic box of honey nut granola's !!! I LOVE MY BABY SISTER!

The Breathtaking, Stunningly Beautiful SEABLOKE:


Seabloke's favorite (she helped delivered a baby during her latest dive-trip! Don't know if this is the mother...they all look the same to me...):

Trades (DXD & DIG) 10/23 (Fri), My Watchlist & Profit Target Table

On D's advice, I let go of half of my DIG holding at yesterday's high 2 hours before market opened (I had wanted to either release ALL or not do anything until market opened). For remaining half, I had moved stop to level indicated on chart below, which was hit when market started plunging.

DIG 133- Ticks

After market opened, I thought of buying Ultra Short S&P again initially, but thought DOW would be a better gauge for now. So I bought the Ultra Short Dow instead. Was watching DOW more than I was watching DXD the whole time and each time DOW broke new low, I would defer covering, until DOW hit new low for the 3rd time.

DXD (Utra Short Dow) 133-Ticks

PnL (Net): +USD 131.25

It's not a lot. But it's been EXTREMELY stress-free. D thought I would buy at least 200 shares of DXD. I didn't coz I've never touched DXD before, and really, this is only the 6th day that I've traded non-leveraged products for my own account. I'm not used to paying for things in full yet. Ha Ha.

D is the best. He created this (all formulas configured so all I need to do is to fill in my actual results, and change the targets as and when I feel I'm ready) for me so I can take a look at it everyday while I record my daily results (starting Nov 1 2009), and be really motivated to TAKE IT SLOW:

Updated List of instruments & tickers I'm watching now:

Futures

ETFs

ETFs (Ultra Shorts & other Bear Market ETFs)

Forex

Trades (SDS & DIG) 10/22 (Thurs)

I had some time to trade the ETF yesterday after US market opened. Bought the Ultra Short S&P (SDS) shortly after the session began. SDS is really good for me coz it runs at turbo speed. 8 mins after I entered, price hit my target and I was out with a USD 33 gain.

SDS (Ultra Short S&P500) 133-Ticks

When market started recovering, I went long on DIG at around the price that I bought it the day before:

DIG (Ultra Oil & Gas) 133-Ticks

Position is still open. Will be closing it today, depending on what happens after market opens:I'll likely not have the time to trade the pre-market session today, and will be looking at trading the ETFs tonight (morning in N.Y.).

Funds have reached Oanda since yesterday, and I will be spending a little more time on Forex moving forward.

Mother has been calling too regularly, and asking to visit too often, and it's driving me NUTS. I don't think she will ever get it. That it's NOT personal. I just don't enjoy chatting with anyone on a regular basis, and I don't like visitors (except SEABLOKE, GREMLINS & PILOT)!!!

Trades (6B & DIG) 10/21 - Wed

DIG 10min (ProShares Ultra Oil & Gas)

ETFs trading is good for my heart. Maximum downside is USD 3000 in this case (100 shares of something that costs 30 over bucks per share). Besides, it's virtually impossible for the fund to go bust.

In any case, I had my hard stop of USD 23 in place. That's a tiny fraction of what is needed to trade 1 futures contract. D says I looked almost too relaxed the whole time (He was worried about oil inventory report and told me to get out, and I said "No". I was watching CL turned from green to red then to green and I sat, til DIG started shooting up and CL started to come down from its high).

I definitely like the slower pace ETF trading in the evening (US morning).

PnL (Net): + USD 281.31

Trades (6B, 6E, NQ & UUP) 10/20 - Tues

Pre- Market (2nd trade, about 10 hours after the 6B trade):

6E 200-Ticks

After US Market Open:

1) NQ 233-Ticks

2) UUP 133-Ticks (Power Shares DB US DOLLAR Index BULLISH)

PnL (Net): + USD 179

D was amused that I bought UUP (he bought financials and the thing was moving like a maniac). He asked why. To which I replied coz everything has gone so high up, and the dollar has sunk so low, and when looking at the TWS, everything that's not GOLD or BOND is starting to turn or has turned red.

Half an hour into my trade, I was as amused as D was. The darn thing just doesn't move! D suggested that I get out at breakeven and buy the DX or bond instead. I had him take a look at the charts of DX and the ZF, ZT, ZN and ZB, and he shut up. Price on those charts had totally skyrocketed while I was waiting for UUP to move! If I were to go in then, I would be chasing.

So, I stuck with UUP.

It moved finally. Not much in terms of absolute dollar amount.

But I'm happy.

It's not the money!