New Trader Journal

[hailchaser2 185]

Update about last week, in which I was supposed to work on my over trading problem. Failed the first 4 days, hit my max daily loss each day. On Friday I only took 4 trades and ended the day green......Imagine that!

This week has not started out any better as far as outcome, but I am happier with my number of trades. I am not revenge trading in hopes that a move will happen. I have also lowered my daily loss, my account is already down 40% after three and a half weeks. 

Here are my trades today.

 

$TGT, was strong heading into the open. I was looking for a 1,5minORB-Up, which obviously didn't happen. After seeing the stock try to fall below PCL and 200MA on 1 min, I waited for the stock to pass VWAP and continue higher. My first entry 110.00 was stopped out 109.82 in one second, I can't recall if the spread was that big, or if I clicked KylesHotKey too close to price action. 2nd try was when I thought it broke through my premarket level at 110.34, it failed and stopped out 109.80 below VWAP again.

I had Aimen review in classroom today, he pointed out the stock was weak, and was actually a reverse ABCD, I went long at the C which was also resistance.

I thought the 11th candle was a retest of a level and an indication the stock would gain momentum when it went through VWAP again. 12th candle closed above VWAP, so I entered long with a stop below VWAP. This VWAP play should probably be used later in the day and not the open when the direction is still in question.

 

$MSFT, I thought the 200MA on the 5 was going acting as support, so I looked for an entry to catch the move back to VWAP. When the price crossed the MA and the PML (red dotted line) I thought it was headed back and entered 171.05, stopped out almost immediately 170.81. Tried again at 170.98 and was stopped out at 170.53.

 

 

Both of the above trades, I went long into resistance, I need to work on this problem.

 

$INO, was just a trade I chased after Andrew entered. I entered 5.20 and I got out 5.23 when I realized I should not have just followed Andrew without analyzing the trade myself.

 

 

$CCL, I was watching it consolidate around the PML, I was long biased on this stock pre market, daily looked good also.  It shot up as the FED announced rate cut, I watched the doji form after the run and entered 33.34 when the next candle made a high. It failed and went to my stop 33.04 below PCL.

 

 

I have figured out that if my first trade doesn't go well, I get discouraged. If my first trade goes well, I relax and trade better. It's difficult to forget the first wrong trade and focus on finding a good setup after that. This is something I will also work on. I know being wrong is part of trading, but I guess I still haven't excepted it deep down, and embraced it. 

 

[Rob C 826]

1 hour ago, hailchaser2 said:

 

I have figured out that if my first trade doesn't go well, I get discouraged. If my first trade goes well, I relax and trade better. It's difficult to forget the first wrong trade and focus on finding a good setup after that. This is something I will also work on. I know being wrong is part of trading, but I guess I still haven't excepted it deep down, and embraced it. 

 

I traded about a year with the rule, that if I was stopped out on my first trade I turn off my platform and walk away. I was not able to trade well after a stop. Now I am somewhat better. But I still have the rule two stop outs and I walk away and three trades max per day.

[RTrader 20]

Trading is about probability. You could have 10 losses in a row, and it really doesn't mean anything or have anything to do with you. Most of the time it is just a crap market or low volume chop that does me in for the day. The best thing is to work on how to identify a high probability trade, and also a market that isn't good to trade in. If you can do this and execute properly you will be able to make money by avoiding the bad days. I think stopping at X stop outs just prolongs your learning time. Who knows, the next trade could have been your big winner.

[hailchaser2 185]

Today was another max loss day.

If anyone would like to point out which technical mistakes I made, I would appreciate it.

I battle with entries. Do I enter where stop will be tightest,  or enter with more confirmation. Example, CVS I almost entered on 4th candle as soon as it crossed back above VWAP, instead I waited until it moved above prior two candles and MA. In this trade it ended up not mattering much anyway because the stock didn't continue up.

 

CCL Too far from VWAP on first entry? Entry two, should have waited for it to get to VWAP to see what happened? Trade 3 Good?

 

AMD.1 I thought this was a good trade? Should I have entered again on the 2nd fail above VWAP?

 

 

 

 

I wonder if I should switch back to SIM until I get some confidence back, I feel like I'm trading better, but the results are the same, max daily loss.

[hailchaser2 185]

I stayed live today even though I was considering switching back to sim. I traded well, a few entries could have been a bit earlier, but overall I'm happy. I had a couple trades that I only partialed once or twice and got stopped at BE. I would normally revenge trade if that happened to me in the past. Maybe I made a small breakthrough today. I stayed calm and took my small win and looked for the next good setup. During the trade review Aiman pointed out that I probably take my first partial too soon, I shouldn't do it before 1:1.  

I think I got into the habit of a quick partial because in "Trading for a Living" by Elder he talks about how one year he started taking 1/3 partial when a trade went in his favor, 1/3 at his first target, and 1/3 when trade reversed against him. 

Now I am going to work on taking my 1st partial at 1:1R.

VIPS, this is one that if I would have not partialed so soon I would have made much better R, my stop was loss of 1st candle, so my 1st partial should not have been until the daily level I marked at 15.34.

 

 

MRVL, another one that I partialed quick, the price action scared me so I took a partial and moved stop to BE. Had I used my original stop and not made a quick partial, It would have been another good R trade.

 

CCL, this one AIman said I could have used a tighter stop around the resistance a few candles before. I got some good partials, and then  I was stopped out 0.25 above my BE auto stop because the price jumped so fast. It even made Brian P gasp it shot up so fast, it was a flash, not a fast move.

 

This was me best trade today, ABCD. The only thing I should have done differently is my last partials. I had a level at 45.23, when I saw it break that, then fail back below it, I could have partialed there, but I was almost out of shares at that point, so it didn't make a big difference. The L2 on this trade was amazing, numerous very large ASKs almost every .25 increment. That was how I kept so patient throughout the trade, I was confident in the L2 structure. Looks like my first partial was too early on this one as well.

 

 

+3R day is much better than a max loss day, I need to keep the same discipline moving forward. 

Main takeaway from today is stay calm and don't partial too soon.

[hailchaser2 185]

Friday, I over traded a bit today, because of that I am sure my commissions will eat nearly all my profits.  3.4R day, but when R=$10, too many tickets makes it a BE day instead. I'm ok with that because I still think I traded well today. My patience is improving, and I am seeing more indicators before jumping into a trade now, Aiman's recaps have really helped me look at a few more charts for confirmation before entering. I bet there were 4-5 times today that I stopped myself from entering by looking at the overall trend of the stock, and checking 5,15,day charts for resistance levels that are not on the 1min.

I was long biased on AMD pre-market, that caused me to take these three longs. I'm ok with the second trade, but the 1st and 3rd trade in this pic should not have been taken.

 

Great 5minOrb-1minABCD Combo

 

2 shorts and a long, the first trade I failed to look at the 5 for confirmation, I was only looking at the 1min break below moving averages. shorted again immediately, revenge trade. Later tried BO over a daily level I had, it failed, the BO was actually several candles earlier when it broke my prior level of 109.07.

 

I probably should not have entered below VWAP like that.

 

Tried BO, didn't continue.

 

Curling down, broke my pre-market level and tested it, spy direction helped for confirmation.

 

 

My pre-market notes said to look for break of 24, as I was scanning my watch list looking for a trade, I noticed MRVL had just broke VWAP, test it, and start to head to 24. It went well

 

5MIn lightning bolt down with retest of VWAP.

 

JPM and MU trade, I think I may be moving my stop too close to the price, they both ran down much further after my last partial. What I usually do is move my stop to just above the 20EMA on the 1-min, if I would instead move it to the 9EMA on the 5, maybe I could stay in these trend trades longer.

What do you think?

[Mark D. 435]

i think the 20 ema on the 1min is good but maybe wait until it closes over instead of just breaking it? you would have stayed in your last piece on JPM. 9ema on the 5 is good too 

[hailchaser2 185]

@Mark D. good idea, thanks.

After showing this to Peter Friday afternoon in chat, he pointed out that  on the JPM trade I could have left my stop at BE longer instead of moving it to the 20EMA so soon, the trade was only 10 minutes long.

[hailchaser2 185]

This was an up and down day, I started the day well. The biggest mistake I hade is that I was up 3.1R...…..I'm supposed to switch to sim once I get 3R. I didn't. slowly gave it back, then went up and down for a while. Because I was angry at myself for giving my 3R back, I started over trading and trying to make reversals happen, my two most common mistakes from my first 4 weeks live. Ended -2.2R for the day, with commissions included, it triggered my $60 max loss. I can't believe I ignored my rule to stop at 3R, I will learn from this mistake.

Had too many trades to recap all of them

 

 

 

My first trade, could have finished 3.8R if I wouldn't have entered more trades while I was slowly partialing this one.

 

 

 

Later a decent short, stop was above HOD.

 

I have made this mistake a few times now, I click the stop loss too close to price action because I'm trying to get a larger share size and still keep my $10 risk. It never works out, I'm always stopped out within seconds. I need to remember this moving forward. My later trade was much better even though it took me two attempts. Stock tried to move above VWAP twice and failed.

 

Here is where I started to try and make CCL reverse.

 

 

one partial and stop out

 

 

3 different one partial and stopped out trades on JPM. Overtrading.

 

One partial and stop out

 

 

Short, stopped out, then second try, two partials and stopped out. 

 

 

Long stopped out, then long again.

 

a good short, then just terrible over trading with no setups.

 

More overtrading

 

2 more tries at forcing a reversal.

 

 

 

I need to be more disciplined the rest of the week, today I had "One Good Trade" and ruined it with my greediness.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Today went well, ended up 4.7R. I had a couple of trades that I flipped from original entry. I was very tempted to keep trading in the afternoon, I mentioned it to Mike B and he said I was making the right call to stop, thanks for being in the chat Mike!  Yesterday I gave my entire days profit away because of trading past my daily target. Once I am more seasoned, I may implement a different variation that gives me flexibility. Maybe keep trading, but don't lose more than 10% of morning gains, but I'm not disciplined enough to do that now.

I also made a change on my screen today, I like L2 just as much as Thor, I found I was constantly scrolling down to see what the L2 looked like further from the price action. I extended my montage down so I can see all of the L2 without having to scroll. It only covers up my DJIA and SPY charts on the left side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am feeling more confident in my trading abilities/psychology, I was very beat up from the first 3 1/2 weeks. The past 4 days I've traded well for 3 of them, and the one day I didn't, I only failed because I kept trading after I reached target (Yesterday). 

What do you do to keep from getting over confident? I want this trend of good trading to continue, and I feel like it will, but if anyone has been through this before, I would prefer to learn from your mistake instead of making the same ones you did. So any feedback is welcomed. Thanks.

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Max loss by 9:05 AM. I upped my risk from $10 to $20 today. I don't think it effected my decision making, but it stopped me out faster than normal. The biggest mistake I believe I made today was trading TSLA, I was tempted by the enormous upside of that stock.

 

PDD Maybe I should not have entered this trade because it was above most of the moving averages, What are your thoughts?

 

 

 

OXY Trade one, maybe I should stay away from entering when wicks are really extended? Trade two, waited for confirmation of ABCD, but it didn't follow through.

 

Any feedback on this one?AAL

 

 

TSLA

 

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Another max loss day, I'm not making the same mistakes I was making in my first few weeks, now I'm making completely different ones, ones thatI never even made in SIM.

Reflect, Regroup, Restart, fresh day tomorrow with new lessons learned from today's session.

Don't trade pre-market, don't move stop, also stop putting initial stop in areas to get more shares with dynamic hotkey, put the stops where the chart says the stop should be!

 

[hailchaser2 185]

Yesterday's Takeaways : Don't trade pre-market, don't move stop, also stop putting initial stop in areas to get more shares with dynamic hotkey, put the stops where the chart says the stop should be!

I handled 1 and 2 easily, and for the most part 3 as well, but a couple times after I entered I realized that I didn't have the stop in the appropriate place, but by then it's too late, I cant move the stop to the proper place or it would completely change my risk $ for that trade. This will be my main focus next week, double check stop level before entering and double check R:R.

I dropped back down to $10 risk today from $20, not because I believe the higher risk messed up my trading, but because I didn't like the crazy action this morning.  Today I ended up +3.4R, but that will be a break even after commissions/fees, I traded too many tickets and tickers today. The SPY rally at the end of the day is what brought me positive. I used to trade the last 30 minutes all the time in SIM, but haven't done it all that much in the live account. I'm usually picking my daughter up from school.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by hailchaser2

[hailchaser2 185]

Started the week off great, +4.3R. It's so much more satisfying to be trading in SIM because I hit my daily target instead of hitting my daily max loss. I used $10 risk today because of market craziness. 

[hailchaser2 185]

Since we weren't around a halt level at the open, I moved my risk back up to $20. Finished +2.99R on the day. Technically 3/3 on trades, but 2 of them were very small because only 1 or 2 partials then stopped at BE. The trade that got me to goal was ROKU. I went long when it crossed VWAP and whole number $60. Stop of 0.32 on ROKU isn't very much room, I got lucky it shot up once it passed through VWAP, but L2 was looking solid for the pop.