Live Journal Exercise – Learning to Trade an Edge like a Casino

[Mike B 624]

October 10, 2019 $DAL, $JD

I am still having some confidence issues but overall fighting through them. I started reading the VPA book Norm recommended and it is pretty good on explaining the relationship between price action and volume. I got a partial on $DAL with a little extra after inputting the wrong share size in the range order, and then a 2R on $JD. I left some to run but than the president tweeted about China and everything reversed, so I got out near my 1^st partial.

Overall a good day. Looking forward to ending the week on a good note tomorrow.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Mike B

[Mike B 624]

October 11, 2019 - $JD

A slow grind today on $JD. I got into the trade because of the volume and price action when it rejected VWAP. $BABA is to expense for me, so I choose to add $JD to my watch list instead. Got my 1R partial, set my range order and just missed the fill at my profit target. I let it go a couple more minutes but when it couldn’t pop back up I got completing out. Not a bad trade. 

Numbers weren't adding up on this sample set so I had to go back and see what happened. I missed entering a trading day in which I got stopped out twice early. I went and adjust all the sample set results to correctly reflect the results.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Edited October 13, 2019 by Mike B

[Mike B 624]

October 14, 2019 - 

A very slow day without a lot of good setups. I sat on the sidelines in the morning as I didn’t get any good setups from $FAST, $YNDX, or $FCX. I came back for the afternoon session and it was terrible. I could almost look at some stocks and see the computers trading them. I choose to just sit back, watch the charts and look at volume compared to the price action. I really wanted to get a trade in today, but was not willing to take a bad trade.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

 

[Mike B 624]

October 15, 2019 - 

Some days I really have to remind myself that discipline to not trade is a good thing in the long run. I am not comfortable trading high price stocks at the open, so I had a very limited watchlist at the open which did not give me any good setups. Tough to see all the high price stocks setting up nice and having great moves. Eventually I will get comfortable trading these.

Sim tomorrow as I will be working off 3 hours of sleep. Hopefully Thursday and Friday brings some good setups.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

October 16, 2019 - $BAC

Well I was not planning on trading live today, but I got a little more sleep than I planned, so I made a decision that if I got the A+ setup that I would take a trade. $BAC gave me that opportunity with a nice pullback towards VWAP and a couple rejections along with it. I entered once it broke above the resistance level. I got a 1R partial and then decided to exit a second partial when it was having trouble breaking above 30.70. I put a range order in for the remaining portion and eventually got stopped out at breakeven.

Overall not a bad day with a little sleep.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

 

[Mike B 624]

October 17 & 18, 2019

Pretty uneventful the last two days. Just have not had the right stocks on the watch list at the open. It seems the ones that get my setup are the more expensive ones and the cheaper ones do not setup right. I am looking forward to next week and should have a good trading week. Looking to put my afternoon strategy back into play as I have been working the entry and it seems to be working out more times than not.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

October 21, 2019

Started setting up an office in the house and traded from it today. Didn't work out to well as the data speed was not where I needed it with the Wifi. Contacting the cable company to turn on the port, so hopefully next week it should go better on Monday. 

Trading from my normal spot for the rest of the week.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

October 23, 2019

I guess my focus has just not been here this week. Got scared out by Andrew today. I had $BSX on my watchlist and as I was getting ready to enter the trade, all of a sudden Andrew starts calling it for a long as I was looking at it for a short. I hesitated and by the time I confirmed that it was the right setup, the move already happened.

After that I decided to start trading Thor’s triangle over the top of my moving average crossovers. Today was 2 for 4, but should have been 3 for 4 if I had not exited $CAT in the afternoon early. Looking forward to tomorrow and what it brings. I hoping to get a live trade in tomorrow.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Edited October 25, 2019 by Mike B

[Mike B 624]

October 24, 2019

Today got a trade in on $EBAY, was hoping it would continue, but it did come all the way back to VWAP. I got a partial and the rest out at breakeven. I had a little hesitation on the entry, as I was not completely sold on the volume, but when it could break below VWAP on the next two candles, I choose to take it long.

I than transitioned to sim to work my other strategy and got a short on $EBAY when it lost VWAP. I again have been laying over Thor’s Price Level Breakout over my moving average crossover. The entry seem a lot better and more technical, which is more in line with how I like to trade. I got a partial at 1R and all out at 2R. I am still a working to find the sweet spot for stop losses as it seems I have a large stop and if I can get to a point of having a little tighter stop loss, I should be able to get a better risk to reward.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

October 25, 2019

Well got a good entry on $AMD for a 15 min Orb. I took a partial a little early but that was because it rejected 32.15 twice and on the third time I took a partial and decided to let the rest ride to my profit target. Unfortunately, the price came just to my breakeven point and stopped me out before moving back to the profit target. A good trading day and stayed within my edge going into the weekend. It has been a slow grind this month, but I am happy with how I have traded and even happy with the no trade days. A lot of good progress has been made on my other strategy. I should be ready to trade it live in November.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P 15 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

October 28, 2019 - Sim

I got about 3 hours of sleep last night along with the travel into work, so I decided to trade sim today. I took three trades. 1st one was a bullish engulfing pattern on $T. I saw it selling off at the open and bouncing back from VWAP. I took it long once it broke through the moving averages and engulfed the 5 minute candle. 2nd trade was a poor setup on a 5 minute ORB on $AMD. I took the trade after a heavy sell off to VWAP and a rejection of the 50 SMA. I got a 1R and 2R partial and I let the rest run. I was looking for 33.98. I had to set a range order as I had to head to work. I almost got filled but was about .05 off. When I came back in the afternoon, I exited the trade and started looking for my strategy while overlaying Thor's price level breakout. I got a short on $AMD, with a tight stop and managed to get a 1R and 2R partial again, before getting stopped out at the breakeven.

Overall today was a good day in sim to set me up for tomorrow.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P 15 16 17 18 19 20
 

[Mike B 624]

October 29 & 30, 2019 - Sim

On Tuesday I hesitated on an entry with $PFE and missed a opportunity. After that I called it day

Today October 30 was a very busy day at work today, so I did not get to execute my normal afternoon or morning routine. I got interrupted in the morning about 5 minutes before the open. I can’t wait till I trading from home every day. I had $GE, $AMD, and $CROX on my watchlist. I didn’t end up getting back to the computer until about 20 minutes into the market, so I chalked it to just another reason why I want to retire and transitioned to trading my other strategy in sim. I took $MSFT long and got a win. In the afternoon, I had a setup on $GRUB, but I couldn’t quite figure out how to take it short on SSR.

Overall still very happy with this week, even though the bottom line is not showing it. A lot of growth has happened though. Can’t wait for the open tomorrow.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P 15 16 17 18 19 20

 

[Mike B 624]

October 31 - $AMD by accident

I had a rough morning, with my watchlist of $KHC, $WDC. Both stocks had great moves, but never really gave me my setup. I was frustrated more than usual I think because I just had the feeling that $KHC would take off right after it rejected the VWAP at the 4 minute mark and near the same time I was watching $WDC, and saying give me a pullback just a little to get a better risk to reward right near the close of the 5 minute candle. I didn’t take either trade and just ended up watching them move nicely in the direction I thought they would go.

After about the first half an hour I knew my head was not in it so I started looking for my sim strategy. I got a good entry on $MU to the long side and had to set a range order because I had to go to work.

In the afternoon, I came back and took a sim trade on $MSFT and got stopped out and shortly afterwards saw a decent setup on $AMD, so I took it short. As soon as I pressed the hotkey button, I knew I took the trade live instead of sim. Amazingly, I went dang, oh well let’s see if it works and I had zero emotion to actually getting into the trade as it was a decent setup. I got a partial at 1R, and a quick second partial at 1R as I didn’t delete the limit order and got out at 2R near a support level. If it was not trading around the $34 level, I probably would have let some more ride to VWAP, but I know how strong the $34 level can be. It did eventually hit VWAP right before the close.

Overall a day of mixed emotions. Ended the month on a positive note.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P G 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

November 4, 2019

I had to drive home over the weekend, so that meant I was driving into work today causing me to get about 2 hours of sleep. I could barely stay awake for the pre-market show, so it was obvious to me that today was going to be a no trade day. I used the day to work on my discipline by just watching charts and forcing myself not to trade live or in sim. I plan on getting attending the classes and getting a great night of sleep. Tomorrow, I am live with all three of my strategies. I am looking forward to it.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P G 16 17 18 19 20

[Mike B 624]

November 5, 2019

Today was my 1 year anniversary of trading live and I ended up trading the same stock today that I did a year ago. I had $AMRN and $AMD on my watchlist for the open. $AMRN sold off to quickly and never pulled back towards VWAP. I was really hoping it would as it looked very weak during the first 5 minutes. Instead I ended up trading $AMD on a 15 min ORBO. I got in about two minutes before Andrew and was very happy with the entry. I took a partial too early (about .04 early) at the high of day, as Andrew was partially around that area and just felt like if he is doing it, you need to. Well, that ended up with getting stopped out at break even and of course the stock moved back up to my initial partial area, 2R, and finally to my 3R level. All I could do was laugh at myself, and remind myself you know better, stick to your plan.

This weekend I plan on doing a recap for my 1 year of trading and posting it here and in the members forum.

Sample Set Results,

S P G E E P P P P G G P P P G P 17 18 19 20

Edited November 6, 2019 by Mike B