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

[Rob C 826]

4 hours ago, Mike B said:

I usually look on the 1 or 2 minute chart for the touches. Once you start looking for them you will be surprised at how easily they jump out at you. 

Thanks Mike. Sorry about the multiple questions. And congrats on becoming a moderator. I just noticed you are on the right side of the chat now.

[Mike B 624]

On 1/23/2020 at 7:13 PM, Rob C said:

Thanks Mike. Sorry about the multiple questions. And congrats on becoming a moderator. I just noticed you are on the right side of the chat now.

Don't worry about, here to help

[Mike B 624]

Jan 19 -26

Weekly Recap

 

 

 

Top Three Good Trends

1. The number one thing I did well this week was focusing on my process prior to my entry and ensuring that I took the entry if it met my trade setup.
2. I was very patience on waiting for my setups to appear. I did not force any trades and when I noticed myself starting to get anxious, I was able to calm myself down and put me back into the right state of mind.
3. After each trade I was able to relax, take the trade for what it was and start to focus on another trade.

 

Bottom Three Bad Trends

1. In the beginning of the week I still ended up with the same issues with inputting orders into the montage. After it happened on Tuesday, I put together a routine together which allowed me to have no other issues for the remainder of the week.
2. I did have some issue with patience this week while in the trade. I wanting to get out of the trade and not let it run its course. I had some issues exiting at the proper levels and sticking with my planned exits.
3. When I was only trading Orbs at the open, I found it difficult to manage more than one trade at a time, so I made a decision that I would only trade one stock at a time. I am going to have to modify this as with my MA-S-PLBO strategy, once I got the limit orders and range orders set, I need to get back to my center screen to look for another opportunity as I can be in trades for over an hour and during that time there have been other good setups.

 

Focus for Next Week

1. Developing a plan to trade more than 1 stock at a time
2. Focus on what is causing the self-sabotaging acts on inputting orders into the montage
3. Mindfulness while scanning stocks

 

[Mike B 624]

January 29, 2020

Coming off of three days of traveling back and forth to San Diego and I felt it. I was all out of sync today. Missing entries, inputting wrong orders, having to readjust range orders because I made it a long instead of a short. I was still able to walk away with a small .5R day so I will call it a win and be back tomorrow. I guess the one that gets me the most was a short on $JD that I didn't take. I had the setup I just didn't pull the trigger, because I had been dealing with FOMO from other setups that I was seeing. The worst part is that they weren't even my setups, so I never would have taken them. Again, just not in the zone today.

Edited January 30, 2020 by Mike B

[Mike B 624]

January 30, 2020 - $AMD/$QCOM

Well the markets and I were not getting along very well today. At the open I placed an order on $MU for a breakout to LOD and did not get filled. Very surprising on $MU, I use to it on higher priced stocks but first time on $MU. I moved on and took a short on $AMD with the same method around 1007. Right after my entry stock started moving to my stop and stopped me out only to quickly sell of and go to my profit target. I conceed to the market and called it a morning. 

I came back in the afternoon a little late and just missed a great breakout on $AMD at 46.22 around 1315. This was no big deal as it happens quick often as I coming back in the afternoon, so I moved on to $QCOM. Not a normal stock I trade, but one I watch everyday as it can give some good moves. I took it on a breakout, got a partial and then it stopped me out at breakeven. You guessed it, the stock then took off up to my profit target. After the WHO conference and the market getting a little more active, I called it a day as I no longer wanted to fight with market. I will take my .5R loss and call it a day.

 

[Mike B 624]

Jan 31 - $AMD x 2

It seemed like deja vu for me. Overall very happy with my trading on Friday. I stuck to my plan and execute it well. First trade I entered and got stopped out, but I re-entered when the setup was still valid. I got a partial and than stopped out at break even on a dynamic pullback. Not how $AMD typically acts. I probably should have gotten back in after it lost the moving averages again, but I was not like how strong the pullbacks were on both of my trades. It did eventually do what I was looking for, but oh well. Due to executing well I take the .39R loss and end the month green.

 

[Mike B 624]

January Monthly Recap

Top Three Good Trends

1. Emotional recognition is improving. I have been able to identify the couple of things that start to get my heart rate up when a setup is starting to appear
2. My ability to focus on a process when the trade is developing and creating a routine to execute the moving average breakout strategy. Prior to this month I have been all over in how I approach determining if I should enter or not. I now have a process and an entry strategy to execute the trade that allows my emotions to remain in check
3. I began developing a process to assist with the self-sabotaging acts I been having issues with entering the correct orders in the montage. I would have thought that this was basic but once I removed my focus from it and just started entering the numbers without double checking errors started to form.

 

Bottom Three Bad Trends

1. Self-Sabotaging acts by far have been the biggest negative trend this month. I have had several each week. Not all of them cost me as I found them before it affected the trade, none the less the acts were still there and need addressing.
2. My emotions while in the trade need focus as those are the emotions that are causing me to reduce my profits and not stick with my trade plan
3. I had an issue at the open where I am seeing setups that are not mine, but I am saying what direction the stock will go in. The stock than makes the move I called, which then builds this feeling of missing out on the trade even though it was not within my trade plan. I have made an effort to stop that and only worry about the trades that are within my trade plan.

 

Focus for Next Month

1. Top priority for next month is fixing the self-Sabotaging acts I am committing
2. Continue to work on focusing on your mindfulness and how you are reacting to certain emotions.
3. Start to hyper focus on your setups and not the other setups that you notice. Those other setups are not going to improve your trading just yet. Eventually you can add them to the tool box.

[Glenn Budde 356]

I noticed you are trading on MA crosses. Just wondering what your rules are for these trades? I have been using these crosses as confirmation on other trades but have not used them for a trade with other confirmation. I have been spending more time in my Playbook lately and like to document everything I can for a trade and have been noticing a bunch of moves just after (sometimes seconds) MA crosses.

Thanks in advance

[Mike B 624]

I 

30 minutes ago, Glenn Budde said:

I noticed you are trading on MA crosses. Just wondering what your rules are for these trades? I have been using these crosses as confirmation on other trades but have not used them for a trade with other confirmation. I have been spending more time in my Playbook lately and like to document everything I can for a trade and have been noticing a bunch of moves just after (sometimes seconds) MA crosses.

I use the moving average crossover as an indicator to find a possible breakout trade. Rob C, asked me about it and if you look midway down on page 18 of this journal you will see a post and discussion between Rob and I that I think will answer your questions. About 3 months I noticed the same thing you did but could never really figure out the right entry point until I watched Thor's price level breakout video. This gave me the entry point on the trade and it has been working good as of late. 

If the post doesn't cover everything you need, hit me up with your questions and I am more than happy to assist.

[Glenn Budde 356]

Perfect Mike .... Thanks again....

[Mike B 624]

Feb 3

Did not have the day I was expecting. Downloaded the new release this weekend and had everything setup. About 5 minutes into the market, I ran into issues with my platform, so I spent most of the day on the live chat with DAS getting it configured the right way. If you are with CMEG recommend Uninstall your current version before updating to the current release. Once we started from scratch, have not had an issue since. Spent the rest of the day in Sim testing hotkeys and setting up charts.

Live trading tomorrow.

[Mike B 624]

Feb 4 $MU

I had a great day trading today. I had a good 5 min ORB setup forming on $AMD, and was able to control the emotions to perform the analysis. I was ready to take the trade until it broke the pattern and went to the short side. I was able to quickly than transistion to looking for 15 min orbs and saw both $JD, $TSLA, and $AMD setting up nicely. I could not find a good risk to reward, so I decided to switch to looking for a breakout trade. I started my analysis on $AMD as it formed a double top. I did not quite get through the analysis before the stock broke my level so I moved on.

I came back in the afternoon and had a great setup on $MU to the long side. Executed the entry flawlessly, rushed the partial a little bit, and then got stopped out to the penny before it made  a run up to my profit target. Overall a very productive day.

 

[PilotFish 23]

On 1/26/2020 at 5:39 PM, Mike B said:

Hey Mike, can you tell me how you made these really cool stat graphs? Looks awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2020 by PilotFish

[Mike B 624]

20 hours ago, PilotFish said:

Hey Mike, can you tell me how you made these really cool stat graphs? Looks awesome.

Hey,

I created them in excel. A lot of formula work up front but makes it easier to analysis my performance each day, week, month.

[Mike B 624]

Feb 5,

Well this morning was not a good one. Right when I woke up I could still tell I was agitated from the night before and just was not focused on trading. Every time I would start going through my pre-market routine, my mind kept wondering off. I did not even get logged into the chatroom until right before the pre-market show started. I made the decision that I would not trade the open no matter what appeared as my mind was not in a position to handle uncertainty. I watched the markets at the open specifically $TSLA, as I knew I would not trade it. After taking my daughter to school, running, and getting something to eat, I came back for the afternoon session in a much better mindset.

I was looking at $SNAP and $MRK for a long but just didn't see what I was looking for in my setup. I just happened to notice $MU starting to head toward a MA cross on the 1 minute, so I took a look and saw my setup. I executed my pre-trade routine flawlessly, enter the trade and managed it well. I did not get to my profit target with my last portion but, I was happy with my execution at the close of the day. First time I have held within the last 10 minutes of the market. I got out at the loss of the moving averages on the 1 minute.