Rob C's Trading Journal - starting Feb 1 2019

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Monday 2/01/22

What a great way to start the month with 2 winning trades today. First, the volatility has been so high the algo did not trigger a trade for 7 trading days. Today the volatility was just low enough to trade but the market had no direction. Until the last hour where the MES pushed higher. 20min before the close we had a strong pullback and the algo triggered a trade which quickly reached the target. Then the price still pushed higher and another pullback and a trade was triggered 4min before the close. The price also quickly reached the target as well.

Have a good night.

Rob C

Edited February 3, 2022 by Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Tuesday 2/02/22

Not a bad day. The MES finally chose a direction midday and had enough strength that when a pull back occurred it triggered a long trade. The price moved up but then fizzled and retraced and the algo sold at BE (with some slippage). The price dropped more giving a better entry and another long trade was triggered. The price dropped and I was almost stopped out but then headed higher. The price got very close to my target but also retraced and I was stopped at BE again.

I edited the algo today so it will just take the money and run if 7.5 points could be made. That was a bit too much money left on the table today.

Have a good night.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal week summary 2/04/22.

Due to volatility and some sideways movement the algo chose to sit out 3 out of 5 days. But luckily it still triggered 4 trades this week which I am quite happy with.

Wins: 2  BE: 2

Have a good weekend.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Monday 2/07/22

At midday the MES started a slow but consistent move higher. After 2 hours the move peaked and had a deep pullback. But the pullback was too strong and the algo waited for the price to stop dropping and stabilize then triggered a long trade. The price quickly moved higher to the target.

I hope everyone had a good day.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Tuesday 2/08/22

Strong momentum for a couple of hours but sadly when the algo triggered its trade the strength fizzled. It looks more like a failed break out than a retest in hindsight. Thus I was stopped out quickly.

Good luck today.

Rob 

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Thursday 2/10/22

Algo triggered no trades yesterday. Today we did get one trade to the short side. There was some strong momentum at the open, but that was just the price canceling out the overnight weakness. I wrote the algo to assume that is just an overall sideways movement so it sat out the open. Later in the day we had real weakness with enough momentum and pullback to trigger a short trade. Also, the volatility was barely low enough to squeak through the volatility filter. After the trade was entered we went 15 minutes with sideways price movement. Then finally a quick drop which fizzled and the algo pulled the plug and covered. Which is a good thing since then the price pulled well back and would have caused a stop out.

Have a good night.

Rob C

 

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Friday 2/11/22

We had a small window of moderate volatility in the midday for the algo to trade. After continued weakness and the usual pullback that the algo waits for a short was triggered. The price did drop and just missed the target and was covered at BE. Then a few minutes later the algo triggered another short. This actually should not happen because the price move to test the low already occurred. So I need to dig into the code and see why the algo let this happen. The price move high enough to stop me out before moving lower again. 

Have a good weekend.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Wednesday 2/16/22

I finally got a trade this week. With volatility and sideways movement the algo sat out the last two days. By 30min after the open we got enough downwards momentum so the algo was waiting for a deep pullback. We got a perfect one and the algo shorted. The price dropped immediately but then retraced and the algo covered at BE. About 10 minutes later the price did drop and reach my target.

Have a good night.

Rob C

 

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Thursday 2/18/22

Big drop in the MES yesterday afternoon with a nice pullback. The algo shorted and we did get a price drop but retraced and the algo covered at BE. Then a few minutes later dropped to reach target. It seems to be common now (like Tuesday) if I did not pull my stop to BE I would have had a winner. It may be a new personality trait of the current market. If I get enough data I will update the algo accordingly.

Have a good day.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Friday 2/18/22

I had a loss today making my first red week this year. Powerful weakness in the morning and we had the type of pullback the algo looks for and it went short. But the pullback was too deep and I was stopped out. Then the price did drop afterwards and reached my target.

So for the week: 1 loss and 2 BEs.

This also makes me BE for the month of February so far. So I have a lot of data to process. The main issue is I have had 6 BEs in February and 8 in January with out taking a partial profit. More than half of my trades are BEs, That is a bit of money left on the table. The previous market conditions it was not profitable to take partials but I think that is different in the new market conditions. I need to analyze if it is time to start taking partials and program the algo accordingly. But that is what long weekends are for...

Have a good weekend.

Rob C

 

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Friday 2/25/22

A really good day today. I was thinking, due to the high volatility, the algo was going to sit out the whole week. But the volatility was just low enough to day to allow the algo to trigger some trades. There was 90 minutes of really good momentum and and deep pullbacks but the volatility limit was being breached. Finally after 90 minutes the volatility dropped within spec limit and a long was executed on the first deep pullback. The price got near my target but then fell back to sell at BE. The good news is I reprogrammed the algo last weekend to take partial profits. So actually a sell order went through when the price got near the target. So it was a profitable trade.

The price fell back and starting to make another attempt at the at the high. The algo triggered another long. I got a terrible fill. Too bad just an average fill I would have had a winner. Same as before the price went high enough to trigger a partial profit sell then fell back to BE.

The price made a new high with another pullback and the algo went long again. The price dropped and my stop barely held. The the price rose to my partial profit target and my full target.

Have a good weekend.

Rob C

 

[Rob C 826]

Futures (GC - Gold) algo trading journal Wednesday 3/02/22

Due to the high volatility of the MES my algo is sitting out the markets each day. So I spent quite a few hours to update the Gold Futures algo. I finished updating the shorts algo and turned it on yesterday. A trade was triggered today.

I really like this trade from today and not just because it was a winner. The momentum down was prevalent and we had a strong pullback about 2 hours after the open. But the algo did not trigger the trade due to the momentum not quite strong enough (see the 200SMA -bright green line - slope is not large enough yet. This is good since it would have been s top out. The price dropped and and sat at the low for a few minutes then we had another pullback. Now the momentum was strong enough and the algo triggered the short. The price dropped very quickly to the target.

Have a good night.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (GC - Gold) algo trading journal Monday 3/07/22

As I said previously my algo has been sitting out the markets due to the high volatility. But luckily things calmed down last night on the Gold Futures for the algo to trigger a trade.

After the NYSE closed things went south for gold and hit the bottom with a slow but significant pullback. The short was triggered. Though the price did drop it did not reach my target and retraced. Th algo covered at BE.

Have a good night.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (MES) algo trading journal Friday 3/18/22.

Finally, the volatility was just low enough today for the algo to trigger some trades. We had some good momentum in the morning which peaked and we had a strong pull back. Once the price stabilized the algo went long. The price didn't do much and the algo sold at BE before the price dropped. Then for the rest of the day the momentum was up but weak until the last hour. Again on a deep pullback the algo went long. First, it took a partial then sold the rest at the target.

Have a good weekend.

Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Futures (GC - Gold) algo trading journal Monday 3/21/22

Though the volatility was low enough to trade on the MES the only trade triggered today was with the gold futures.

Strong momentum right from the open with a deep pullback about 1 hour after the open. The algo went long and the price did reach my target. But I have the setting to get out at BE way too tight. I do know this but the GC contracts are expensive so I do want the algo to bail on the trade quickly. So the price just moved high enough to reach the price it is not expected to pull back. The price did, so the algo sold at BE. I got a great fill and actually made some money on the trade.

Have a good night.

Rob C