Rob C's Trading Journal - starting Feb 1 2019

[Rob C 826]

Wednesday 4/10/2019

I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. But I made a decision to trade full size today. Too many days on SIM and half shares. Nerves on the bad side.

I took one trade today with MU .

AAPL, TSLA and AMD were the stocks really setting up in the premarket, but 9:32am arrived and I still saw no 2min ORB setup. Then MU formed a mini ABCD setup. MU bounced nicely off of VWAP twice. I went long on the second VWAP bounce with 41.83 as my S/O and 42.12 as my target and 42.00 as my first partial. I got a bad fill which dropped my R/R to slightly below 2 (~1.8) but I thought good enough to hang on plus trade immediately went into my favor. I was concerned that my first partial level was too strong as a TL that it may not punch through. That has happen to me before and it looked like it was about to happen again as the price bounced hard off the 42.00 and moved back down to within 1c of my B/E where I almost S/O. But an instant later it moved higher. That near S/O got me nervous and I took another partial though it was not at any TL. Then it reached my target where I took a partial. I got a bad fill on my last partial and the stock started heading down where I exited completely at B/E.

When I took the trade:

 

 

After that trade, I took a few minutes break from the platform. When I came back I didn’t seen anything setting up well except MU again as a short. But I wasn’t very convinced so I decided to take it as a SIM trade. I switched my platform to SIM and I was surprised it took a live trade. After I worked with DAS support, I have taken a few SIM trades without issue. But, apparently there is still an issue. I immediately got out of the trade and started a long chat with DAS support. After a long chat and two uploaded videos I am left still in doubt of the platform. Tech support thinks that since one of my 4 montages did not have the “global” clicked caused the live trade. But I did not use that montage for the trade. After clicking the “global” I tried it a few times and got a live trade again! But, when I manually switch over every montage, one by one, even though I will not use the montage for the trade, the SIM seems to work, But that is almost 50 mouse clicks to safely switch from Live to Demo. Besides being painful, in case I make a mistake with one of those clicks, I am back in a live trade again. DAS tech support said I should make some videos and email it to the developers. I guess it is possible my layout is unusual enough to cause some issues.

 

What I did good today:  Waited for the setup, didn’t force a trade just because the time was 9:32.

How did I challenge myself today?  Finally took full shares in a trade. It’s been awhile. I didn’t want to lose my nerve.

What I did bad today:  Took early partials.

What can I do better tomorrow: Need to control my nerves on the partials.

 

 

 

 

[JD 49]

Hey Rob C,

I've noticed that when you switch your global templates between live and sim accounts, if you already traded live for that day and click on a ticker in the closed positions window it will revert back to the live account that you traded with and you can see it change in the montage. Not sure if it's your issue but I have to click on the market viewer symbols to make sure I accidentally don't trade live when I switch to my sim account.

[Rob C 826]

2 hours ago, JD said:

Hey Rob C,

I've noticed that when you switch your global templates between live and sim accounts, if you already traded live for that day and click on a ticker in the closed positions window it will revert back to the live account that you traded with and you can see it change in the montage. Not sure if it's your issue but I have to click on the market viewer symbols to make sure I accidentally don't trade live when I switch to my sim account.

Hi JD, thanks for the post. Yes, I always keep aware of that. I always click a few tickers to make sure my account doesn't change in my montage before I try and take a sim trade. It is a terrible feeling of lack of control, when I watch the video reply, of when you see you montage list your demo account and then you click buy and then you see your position window with your live account.

Sadly, I have had this issue when I only traded SIM for the day as well.

[JD 49]

I had the exact same thing happen to me a few weeks ago, it was really strange and annoying. I was testing out a trigger order in my sim account and double checked that I had the sim account selected and shown on the montage but somehow it went through in my live account. I'll try switching my other montages to the sim account the next time I test out using a trigger order. 

[Rob C 826]

Thursday 4/11/2019

My 1 year anniversary joining BBT!!!

I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning. But I made a decision to trade full size today again. Nerves still bad.

I took one live trade today with MU .

Again, like yesterday, I was staring at AAPL, TSLA and AMD since they were really setting up in the premarket, but again MU was the one with the setup. It was a nice “simple” 2min ORB setup. It had a nice small candle body with really good levels above it. It did a reasonably sized pull back and I went long. What made me nervous is the order flow seem to just stop right after I took the trade. It took over 30 seconds before the time/sales started moving again. I took my first partial (bad fill) at the HOTD (excluding PM) but it took about 90 seconds to get there, so my finger was on the sell-all button the whole time since I thought I would be S/O at any moment. Usually the 2min ORBs you reach your first target or get S/O in 30 seconds or less. Then I took my second partial just below the 42.43 TL. Then it just missed my 3^rd partial (high of PM) by 1c. Then it bounced off the 42.43 TL 3 times which I use as an indicator for a reversal. I was about to exit out, but the 1min chart looked so bullish that at the 4^th bounce I decided to take another partial and leave 20% of my shares. Which was good since it never reached my third partial target and reversed so fast I had some slippage on my B/E S/O.

The forming 2min candle when I took the trade:

Checklist:

Then MU was creating a nice engulfing, but I needed to step away from the platform to “reset” my brain. When I got back setup was gone. But that is OK I really wanted to try trading SIM and see if there are any issues on the platform. I decided to count the mouse clicks needed to change my platform to Demo using the so called “no failure” way. It was 65 mouse clicks!!! And took a couple of minutes. Wow! Any way I then took three SIM trades without issue. I won’t add them to my journal except to mention they were all small winners (made it to 1^st partial then retraced to B/E where I exited). I know they were SIM trades but I can’t remember ever taking 4 trades (Live or SIM) in one day and they all were winners. A good way to celebrate my 1 year anniversary!

What I did good today:  Didn’t get too caught up in premarket bias. Switched away from my primary watch-list when they weren’t setting up.

How did I challenge myself today?  Took a partial just because it felt like stock will reverse.

What I did bad today:  A little upset I missed my S/O a few cents.

What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to work on my nerves. They are bad about 80% of the time. I can’t keep trading like this.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

Friday 4/12/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were better, but then I noticed my platform wasn’t setup completely (30 sec before open). Though I got everything setup by open, my nerves were bad again.

I took one live trade today with AAPL.

AAPL was a “simple” 2min ORB setup. The forming 2min candle had a bullish wick and VWAP break was near the top. It also had good partial taking levels above it. I waited for it to break the 200MA and went long. Got a good fill. I assume because of my nerves I took too many partials. The first partial was planned to be the 50MA. But I took one at a nearby premarket local high. Not a horrible place to take a partial if you have no other levels, but I did. Then I took a partial at the 50MA and then took a really bad partial in the middle of nowhere L  Next partial was at the 200 dollar mark and the final piece when it reached the high of premarket at 200.13, but I got a not so good fill on that.

I really wanted a good trading day going into the weekend. I know I am supposedly just focusing on the process, but it was nice to get a +2R winner and call it one and done for the day. I took a break and came back and saw a good setup, but I knew after 65 mouse clicks to switch it back to SIM the setup would be gone. That deflated me to take any SIM trades and so I just watched the charts and the chatroom for a while to see what others were trading and I called it a week.

What it looked like when I took the trade:

1min chart                                    5min chart

   

 

What I did good today:  I like my trade on AAPL. I finished the week on a positive.

How did I challenge myself today?  Took two days of “simple” setups. My trading was being dominated by “step” and “Vish” setups recently.

What I did bad today:  Too many partials on AAPL.

What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to catch up on my weekend training/reviewing. Be prepared for next week.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

 

Live trading summary for week ending 4/12/19.

Definitely a better week than last week. My health improved enough that I was able to trade live every day this week.

 I changed my rule from 1+1 trade/day max (only trade a second time if first one was a winner) to 2 trades/day max. The first trade can be a looser but it must be a good trade and I have to have my revenge emotions in check. This only occurred once this week but it went well.

My nerves were bad this week and the incident from the previous week of back to back -2R losses still haunt me. Three days this week I did not take a second live trade. I just thought I had one good trade let’s not ruin a good day with a potentially bad second trade. But this will impede my learning if I go back to one trade a day.

I still had simulator switching issues this week as well and worked with DAS support again. There seems to be an overly thorough way of converting the platform to my demo account. It worked but its 65 mouse clicks to convert. That’s a bit too much.

 

My trade evaluation by week:

 

And SIM this week:

 

Next week I need to work on my nerves and let myself take two live trades a day again.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

[Rob C 826]

Monday 4/15/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were better, still not good, but definitely better.

I took two live trades today with AAPL and DIS.

I was watching DIS on my main screen since AAPL/MU/AMD did not have volume in the premarket. Then the volume came in on AAPL with 400k in the first 30 seconds, so my attention turned to AAPL. Then about 30 seconds later MU had a really good “Vish” setup so I switched my attention to MU. I was ready to go long if it broke the 50MA on the 1min chart. But it didn’t and my attention went back to AAPL. AAPL had a “mini ABCD” setup and went long at the break of the 2min candle body. I took my first partial at the HOTD, which was only 10c away. It’s not a rule to take a partial there, but I notice I don’t regret it when I do. Then the price tried to break the 199.82 too many times unsuccessfully that when it touched it again I took another partial. Then all out at B/E.

 

The next trade was a 5min ORB with DIS. It had an ABCD formation within the 5min. I went long when it seemed to have bounced from the 9MA which was at the same time as the break of the 5min candle body. Since DIS is at an all time high, I only had the high of the day as a target. In these situations I will use the high of each 1 min candle to take a partial until I ran out of shares.

 

What I did good today:  I really liked trading outside of AAPL/MU/AMD that alone made DIS an interesting trade.

How did I challenge myself today?  My finger was right on the buy trigger for MU but the final criteria of the setup was not satisfied and I didn’t take the trade.

What I did bad today:  That was a “B” setup on AAPL. At least it was a setup, but probably should have let that one go by. It just happen to be a small winner by luck.

What can I do better tomorrow: Still need to get better letting so-so setups go by. On the positive side, if I am starting to be concerned about taking the “B” setups maybe my issue of taking trades with no setup has improved.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Tuesday 4/16/2019

I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. I think my first run (yesterday) in 3 weeks really helped.

I took one live trade today with MU. I had to go somewhere early in the morning, so I knew it was going to be a one and done day so I had to really keep to my setups.

I was really watching AAPL and ignoring everything else. It had OK volume in the premarket and then got really active at 9:28am. So it had my complete focus. Then it got 400k volume in the first second of the market open. It started to setup, and my finger was on the trigger, but it never met all the setup criteria. I gave up on AAPL about 90 seconds after the open and noticed MU may have a potential setup. I waited a minute and MU finally had a good “Vish” setup. I waited for the price to clear all the MAs and I went long. Even though there were three strong tech levels below my entry point, I watched (for a whole minute before my entry) the price fly through these TLs without any respect for them. The first TL that the price showed respect was the 42.19 premarket TL. So my S/O was all the way down at 42.15. Thus, I had to reduce my shares accordingly.

What MU looked like when I took the trade (5min chart):

 

Checklist:

 

I took my first partial at the HOTD and wow what a bad fill. I essentially sold at B/E. The price arrived at the HOTD again where I successfully took a partial. Then tried to take another partial at the 42.50 level but again got a bad fill. Then I was able to take one more partial after that before the price reversed and I sold the rest of the shares at B/E.

 

What I did good today:  I liked that I was flexible with the S/O on my MU trade and not just choosing VWAP, just because.

How did I challenge myself today?  Same as yesterday my finger was right on the buy trigger for AAPL but the final criteria of the setup was not satisfied and I didn’t take the trade.

What I did bad today:  Too trigger happy on the partials.

What can I do better tomorrow: Either take less partials or smaller first partial.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

Wednesday 4/17/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK.

I took one live trade today with AAPL. Probably my most stressful winning trade to date. The price was 2c away from S/O even times. My finger on the Sell All button for the whole trade. Even when the price finally broke out I was still in high stress mode for the remaining 5min waiting to sell my last piece. And for most of the trade SPY was dropping adding to the strain.

AAPL made a nice “Vish” setup pattern. Though “powered by” was on the weak side. It did have a slight increase in 1min volume and the 2min candle engulfed the premarket 2min candle (though I usually like the 2min candle engulf the 5min candle). I have updated the setup that the wick needs to be double the size of the candle body to be called a “Vish”. I waited for the price to break the 50MA and went long. Looks like it wasn’t a clear break when I took the trade and reversed back to my S/O twice. I held on and even though it didn’t make it to my 1^st partial target (which was the recent premarket high) I took an early partial since I thought the trade was going to fizzle. But that partial was the 5min high, so not too bad. I have a new rule with AAPL after the 1^st partial B/E is not my S/O if there is a major TL just below B/E. So instead of B/E I moved my S/O to the $200 level, which it promptly touched twice. Then the price finally reached my planned 1^st partial where I still took a partial. Again I thought this trade would S/O at any moment. But, again that was the 5min high. I then moved my S/O to the 9MA, which the price promptly touched 3 times. Then I took another partial at the same level, again I thought this trade would S/O at any moment. But then the price finally broke out. I took another partial for no good reason, then finally took my 5^th partial at my planned 2^nd partial level. Then waited about 5min and took my last piece at the $201 level.

5min chart when I took the trade:

 

 

What I did good today:  Held onto my trade even after 7 near miss S/Os.

How did I challenge myself today?  Successfully used the AAPL only rule for S/O levels.

What I did bad today:  Took 3 extra partials. Seems every time I had a near S/O experience the next pop I took a partial.

What can I do better tomorrow: It’s easy to say, “take less partials.” But I need to determine a strategy to accomplish that.

 

 

 

 

[Mark D. 435]

hi Rob, 

great job holding on to your trades! i've noticed the last week or two you've been giving your trades some room to run

[Rob C 826]

Thanks Mark. About two weeks ago I lowered my % on my first two partials. Leaves me with more shares in case it runs. I have had so many trades fizzle after the first partial that I was taking higher and higher % on my first partial. A bad habit I am trying to break.

[Rob C 826]

Thursday 4/18/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. An interesting day.

From a monetary standpoint today was my worse day in 6 weeks. But from a trading quality, I think it was OK.

I took two live trades today, first one with MU and the second with AAPL. I was stopped out on both. I first thought that this was just the law of averages since my last 8 trades were all winners. Though I am not trying to count winners and losers at this point of my learning, one thing was nice about it. I am still on the fence if I am going to make it as a trader. I really don’t know if I am actually forming the skills yet. But it did make me think. It is difficult to have a streak of 8 winners completely on luck alone. So it made me think I may have acquired, at least, some of the basic skills.

I had to end my trading day (I had a busy morning planned), so I could only briefly go over my trades this morning. Both looked like OK trades that happen not to work out. That bothered me during the day for the MU trade. Because it was a REALLY good setup. Yes they can still fail, but it made me start to second guess my setup. Finally, now I was able to examine the trade very carefully and I saw the issue.

MU had a really good “Vish” setup and I needed to wait for the break 43.15 tech level. It had great TLs below it to take partials. When it broke, I shorted. It stopped twice on a level that seemed invisible and reversed and I got stopped out. Now looking at it closely, somehow the 200MA on my 5min chart got inadvertently changed to my 9MA color/line. It was supposed to be a dark thick line. I thought it was the 9MA. So there was no setup. If the chart was configured correctly I would have not have taken the trade at that moment and waited for the break of the 200MA (which occurred 4 minutes later). At first I got quite angry but got over it in a minute, because now I know why the trade didn’t work.

So based on the data I had I did make the correct decision. So I will accept this as an OK trade. I saw setup that satisfied my checklist. I waited for the correct entry and I S/O at the planned spot.

5min chart                       1min chart

       

 

The next trade was with AAPL on a 5min ORB. I was waiting for the 5min candle to finish, but on the 4min candle the price made a new high so I went long. The price immediately reversed and broke the 203.39 TL which was my S/O point. Technically I took the share amount that 5c below that level was my S/O. But for a $200 stock it’s not easy to stop on the correct penny. So I S/O 2c too early. The price immediately reversed on my S/O and made it to my 1^st partial.

In hind sight I can easily say I should have waited for the 5min candle to finish. I would have gotten a better entry and gotten two partials before being S/O. But, honestly I have not done well so far on the classic entry for the 5min ORB. I have been doing better on an early entry setup, where I enter on the new high. But my sample set is still well too small to make any conclusions. So I followed my current setup, waited for the entry and S/O very close to the planned spot. So I will call this trade OK as well.

 

What I did good today:  Felt zero revenge after the two stop outs. Never thought for a second to take another trade. I took my max two trades and the trading day was over.

How did I challenge myself today?  Searched for answer why the MU trade didn’t work instead of my initial reaction that it just didn’t work out.

What I did bad today:  Not happy that I had my chart configured incorrectly.

What can I do better tomorrow: I need to check the configuration of my charts more often. Yes, I am completely at fault for the MU trade. There is no excuse for having my charts configured wrong. Your platform setup is the easiest part of trading and thus no tolerance for carelessness.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by Rob C

[Mark D. 435]

10 hours ago, Rob C said:

I am still on the fence if I am going to make it as a trader. I really don’t know if I am actually forming the skills yet. But it did make me think. It is difficult to have a streak of 8 winners completely on luck alone. So it made me think I may have acquired, at least, some of the basic skills.

you're definitely forming skills. For one, your no emotional reaction to getting stopped out is a huge mental skill!

[Rob C 826]

Thanks Mark.

I am still kicking myself for having my chart configured wrong yesterday. But the one nice thing was after two stop outs I never thought for a moment to take another trade. Two trade max, the day is done. So I watched the chatroom instead. 3 months ago I probably would have gone hulk. But staying to a very strict max trades/day has really helped. But wow it was annoying for the first month.