Rob C's Trading Journal - starting Feb 1 2019

[Rob C 826]

 

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

A good week. Both my health and my nerves improved. My first week, since I have gone live, that all may trades I evaluated as “good” trades. Not necessarily winners. Just trades that I followed my setup and execution rules.

Stuck to my new 2 trades/day max. Even after my double stop out yesterday, I had no trouble sticking to my rule. My max trades per day are so ingrained into my brain now. Revenge trading seems to be under control now. It took 10 months to get it under control, but for my personality, that was fast!!

Since all my trades are trending toward mostly good now (note the table below), I think the 3 tier trade critique does not have enough resolution anymore and I need to develop a new scale. Up until recent I really had three types of trades, 1) being completely stupid (usually trade without a setup), 2) not stupid, but still not following rules or 3) following rules. Now that I have been, for the majority of recent trades, following my rules, I will create a score card and start to evaluate my trades closer. So I can start fine tuning. I like the way Mark D does his trade evaluations and I will use it as a base and modify it a little to fit my style of trades.

My trade evaluation by week:

 

I usually increase my risk per trade at the beginning of each month (if the previous month was positive and void of hulk days). But, I also had a rule that had never been satisfied. If I go a week that has positive equity and I followed my rules on every trade, I will increase my risk/trade. So next week I will increase my risk/trade from $36 to $42.

So next week I need to create a way to give each of my trades a score. Follow my rules and see how I handle the higher risk. I must keep are sharp eye on my chart configuration. I will be checking it twice a week. Still kicking myself that my chart configuration was wrong yesterday.

 

Happy Easter!

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by Rob C

[Rob C 826]

Monday 4/22/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were a little on the bad side, mainly due to a double S/O on Thursday.

Took one live trade on AAPL.

I wasn’t too crazy about much in the premarket, then just before open AAPL reached 120k shares and 0.5% gap which is enough to call AAPL in play for my setups. I was looking at MU and AMD after open as well, but AAPL is the only one that setup.

AAPL had a really good “Vish” setup when it broke VWAP, but there were too many TLs near it to take the trade. So I waited for the price to clear the other TLs, but then the trade becomes a “step” setup which normally you have to wait for the finish of the 2min candle, unless there are really strong TLs to break.  There were three TLs, a daily TL, 1min candle wick and 50MA all at same price. That was too powerful of a combined level to wait, so I took the trade when it broke all of those 3 levels.

What AAPL looked like when I took the trade:

1min chart                                         5min chart                            

           

Checklist showed a very strong setup:

 

There we a lot of good TLs to take partials on.  The first partial was on the high of premarket. Next was the 203.39 level, then I usually take partials at the half dollar, which I did. Then another partial at the next level at 203.87. At that point I had so few shares left that I exited at the next level $204, which happen to be the peak of the run. Since I got more than one dollar from AAPL I was done for the day.

 

 

What I did good today:  Was able to adapt my setup for what the market gave to me.

How did I challenge myself today?  Correctly took partials on all the correct levels. A lot of emotions to take or not take the partials since there were so many levels.

What I did bad today:  Had chart configuration issues again. Just noticed right before opening. I should have checked an hour before.

What can I do better tomorrow: I need to keep working on my chart configuration. Unsure why it is not stable. Need to find issue and resolve it quickly.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

Tuesday 4/23/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were a little on the bad side, but that was due to the stressful day I had planned and not due to the trading.

Took two live trades on AAPL and AMD.

I really liked AAPL in the premarket, several 5min candles with higher highs. There was a “Vish” setup and a really good target at 204.93. I waited for the price to break the 201.55 level, then I went long.

5min chart when I took the trade:

I was able to take one partial, but then price immediately reversed. I tried to S/O at B/E but the price blew right through it. I had so much slippage I gave all my profits back.

I was then waiting for the 5min ORB on AAPL which was setting up. But then I saw AMD had a good “step” setup. I have been shying away from AMD for many weeks since it was no longer in play for my setups. Then last week when reviewing the charts it looked in play again. So I waited for the break of the 2min candle body, but the price had a pull back. So much it went from a “step” setup to a “simple” setup. “Simple” setups I should enter when it breaks or bounces off of VWAP. Which would have worked. But all I saw at the time is a daily level above it that the price has to break first. When it broke the TL it bounced off the HOTD and again retraced. Then bounced again off the HOTD for the 3^rd time. When it finally broke the HOTD I went long.

Since I don’t fully trust AMD yet I reduced my share size by a 1/3. The price made it to my first partial, then I almost got stopped out. Then I took a second partial early because I was losing faith in the trade. Then went all out on a new 1min low, which is good since the price dropped from there.

1min chart when I took the trade:

 

What I did good today:  I liked that I adapted the 2min ORB, for AMD entrance and exit on the fly.

How did I challenge myself today?  Traded AMD again. It had been awhile.

What I did bad today:  I had chart configuration issues again!! Somehow the platform reset the configuration, though last night when I reopened the platform it was fine.

What can I do better tomorrow: Chart configuration still needs work.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

Wednesday 4/24/2019

I had a well-being score of 4.5/10 this morning so I had to trade with half share size. Nerves were actually OK, but I had a bad day trading, broke some rules.

Took two live trades both on AAPL.

AAPL was OK in the premarket, started really strong and I went long just as the first 1min candle was finishing because it broke through 5 levels in 1 minute. According to my recent chart review, AAPL is starting to setup as 1min ORBs, so I was open to that setup again for AAPL. Price actually reached my 1^st partial (the high of the premarket) but I got a bad fill. The stock reversed but I have a rule (with AAPL only) that don’t S/O at the B/E if there is a major TL just below it. For some reason I forgot this rule and S/O at B/E. If I followed my rule I would have gotten 60c out of APPL on that trade. This really hurt.

The second trade with AAPL was it was setting up for a “step” setup. So I waited for the break of the premarket high and went long. Did not notice I broke the B-Band veto rule. The price was well above the Boulinger band when I took the trade, thus it was too extended. I did not break this rule on purpose, I honestly just didn’t notice or remember to look. As you may expect the price immediately reversed and I was stopped out.

 

What I did good today:  My methodology for determining well-being seems to work well. I apparently needed to be trading with half sizes today.

How did I challenge myself today?  Traded an 1min ORB.

What I did bad today:  Broke two rules today and one of them a major veto rule. Luckily it only cost me -0.4R today. An inexpensive lesson.

What can I do better tomorrow: Adding rule review back to my daily preflight checklist. I removed it since I was doing quite well recently following my rules and it seemed silly reading these rules that I have well memorized. But you never know when you may have an off day and you need a reminder to your rules.

[Rob C 826]

Thursday 4/25/2019

I had a well-being score of 5/10 this morning. Nerves were actually OK. I was hoping for a really clean day of trading, since I had a rule breaking day yesterday. Though I didn’t break any rules I was quite careless with my second trade.

Took two live trades both on AAPL.

MU was the stock I was eyeing to trade. But it didn’t setup for the 2min ORB while AAPL did. It was a really nice “Vish” setup. Very bearish with good R/R and a good first target for taking a partial. I did have to wait a bit for the price to break the last tech level (which was the $207). Price bounced a couple of times off that level before finally breaking through. Once it did I went short. Price instantly reversed and I was quickly stopped out. But, I don’t see anything wrong with the trade, it just didn’t work out.

5min chart when I took the trade at 9:32am

 

After that trade I went back looking at MU for an entry for the 5min ORB. It had a nice ABCD pattern. Sadly, I didn’t stay watching it as AAPL started setting up again. AAPL had 3 bullish 1min candles and engulfed the premarket’s 5min candle. So I waited to see if it would break a very strong combined TL of the HOTD, 200MA and a daily level all within pennies of each other. I thought the price made a break through all 3 levels and I went long. It instantly reversed and I was quickly stopped out. After I was S/O is when I noticed it actually didn’t break all 3 TLs, just two. I jumped the gun, very sloppy.

1min chart when I took the trade:

A view of both trades:

 

 

 

What I did good today:  My first trade was fine, good setup and patiently waited for the break.

How did I challenge myself today?  Stopped at my 2 trade limit. I had some FOMO on MU since that was the trade I was planning to take.

What I did bad today:  Very sloppy to jump the gun on a trade before the break.

What can I do better tomorrow: I use to have a trouble with entering a trade before the clear break. I recently got better, but today shows it is a constant struggle I must control.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

Friday 4/26/2019

I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. Another sloppy day of trading to end a sloppy week of trading.

Took one live trade with AAPL.

MU and AMD were the stocks setting up in premarket. AAPL not so much, so my two large charts had MU and AMD. MU did not get the volume I expected so I started looking around and saw AAPL with large volume and a large move. AAPL had a big drop and was moving back toward VWAP where I went long at the break of VWAP (and the $204 level). Back-testing has shown AAPL is recently having good 1min ORB setups, so I was OK taking trade early.

The problem was I took the wrong share size by about 1/3 too many shares for my planned S/O at $203.50. I am usually very good about share size. What I remember is I calculated the shares for the break of VWAP, then just before I took the trade I changed my mind to wait for the break of $204 level, but I did not recalculate the share size. Thus I went long with the wrong size trade. The first thought was to exit immediately, but I thought 1/3 too many shares is not that bad, let me ride it out. In hind sight I should have just sold 1/3 of my shares but I didn’t think of it at the time. The problem is that this made me nervous, so instead of waiting for the break of my planned S/O level I sold right at my stop level instead. As soon as I did the price reversed and had a really good run. If I followed my plan, that would have been a great trade.

The urge to revenge trade was instant and I wanted to get go long when it broke VWAP again. Though I do allow two trades/day now, I can only take a second trade if I am in emotional control. I wasn’t. But I was going to take the trade anyway. What brought me to my senses is I remembered today is the last day of my 3 month challenge to teach myself not to go hulk. It would have been a really bad (though ironically fitting for my personality) day to go hulk. So instead of taking another trade, I quickly shutdown the platform and walked away. Live to trade another day.

 

What I did good today:  Didn’t go hulk.

How did I challenge myself today?  Did not take a second trade.

What I did bad today:  Very sloppy again. Taking the correct share size is something I am usually quite accurate with.

What can I do better next week: Just saying I need to be more careful isn’t going to do much. I need to make a plan this weekend how to improve and I will implement on Monday.

 

 

 

 

[Rob C 826]

 

Live trading summary for week ending 4/26/19.

A really sloppy week of trading. The one good thing is both my health and my nerves are still improving.

Stuck to my new 2 trades/day max. Stopped myself from revenge trading. And actually all my trades, this week had a good setup and a good plan. I did have a couple good trades, but all I really remember is the two trades I exited a penny or two too early missing a big run. Or the trade I jumped the gun by a couple of pennies and caused an unnecessary S/O. And I even broke a veto rule this week, not noticing the Boulinger-bands. I also had chart configuration issues (still do) that I need to figure out and fix.

Tiny nuisances are making huge differences now. Twice this week I went wayward 3 cents from the planned S/O and instead of two big trades I got S/O twice. Those 3 cents made the difference from this week becoming my most profitable week trading to my worse in 2 months.

Weekly results:

 

A lot to do this weekend. I will be switching to score card my trades next week so I need to finalize the method. I need to fix my configuration issues. I need to create a plan to help prevent my carelessness. As usual I try resolve issues with a two prong approach, internally and externally. Internally I need to determine why my psyche is making me prone to be sloppy and how I can improve it. Also, externally what can I change (say to my platform) to help prevent my sloppiness. First, I will start to draw a horizontal levels on all the dollar and half dollar levels to help me hold to my S/O and entries. Second, I need to be waking up even earlier (4:45am Yikes!) to give myself more time to run my checklist carefully and may promote more care on my trades. I notice the days I finish my prep just before the open I tend to be more careless. I also need to finish all the prep work over the weekend. I usually finish what I can and I go into Monday filling unprepared.

Have a good weekend.

 

 

[Rob C 826]

 

Live trading summary for the month of April.

I have not gone hulk in three months!! I have not hit my daily max loss in 3 months!! I did not make a hot key mistake in the month of April and only two hotkey mistakes in the last 3 months. I also never looked at my unrealized P/L for both months of March and April.

So this month ends my 3 month challenge to teach myself not to go hulk. The previous 3 months I had 6 hulk days and 16 max/loss days. It is still a struggle, but I can say that my emotions are in more control now.

In April I increased to a two trade/day max rule. I will keep this rule. I haven’t collected enough data to determine if it has been successful. As of now I will not increase my max trades per day yet.

Even though my equity was positive and did not go hulk in April I am keeping my risk per trade the same at $42 since I just increased it last week.

In April I read (actually listened to) Market Wizards and I highly recommend it.

Stats for February/March/April:

 

My plan for February through April was to complete one goal: not to go hulk. Hopefully I improved my trading skills as well, but that was not my primary goal. After three months not hitting daily max loss, my next psychological goal is to be able to take an emotionally controlled trade after a loss. I am still not there yet.

Since my hulk goal has been satisfied I will place more emphasis on improving my trading skills. But I want to keep the goals simple, like I did the last 3 months. So my goals for the next 3 months:

1)    Don’t go hulk

2)    Learn to control your emotions after a loss

3)    Implement a score card with the goal that the average trade score for the month should exceed the previous month.

Positive equity is not a goal. But If I do have positive equity for the month, did not have a hulk day and my trade score for the month was higher than the previous month, that allows me to increase my risk per trade.

Score card (I tried to keep it simple):

I can subjectively give myself a score between Good and Great. But if it is not at least Good, I receive a 0% for that category. If it was not good I should not have taken the trade. The setup score is based on the checklist. If it satisfies the checklist I receive at least 40% for that category. I will see how it goes and modify when I learn more. Back testing this score card on April gave me a monthly average score of 81%. So my goal is to improve on that.

Also for May I really want to improve my health. That lingering flu I had has really taken me down a few notches. I didn’t work out for 3 weeks. I did run 3 times this week, so I am hoping by the end of May I will be working out consistently.

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by Rob C

[Mike B 624]

Rob,

Looks like a great plan moving into May. Look forward to reading about the results.

 

[Rob C 826]

Thanks Mike. Its my first plan that is not just about survival. My emotional stability (though still a daily struggle) is adequate enough that I can make some emphasis on trading techniques. Naively when I joined BBT a year ago I thought it was all about the trading technique. I had no idea it would take a year to learn to keep my emotions under control enough that I can finally divert some energy into the actual trading.

[Rob C 826]

Monday 4/26/2019

I had a well-being score of 6/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. As planned woke up at 4:45am to start the day earlier.

Since I woke up earlier I had time to prepare and wrote a full plan for the morning trading as follows:

Took two live trades first with AAPL then TGT.

Right at the open I was only looking at AAPL for the 1min ORB (per plan). It really setup nicely as a “Vish” setup when it broke through VWAP/200MA/50MA, but at only 22 seconds after the open. I was too uncomfortable to take it that early, though in hind sight that was the perfect entry. Instead I waited until it broke the 204.50 level for more confirmation then went long. The price did make it to my first partial (high of premarket), but then reversed back. Following the rule not to S/O at B/E after 1^st partial if there is a strong TL (AAPL only rule), I waited and survived the pull back. I then took two more partials at the 1min highs then finally S/O at B/E. A small winner, but it would have been a solid winner if I entered the trade when the setup occurred. But I shouldn’t be too angry at myself, I am just not prepared to enter a trade that early yet. So it was just a good learning trade that it may be OK to take really early trades if the setup is there.

When I took the trade:

1min Chart                     5min chart

 

 

 

The next trade was with TGT. It was setting up for a nice 5min ORB with an ABCD pattern already forming on the 1min chart. I shorted when the price looked like it was breaking out with a stop the $78 which the last three 1min candles respected. I took a first partial at the $77.50 level and another at previous close. Took a third partial back at the $78.5 level as I was losing faith in the trade. Then out at B/E.

 

 

What I did good today:  Created a morning trading plan. I think it helped my nerves. Also, I shorted a stock. Shorting has been infrequent lately.

How did I challenge myself today?  I like I didn’t trade a 2min ORB today. I need to learn other setups.

What I did bad today:  Didn’t enter the AAPL trade when I knew that was the right time to enter.

What can I do better tomorrow: Take the trade if the setup is there. If I am uncomfortable how early it is, just take a smaller share size.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Rob C

[Mark D. 435]

great TGT trade. that's the one i should have taken instead of getting chopped up after that.

[RTrader 20]

If you have emotional problems or anxiety, then from my experience and learning from professional traders, is that meditation is a very important practice that anyone pursuing trading needs to add to their morning routine. I personally think it is way more important than trading prep, such as reviewing stocks, and making trade plans around what is moving pre-market. When the market opens, anything can happen. Meditation allows you be aware of how you are feeling, and reacting to that. It gives you a chance to change your behavior before it destroys your day.

I meditate every day at least 10 mins in the morning. I also like to do it at night. It has a cumulative effect 

[Rob C 826]

58 minutes ago, RTrader said:

If you have emotional problems or anxiety, then from my experience and learning from professional traders, is that meditation is a very important practice that anyone pursuing trading needs to add to their morning routine. I personally think it is way more important than trading prep, such as reviewing stocks, and making trade plans around what is moving pre-market. When the market opens, anything can happen. Meditation allows you be aware of how you are feeling, and reacting to that. It gives you a chance to change your behavior before it destroys your day.

I meditate every day at least 10 mins in the morning. I also like to do it at night. It has a cumulative effect 

Hi RTrader, thanks for the note. Yes I meditate every morning before the market open. I agree it does help. 

[Rob C 826]

Tuesday 4/30/2019

I had a well-being score of 6/10 this morning. Nerves were OK. Woke up early again and had plenty of time to prepare.

Took two live trades first with AAPL then MU.

AAPL was in play from premarket so I was focused on it at the open. AAPL had a nice “Vish” setup, I just was waiting for the price to break the $203 level. It took a few tries before it finally broke. But I completely missed the entry by 20c. I had to look at my video to see what happen. It looks like my finger was on the trigger then AFTER it broke the level I realized that it is almost 9:32am and my share size was still on the 1min ORB size. So I quickly switch to full size and took the trade. Though I did this fast (~0.5 sec) I lost 20c on the entry destroying my R/R.

So my rule is just to get out of the trade, but the price moved in my direction almost immediately. So the next thought was should I get out completely at my first target and insure a small win. So I asked myself would I take the trade now, if this was a new trade? The answer was yes, if it broke the 200MA. So I took a partial, enough that my stop would be all the way back to VWAP. Price never broke the 200MA, then fell back to  VWAP. When it broke VWAP I S/O. So it only cost -0.5R. If I remember that lesson about changing the share size after the break it will be an inexpensive lesson.

 

What it looked like when I took the trade:

1min chart                             5min chart

   

 

 

My next trade was on MU. I am glad I got to practice on a 5min ORB. MU had a strong 5min candle, but still small compared to ATR. The 1min chart looked very bullish. I didn’t take the trade at the break of the 5min candle because there was a strong TL just above it. So I waited for the break of the TL. I guess the break wasn’t clean enough because the price floundered for 2 minutes. Now usually when I see three 1min candles get deflected from the same resistant level I am very bias to get out of the trade. But I hesitated because I thought the last push through really did break. So I wasn’t able to recover back to reality quick enough to take an early stop. The price very quickly dropped to my S/O point and I exited at full -1R.

 

What I did good today:  I did take two good setups and I learned a lot on these trades.

How did I challenge myself today?  I let my Trade Ideas account expire and I used my Etrade account instead today (which has TI included for free though a little less bells and whistles). It was OK, I need to fine tune it a little.

What I did bad today:  Poor trade management. One bad entry and one not so great exit.

What can I do better tomorrow: Must change share size between 1min ORB and 2min ORB much more smoother.