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Before I begin, I would like to introduce myself.
I have been trading for 2 years and just 1 year ago I met BPA, I am not a profitable trader and I still have big problems with things like FOMO, trade management and feelings of anxiety or fear when I enter a trade (because I always want to win even if I use a minimum risk, For some reason I still think that every loss is a step backwards that takes me away from the goal I want so much) I have worked in several things in my life but nothing has filled me as much as trading and maybe all that anxiety comes because of this, because trading is the only thing that really motivates me or gives me a challenge and I find it hard to accept that I can not move forward along the path of being a trader.
I do not want to get too much into personal details, but I think this summary explains a bit the kind of person I am and what I think every time I get in to the chart, I love them, but at the same time they supose a lot of pressure that I generate myself.
Because of all this I have decided to do Swing trading, only look for trades with a good RR and forget about micro trade management, only exit if I see another entry option better than mine, basically SL, TP or Reverse if there is a Swing setup stronger than the one I have active. I am looking for a context, a setup and a clear target (along the journal I will write what is my TG according to PA, but for the moment, due to my weak mentality, I am not able to hold trades, so I am taking profits at 2iR )
This is not a Journal to teach anyone, but rather to begin to create a discipline in me (since the fact of posting my ideas makes me uncomfortable xD) and at the same time maybe I can help someone who is on the same path as me.
You can comment on anything, give advice and points of view, since the goal of this is to improve, throw the ego in the trash and achieve the goal someday.
Thank you a lot
July 2024 Wednesday 24 ( 5min MES futures )
Yesterday was a TRD but ended as a good bear bar for daily bears. This is important because this could be a really good L1 signal after the PB to reach good targets on HTF.
1.- BO down
2.- Reach Low of bear leg 1 and reverse there. But that point was already reached on GX and we keep going down on the NY open so the chances for Bear BO were bigger imo.
Trades:
1.- I am not good taking Trend from open trades because I am always fearfull of reversals ( I am always thinking “we are way to low and away from EMA, the price should go up at some point”)
If you dont take that trade you can sell for any reason in days like today, I cant see any good bull setup, even the WB with good signal bar was faded and after that theres no signs of strong bulls anywere so the selling pressure was still there.
I am going to show some HTF magnets that can be usefull.
This data is RTH data, but we reached those targets on the overnight session.
Thoughts —> I dont like to take Trend from the open trades because the price can reverse pretty fast and the risk is huge, I am okay missing this trades ( they dont happen pretty often either so I think I am fine with it, maybe in the future I will be able to take them, but for the moment I dont trust to much on trends from the open ).
With this kind of days I am always thinking on reversals, “ the price cant go much lower, we need a PB, this is way too climatic…etc” but the truth is that the best thing that I can do is forget about what I want and trade what it is. I should have sold the market and exit only if strong bull reversal / setup, but as long as that is not there, I should hold and stop thinking about what could happen and focus on what is happening. I am better trader than few months ago because atleast I am no longer the kind of guy who limit buy the market at MM targets because “the market HAVE to reverse here” thanks to that I am not losing money, but now I need to improve in taking the trend trade. No matter how strong do you think the trend is, it can go even lower and it is okay to sell if the trend is strong, if after your entry reversed you will probably be able to exit BE, and if not you have the reversal you “wanted”.
I am still to fearfull on taking trades because I dont want to lose ( even if I am trading smallest possible ) my problem is dealing with being wrong, I think that I am starting to break that wall litlle by little, atleast I am not that Fomo trader that I was ( even if I have some demons from time to time ) but I am working on it, I am sure that some day I will be able to take the trades and be okay with it, the only way to win is by assuming that you need to lose some in order to win, I know the theory but my brain is still processing it and for some reason, is still fighting that idea.
The profession of trader is really difficult, but it is also nice to see how thanks to it we are able to know some of our deepest emotions, I tell you this although I am the first one who does not achieve it many times, try to do the right thing and be comfortable when things do not go well, you are not a failure if you are not profitable, you just need to keep walking this path as long as you are aware that you are going to fall again and again until you reach the goal you are looking for, we all know what we have to do and what we can not allow under any circumstances, the fight is to do what we know at a theoretical level and not get carried away by those “demons” that seem to take control of our reasoning when we are in front of the charts.
Be compassionate with yourself we will reach there some day!
Alejandro,
Let me make it simple for you!
here is my advice if you like to have it:
Stick to the RTH chart for now and spot only and only blue box entries (best trades) that's it.
no ETH, no premarket, no GX SRs nothing. at least for a month, focus only and only on blue box entries on the RTH chart. use RTH HoY/LOY/and other SRs. Do not even look at HTF Only Blue box entries on the 5min chart.
so your goal would be to spot (and take) those best swing setups with strong signals, even without knowing what's going on on HTF or GX chart.
I understand your confusion, doubts on plans etc. and all is normal, part of the process. but try to really simplify everything and focus on ONLY one thing at a time (Blue Box Entries out of 81 bars)
Hope this helps ; )
Thank you Ali,
I will do and post the result here.
Only 5 min RTH setups with strong signal. I guess it is okay to read yesterday last 1h PA in order to find possible wedges / DT /DB / MM etc.
I like what you are doing here Alejandro, good stuff, keep it up! But as I remind myself, it will take a lot of work and time to work out the nuances and be able to execute consistently, so don't give up!
Today for me major swing setups are sell b8 and buy 56.
Re: GXH. We already had news bar climax bar / FBO in GX, it does not need to re-test the highs, it is a climax/FBO, climactic reversals don't usually get DT/DB before testing the other side of the climax. Just like on RTH HOY FBO sell setup, you just take it immediately you don't wait for a re-test of the extreme, because it is not really a trend that requires that re-test.
July 2024 Monday 08 (5min MES futures)
Yesterdary was huge trend day and tomorrow Powell and Yellen speaks, it is possible to have TR Open, also EU session moved a lot
ETH
RTH
Trades
I only took the First trade, because I mostly trade the open.
The first blue arrow was a good reason to exit if you are still holding the short but at the same time I dont think that bulls would make a big swing out of that because there isnt clear targets for them and If I had to choose between bar 5 as HoD or bar 14-18 as LoD, I think that bar 5 would hold and Bears will get more of that swing ( strong targets below )
July 2024 Tuesday 09 (5min MES futures)
Yesterday was a Bull bar with tail at the top (ETH) and a doji day in (RTH), we are pretty high on the daily chart so a reversal or PB could happen but at the same time theres also a MM TG a little bit more up, so I thought that maybe we could have a FBO at HoY or a successfull BO aiming for that MM.
My problem with todays PA was the conference (news) Powell + Yellen, because I dont feel confortable trading with news but the day was in a really small range 17p ( the whole day ) so maybe I shouldnt be so concern about news and focus more on PA except for really big news.
ETH
RTH
Trades
I want to point that I am only marking the zones that I think are most important for a Swing, I am avoiding all the little wedges/db/dt etc that exist on the chart to focus only on the “big” trades or most important structures
I think the 1st red arrow is a good sell but I didnt took it because was news bar ( Powell + Yellen conference ) but I am starting to think that maybe I should trade those anyway, other problem for this setup is that the signal bar was really big and even if we have a lot of targets below, theres one important TG at 1iR and I would love to aim for bigger RR, atleast 2iR.
If you took that trade it is reasonable to exit above the first Strong reversal bull bar after bears reached the important lvl GX but I also thought that the market was probably going lower because the Opening Range was small and could double it and reach all the bear targets.
The second trade or 1st blue arrow was a good pattern to reverse the short, even if the Opening Range was small and bears couldnt reach all their targets, I thought that Bulls where defending that area and those Nested W + DB + MDB + Strong Signal was a reason enough to try that bull swing.
In the other hand, the last trade was good but also hard to take because of that huge bull BO and the market being on that small range that could be doubled, but price couldnt close above HoD and we had a FBO HoD + DT + MDT + Strong signal at the top of TR on a TRD, also the bull BO started with bad Signal bar which used to be tested later and this huge BO could be a 2nd leg trap on TR, so I took the trade even if I was afraid ( I dont know why but I am always trying to see reason why I shouldnt take a trade instead of reasons why I should take it, I am trying to find a trade that has no bull or bear side but thats impossible, this is something that I am starting to understand, this is never black or white, it is both and we have to choose and take the risk, the good trade is never easy xD )
Thank you Ali for your help, that is indeed helpfull, I will do my best to improve and practice with all this tips.
HoY/LoY FBO setups work best in TR conditions on the daily chart or when you have a weak daily L1 Sell setup in a bull trend then LoY FBO is a great setup to take using the LTF reversal patterns below the LoY.
Your 100% right with this, I had a bear BIAS because the climatic move on daily and I was looking for what I wanted instead of seeing what is happening
Instead what we got, was a LL DB right at the EMA where the 2nd Low is created by a WB, that's one of the best reversal setup. you cannot ignore this just because you're expecting HoY FBO in a strong bull trend on the daily chart
Also true.. I saw the setup but I wasnt sure because the TTR and as you said I was overthinking ( I shouldnt take trades at the middle of TR ), I cant see the WB, it is the Micro wedge formed by the las 3 bars? I am not good with micro patterns, it is something that I need to work on
by the close of 24, the market is clearly always In Long, you have to determine the first TG which is Yesterday range MM (2nd TG MM on Daily chart), and stop placement, then entry will be where the RR is 2 or more. so Target is really important to determine the entry zone (in this case last entry can be 24 close or below that, with stop below 22)
I have a question here, it is good to move my SL below 22 in order to have a 2iR TG or it is better to stick to PA and use the swing low?
oh and I forgot to say to stick to only one chart while trading ETH or RTH, (define SRs like GXs and watch only one chart during the session) try to simplify your trading as much as you can, and don't overthink it.
Okay, I have a problem with this because I see that the market used to end patterns at the open for the ETH, like wedges or MM, theres also good LQ (liquidity) zones that dosnt exist on RTH and I dont know what to do exactly being honest, I also have a problem when I want to take a HoY entry for example but GX took the highs before the NY open, I dont know if the LQ is still there or if the patterns works exactly the same. Today for example big news at pre market created a new All Time High and I was waiting to test that zone before taking the short setup because I thought yesterday was super climatic ( maybe I am being Biased again ) then the market started to BO down after a Wedge Top + FBO of HoY but I didnt take it because I thought that the new High was more important than the HoY which was taken in GX...
I dont know how to deal with that and maybe I should just trade RTH and forget about GX I dont know, but today is the second trend day that I miss, I will post my analisis later for today but as I sais I was a trapped out trader again 🤦♂️
And again, thank you a lot for your help.
You are all invited to join and comment on my analysis or what you would have done, all this is helping me a lot not only to my discipline as a trader but also to be more aware of what I do and find my mistakes, I am sure that this can help many people who are going through the same thing, so I would like if you have any advice or questions to write here without any problem.
Thank you a lot
You're welcome. happy to help!
I have a question here, it is good to move my SL below 22 in order to have a 2iR TG or it is better to stick to PA and use the swing low?
22 is OK too as per my experience because it's the bottom of the bull BO, if our premise is valid price should not get below 18 anymore (BOP). but 19 is the best stop placement. both should be fine.
your 2nd question: you can watch ETH for the first hour or two then switch to RTH. but I personally watch the ETH Chart all the time because I trade CFD and also Asia and EU sessions are important for me.
about LQ, everything must happen in the NY Session, so if the NY Session trading above the HoY can still become FBO even if the GX has taken HoY out before. But yes that is not an ideal case, in general, every LQ should be used for the first time, not 2nd.
also, the market usually takes out HoY/LoY in the NY Session. By experience, you'll see that this is not a big problem. you should just do a lot of studies about HoY/LoY and find lots of examples of what has worked and what has not.
About today's PA, I would also normally wait for extreme test, but this was climactic R, you see wedge top but not enough fine then Wait for the BO PB setups to confirm the reversal. 9 was the king bar : ) I've talked about it in my journal. not only a very strong bar COL C below many bars and below the ETH EMA but also has multiple TG below: GXL, Bottom of Y EoD Buy Climax and MMD based on the CPI Bar. probably not an A+ Setup but enough reason to take the trade for Obvious TGs.
Again Train Blue Box entries a lot, I've seen so many of them that I can easily spot them on the 1min chart too. 9 is such of an entry
About today's PA, I would also normally wait for extreme test, but this was climactic R, you see wedge top but not enough fine then Wait for the BO PB setups to confirm the reversal
Okay, I was overthinking again and I couldnt take the setup because I was waiting to test the highs before the BO.
I need to work a lot on that and forget about every little nuance that makes me hesitate, It is true that GXH was above HoY but that dosnt mean that bar 9 + WT wasnt a good setup by itself. I knew about the targets and I Saw the setup but I managed to convince myself to not take It because I was missing the GXH.
Thats important, the market dont need to be perfect, if theres something reasonable It is okay to take the chance. Overthinking and try to see every scenario is something that I need to measure in order to be able to take trades,
Thank you
July 2024 Thursday 11 ( 5min MES futures )
In order to make things simple I am going to only show RTH chart and forget about ETH, the only thing that I am going to be aware of ETH is GXH/L I am going to show you a chart where I explain my lines and whats their meaning in order to not have to show the same thing over and over again and only focus on the chart with trades.
The chart will show 2 days, yesterday’s PA and today’s PA, so we can see some context
Green Line 100% long = All Time High
Green line but only with todays length = GXH
In the future it is possible that I will have to show you some new lines like HoW / LoW / 50% Week etc.
With that being said lets start with the day.
Yesterday was a Huge Trend day and also a Buy Climax on daily chart, we also have wedges all over the HTF, monthly, weely, daily… so It was a matter of time that we could have an Exhaustion Bar.
PP scenarios:
1.-Reversal down, so HoY its important level, but we also had huge news at GX that broke HoY and pushes the market to a new All Time High that was reversed before NY open.
2.- TR, after huge Trend or climax at the end of yesteday, the market use to have a TR open before BO ( if there is any BO ), we also had huge news on Pre market so I was wondering that maybe we could stay inside the news bar for a while.
Those were my main scenarios because I found more bullish days unexpected, but as you know we need to have a clear mind and dont be surprised by anything.
Trades
Theres a lot of reasons to sell all the way down, but it is a huge trend and this kind of days trapped traders out, because they wait for a PB that never happend and the price keeps going lower, so if you want to join the trend you have to sell something, use any excuse and use the correct SL
As I said in my last post I wasnt able to take this trade, why? I saw the setup, WT + FBO HoY + Strong SB but even with that I wasnt able to take it just because I thought that GXH was a important level, the highs of that CPI bar, because of that I completly missed the trend.
What I am trying to say with this is that we shouldnt be so riggid in order to take trades, it is pretty hard to find something that checks all your needs, and we need to take any setup that have 2 or more good reasons to take it, here I had a lot of reasons but I supose that I am still a scared trader that is always looking for perfection, ( Als analogy between Einstein and Forest Gump hits hard here…I am not saying that I am near close to Einstein but you know what I mean ) Thanks to the people that posted on this blog, now I am able to see those things more clearly so I expect to do it better from now on.
As you know from my past trades I am not good at joining Trends, and even If I was thinking on LMT sell that retest on GXL I am trying to avoid LMT orders but at the same time I wasnt able to sell the L1 because my SL was HUGE, I dont have a big account so I cant just sell small and scale in lower if the first entry is that big, but I could just sell one micro and hope for the best, maybe some profit is better than nothing, even if the 2iR is not possible after that huge BO, but this is something that I need to work on, what should I do if I miss the the trade at the top?
So, this was a BE day for me, no trades, I missed my opportunity and I couldnt sell later because the price was melting down and I was afraid, I am always thinking in reversals as soon as I enter those late trends moves and it seems like my fears have control over my PA analisis, I have a long way to improve but I am glad that I am moving forward little by little.
Have a nice day!
I find trend from the open difficult as well, as they usually fail, forming a leg in TR and not forming the HOD/LOD in the first few bars. I am starting to see though that if the move makes sense from HTF/yday/premarket then odds are higher of it working (like the reasons you gave). While I am trying to not trade GX it seems worthwhile to review when assessing an early entry on first 6 bars... if the RTH open is a leg3 wedge top when looking at GX, then I would suspect the odds are lower of that LOD on first couple bars holding. I don't have the data to support this but seems to have some validity anecdotally.
July 2024 Monday 15 ( 5min MES futures )
Yesterday started with a Huge bull Trend from the Open where all the trapped bulls on daily chart where able to exit, after reaching new ATH the price drop with strenght leaving a big tail on the top.
After this events on Daily chart; Bull Climax, then huge Bear Bar and now trapped bulls being able to exit their longs I think that the market could start to do some sideways trading or drop down, the reason behind this is because a lot of bulls are taking profits here.
PP scenarios:
1.- TRD ( also Powell news later on day )might be sellers at HoY and buyers at LoY, probably bears want to create a good signal bar in order to sell but bulls want the opposite so it is possible that we will have a fight at those levels
2.- Bear BO after that 1st strong leg that we have yesterday at EoD and FT, but I dont think that would happen, same reason for Bull BO, I think we are in a important level and we need to fight a bit here in order to create a strong BO
Trades
TR Open after bar 3, you could argue that B6 High is a good buy H1 at EMA after GUP but for me that wasnt a clear entry even if it worked out.
1st blue arrow entry was a good buy but at the same time the RR is bad unless you use a tight stop below the gap and being honest I am not sure if that is good.
2nd trade was a good sell with good context and I like this entry more than the L1 after the big BO because bulls sowed up at EMA and created a strong bull bar so maybe they could try again a 2nd time in order to move the price up, for that reason I dont think that the L1 is a good entry even if the Bear BO was huge, I saw a lot of times Bull Trends with Huge Bear BO that reverse completly and I dont trust them ( maybe I am wrong with this ) Later we have the entry after H2 fail and close below EMA, the only bad thing about this trade again is the RR, the SL is way to far after that BO and the only way to improve the RR is using a Tight stop ( I am not sure if tight stops are good in this scenarios or not but I would love if someone can bring some light here, I am used to use Swing points as SL in order to protect my trade and not take early exits when my reading is good )
3rd trade its also a good trade in terms of context, TRD (big up + big down) + WB at LoD + 2nd entry and good bull bars closing High before the setup, maybe the only problem was that we were on a bear channel and below EMA but even with that it looked good for me.
After that trade I wasnt sure about the EoD, I thought today was a TRD but after the Bear BO below LoD I was thinking that bears could be aiming to CoY or even LoY so I wasnt able to take any trade after that Bull BO again, we had a lot of strong bars at EoD but I think its a risk that I dont want to be in.
Today was a good day but I wasnt able to to Swing it ( 2iR ) because of the RR, I dont know if there is something that I can do in order to fix this, maybe it is what it is, TRD are not so good for swings so 1iR setups with high prob are good enough
Have a nice day
Hi Alejandro,
Good Journal Keep it up! 👌
A couple of notes here on 18th and Yesterday:
I couldnt take this trade either ( but now was because my account is really small and the SL “Swing High” was huge, I cant afford that risk in one trade )
The stop doesn't necessarily go way up to the swing high, it can go above the BO bar (13) or even above the 50% level of the BO bar (lower probability) because the price should not get there if the Successful BO LoY + 2nd Leg Down TG premise is really valid.
moreover, I personally enter with a limit order on L1 setups after BO, in that case, I have a better RR.
If the BO looks really strong and you did not take the first reversal entry then you must look for ways to enter (preferably on a PB). even can use a money management stop and just enter.
I am having problems taking the first Swing, a lot of times the price start the Swing without taking any mayor swing point or L/HoY, other bunch of times, the price comes close to those levels and then reverse to start the swing to the other side and I miss that too.
price does not necessarily need to take a "major swing point" to start a move (but usually does)
it can also be a "minor swing high/low" or just a high in the pre-market GX chart.
So how to enter? like I've written in my journal about a concept called "Structure" reason, this can be an "Entry" Reason (like taking out the major swing points such as LoY) BUT
It can also be a "Target" Reason. That means you have a "Major Swing Point" as a target and that's already a structural reason. then you'll just find ANY BPA pattern such as wedge or HH DT etc and enter on a good signal or enter on a PB after BO.
And yesterday was a nice example: LoY EQL TG is such a nice high-probability target. I've taken this trade yesterday.
One more point: do not approach it mechanically or systematically. the market doesn't work like that it renews itself every second it can never ever be formulated in a mechanical way.
that said, try to understand the concepts in my journal, don't caught in terms or methods.
Structure is all about understanding the narrative like what's the story? where we are? where is the target?(where the price is going to go) and I don't even ask these questions while trading (again is not a checklist or something) , I just read the story, like what is going on, what is the price doing.
without successful tape reading, there can be no success in trading, regardless of how mechanical one's setups are, or how useful the checklist he uses. you have to just read it.
and this takes time, and it needs you to constantly think about the market, every day and the approach will gradually become more and more efficient/rich.
I hope this helps
Hi Ali
Thank you a lot for your words, I have a few questions:
The stop doesn't necessarily go way up to the swing high, it can go above the BO bar (13) or even above the 50% level of the BO bar (lower probability) because the price should not get there if the Successful BO LoY + 2nd Leg Down TG premise is really valid.
I will try to use that method with SL above BO, I am using the swing H/L because I "fear" to lose the trade so I think I use that point in order to feel safe"?" but it is true that If the price reverse the BO theres a lot of possibilities that the price will go higher, so theres no point in having more risk than needed, even if some times may work.
The other question is about the 50%, for those cases do you use the 50% of the BO bar only, not the whole BO right (for example in a 2-3 bar BO do you use the 50% of those 3 bars all together or the 50% of the first strong BO?
it can also be a "minor swing high/low" or just a high in the pre-market GX chart.
Thats helpfull, I was using only RTH this days so I couldnt see anything more than GXH/L, maybe it is worth to have the 15min ETH chart open in order to see those levels ( I think Al also have that 15m ETH chart )
It can also be a "Target" Reason. That means you have a "Major Swing Point" as a target and that's already a structural reason. then you'll just find ANY BPA pattern such as wedge or HH DT etc and enter on a good signal or enter on a PB after BO.
This is also interesting, if I see a good target wait for a setup that points that target instead of wait for a S/R level to be taken first, as long as the setup is good.
One more point: do not approach it mechanically or systematically.
Yep.. your right here, I think that I have problems with this because that is the way I think in general. I am always looking for reasons, why things happen and what triggers them, so maybe my way of thinking tends to search for patterns in trading, I need to give them some room and dont be so inflexible with them.
without successful tape reading, there can be no success in trading, regardless of how mechanical one's setups are, or how useful the checklist he uses. you have to just read it.
and this takes time, and it needs you to constantly think about the market, every day and the approach will gradually become more and more efficient/rich.
I am working on it, one of my problems is that even if I see a good (bull) setup I get frozen if I see any reasons for (bear) to take the opposite. I need to work on this, see which setup has better chances to win and take the trade, the PA is always on that gray fog and I need to move forward.
Thank you a lot for the help Ali.
I will try to use that method with SL above BO, I am using the swing H/L because I "fear" to lose the trade so I think I use that point in order to feel safe"?
There are 'signal bars' through each day that generate 2R easily based on the stop above them (so 2x their sizes) and those are 'Blue Box Entries' if you train yourself on that you'll build confidence on tighter (but still reasonable) stops. but again that's something personal, you should find out what works for you.
The other question is about the 50%, for those cases do you use the 50% of the BO bar only, not the whole BO right (for example in a 2-3 bar BO do you use the 50% of those 3 bars all together or the 50% of the first strong BO?
50% of the whole leg or 50% from where the BO began (bar 12 on 18th) to the bottom of the leg. test it by yourself
maybe it is worth to have the 15min ETH chart open in order to see those levels
for the first 30min/1H, yes OK to watch the ETH chart.
This is also interesting, if I see a good target wait for a setup that points that target instead of wait for a S/R level to be taken first, as long as the setup is good.
you don't know which one will you use, the market will tell you. if there is an obvious target you have to get in with a good setup.
other times there is no obvious target, then you'll wait for a HTF FBO Level (HoY/LoY/EQH/EQL etc) all needs experience. if you have both clean SR level and TG Level with a good reversal pattern on SR that's gonna be an A++ Setup.
you're welcome! Glad to help : )
July 2024 Friday 26 ( 5min MES futures )
Welcome, in order to make everything more accurated to my trading experience I decided to make some changes on the journal:
1.- I will only mark down the setups that I took
2.- If I mark any setup with white arrow, means that I saw it but I wasnt sure about it ( I will explain the reason )
3.- I will keep explaining the trades that I took and the reasons behind it, also the TG, if I was able to hold them or not ( this way you will see were my real fears/weak points are )
4.- I mostly trade the first 1h30-2h since the open, and I am looking for the opening Swing, if I cant find any entry past that time I will probably leave the chart ( The reasons behind this is because I dont like Mid day trading, even if we have some really good moves sometimes, it used to be quiet and slow, also the swing opening if existed is already done and I dont feel confortable )
5.- By doing this I want to create more discipline in my trading by being aware of what I am doing, and the fact that I will show my trading day later, maybe this way I will be able to hold a little more and dont exit early for no reason, also you will see what is going on in my head while doing real trading, as I said I am not profitable so it is going to be a lot of mistakes, missing trades, early exits, and a large etc.
I hope you like this new way of doing the journal, it is more personal, but at the same time is more accurate to my real trading, I am able to read PA and see what I would do or not but being honest If I wasnt at the chart at that time ( for example the entries past my trading hours ) I think theres no point in reviewing them because all my feelings wasnt there at that time.
Okay, moving forward. As you know from now on I am only going to trade based on RTH and 5 min charts, I will only have yesterday resistance / PA levels and weekly/montly High, Low, Open in order to make things easier, I will forget completly about GX session, or HTF and focus on the chart in front of me. The first thing that I need to do is learn how to read what is in front of me and what is happening now, and also be able to take trades without any bad feeling or regret, accept losers and the fact that I will lose until I learn how to trade properly. It is going to be hard -.-”
Yesterday was a Huge TR day big down + huge big up + huge big down, the day closed as a 100 points doji Bear bar. We opened the day with gap up almost at 50% of yesterdays range and after a big TR day, if we open at the middle of the day before there is a high chance of having a TR day or even an Inside Day. Both HoY and LoY were far away and the most important magnets for me were the following:
1.- The last Swing high marked in blue after yesterdays last bear BO
2.- We had gap up, and trapped bulls at the high of yesterday, so we could have some movement to the upper side in order to let those traders exit and get the 2nd bull leg up
3.- Also yesterday closed at its lows and we could have trapped bears who want to test that LoY in order to exit or continue with the Bear BO, but that big gap up its a problem
All this reasons makes me think on a TR Open, and the bars that we had confirmed my analisis, every bar was overlaped, every trend bar was faded, big tails…and being honest all those bars were huge, which makes my trading extremely hard because I cant take trades with more than 10p SL ( small account ).
Trades:
1.- I am not sure if Wedges are a thing in TTR but the most important reason behind that entry is the FBO of that important level, also FBO of HoD + Strong reversal bar + Top of TTR. Because we were on TTR I wasnt expecting a full swing out of nowhere so I decided to take profits at 50% of that TTR almost 1iR.
2.- Remember white arrows are trades that I saw but didnt take because reasons —>
Reasons to take it:
All Trend bars are being faded
Low of TTR and EMA
Bull bar, not closing on highs but in TTR bad signals leads to big BO too
Reasons to forget about it:
Huge Bear Trend bar ( even if in TTR that could be faded sharply, the BO was impressive )
First time Stop Orders traders made money
We might have a PB to 50% in order to reverse with 2nd leg down and take LoD or the gap below
Signal bar is not that good
I am taking only Stop order trades ( to avoid LMT order FOMO, scale in etc ) and I dont think that Stop order buy on that bull bar was a good bet so I decided to let it go.
Then my trading session ended, I saw a TTR with big bars, that we were above EMA almost all the time, we had more bullish pressure ( more bull bars, above EMA, and more Trend bull bars, CC bull bars, even if we had that huge Bear Trend bar, that bar was faded ) I thought that HoY or EMA 60 were the targets, but I also thought that the TTR was strong, so EMA could get to the TTR by going sideways and I wasnt sure about any BO, I couldnt see any good reason to stay because this wasnt a good market for Stop Order trades, even if later in the day had a good trades, I dont know in advance if the day is going to evolve to that or stay as a TTR the whole day.
Thats all, I hope you like this new version, more real and close to my trading session.
Have a nice day!
