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Hi everyone,
Welcome to my journal. I like to stay anonymous, hence the pseudonym. I am a struggling trader from The Netherlands who has been familiar with Al's work for almost a decade. Here I'll share with you the trades I took.
I mostly trade the Micro E-mini futures 2,000 tick chart, aiming for one trade per day after I get home from work. I try to focus on High2s in a bull trend and Low2s in a bear trend. I hope these posts can help other traders who are also on their path to becoming profitable. Feedback is highly appreciated. Enjoy the ride!
Trade #1
1-Feb-2023
-2,5 pt
Trade #2
2-Feb-2023
0 pt
Trade #3
6-Feb-2023
+2,25 pt
Trade #4
7-Feb-2023
Rather than placing a buy stop, I accidentally placed another sell order...
+2,5 pt, +6,25 pt
Trade #5
8-Feb-2023
+3,75 pt
The 2,000 tick chart is too slow for me. On the other hand, the 500 tick chart is too fast for me. So I decided to go with the middle ground, the 1,000 tick chart, in which I feel comfortable.
Trade #7
14-Feb-2023
-4,25 pt
The entire time I was waiting for a two-legged pullback, that didn't come. I took the trade out of hope, and was not being objective. After the trade I felt depressed.
In addition to trade #7 (because I'm unable to edit the comment): Al says "don't take the dumb stuff". I took the dumb stuff. There were no logical arguments for getting into this trade.
Trade #8
15-Feb-2023
+2,5 pt
In addition to trade #7 (because I'm unable to edit the comment): Al says "don't take the dumb stuff". I took the dumb stuff. There were no logical arguments for getting into this trade.
Trade #8
15-Feb-2023
+2,5 pt
Why do you say there were no logical arguments, it was a BO from a tight bull channel (not drawn on the chart) so a test of the high was quite probable (and it did), and you bought above a bull bar COH. So if you used a wide stop, this seems to be a good enough trade. It was also a 20 gap bar buy.
If anything I think you got out early, probably because you thought you were in a bad trade. Coz you entered on a wedge bull flag, 2nd leg was expected. But the second leg sell signal happened almost at the same price at which you got out, so you didn't lose out on any profit, except for a short trade that could have been taken at the 2nd leg top (& test of the HOD)
Why do you say there were no logical arguments, it was a BO from a tight bull channel (not drawn on the chart) so a test of the high was quite probable (and it did), and you bought above a bull bar COH. So if you used a wide stop, this seems to be a good enough trade. It was also a 20 gap bar buy.
If anything I think you got out early, probably because you thought you were in a bad trade. Coz you entered on a wedge bull flag, 2nd leg was expected. But the second leg sell signal happened almost at the same price at which you got out, so you didn't lose out on any profit, except for a short trade that could have been taken at the 2nd leg top (& test of the HOD)
Thank you for your view on the market Shubh. Maybe I was being too hard on myself. Just to be sure, you were talking about trade #7, right? I got the impression you were talking about trade #8.
Anyway, the reason I think trade #7 was bad is because it seemed likely we were entering a trading range. After the break of the (lightblue) trend line the market formed a higher high, wich could lead to a major trend reversal, even though the final leg was strong, perhaps exhaustive. The first leg in the new trading range (from 19:18h to 19:27h) contained many bear bars, although it could just be considered as a deep correction, increasing the likelihood of going sideways. At least no swing low was taken out yet. The place where I got long could be viewed as the start of the second leg, almost creating a leg1 = leg2 move down.
I was so upset because I didn't stick to my plan. I only want to take the 'easy' setups. The ones out of the book, that scream BUY!! or SELL!!
At any given moment there are smart buyers and smart sellers. I find it very difficult to asses whenever I screw up due to either a mistake of my own or the two-sided nature of the market. The outcome is both the same.
Trade #9
17-Feb-2023
-4 pt
Why do you say there were no logical arguments, it was a BO from a tight bull channel (not drawn on the chart) so a test of the high was quite probable (and it did), and you bought above a bull bar COH. So if you used a wide stop, this seems to be a good enough trade. It was also a 20 gap bar buy.
If anything I think you got out early, probably because you thought you were in a bad trade. Coz you entered on a wedge bull flag, 2nd leg was expected. But the second leg sell signal happened almost at the same price at which you got out, so you didn't lose out on any profit, except for a short trade that could have been taken at the 2nd leg top (& test of the HOD)
Thank you for your view on the market Shubh. Maybe I was being too hard on myself. Just to be sure, you were talking about trade #7, right? I got the impression you were talking about trade #8.
Anyway, the reason I think trade #7 was bad is because it seemed likely we were entering a trading range. After the break of the (lightblue) trend line the market formed a higher high, wich could lead to a major trend reversal, even though the final leg was strong, perhaps exhaustive. The first leg in the new trading range (from 19:18h to 19:27h) contained many bear bars, although it could just be considered as a deep correction, increasing the likelihood of going sideways. At least no swing low was taken out yet. The place where I got long could be viewed as the start of the second leg, almost creating a leg1 = leg2 move down.
I was so upset because I didn't stick to my plan. I only want to take the 'easy' setups. The ones out of the book, that scream BUY!! or SELL!!
At any given moment there are smart buyers and smart sellers. I find it very difficult to asses whenever I screw up due to either a mistake of my own or the two-sided nature of the market. The outcome is both the same.
Trade #9
17-Feb-2023
-4 pt
Hi, Yeah my mistake, I was talking about Trade#8.
Just checked Trade#7 and yes it was a bad trade, you basically bought at the high of a TR. When the EMA is at the middle of the bar, it is usually a good idea to wait for one more bar, unless (because there are always exceptions, otherwise how would the market confuse traders 🙂 ) the move preceding the bar has had good momentum behind it (3 or more trend bars).
According to me it is not that hard to realize if you made a mistake or if the 2 sided market caused the loss. Firstly, when in confusion, I always assume that I made a mistake.
Secondly, if the culprit is 2 sided nature of the market, it won't surprise you, or disappoint you because you already had envisioned that as one of the ways the market could go. You had already considered that option and placed your trade accordingly.
As you correctly said, the outcome is same in both the scenarios, but one's reaction to that outcome is quite telling for the trader.
Sybren, thank you for the inspirational words. Although I'm definitely not in a position of authority, I think once someone finally finds their style or niche or whatever you want to call it, they should exploit it as much as possible. You seem to have found it. Good luck to you too!
Trade #11
1-Mar-2023
-3,75 pt
Trade #12
11-Apr-2023
-3,75 pt
I am trying to create a routine of making a screen shot at the end of each trading day and mark the chart up. This should train my eyes on recognizing patterns as they unfold in real-time. Attached are the images, converted from a PowerPoint, for March. (Despite the notes being in Dutch, I think most people will get the gist of it.) I also want to implement the following rules:
- Only take a trade when I recognize a particular setup from my chart collection;
- take one trade per month so I don't have to pay my broker's inactivity fee;
- repeat this until my account reaches its original amount.
Hi Rembrandt,
Am I correct in seeing that you're placing your stop loss just below the signal bar?
I believe that is not the correct place to put a stop loss.
The stop loss should be placed below a prior major swing point (major higher low in a bull trend).
For example, like this:
