Today is Friday, April 3rd and I had a good day, but not without a few problems.
I started out just fine. I almost had my daily goal in just a few minutes. But then I was not patient enough to wait just a minute more for a clear signal and sure enough, I got stopped out. That trade was going to put me over the top and capture my daily goal, about 15 minutes worth.
What happened after that is, I found myself in an up-trending market and was looking for a counter trend trade setup. This was the trend starting about 8:30 am W.C. time. I doubled up on a trade short 5+5 for two positions short and got stopped out with a 4 tick stop. Why I fought that trend up, I don’t know. This goes back to what I was commenting on earlier in the week. If you get a picture or idea in your mind that the market is going to do something and it is not co-operating with you, the problem is not in the market action, but with you, or me in this case.
This is why we all need to be humble and respect the markets. Trading success can be a great thing to give you confidence in your ability to put together winning trades, but it can also be an Achilles heel. Each and every day, you really need to keep an open mind to direction. This is what can happen to a lot of traders if they think they know the next move of the market. Let the market tell you and don’t be impatient. If the whole series of moves looks a little confusing, just let a little time go by. That is what I did today, when I was up to almost daily goal and slipped back just a little in the red.
I took a break and came back a little later and started nailing it. I came right back like I have done in the past to post some real nice gains for the day. I ended up taking it to two times daily goal or around $2,500 in equity, but it took me some time. I just put on mostly small trades, 1 point, 3 ticks and so on. I was just focusing on market timing. I took my trade size down to average 5 contracts, some smaller, a few bigger, but averaged around 5. With a 5 contract average I probably picked up a net after commission 10 points of profit to get my totals.
If I am having trouble, for whatever reason, I almost always go back to my bread and butter trading. Sometimes when you are targeting 2 or 3 points in a trade and the market is not giving it to you, change and be satisfied with 1 point here and 1 point there. It adds up pretty fast, if you keep stringing them along one after another. It counts just the same as a 3 point trade. Trading is not always easy and there are many unseen factors you could be battling, but try and keep it simple. My method is simple, but not easy. And there is a difference.
I have a short video of some of the last trades I took today. It is on a clean chart and I will show you some of my timing techniques while using trendlines. I could have captured a lot more points on a lot of these trades, but that was not even in my mind for the most part. I was concentrating on market timing. If I just get that part right, I know I can pick up the profit, it all adds up the same at the end of the day.
Have a great weekend! Vince
http://www.screencast.com/t/QfwuvFFWzMc Today’s equity chart
http://www.screencast.com/t/e73y7VRj1 Trendline trading lesson, video 5 minutes
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Tags: commission, contracts, counter trend, daily goal, Dow, equity, focus, stopped out, tick, timing, Trading Lesson, trending market, winning trades
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