More Of The Same- GBP/USD 13:45ET

Same story. Late entry which I scratched. Later 2nd entry was rushed and I allowed my entry to dictate my stop...easily avoidable mistake, but not for me right now....

7 tick loss

I'm looking forward to focusing on correcting these errors tomorrow, regardless of whether I end up with profits or losses.

GBP- 12:47ET Emotions & Discipline.

Absolutely messed up a brilliant scalp opportunity in the GBP/USD pair. Of the 33 tick move I should have taken 25-29....emotional (hence late) entry at 1.46820 (after watching it pop higher than my targeted entry by 6 ticks...1.46900 was the high) with my head screwed on I would take that better entry, given that it was within the boundaries of the pattern. Instead I hesitated and stumbled in late.

Then the exit. Had 1.46670 in mind as the first minor support (game plan was to go for scalp targets given previous action and profits that I'm giving back too frequently) but I waited to see if it'd go further- it popped back up and took out my trailing stop at 1.46790 with some slippage for a 3 tick gain

In the past, if the correct exit didn't cover prior losses, I may have hesitated as I did today. But today, I can't even use that as an excuse...lol.

emotional trading=slip in discipline=loose entry + loose exit=blunted edge!

YG-12:07ET

Nasty drop on this one just as I went long. Took several extra ticks of loss than I had intended as I stood briefly like a deer in the headlights then pulled the plug for an acceptable loss.

Otherwise routine trade. Keeping size small until I feel I'm in sync with the market and my method.

Charts used are of the normal-sized gold contract, GC for clarity.

Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 contract- 10:00ET

Well I've been here before! Setups that don't follow through solidly but offer 1 to 2 times risk before turning around and stopping me out...usually for a tiny profit. Difficult to tell when to aim for those larger targets or scalp, especially when there's seemingly no correlation between support and resistance strength and the degree of follow through....There's two ways that I'm looking to deal with this: 1) Taking off some of the position or 2) Just scalp!

Anyhow, 2 ticks on this one

GBP- 04:24ET

Tried a long here...some hourly and daily support but we are still coming out of a very strong reversal in the GBP/USD pair from a few days back (Wednesday 15th, 20:00ET) so caution was warranted- when the breakout from the wedge failed to produce an increase in volume, I raised the stop.

Covered commissions for a scratch...the pattern went on to fail.

YM- Afternoon Reversal

Didn't allow enough room with my stop on this one, probably because I don't trade many 30min patterns. Paid for it with a 20 tick loss. stopped by 3 ticks before the reversal I was looking for...

Several strong resistances: pivot resistance on the daily with slowing of pace into the test of the trendline (DIA chart), equal move setup on the hourly, with 3 waves of buying on the second move.

Needed to be taking some risk off at 8100 but couldn't. That'll hopefully be sorted soon when I move away from trading Forex/Minis with contracts.

FTSE (ZM9)- 08:14ET- Emotional Trading.

Same problems that've plagued me before...keep reminding myself not to trade my woulda-shoulda-coulda account (or even the real account) and just stick to objectively trading what's in front of me, regardless of where I am for the day/week/month etc....they're nothing but arbitrary periods of time conceived by us to try to maintain some sense of control anyway...

First time trading this intrument didn't affect my performance. What did was yesterday's trade. Late entry by four ticks (fear of taking another loss so soon after the others...) swung the trade around and had me trailing my stop to try to protect myself. The result was a flat or another commissions loss (after 3 ticks of slippage) I got stopped by 2 ticks before price turned around and dropped off some 16 points (32 ticks) before consolidating and continuing to drop off later.

Account preservation is good but I need to loosen my grip (i.e trade a plan rather than my emotions) to move forwards and begin profiting again.

NQ 14:10ET (ish)

Not much to say about this one...routine trade. Nice entry, nice exit on the break of the pattern's structure. 1.75 point loss

I have an edge, with a somewhat consistent approach to using it, but I don't have a "system" (and don't believe a strict systemized approach will work for me)....the grey area- the discretionary decision about exactly how far into S/R it needs to go before entering a trade (and, likewise, how far out of S/R it needs to go before cutting a loss...) is giving me some trouble. Failure to manage that area can turn a winning edge into a game of luck.

I have noticed that when the pace into my entry area is high, I'm able to more confidently pick off my entry and define my exit. Those setups are fewer and further between than a few months back.

CAD/USD 13:17ET

Good entry...hesitant exit. 11 tick loss. Can feel emotions sneaking into previously objective trading.

30min support was good but there was the equal move (shown in prior CAD/USD post) going against the setup.

Feels like I'm driving with the breaks on....

NQ 14:43ET and wicks.

2 pip gain in the NQ....waited for the strong push into support before picking off a really nice entry (green line on 5min chart)...wicked down one more time (creating a "Tweezers Bottom" candlestick reversal pattern)- consistently following one way of doing things hence the reason I didn't get back in.

I'm noticing alot of patterns pushing through their upper/lower trendlines on the third leg up/down by more than usual. Patience is keeping me out of trouble though, while still giving me a chance to take the opportunities presented to me (so far at least)

CAD/USD- Scratch.

Few solid setups of late...happy with the way I managed myself on this one. Followed all normal procedure but momentum didn't follow through.

Fantastic higher timeframe resistance with various upper channel trendlines being hit along with an equal move on the daily...intraday pattern on the steep side hence the rounding at highs prior to any significant sell off.

Incidentally, did pull the trigger on monday with a GBP/USD momoreversal but, alas, IB had some problems with accessing GLOBEX at the precise moment I needed to short. Cost- 30pips.

Nevertheless, happier with the stats so far this month...just would like to see more opportunity!

Getting Back In The Water

Took a trade in CAD/USD today...pretty much got wicked out, stopping out two ticks from the low (ouch!), for a 5 tick loss...

I was a tick or two early, but the structure of the pattern was broken so I exited and took my loss . It's all about the probabilities...having the discipline to cut those losses when the edge has been lost is what'll keep the equity curve trending up (or at least allow any pullbacks to be shallower than they might otherwise be).

As annoying as it is to be stopped out at lows, it's important to remember to rate the quality of the decision/action (i.e taking the loss) not on the outcome but on the correlation between actions taken and probabilities observed...what happens next is irrelevant.

Sometimes the animal breaks the fence down and still returns to it's side of the field.

GBP/USD- 08:35ET

There wasn't a particularly strong higher timeframe on this one but adequate enough to take the trade. If entry at highs (or lows when going long) can be executed with a certain degree of accuracy then your potential return on risk increases drastically, even more so when the pattern is visble on a larger timeframe. This was the case today hence a healthy 45 tick gain...

Patience and the willingness to let setups go unless the support/resistance is "stretched" is what I was missing last month and what was very much present in the months beforehand....

Can't remember where I heard it, but I once read a trader's metaphor for support and resistance that has stuck with me ever since. He/she described S/R as "a fence in a field" with bulls on one side and bears on the other. He/she mentions that, although the fence is stuck in the ground, there's a certain amount of "give" in the fence which allows the bulls to invade the space of the bears without breaking the fence and vice versa. If a bull/bear were to run into the fence there would be more give than if it were to walk into the fence....sometimes, the fence is broken down and one animal runs riot in the other's side of the field.

Waiting until the fence is stretched to breaking point, rather than just touched, will always give a better risk/reward ratio- you'll know that your edge isn't working much sooner (and at a lower cost) and, in the case of the market moving in your favour, there's a higher probability that you'll be able to lock in profits/exit the trade in a way that'll make you profitable over time. In short: better entry=more choice.

ES 10:50ET & Consistency

Like yesterday's trade, the intraday pattern left alot to be desired but passed my criteria for taking the momo reversals. Higher timeframe resistance was great...

I'm happy with my execution on both parts of the trade, winning and losing. Where I'd normally let my stops take me out and call it "end of trade", this time I thought I'd "press the edge" as I like to call it. Both approaches are as good as eachother in that they both have pros and cons and will move the equity curve in different ways, but the worst thing to do is jump between the two approaches.

So I'm sticking to what worked before and will take the result of the first trade, especially as past trading results suggest being stopped out for a small gain relative to the risk increases the odds that the pattern will fail.

It's becoming more and more apparent that a consistently rising equity curve is dependent on a consistent thought process and approach to the markets.

GBP/USD 15:35ET

First trade after holding back for awhile. There's been a few in the last 6 trading days...JPY on the 24th March, 3 on the 25th (documented a couple posts back)....this week: ES on Mon 30th and yesterday,Tue 31st, a couple in the CAD and AUD.

This one had a strong higher timeframe. The lower was weaker but took the opportunity to practice execution. Good entry and good exit based on what I was seeing at the time.... 14 Tick Gain....

Discipline and Patience!