April 26, 2023 (3 Trades) (-$50.00)

Overall Grade: D+

Day Summary: This week I have been extra patient with trying to wait for set ups in the market that I'm more comfortable with but I think that is also giving me a bit of analysis paralysis. I need to work on finding a good balance between being aggresive and patient. Both today and yesterday I missed some set ups that I felt good about and then ended up taking worse set ups because missing the ones I was confident in gave me some FOMO. I also decided to fight the massive downtrend at the end of the day even when I know that I have lost more money than I've made when doing that. Trading is about deleting all the bullshit, and going long on heavy sell offs or shorting strong frontside moves is bullshit. Gotta stop doing that. The only trade I made money on today was going short with the trend. What does that tell you??

DAILY - ES Futures (screenshot at 4pm)

5 Min - ES Futures

                                                Trades

Trade 1 - Long 1 Contract (no set up)

Grade: D

  • Poor entry on this trade
  • I had just talked myself out of going short at 104 so I felt FOMO to take a trade, and decided to fight the trend here
  • The thought process came from the 15min chart (below) as we had just made a HH, so I was looking for a HL here

  • Overall the short before was the higher probability trade and I should've taken that, but once I had missed it, I should have just went to lunch to avoid taking a lesser quality trade here

FIX: Be patient for a high quality set up - this was not it. I was guessing at a HL while the market was selling off heavy

 

Trade 2 - Short 1 Contract @ 5min candle close back under middle line of downtrend (trend continuation)

Grade: B-

  • This looks like a chase entry on the 2min but I was waiting for a 5min candle close back under the middle line of the downtrend
  • I immediately entered short when the new candle appeared on the 5min
  • At this point I was following the trend so i should have held this because it grinded down to low 70s, but after a big sell off yesterday and then today, I was scared of a bottom forming soon

FIX: Trust The Trend and Hold Winners

Trade 3 - Long 2 Contracts

Grade: C-

  • Fighting the fucking trend, wtf
  • After failing the last 5min channel bounce, I thought (hoped) that this one would move to the other sie of the channel because it was the second attempt
  • I waited for a 5min candle close above the middle line and then entered on the pullback to the middle line
  • At the time of entry, I thought this time it was going to work since it faked out the people who tried to long it on the last bounce, so i took it with 2 contracts, but I was wrong
  • This was a sketchy trade because I held it to a new LOD where it potentially could have flushed, but i told myself i would close at a 5min closure of a new low (dangerous)
  • It gave me a pop to my entry and I again thought it was going to go because the 5min grene candle closed again above the middle line of the trend, but it was just so weak with no buyers to actually hold off the sellers
  • Stop went 2 ticks under the previous 5min green candle bc i knew if it failed again it was likely going to drop and we were almost at EOD

FIX: Don't Fight The Trend!! Why can't I get that through my mf head ??

 

Takeaways: Be patient for good set ups but don't be scared to risk money if you see a good trade. I should have went long in the morning at the consolidation after the LOD bounce, and then also should have taken the short I missed right before my first trade. Those 2 wins alone would have been enough to make a living on with the right size. Also do not fight the trend. Look back at the DAILY chart. There was no reason to go long into such a strong sell off today especially since we have finally seen some downward momentum frrom the DAILY supply zone.

 

EASY MONEY: Get short at 2nd VWAP fail and 50ema fail and ride it down to LOD