August 16, 2024 (2 Trades) (-$178.75)

Overall Grade: B-

Day Summary: Today was one of those days where I exhibited good habits and still took a fat L. Even with a bigger loss than expected, and much bigger than my average loss, I walked away from the day content with the trades I took. I did overlook some factors that caused me to lose, but I've already learned a bit from it and am going to be modifying my 21 EMA Trap setup playbook because of this trade played out. More on that below but I just want to quickly mention that even though today was a red day for me in terms on P/L, I am giving myself a green day in terms of habits displayed.

 

DAILY - ES

5 MIN - ES

                                                            TRADES

Trade 1 - Long 2 Contracts @ 21 EMA Trap + VWAP Bounce

Grade: B-

  • good job waiting for a playbook set up
  • good job following intra day trend
  • entered with a key level in play (VWAP) as well as a playbooked setup - good
  • also was trading in the direction of the recent micro trend, however, I took this long too close to the recent supply zone that we hit, especially after seeing rejections there which proves there was some selling action there (see 15 Min supply zone above) (see 30 Min supply zone below)

  • even though we did end up moving higher on the day (which I expected because I am bullish overall, and retail traders seem to be trying to short this DAILY bounce still) I still need to consider that I am trading long high in the move and at the first real reaction we've had to selling pressure
  • I also initally held this trade when I was in the green a couple minutes after entry - good and much needed practice
  • good stop out - even though I did stop the temporary low, I am trying to remain focused on cutting my losing trades quickly so that they are very easy to recoup

FIX: I waited for a setup, traded with the micro trend, held my winning position and accepted the risk of a loss on this trade. Those are all very good habits being practiceed and I am happy about that, but in terms of what I could do to "fix" this trade, I should remain concious of the HTF (30 min).

 

Trade 2 - Long 3 Contracts at 21 EMA Trap

Grade: B-

  • first entry was a fomo entry - where I added the 3rd contract should have been where I initially entered the trade
  • I am not unhappy with the add to this trade - it was in a good spot, at support, at a key level, and looked to be turning into a green hammer candle (even though it closed red)
  • held this trade when I was winning which is good, especially the green engulfing candle after we set a 1min HL but I should have stopped this trade when we didn't move higher and printed the next engulfing red candle which made a LL
  • Instead, I ended up stopping out where the masses stopped out and that is what caused this loss to be bigger than planned (also that it was 3 contracts instead of 2 but again I am not unhappy with the add here)
  • This trade specifically made me realize the important of a 21 EMA Trap set up working in my favor quickly. That is the definition of a Trap trade
  • Below I've written in a bit more detail about why I should have gotten out of this trade after the red engulfing LL candle, even though we were on support

**The thing I realized upon reflecting on these trades later in the day is that a 21 EMA Trap set up should be a trade that works very quickly in my favor. A trap set up would indicate that retail trader are trapped on the wrong side of the position and them stopping out is what fuels the aggresive move of the set up. Trade 1 I did a good job of stopping out quickly after that Trap move higher failed, but Trade 2 I could have gotten out for a much smaller loss if I realized that this trade was not playing out as quickly as a Trap should. Therefore, I will be editing my 21 EMA Trap playbook to include that this set up should work in my favor very quickly, or it should be bailed on to limit the loss

Emotions: Very happy with my emotions today. Waited all morning for a set up without feeling the need to force an uneccessary, no set up trade and I also had zero care about the $ amount of this trade. Normally, losing almost $200 would have negatively effected my whole day and I just accepted it as the market being the market, doing what it was going to do. No expectations. That is trading.