August 6, 2024 (2 trades) (-$40.00)

Overal Grade: C-

Day Summary: After a crazy panic sell off yesterday and some massive volatility due to the Japense Yen carry trade, I wasn't sure that I would get the opportunity to trade today. There was still some candles today moving 10+ points, but I was able to take a few trades with 1 contract. Unfortunately I did all the wrong things as usual, including trading a no set up, holding a loser and cutting a winner short. I need to stop doing these things because it is making it a million times harder for me to stay profitable. I took a short early on and planned a 3.5pt stop but I held it to 13pts, and on my winner I planned a 20+ target and ended up cutting it for about 5 points just because I was trading from the red. 

 

DAILY - ES (10pm screenshot)

5 MIN - ES

                                                                                            TRADES

Trade 1 - Short 1 Contract @ No Set Up

Grade: D-

  • Got in this short only because I had a bias that we would fake longs out until 10am
  • I'm not totally unhappy with this trade because we will fake moves like this a lot in the mornings
  • However, we had broken the current open downtrend AND MORE IMPORTANT - WE HAD MADE 2 HLs
  • This is not a good trade, but the big mistake really was holding the loser
  • Stop was planned for a break above entry candle high (no close) because I knew this was an aggressive trade
  • When it didn't work, I should have been immediately out of this trade
  • After 3 huge red days in a row, I need to be careful of shorting bc the bulls can jump back in quick since we are still in an overall bullish market until breaking 4900 April low

FIX: Don't short against higher lows - cut your losers quick and keep them small

 

Trade 2 - Long 1 Contract @ 21 EMA Trap, Multifactor trade (Key Level + VWAP)

Grade: C+

  • Overall this was a good trade, I just didn't hold the winner bc I was trading from the red
  • Waited for an actual set up, even though I'm not sure this is a set up I really feel comfortable trading
  • trading with the trend - good
  • Long at support - good
  • Trending above VWAP (all time frames) -  good
  • find the bear trtap - good
  • I actually wanted to take this trade with 2 contracts but since I was red I wanted to be careful, which was the wrong idea
  • I should have at least targeted the previous high, especially once the trade started working for me
  • 5298 was the actual target and we hit and exceeded that

FIX: Hold winners or at least put stop breakeven on a strong trend trade like this. Don't Panic Sell. Accept the risk of every trade!

 

Eotions: Overall I kept my emotions in check today but I did get a bit frustrated after cutting my winner way to early because it is just the same fucking thing I've done my whole trading career. Not holding my winners alone is the biggest thing holding me back as a trader because I literally have ZERO big winning trades ... EVER. That is saying something. I need to start accepting the risk of every trade and let them work for me.