January 11, 2023 (2 Trades) ($52.50)
Overall Grade: B
Day Summary: Shiiiit what a choppy day! It was actually techinically a trending day, but a choppy one. Basically impossible to trade with any conviction and a bitch slap waiting for you if you held for continuation. I did take 2 decent trades that I managed well overall, but unfortunately didn't get the continuation As for holding my winners with full size, I did well on the Trade 2.
DAILY - ES Futures (Daily screenshot taken at 8pm)
5 MIN - ES Futures
Trades
Trade 1 - Short 2 Contracts @ 5min Trend Break Retest (Trend Reversal)
Grade: B
- I had VWAP as my target on this trade but unfortunately didn't get it and bailed on this trade after seeing it wick back up
- I did a good job holding both contracts for target, but with tomorrow being CPI day, I should have had a scalp mindset today (funny that I always hold for continuation on days I should be scalping when I normally scalp everything)
- This was about a 2:1 R trade if I could have gotten VWAP, but I think it was still good to cover when I saw my original plan was not following through
FIX: Scalp on days that are this choppy, especially before big news days (hard to realize this early int he day)
Trade 2 - Short 3 Contracts @ DownTrend / Anticipated Lower High (Trend Reversal on 5min, Trend Continuation on 2min)
Grade: B
- Looking back now, this was not as good of a trade as I thought it was this morning
- I did manage this trade well though, I'll give myself that. It was full size too (3 Contracts)
- Looking back though my R/R was not good on this trade as I entered my first 2 contracts a bit early
- I was using the same downtrend (1min) for my entry, but I should have allowed that candle to develop more since I entered early in the 2min time frame
- Once I was more sure we were at the top, I added a 3rd contract and held for 8mins+ with full size which is quite good in my opinion
- I also took off 1 at a great time as I realized it was possible this would chop around instead of continue down
- VWAP was also the target for this trade
- I'm glad I got all the contracts out green on this trade, but if we had more continuation on the downside, this could have been a great trade!
FIX: Know when to hold for continuation and when to be scalping
Takeaways: Try to identify early in the day if we are more likely to chop or trend and trade it accordingly. This day was a bit tougher to decide though, as we trended slightly all day, but had choppy price action during the trend (grinding green). Also remember that days before big data often are more choppy and should be scalped. On the bright side, I did a good job at holding full position size today and managed my trades well!
Easy Money: Channel I guess, IDK. Probably better not to trade at all today tbh
