September 8th, 2022
Today was a pretty good day of trading. Nothing really allowed me to push myself back above the 50$ goal but I was close and the way I composed myself and was extremely patient for every trade I took is something that I could have only dreamt of months ago. I know its not what I wanted in terms of profit but im getting there and the more willing i am to take these bigger risks and stay true to my setups the more likely I am to achieve those bigger $100 green days. If I can nail this month with a win rate above 45% and have all of my setups clearly defined then its only up from there and I am surely on my way.
1st Trade Short (Bearish Engulfing Momentum Shift)
-This was a pretty decent trade where I was waiting for the first signal of resistance in the form of a bearish engulfing candle. I saw this pattern 2 times yesterday and nailed them both time so today I tried it again and luckily this first trade worked out very well. I entered in the green candle that attempted to fill the bearish engulfing candle and had my stop above high and target below low. It hit my target within 2 minutes and I made a quick 46 dollar profit on this trade. I know that I sold a little early but for now I really want to keep my targets tight so I can limit my downside, sadly the caveat of that is that I limit my upside as well. That is something that I will work on eventually but for now I am just sticking to it. If i can make some good money this money and stay very consistent with my trades then I will start looking for improvements next month but for now I am just keeping it simple and taking the easiest money that I can find.
2nd Trade Short (Bearish Engulfing Momentum Shift)
-I again took this bearish engulfing candle setup but on this trade there was no pullup or attempted fill of the bearish candle. Therefore my risk was a little too high for my to think this was a good trade. On the 5 minute I was eyeing this out and the 2 minute was not nearly as clean. The 5 minute looked really good though (right chart). You can see that we broke the green candle momentum then refilled the engulfing candle with an attempt so I used that as my entry point. This one didnt work out but its really not that bad of a setup on the 5 minute. Possibly I could be watching the 2 minute much more closely for these setups rather than the 5 minute but I think something that would make this trade much better is if the green candles were more compact and slowly moving up rather than a super strong green move. The example above is much cleaner on the 2 minute because look at all the compacted moves that attempt to move higher then fail. This was just one of those trades where I was either gonna be in the green super fast or I was gonna watch it slowly grind up and hit my stop. Luckily though I stopped out and didnt get stubborn or greedy cuz shortly after this it moved a full dollar higher with no pullbacks. Although I wish i didnt take this trade becuase it lost my basically my entire first trades profits, I am happy that I can sit back and learn as to why this was a little too eager of me to take.
3rd Trade Short (Trend Reversal)
- Oh man this was a beauty of a setup. So the other day I wrote down my rules for a trend reversal trade and the main points are, Use the 5 minute, Wait for the trend to break then be patient, Take the horizontal retest of the trendline. That is exactly what happened and exactly what I did. This one just worked out so perfectly BUT I did make a small mistake. I took 2 contracts and it hit my target but I kept fidgeting with my target and moving it lower and lower to protect myself. THE MARKET DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL PROTECTION. I really shouldve just let my target sit out and either let it hit my stop or target. I know that it was only a difference of about 10 dollars so who really cares but its more about the principle than the p/l. If I take a trade and get scared and move my targets all around to protect myself I am teaching very bad habits. I need to just trust my allotted risk and let the damn thing happen. These profits and losses will mean nothing in the future anyway so why do I care so much now? The other thing that I really need to start focusing on is the fact that if I am going for a trend reversal then why are my targets so measly (50 cents). When trend reverse they do not only move 50 cents hahhaa they move a shit ton. I really should be taking these trades with smaller size (1 contract) and looking for at least 1 dollar. Although that would be the same profit as me using 2 contracts and going for 50 cents it would help me realize the importance of adjusting the target depending on the trade i am about to take. This is a unique scenario today because the market moved down like 7 points after I took this trade and I watched my nonexistent profits flow without my being there but again I really am unsure how I want to approach this because I do think there is strong merit to just taking 50 cents for now and fucking off. The SPY is also in a big consolidation zone so I really dont think its stupid to take profits quick but at the same time I need to be always acutely aware of how I can improve every single trade that I take. I want to notice where the best entries are and where the best exits are. Today I couldve easily taken a full point on this trade and still left hundreds on the table. I know it might hurt my soul but I think its not a bad idea moving forward to use 1 contract on this setup and go for a much bigger move rather than piking the shit out of it. Either way though as long as I can catch the highest probabiltiy entries that is truly my only goal for this month.
Missed Trade 1 Short (Bearish Engulfing Momentum Shift)
-I was exercising when I saw this setup starting to happen. Obviously I never wouldve taken it anyway cuz I was working out but still this was a potential missed opportunity. There was weakness after the huge move down earlier on the day and the 30 minute chart had a clear setup of a bearish engulfing move and I thought we would move lower from this point on the day. Luckily I didnt take it because I was working out and thinking about the trades I took earlier and how I really shouldve taken only 1 contract on the first trend reversal setup and held for a bigger move so I was considering doing the same thing with this (even though its really not even the same setup at all). If I did everything perfectly though and didnt take 1 contract and didnt hold for a bigger move and set my stops as i took the trade I wouldve walked away with another 50 cent move on this missed trade. I know its not great to be annoyed that I missed it but its always good for me to find these potential "hesitation trades" so that I can discover why I hesitate and what causes that flaw in my system.
Missed trade 2: Short (BEMS)
-This was probably the sketchies missed opportunity of the day. I almost took this but im glad I didnt because I most likely wouldve lost unless I got a god tier entry on it. Since we had the huge selloff on the day I thought that maybe we would break down further but luckily I just relaxed and instead of risking profit I held myself back. We have seen so many days where these huge moves recover and we just move higher cuz market does not give a fuck. I think in general if I am taking trades anytime after 12 I need to be extremely careful and only scalp. This couldve taken out all my profit if I executed on it.