How did I trade today? 01202021

20 Jan How did I trade today? 01202021

Sum­ma­ry: Trust yourself

Account (P&L): Paper trade +1.8R

#fin­twit #order­flow #day­trad­ing #dai­lyre­port­card #day­trad­ing #trad­inglifestyle #day­trader­life #grasshop­per­sanony­mous #trad­ing­forex #trad­ing­com­modi­ties #NEXT

Every trad­ing day I recap my trades, includ­ing more than entries and exits. Why did I take the trade? How did I man­age the trade, my emo­tions and cog­ni­tive func­tion? All the good stuff as well as all the ugly of being a day trad­er. As always, feel free to reach out to me. 

My week­ly goal: 

• Only take trades accord­ing to a hypo unless mul­ti­ple con­di­tions are met

Good Pre-mar­ket routines

Good Ses­sion PECS

Good Trade selection

Good Trade siz­ing or SL placement

Good Trade Exe­cu­tion & Mgmt.

Good Risk Adjust­ed Returns

Yes Dai­ly review

Mup­pet meter (1 being best — 5 being worst): 1

Sum­ma­ry

• GOLD
  • IB: A closed as a pull­back, B as a spin­ning top with longer sell­ing wick
  • C: Extend­ed over IB clos­ing slight­ly above IB high
  • D: Closed as Bear Engulf fail­ing auc­tion but no mean rever­sion cri­te­ria met. Also price above M15/M20 VWAP in UT and left behind a poor high, plus no goof prof­it target
    • Paper trade: Short 1854.331, SL 1857.470, TP (2R) 1848.053
  • E: Closed extend­ing below IB form­ing a Neu­tral Day
  • F: Closed as an Inside Bar retrac­ing more than 50%
  • G: Con­sol­i­da­tion
  • H: closed mak­ing LL extend­ing 2xIB

Hypos — GOLD

• Which hypo played out and how did I hypoth­e­size it play­ing out? How did it actu­al­ly play out? What did the pro­file and price action show?
• Hypo 2 — Mean Reversion
  • Price moves high­er test­ing next sup­ply at H4‑C‑S 1859.581
  • Pre­ferred: Price action rever­sal with­in IB after extend­ing up oth­er­wise a poten­tial failed auction.
  • 100%
  • Price extend­ed up dur­ing C only to fail in D and con­tin­ued extend­ing fur­ther down. 

How accu­rate was my assess­ment of mar­ket con­text? Was I aligned with mar­ket context?

• I did well here. I took a paper trade off my assump­tion and that did well.

How did I feel before, dur­ing, and after the trade?

• I felt good. 

How well did I fol­low my process?

• Trade selec­tion
  • The paper trade would have net­ted 1.8R. The rea­son I didn’t actu­al­ly trade it is because of the open sen­ti­ment and I hypoth­e­sized a fur­ther move up before revers­ing. Although with price open­ing and fail­ing to break high­er at ADR 0.5 high (with near­by H4 C‑sup) I could have giv­en it more weight. Took it into my play­book and will move on it next time. 
  • Guess I did feel hes­i­tant due to it being Gold (less expe­ri­ence) and I kin­da want­ed some more con­fir­ma­tion as M30 VWAP in UT was in the way. Then the trade was on its way. All good… 
• Trade Siz­ing & SL placement
  • Was great
• Trade Exe­cu­tion & Mgmt
  • Time-based stops are some­thing I want to focus more on again. I feel it’s a thin line between actu­al­ly observ­ing the right price action exit rule and just being a grasshop­per. Under the cur­rent mar­ket con­di­tions I find that price moves dif­fer­ent than ‘nor­mal’ where price action can fake out a lot. Thus a time-based stop might be best. Luck­i­ly I have the option in FX syn­er­gy to auto­mat­i­cal­ly close off my trades so will focus on giv­ing that a go. 

How well did I man­age my phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al and cog­ni­tive states?

• I did well here

What did I learn today?

• Under the cur­rent mar­ket con­di­tions I might be bet­ter off focus­ing on a time-based exit. Although, I sure­ly hope that we will go back to ‘nor­mal’ soon. 

What’s one thing I need to do more often?

• Trust myself. There is a rea­son why things appear ‘easy’ “all of the sud­den”… I have put in 4 years of work to get to this point. Noth­ing of that was easy. This is not easy. I have just gained expe­ri­ence through pain (so much pain….) and honed my skills to bet­ter grasp and align with mar­ket con­di­tions. Noth­ing easy about that. 

What’s one thing I need to do less often?

• Wor­ry about some dooms­day sce­nario. I have shown con­sis­ten­cy in my align­ment with the mar­ket (see how I did not men­tion prof­it?!). Thus this con­sis­ten­cy will help me con­tin­ue into the future. My risk guide­lines will save me from poten­tial­ly ruin­ing myself. The sta­tis­tics speak for them­selves. Now get out of your own way and just focus on the process. Process is king. 

Under the cir­cum­stances, did I per­form at my best?

• I did well here

For my trade plan(s) on this par­tic­u­lar day, go here:

Pre­mar­ket Prep Gold 01202021

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