Day 37. +7.7. Playing with fire.

Two trades today. First trade was different than I normally take and the second was a standard trade but I played it a bit different.

For the first trade, I knew that it had less of a chance of hitting but also a very nice payoff if it did. So instead of waiting for the breakout I went for the bounce off the resistance. However, I knew that if I let this go past even 3pips negative I would be in a world of trouble. Because at that point it would have broken past the high it kept bouncing off. And should it break that high I felt it would be a runaway train and give me horrible slippage on my exit producing a possible 10+pip loss. So I entered and the price bounced back just slightly. To be safe I exited. A few minutes later though, the price shot down. So I got shook out and missed that payoff I wanted. I was a little frustrated but then reminded myself it was the correct play because if it would have gone the other way and not exited so early I would have been fucked.

Second trade fell in line with a previous observation. After price moved down and ranged it moved as if it wanted to go down some more so I put in a pending. Then it ran up and I canceled my pending. At that moment I thought to myself, "Is this gonna be like the other day where it runs up a bit then shoots down?" Sure enough it did. Trade hit and stalled and range around 55. Normally I would exit but price was still acting like it wanted to move down so I held. I wondered if I'd regret it, should it bounce back up to produce a loser. But I felt it was more likely to go down so continued holding. Then boom, went down, stalled a bit and seemed like it was a bit far from the mean so I exited with a little over 10pip win. Nice.

And now my weekend begins. Gonna take my mountain bike out tomorrow morning, then going fishing on Sunday morning with a couple buddies. Then having a bbq. Gonna be a great weekend! See everyone Monday!

Day 36. + 4.5. Easy like Sunday morning.

I had just sat down and got done marking my charts when I spotted exactly what I look for. So put in a pending and a few minutes later it hit. Stalled for a bit but didn't reverse hard and I felt it would go down so held. Went down a couple pips but felt it would go a but more so held still. After 4.5 it stalled too much for my liking so I exited with a quick win.

I was going to trade some more since there a bunch of news releases today, but seeing as how this week has been up and down I've decided to take an easy win and enjoy the morning. Rejuvenate the yin in my yang. I have a loose guideline of going for only 3pips daily anyway, so today's win was perfecto radio #1.

Day 35. +1.3 Slooooooow.

Today was no movement day. Felt like it was the Asian session. Also felt weird emotionally as well. Once price entered the doldrums I was down a couple pips. Normally I feel like there will be plenty of opportunities to make pips up and make more but not this time. As I waited there I felt like it was going to be losing day. Which I've had before, everyone does. But it felt weird "knowing" that even though there was a lot of time left in the session I was gonna be stuck. Buuut, I held out hope that something would happen and I could catch it at the right time. Then it did happen and I missed it! hah. I was considering getting in right before it took off and missed the nice move up. Then it stalled and I got in. Made a couple pips but I felt it would go more so held on only to have it start reversing. And seeing as how we were near a recent top I decided to exit, only to have price go up a bit more as I initially thought. hah. So back and forth back and forth. In the end though I pulled it through and came out positive.

Day 34. +6.6. Excuse me, is this elevator going up?

7 trades today. 2 losers, 5 winners. Remembering what I wrote yesterday, I made to sure to keep my losses small. Which was much easier to deal with. Of course! As price rose upward I wondered if it would break the previous high. If so I felt it would explode. So positioned myself along the way taking small bites out of crime. During my session it never made it past the high but I got a nice amount of pips anyway.

Day 33. +3.5. Made positive pips but bad trading.

The toughest day I've had so far due to some bad trading decisions. Felt mentally and emotionally drained after this session.

Poor decisions:

1) I didn't completely feel where price was going on the first trade. Logically, it looked like it was going up. But I didn't completely "feel" it. I didn't KNOW it was going up. I just thought it would. This is a no-no. I should only enter trades when I completely feel the set up. 

2) I allowed myself to take full stops too easily. This is unacceptable. There are certain conditions that must be met to take a full stop and they were not met today. I should have taken small losses, 1-3 pips at most. This would have been easier to overcome thus I would A) Have had a bigger winning day and B) Would have been easier Mentally/emotionally.

3) When breaking out of the range, I set my pending too close. Thus, the trade was triggered and I took a loss. That was stupid.

4) My second to last trade was almost pure retardation. At one point it was in profit for 13.8 pips. But I held on thinking it would go lower. And while I was correct, as seen in the last trade, it still bounced back hard and I ended exiting with only around a 4.5 pip gain! I should not have let it bounce back that far and normally I wouldn't but my emotions (greed) got the best of me. The only saving grace for this trade is that I didn't let it become a loser. Not that price went back up far enough to make it a big loser, but I didn't know that at the time and decided I'd get at xx spot, which I did. Still, I left a lot of pips on the table.

I did observe something interesting though. When I strongly felt that price was going to go down further after 7:30, it did BUT it first made a quick run up before going down hard. Like someone backing up to get enough space to run at and break through a door. This same thing happened the other day when I felt very strongly about price going a certain way while ranging. It's too early to tell if this something to be expected but I will keep my eye on it in the future.

Day 32. +4.9. Back in the game

Back to trading. Last night I felt compelled to get some sleep to trade in the morning. Of course I'm still dealing with the feelings of the breakup since it was just Saturday, but my head feels clear to trade and my emotions are in check. Fo shizzle my nizzle. I was excited to start trading and ended up waking up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. So started my trading earlier than usual.

First trade was late and completely my fault. I made a gain of 2.3 pips but it would have been at least another pip or two if I got in on time. I had put in a pending sell but canceled it soon after thinking that I could get a better entry with market. I have specific places I like to enter but those places depend on what price is doing. Most times I know where that place will be and can put in a pending at certain price. But other times, I can't tell yet the exact price though I do know very close to where it should be. This was one of those times. So I felt I could better control it with a Market order. However, no matter how fast you are you'll never get as good a price with a Market as with a Stop. So lesson learned, no more markets. Get in on time or don't get in. No late entries.

Price then ranged for a while but seemed like it wanted to go down so put in a pending sell. I strongly felt it was going down so left the pending for much longer than I usually do. Around 4:48 price made a run for the border, was promptly caught by the border patrol and thrown back in to Mexico. At this point it seemed that price was determined to make it across, which didn't make too much sense based on it's previous behavior but I went with it and realized I was wrong as it strongly moved downward. So I put my pending sell back in and it hit. Price then moved really strange. First time I've seen it act like this. Hard to describe but it I was like it had no idea what it wanted to do. I felt it would go down so I held a bit and it stalled. I though about holding longer for the pop but seeing as how price was acting so weird I just got out with a couple pips profit.

Anyway, good to be back, again. hah. Looking forward to tomorrow and beyond!

Or Today.

Still wasn't ready. Tomorrow? Maybe. We'll see.

No trades today either.

Still not ready. Yesterday was the hardest day emotionally. Think it finally sunk in. I miss her quite a bit and feel bad for any pain I've caused her and there are times where I want to call her. Which is strange, because in the past when I've had a breakup with other girls I was done and had no desire to reconnect. However, I know it would be a mistake to call her. I can envision myself feeling trapped in a relationship that isn't working again and that's no bueno. So I'll just have to keep moving forward and deal with the feelings.

I've had a lot of energy over the last few days and have felt like doing physical activities. So began working out again, and cleaned my apartment from top to bottom. When I vacuumed I cleaned out the vacuum brushes and there was some long hair in there that was getting stuck. As retarded as it sounds, when I took out the hair, which of course was my ex-gf's, it reminded me of her and I became sad. Aye yah, hah. Oh well. Anyway, I'm gonna go swimming tomorrow which is always refreshing. Oh yeah, I just bought a mountain bike that I've been thinking about getting for a while. Gonna go biking on the weekend. Really looking forward to it.

No trading tomorrow morning

Girlfriend and I broke up last night. Crazy timing seeing as how we just got back from our trip to China. But even there, half the time we were fighting. There were just some differences between us that constantly caused issues. Over the last year and half we both made an effort to work on those things but it still wasn't working, we're just too different.

Kinda rough right now, things feel a bit empty without her. She filled up my life. But, the breakup was for the best and everything will be cool. Obviously not in the most upbeat mood, heh. So will skip trading tomorrow morning. Hopefully be back Tues.

Day 31. +16.4. Battle for Middle Earth

Wow, what a day. Big losses and big wins.

The two losses were around 8 pips and 10 pips. I held on because I felt it would go where I expected. And while the 1st one did, that's irrelevant. A better play would have been to keep the max stop at 6pips which means I would only take the trades where it made sense to have a 6 pip stop. That would have kept me out of the first loss and would have had me lose only 6 pips on the second instead of 10. But I did notice that after the second loss and each of the following trades I held to that plan so that's good.

Even though I took two big losers I'm happy that I exited where I said I would exit. Meaning I kept to my stop and didn't move it around as I used to. I was wondering how I would react in those situations and now I know.

Also, I think I may have got a bit greedy during the big move down. I knew it was far away from the mean and likely to have a harder time moving down uninterrupted but I still played it like it would move down hard no problem. You never know for sure what price will do but perhaps in those specific instances I should always use a very small stop, as I do traditionally. No giving it time to move. After all, it's more likely to reverse at that point so I should trade accordingly. Position myself to make profit but also be able to get out quick in case it doesn't and lose the minimum. The reason I give room to the ones I think will pop is because it feels as those it's more likely to move hard and less likely to reverse. So in this instance it's the opposite, thus I should play it the opposite. Yes, I think that's the answer.

I'm surprised at my calmness lately when I take a loss. Especially today when I took those big losses. I felt pretty confident that I'd make it back and come out ahead, which I did by a large margin. Because of this I wonder if I should continue to trade on the days where I make a quick couple wins. I mean, if I'm so confident I can make up those losses then why not do that when I'm already ahead and have much bigger winning days? On the other hand, it does keep me in high spirit knowing that I have a quick day and can enjoy the rest of the morning. Maybe find a medium in there so I get a little more out of the day but still get to enjoy things. Ponder, ponder, ponder.

Day 30. +3.7. One and done.

My sleep schedule is a bit off from the trip still. Woke at 3:30am instead of 4:30 and was wide awake so decided to get up. Did my morning routine and sat down at the computer around 4:05 and immediately noticed a beautiful move down in progress. I didn't want to rush into it so I first checked all the charts and marked S/R. When I finished I then put in a pending sell. But it was precisely that point that the move ended. :( I felt a little frustrated at having missed that move and then a move up commenced. I didn't fully trust so I stayed out. Then when it finally seemed real and I was about to put in a pending buy, price shot up past the point I was going to enter. Thus, I was too slow and missed it. Argh! hah. I felt myself getting impatient and reminded myself to stay calm. Took some breaths.

At 5am, price retraced and I put in a pending buy. Price then made a second attempt and failed. At that point I felt that if price did break it, and I believed it would, it would be a nice pop. So I left the pending on, where normally I would have canceled. Around 5:15 price did break and it stalled slightly. In the past I would have started my countdown to bail but this again was a time to be a little more patient because of the pop. And very nicely the price did pop. I was up about 4.2 and then it made a small retrace which was my cue to say hasta la vista, baby. So I exited with 3.7 pips and done for the day. Ohyay.

Day 29. +3.2 Back from China

Returned from China yesterday around noon. Wasn't sure if I'd trade today but I went to sleep early last night and woke up today exactly at my normal trading time feeling awake and refreshed so went for it.

While trading, I felt a bit rusty and clumsy at first hah. The first trade I took I told myself it would be one to pop nicely. But feeling rusty I exited too soon. Though a win is still a win even if it's small so no worries. Second trade was an easy win. Didn't feel it would pop so was happy to exit when it stalled.

China was quite the experience. Went to Hong Kong, Macau, Ghuan Zou (sp?) and a bunch of other cities/villages on the mainland that I can't spell or pronounce, hah. My girlfriend has family in each of those places so we stayed with them and her cousins took us out and showed us around. We did so much it felt like I was gone for over a month. They asked what I wanted to do and I told them no touristy stuff. I want to go where and do what the people living there normally do. Except in HK I did want to walk the water to see the cityscape at night and the Bruce Lee statue. HAVE to do that. The cityscape was more amazing than I imagined. I could not believe how far it went and how beautiful it was. Pictures on the internet do not give you the entire picture. I thought the picturesque view of SF from Treasure island was a site to behold but it is nothing like the HK one.

HK

SF

Both amazing but as mentioned, the pictures of HK don't do it justice. You would have to expand that picture to the right by 2x and to the left by 3x to see the entire thing.

Maybe I'll post some pictures once my girlfriend uploads them. Anyway, gonna get some food now and enjoy the morning!