Another good day trading 2/5
CPI report was 0.1% good less inflation at 730am so it took off.
I started trading at 830ish, so the uptrend was over at that point, it had created a new high and pulled once and then was chopping above the last high at open.
I decided to orientate my trading towards long for the day. It’s simpler to pick a direction based on the market mode, I think. Avoids getting whip-sawed in and out of trades badly.
I choose long based on economic news (always go with economic news IMHO).
The market was steady selling off — and then we had a large absorbance -> followed by a large purple buying -> I bought with the purple -> and when it absorbed a single purple sell-off like it was nothing -> I added, and added again on a yellow sell later.
Perfect adds imho, risk free into “purple or yellow absorbances”.
It broke the last high with a bunch of purples, and I exited into a slight minor slip after hitting all those stops. Good trade $126.
Mistake trade #1:
I then saw it chop around go nowhere, purple sell did nothing, but no reaction to it. It drifted up and then appeared to spike through the high with a yellow. I bought (suckered in), and it turned around sold off 1 for small loss, and took a bigger loss on the other.
Unsure trade:
I took a long on what appeared to be the local low with a series of yellow getting absorbed. Saw it going up, thought it was going to breakout -> but I took 1 pt as a fallback plan.
So I’m doing okay so far, and then a ghastly set of errors.
We have a weak bounce on 2k tick, and then it’s coming into the bottom. I take a long on what I think is yellow absorbance. But the market has decided that we aren’t going up anymore.
I ditch the trade for a loss, but then take the same trade idea again when it just has green sells repeatedly.
There was no buying which was a major issue leak currently. I should not try after a failure without seeing a definite change. I just get caught in these “now looks like a good buy” but it failed, and nobody else is buying but I stick with the same idea. Even worse I kept buying and then stopping out for a contract to maintain leverage?!?
So now I’m negative, and regretting not quitting for the day after hitting my profit target.
But as we approach the other long term long of the day, I see buying and I go long, and add slightly with confirmation. I take it for 4 pts and then add on risk free, what I think is the pullback purple, but watch it come back to stop me out.
But then looking at it, it still looks good, so I decide to take the trade again slightly higher for 2 contracts and added 4 more but not risk free. Success! I net about 5 pts of motion on it when I targeted a short term high (which was an excellent exit).
One thing I notice: After medium/largish sell-offs, you typically get a small bounce or two before things start really moving. So having a large target can be counter productive after market has shown weakness. Take what it gives you, a few times, then target sea changes.
After the swing I go to 1 lot, lose a trade for 2 pts, another for a tick, and then nail a perfect two lot trade for ~6pts to call it lunch.
After/during lunch, I try to get long, but move my stop too quickly get tagged, get in again at a worse price, but get nervous and take a few ticks. That not going to breakeven too quick could have been held for an easy 7pts over the afternoon. Or the nervous exit to 5pts(ish).
End of day.
Key takeaways: Don’t repeat the same failing idea until you see real buying, approach a different level, absorbance can be just a pause. Nervous trades exits in trends are costing you money, sometimes might be better just to reduce risk to like 1 pt or something tiny, and then take 3pts.
Otherwise, don’t add when everything goes badly, that was my biggest leak.
Net: $148 or so. 2/5 days of decent winning.
