jfw215

both GU and UJ orders cancelled.

GU stalk

UJ long stalk. The short stalk is also valid but didn't have enough ticks for a first target.

UJ hit target. I was out of town and marked some nice trades that occurred while I was away.

UJ short still in play. carrying it over the weekend.

UJ short.

EU long was stopped out. I felt a wave of frustration over me. I got that in the past I made it into a story of how the market wronged me or how I am poor at execution (victim). I let all of that go. I broke the cycle of frustration today after watching EFT video on frustration and journaling instead of acting out in victim. This is a huge win. -2R and I'm done today. Going for a run.

Missed this EU long as I was stalking the UJ. This is a bit frustrating. Update, bought it on limit on the retrace. Done today.

UJ Stalk

The reason the UJ long looked interesting... It's a cup and handle!

and here's the ripcord on the UJ if I did go long. I believe the right approach is not to say, oh this trade didn't work, therefore I should not take this trade anymore. Rather it is accepting that I don't know what will happen, what I will do is therefore take trades that stand out to me that falls within my trading plan and than manage the risk tight while allowing it to run.

I did not take this trade because it's at R. I am starting to feel like there's a missing piece in my trading. When I did the exercise of marking H's and L's on the 15min chart without S/R I would never think in countertrend terms. I would wait for PA to tell me the trend is changing or has changed. However, when I add the S/R lines, it's almost like that I lose this sense of context and I just look to buy S or sell R. This doesn't work when the context is saying buy R because price is making HHs and HLs. Here's a UJ buy R example. I don't know which way it will go but I don't see why this trade isn't valid.

I would like to think, if I could have pulled ripcord, here's what I would have done.

EU stopped. That was quick.

Since I'm already long EU, I can't short UJ. Here's setup on UJ. I don't particularly like this setup but hey, I'm not here to guess which ones will work.

and here we go.

GU was stopped out last night. Stalking EU long this morning. I woke up with Thales saying that I am here to wait for trades to come to me, not to look for them. Staying patient.

GU update. Not looking good, it made it to .95R and came back and a 123 short. I am not touching this. So far this exercise has been challenging. 4/7 trades made it to 1R or more. 1 made it to .95R. 2 made .1R. If I could trail stop initially, worst trade would have been for less than 1/2R loss. Since my targets were all very big with stop or target. I have taken loss on every trade. I will continue to finish this set of exercises with the intention of rewarding myself for consistent action. Next round, I will aim for the 1R exit only. The one after that, I will aim for 1R plus pull cord if it doesn't take off. One step at a time.

Updated GU with Long and short stalk

The UJ long was cancelled. Currently stalking GU short. This morning was very slow. I found an interesting quote from Thales as I read through my notes from this log: "I remember the palpable feeling of change that came over me as I evolved from "looking for a trade" to "waiting for the trade to come to me." When I do make a mistake, I can almost always attribute it to an impatience on my part to trade and thus forcing myself to take a position rather than simply waiting to hear from the market itself. " I noticed I would be looking for trades instead of waiting for them to come to me. The idea here is an "pre-arranged upset"/expectation that I am here, I should be doing something to make money. I am letting that go. Thales also talks about the danger of "filtering" for trades. The mind wants to be right and thus believes by filtering certain looks of the bars, it can filter out the losers and catch the winners. I have been doing that my entire decade long search for the grail. I see that this is doomed because the success of a trade cannot be determined. Furthermore, PA can create the H/L/LH or L/H/HL entry criteria shown on 1min or 15min bars. A 123 that occurred fast on the 1min would not even show up on the 15min. The key is to look for them with the right context. I would like to be able to describe this illusive context in greater detail as this journey continues.

UJ long stalk

Taking full responsibility for my wellbeing, I did a round of EFT tapping around disappointment. At the end of the session, he mentions to give up "pre-arranged upsets". It's ilke I take a subpar trade, and I pre-determine, if this sub-par trade doesn't work, then I will feel upset. That is how the self-fulfilling prophecy works. I try to avoid a feeling -> I designate what must happen (outside of my control) so that this feeling will or will not be triggered -> the pre-arranged upset scenario occurs (which would have happened even if I did not define it as such, so it is totally a neutral event) -> I feel the feeling I tried to avoid. Bingo. I give this whole gambit up. I give up the right to make myself upset if my expectations are not met. Instead, I choose to ask what can I learn from it. In this case, remembering, all trade outcomes are random and give up the pre-arranged upsets for random outcome. I took the trade because I had an expectation that I should be taking trades. I should also be taking winning trades. I give up any expectations that I should be able to catch the next trade. Maybe I will maybe I won’t. I give up these expectations.

Stopped for -1. There was an early stop that I could take if the plan allowed me to trail stop. I am noticing emotions of disappointment showing up for me. A recurring pattern: I try to avoid feeling disappointment -> I take action -> then I interpret the action from the lens of disappointment -> I feel disappointed with the outcome. Tho it is not a self fulfilling prophecy, it sure feels as it is. I am recently read Letting Go by David Hawkins and it has reminded me of so many emotional blindspots I have. Time for a walk on the beach and let go of the emotions that are arising. The biggest take away from reading this entire thread is recognizing self compassion, allowing myself to make mistakes and learn, not making myself feel wrong, and keep taking swings with gratitude is key.

Long UJ, cancelling the short EU trade

EU stopped out. Next EU Stalk.