eminiman414

I was just acknowledging what I saw to be SLA trades not necessarily that I thought of taking them because I had not planned on taking any of them. Just did that to sort of follow along and keep myself sharp.

Had an appointment to get to by 12 and I should have canceled it boo. Anyways I've attached proposed SLA trades and I suppose one could have just entered the first long and tried to hold out until 36 was tested since we were playing the range game btw 14 and 36. I did not post any other entries after 11 since I wasn't there so it would be strictly hindsight. In looking at my planning, my price levels are fine but what I do with them isn't. Yesterday and today had very similar behaviors within the first 30 minutes or so. At the open we tried up, came down tested 14, came back up to the opening high, had the RET and then continued up. Today the difference was we kept going up. My issues were entering within the middle of everything which I suppose is because I have been anticipating getting chopped up around the middle. Yesterday and today's first longs were also almost at the same price. 14 being rejected was telling and I suppose I should be entering these trades and then letting the market tell me it's chopping and not assume just because we are in the middle we are going to bounce around. Obviously I can not say for certain whether I would have held on to the first long, but eventually even straight SLAing gets you back into the flow and back in long at 31.75 if the first long was exited before getting to 36. A lot has been learned the last two days so it's not a complete loss and I collected almost 45 points on Monday so maybe that has something to do with being a bit more selective, but my reasons for not entering are because of what might be as opposed to what is and there is no way to really know until it happens. Combining SLA and AMT, well 14 (AMT) was rejected we took off to the upside had our break and RET (SLA). Can't get much better than that. Moving forward I need to enter and if we chop we chop, reverse then so be it, continue on so be it. An SLA long above 40 could have been entered at 42 and would have amounted for about 5 or so points if exited on the DL break. Now we are starting to continue higher back to 49. Holding on to the first long there wasn't anything too serious that could have created a situation to exit before 36 since we were in the range. Price was making HHs and HLs. If one held after the test of 26 the ticker pace slowed and there was no real threat. Lots learned these last two days.

In thinking if we trickle out of the hinge below 20 or above 30/32 then that would cause me to go back to waiting for 40/07 since trickling out would be the opposite of breaking decisively. I am trying to get better with my planning and be more prepared for other possibilities rather than just one. As I say this we have just broken below 20.

Sitting in a hinge right now. When we break I'll look for an entry unless the break isn't decisive as in seeing a lot of overlap as we open etc. The goal would be to get in and see if the area of 07 holds on the short side and 40 holds on the long side. If it does either of the trades will be exited and I would look for the opposing side. If not I am in before the break of 40 or 07. My thinking behind this is that if we do get a good entry and then either of the two breaks I'd rather be in then trying to chase a trade. I've altered waiting for 40 or 07 because we are in a hinge and if we do break we might not look back. Entries later on (the second or third ret) haven't worked too well for me so looking for the first entry after the break of the hinge seems the way to go and then trade accordingly around the extremes. That is unless this hinge breaks before the open then I will have to re-evaluate the situation but the main areas of interest right now are 36/40 and 16-14/07.

Hmm my question would be what would you plan to get out of all of this that SLA and AMT wouldn't already tell you? Since the market is always changing in some regard what happened last year may have absolutely no relevance which DB pretty much stated that the past results may not lead to future results. Recently I have been taking more detailed notes and trying to stay up on my prep/planning and I feel like that in and of itself is characterizing what's going on right here and now. Take for example today just taking notes on where we reversed, how we reversed, where we moved a bit sideways etc etc, compare that with the prep/ larger interval context and to me it all kind of starts to make sense. For me I'd rather put that time that would be spent characterizing and do replays and gain screentime/trading experience when price is actually moving in front of me (although it always is). "Practice" my planning/prep via replay and trade accordingly. Entries/exits/holding on/gauging these real time moves is where I need/can never put in enough work.

No trades yet. Trades considered in green and red and the 15min with where we sit now.

Still might be forming a larger hinge as well.

Today I am waiting for 40 or 07 and see what happens. That gives us a 33 point range which if taking a RET trade as opposed to a reversal gives us enough room if these two points act like a range. The area between 28 and 15 might not be too forgiving to trade within. If we do test 40/07 and don't break and do get an opportunity to trade back toward that area I will have to stay alert to what may happen btw 28 and 15 if anything. Yesterday was also eye opening in terms of waiting for an extreme to be tested and the potential it may bring as opposed to trading in the middle or somewhere in btw. Not much action over 40 so we had to go somewhere else.

First please excuse all the lines. I apologize it if clutters everything up. I'll start with what I think I could have done better and to me the only thing that I could have done was to take the short at 36.75 instead of 34.75. I did not take this short because the entry would have been right around the mean from the ON. This trade may have been scratched then had to have been re-entered possibly but who knows what I really would have done. The rejection of 40 was probably more important than the mean of ON range. First trade was a short. Rode this all the way down to about 07ish which was prepared for. The goal of this trade once we started to trade lower and lower was to hold on for as long as possible and see if we can't get to 07 and if not see where we actually do turn. Considered an exit around 26 but again the goal was to hold on as 23 was an expected level to see "something" happen (not written in prep on TL but have it in my notebook). A fanned SL was noted after we continued lower. We bounce from prices below 18 which again was something that did not surprise me. We shot up and again considered exiting but the fanned SL held as well as 23 and as well the goal was to hold on. After we broke below 26 I drew in the fib ret (not using as a fib but to mark the two rejected prices and the halfway point). Since these were both rejected and they were both areas I had noted I drew it to see if anything would come about and to keep me focused if we traded back up to test 16 or so. We bounced from 07/08 and an inwardly fanned SL was broken so I exited. Second trade long. Obviously given the extent of the first move there was a bit more confidence in taking this long. It sort of happened without even thinking. The first exit happened almost immediately before it so I just kind of jumped in. Once I was in my focus was on the longer term SL and 16-18. We traded back up to 18 had a minor hesitation then continued up. I had this "range" drawn in with the lower end being 16ish so I said if 16 breaks I'll exit if not I'll treat this like a range. We hovered a bit around the middle of the "range" got up near the top and traded a tick below 50% of the whole previous down move. the DL broke so I exited based on not trading above 50% and being at the top of a "range". Third trade short. This one was an iffy one. I wasn't totally convinced with taking this one but again given we did not break 50% if we were to test 07 again I would have wanted to be in. My concern was if this was a "range" then I was entering in the middle which was something I have been trying to avoid. We got to the bottom, traded a bit lower but rejected prices there. We broke the SL so I exited. Fourth trade long. Since I was feeling pretty confident with the flow today I took this trade long. Being at the bottom of a range calls for a long if the entry comes about. 50% or so of the up move was rejected as well. This was probably my favorite/best trade I have ever made. I have profited more from other trades but this one was the longest I have ever held on, I gave price room, and I had a plan each and every step of the way. We started traded up, broke above the middle, but came back although not trading much lower. We then made it back up to the top of the range where we hesitated for a moment then broke through the top/50% of the down move. With this trade if we traded back into the range I was to exit however the swing high/50% of about 24 held so I stayed in. We then formed a minor hinge to which I sat through. If we broke below I was out if we broke up I was still in. Once we broke out of the hinge a longer term DL was noted. Price pulled away strongly from the DL and here I started to go hmm now what do I do. The exit was to have been the break of the longer DL since I did not have any other options. I then draw in a 50% level of the push up which held and I said if this breaks I will exit. This and the DL happened to hold. We began to trade up and the DL was broke but by a tick and mostly because of the time component rather than a move in the opposite direction so I held on. I mean I have held on this long already. The exit was finally after we could not trade above 36 and the DL broke. Today was a great SLA day and adding in the other nuances helped tremendously. I definitely think that first trade had a ton to do with having a bit more of an indifferent attitude about the rest of the trades for the day. Missing the first trade or trying to get in too late and maybe having to scratch or get stopped out could have caused me to not take the first long trade or wait to long. Not noting the two rejections at 16/23 if I blinked maybe I don't draw in the box. Moving forward I have to maintain this level of focus and attention to what is going on in front of me. Drawing some of these lines in absolutely helped me as well. This was a far "easier" day than the previous days but as I said before these days do come and they have to be taken advantage of and the other days the losses have to be kept small.

I know I am not supposed to be emotional but I am really happy with what I did today. During the session I was not emotional however. I suppose the kind of day has a whole lot to do with being successful vs. the other days but I guess success for previous days would be to have kept the losses small until a day like today rolls around. I will post my analysis in a moment. I've been holding it in since 9:20, bathroom break hahaha.

If we test or attempt to test 40 at the open and it holds then I will look for a short op. If it breaks I will look for a long op. I will also look for a short op if we break below 34/35. If we trade below 30 I'd look to see what happens around 18 then 07ish. Continuing lower we have past ranges, swing points and 50% points to keep an eye on.

3 trades today. 2 SLA style and one pretty much for shits and giggles just to keep myself occupied/experimentation. Trade one was a long. Reasons for taking this trade was not wanting to miss the breakout IF it was to even occur. Also it seemed every time price got to 35 the ticker stopped then moved up, stopped then moved up etc. So I said to myself if we bounce or REJ 35 I'll go long and see if we can't break 37. We traded a bit below 35 and had rej causing the RET so I went long. I haven't made many trades lately and I suppose this one I kind of just wanted to put a trade on as opposed to waiting for the break first which is what I have been doing previous. The trade should have been scratched much sooner but my computer sort of stuttered/froze for some reason and I missed the last bit of the bar that I entered on. But it's sim. Again I ask myself and note I went long into what I consider an extreme and until that extreme breaks or until trades are found above that price the idea would be a rev. Trade two was a short. This basically confirmed the range of 37-29. Again same type of situation with the long. 29 was not a major extreme but it was an area where hardly any trades were found below it throughout the overnight. We got to the level rather quickly. Pretty much shot right into the level then had a bounce. Not a huge bounce in terms of extent but given the rapid down move we kind of made a bit of a U turn. Again though, shorted into the level before waiting for a decisive break. I have been waiting for almost an okay here we go kind of feel but instead this one was ahhh not again. We move up from a level we have previously moved up from prior to this moment here is a "RET" depicted by this "BAR" so I suppose I have to short. So what's more important? Being a bit mechanical or believing in what I have been reading in terms of the ticker behavior? Now, not saying that every judgement based on watching the ticker will be correct but I do think I am getting a bit more intuitive about what's going on especially around price levels that I have prepared for. A plus for this trade which I consider almost a victory is only taking a 1.25 point loss and not holding on for something that wasn't happening. Price basically touched my entry stopping me into the trade and bounce right off it and without hesitation I just exited. So I liked that about the trade. Had I done that in the first trade I'd be down less than 3 points. Big deal. With that said anyone of these trades could have worked out and had I not taken them I would have commented on favoring a bit more of the mechanical side of making trades. Trade 3 was my shits and giggles trade which started to get me thinking about reversals. Price worked its way back up to 37 and I said well we are at the extreme again lets just short it with a stop at 40. If we get close to 40 and we move decisively then we can exit and look for the RET and maybe something nice comes out of it. We could also SAR and get into the breakout depending. If neither happens then we are in the short with 33 and 29 as areas to watch within this range. We moved down hesitated at 33 pushed down but bounced right back up so the trade was exited. Trade 3 had me thinking of "trading price" and not bars etc. Taking the REV at the open instead of long would have been a nice trade and also kept me on the right side of things. This trade also had me thinking about possibly looking at a 5s or a 15s chart when at an extreme and take a SLA signal as the REV trying to get as close to the "danger point" as possible. If like in this trade we did get stopped out then obviously there is a change in what's going on so that is informative. Then it had me thinking to keep shorting 37 UNTIL we had the change. The same goes for 29 at the bottom. We held there a little after the open came there again. Poked a little lower and rejected. Buying 29 with a 3 point stop puts us at 26 which is an area for the day we have yet to trade at. I will do some work this weekend again and just keep practicing.

I did the same thing. I have been waiting for decisive breaks and both trades did not have that prior to the RET. 37 obv is important and to which I consider an "extreme." Since the extreme did not break I do not know why I took the long trade. Made me think if this was the top of a TC would I have went long into the top or leaned more toward a REV. Similar to the bottom of the ON range at about 29. We barely traded below then popped right back up. So would it have been wise to short right around that price level? Both trades I did not want to take yet I did. Watching the ticker as opposed to looking for a bar that visually shows the RET caused me some inner turmoil with the short. The long basically I just put the entry up because I have not made many trades lately. How do you feel/what do you think about taking these trades?

zzzzzzzzzzzzz............

In a hinge through the overnight. Depending on which way we break I'll look for a RET entry. Above 37.25 the focus will be on SLA and whatever the RT context becomes. Below 29, 23 is about the mean of much of the action yesterday. Not much action was seen below 15 and 07 is the swing low associated with the greatest decrease in price movement we've seen the last few days. These prices as well as the others I have noted are just "landmarks" until/if they become important.

Thanks. Working in it

Only two trades considered. None taken.

Similar ideas like yesterday. Watching for what action may happen around 30 and/or 07. We are sitting right at about the middle of yesterdays range. 50% of the move up from 85 to 30 held yesterday which is a sign of strength however price was unable to make a HH. If we break out we have the highest high to watch. If above that we'll have to use strictly SLA and the context provided in RT by the 1m price movement. If below we have the previous ranges and swings to contend with and some 50% points.

1. Short. SLA trade under 20. Every bone in my body did not want to take this trade. We fired off into 12 and immediately bounced. Got as high as 17 and did not come but a tick more than halfway back to 12. The next bar makes a HH however rejects a tick above 17. The trade was placed but given the bounce I was skeptical. Lost 3 points which I suppose the trade could have been scratched sooner. Would have saved maybe a point to a point and a half so I guess it's not that big of a deal. I had an areas of 13/15 as an area of interest not necessarily as a reversal point but just something to watch. Again bouncing from there made me skeptical. So i'd either be wrong and the trade would have maybe worked out or not been a loss or I'd be right and it would lose lol. 2. Long. This was not part of my original plan but since we did bounce and the short did not work I decided to take the long and see what happened as we approached 23. 23 was rejected so I exited the trade. 3. Short. Another trade not apart of the plan but sort of went into straight SLA mode. Again no trades above 23. Price makes another LH and again like yesterday had a doggy feel to it. Exited based on 12 holding again and began anticipating a range like day. Note: Trades 2 and 3 were not necessarily part of my plan going into the day but I think it was good to be a little flexible within reason. Trade 3 I don't mind as much as trade 2 since it was counter to the continuing downward move. Seeing this trade not go very far however gave me a bit more confidence in taking trade 3. I have been starting to get a sense of how everything builds off each other. Or using SLA to build "trade ideas" based off the information it provides. 4. Long. We got to within a tick of 09 and bounced. Took the RET long. Again this was I suppose a counter move so I was playing it tight. With the context of the waves this trade did not go much more than the previous long trade. From here we started to channel and I suppose two shorts could have been attempted there given what the behavior was like. One short would have been scratched and the other would have worked out nicely considering the type of day at that point. 5 & 6. Both longs considered and in fact the exact opposite of the shorts that could have been attempted after trade 4. 5 would have been scratched and 6 re-entered. I would have re-entered trade 6 due to price rejecting 50%/the minor swing low and staying above 09. The idea behind this was that again we barely traded below 09 which is what I had prepared for. In terms of exits knowing how I was trading prior to these considered trades I probably would have exited around 17. Given the nature of the day I stayed away. Had I taken these trades and hung on once the shorter term 1min channel broke trade 6 would have turned out to be a nice trade, again considering the type of day. Moving forward I am wondering again if more emphasis should be on SLA than AMT or if that is almost how it should always be. The plan was longs above 30 or at 09 and shorts below 20. The short below 20 was planned for and although it didn't work, that's just the way it goes. The longs near 09 would have worked out to be profitable overall. I suppose planning for some type of action of price holding below the PDH could have and probably should have been planned for since we broke below it before the open. Feeling halfway decent about how I have been doing. I'd really like to see a choppy day and a trend day and see how I do with those. Recently I am thinking things are looking a lot more clearer however most of the days recently have had somewhat of a similarity to them. We shall see.

Was waiting for a break above 30 or below 20. We have just broke below 20. The goal now would be to look for an entry into the down move heading towards 04/05 which is the mean of the congestion for a good part of yesterday and is also 50% btw yesterdays high and low. I have a sharply drawn TC on the hourly but I don't know how relevant it is or will be. If there is nothing going on below 20 we'll see what happens back up at 30 if we get there. The other price ranges are still on my radar below where we are now. If the bottom of the TC I have drawn holds around 09 i'd look for a long as well.

2 Entries and 1 considered trade today. First the one considered trade marked by the green square. Reasons for the trade was to me this was a typical SLA long entry. Price made a higher high trading up to 97 then on the way down made a higher low. Reasons against was I was waiting for movement above 95/96 to continue upward to enter. We also did reject 96 and began to trade back towards 90. Trade 1 was a short. Tested 00 once broke the DL no short entry triggered. Tested 00 again and did not trade higher. Took the double top short which felt like a dog type of trade but I guess it's all the same. We didn't go higher. Exit was on the break of the SL. Played it tight due to the structure of the previous waves up vs. down. We had trouble at 94.25 took some attempts to break and did not break very far. Price again made a higher high and a higher low. Trade 2 was a long trade. Was waiting for a long signal above 95/96 and this was the one. We traded back up to the double top and originally we pushed quickly off of 00 but came right back up. My entry if triggered would have put us trading over 00 so I said if we trigger and it goes great if we struggle I'll scratch it and look for the short. This trade also had a dog like feel to it. The first DL broke and I did not exit right away although I considered it again given the "waviness" of the day thus far. Fanned the DL and since we did not have much movement away from the new DL and then broke it I exited the trade. from there we moved sideways and I was not too focused after that. Today I was more focused than I ever have been prior and I tell ya I'm pretty tired lol. I suppose however today wasn't too hard of a day to read what was going on although it did not offer huge gains. Doing the prep work, giving myself a road map, and then also keeping focused on the real time context being the current 1m waves and swings etc had absolutely shifted my focus more to the ticker and less on the bars. Not a bad day I suppose. I am not sure I could have done anything else better except maybe take that first considered long trade but it was not part of what I had in mind so I skipped it. Waiting for trades to jump out at me had also helped. I have also come to the conclusion that I do not need to be a market wizard and try to catch every twist and turn. I don't need to be in a Jack Schwager book. I just need to make the good decisions and make money. If I miss a trade that may have worked out so be it. If I take what looks to be a perfect trade given the context and it doesn't work out so be it. All I need to do is prepare and make smart decisions and if I have no clue what's going on or am not comfortable with the price movement do nothing.

The trend still remains up. I will be looking for trades above 95 and below 85. If short 78/80 has been a busy price area in the past. Frankly we've spent two months btw roughly 3630 and 3730 so SLA might be more informative as to what's going on with price over AMT. 3 particular previous ranges of price I am looking at are btw 3700 and 3680, 3695 and 3663 and 3678 and 3634. If we break above 95ish the trend would continue up and would be watching 00, 13-15, and then up towards 30. A break below 85 would break a swing low and would also break a fanned DL. Breaking this 78/80 could be interesting if continuing lower possibly 57/60 and so on down.

This is kind of why I've decided I am going to focus on a particular level/levels then begin the SLA process. Essentially only focusing on entering around an extreme for example allows me to focus on the movement up or down to it and then when it's time see if there are changes in behavior at that level then switch more to entry mode. If that makes sense. Today would have been 60 and 48/45 for me. Given what happened on the ticker caused me to pass on most Typical SLA opportunities. The action at 45 has made me consider/investigate a faster interval when reaching a particular level preferably an extreme with the goal of getting as close to the "danger point" as possible. Since I didn't do anything at 45 my next plan was seeing if we broke above 60 and like you I was done by then. Had I entered a SLA trade off a 15s interval there would have been an entry near 48. I suppose this is still also all hindsight bc we could have stopped at the mean or again at 60 which we did for awhile before proceeding up. So was it worth it taking a trade near 48 if an exit was taken before 60 actually broke? I am putting in a ton of work this weekend but I am with you on connecting the dots.

Thanks. Just saw that comment actually. For today no trades were taken and during the session only two shorts were considered. Considered trade 1: Short. Price moved up to the prev. swing high and rejected it. We had a RET after that. Prior to the RET I saw price kind of popping off of 55 and then barely trading below it. This caused me to ponder whether we may head back up towards the swing high for another test. Given the behavior of the ticker and the fact that we would be trading back within the overnight range I passed. From the entry point to the mean of the ON would have been 2.75 points and to 48 would have been 6.25 points. Nothing too spectacular. Had we had broke thru 48 and traded lower and lower my thinking was that below 48 there would be some place to enter if there was to be a continued trend in that direction. Considered trade 2: Short. Price did move lower and bounced from the mean twice. From where the first entry may have been taken to this point I felt as if the ticker was almost luring me in to short. I don't want to say tricking me because the market is not out to get me or fool me, but I don't know it's hard to explain what I was reading at that moment. Price was also holding 55 and did not want to trade higher so I considered a short. Did not take it for the same reasons I did not take trade 1. With the mean and 48 now even closer to where my entry point would have been I passed and waited to see what happened at 48. From there no other trades we considered being that we began to play the range game and the range was only about 15 points wide. Price again tested the swing high and then moved sideways btw 55 and 60. I suppose waiting it out a long could have been taken once we started trading over 60 but even so at this point in time that trade would probably be only 6 points in profit if we waiting through lunch etc. We are continuing higher just at a snails pace, but higher nonetheless. It looks like we'll get to 70 but I'm not sure if they'll be enough juice for 80. Towards the close maybe we'll pop up. Who knows. I think I am really starting to get a better understanding of how to incorporate AMT with SLA. Being patient and waiting for the extremes/potentially more important price levels (or at least what I view as an "extreme") definitely affords great opportunity with less risk. What I have noticed is that my tendency to over analyze and maybe even get a little anxious is far less when waiting for a particular price level. I feel this way for two reasons. 1. In waiting it gives me an opportunity to get a sense of direction/"feel" for how the day is going by if I had to compare it, moreso being back in observation mode, getting a sense for the activity/lack thereof. Much more relaxed not having to enter/exit,enter/exit and try to surf every twist and turn. 2. At a particular extreme behavioral differences can be noticed better and I'll say maybe somewhat "easier" (not that it's easy). If the ticker pace begins to change, waves start to change, lines are fanning or whatever at an extreme to me has been far more telling then trying to enter somewhere in between. If I can compare that to what DB used to say about volume and using it at S/R as opposed to when at a price of no particular importance or potential importance. It's to me like saving up my entries/stopouts at a level where I can gain nothing but information for winning and/or losing trades. SLA regardless definitely keeps you on the positive side of things and waiting I will miss some decent trades that SLA can grab but giving myself a bit more time rather then coming out with a gun slinging mentality is starting to give me more confidence/an understanding of what's going on in front of me. I am going to work hard this weekend to get better at putting it all together.

Once we broke above 48 yesterday that level has been holding since about lunch time of yesterday. There were no trades above 55 though the overnight. I am waiting for one of these levels to break then trade according. If up we'll see how price reacts at the most immediate swing high first of about 60 and if down we'll see if we get to 34 and what happens there. From there the other prices of interest have been previously posted. This may be pertinent: