james_gsx trade log

[james_gsx 16]

Here are two of my trades from this morning. I accidentally slept in this morning and missed most of the big move and good setups

 

Please note the reason my stops are 20 and my target is 10, I found if I kept a tighter stop I would get shaken out. This is probably due to bad timing, but with a 20 point stop I have only been stopped out a few times - it keeps me patient and my target is usually hit. I want to work on this though.

 

Both traders are color coded, light blue was first and dark blue was second. The middle line represents my entry point, top line is target, and bottom is stop.

 

Trade 1 -

• -1000 tick long at 47 could also be a good pivot play
  
• Entry 14047
  
• Target 14057
  
• Stop 14027
  
• Stopped out
  
• Should have seen ticks going below 500 and exited trade while price as 37
  
• Should have seen kiss to S1 pivot act as support and gone short
  
• Loss 20 pts
  

 

Looking back on it, I made a few mistakes. I don't think I properly read the tape, and if I did I most likely missed a few key things. The biggest mistake I see is when the price came back up to the midpoint, but couldn't break through. Also I should have looked at the ticks and saw they were still negative, and exited my position. I believe I should have turned my long position into a short once I saw the retracement to the midpoint. I was too focused on how my trade was doing, not where price was going.

 

Trade 2:

The first candle gets very close to the S1 pivot and rallies higher, I missed the trade and waited for it the price to come back down before going long. It came back down and I bought, same criteria as before.

 

• Took S1 pivot play since I saw reasonable support
  
• Entry 14024
  
• Target 14034
  
• Stop 14010
  
• Target hit
  
• + 10pts
  

 

That trade worked and fit my plan. But again, I don't like how my stop is so much bigger than my target. I realize if I several stops in a row are hit it could take a big toll on my account.

 

On the positive side, I never felt emotional when my stop was hit. I just looked for the next trade which was the S1 pivot and moved on.

[james_gsx 16]

I'm not seeing my attachment show up, and I can't seem to edit the post so here it is.

 

[james_gsx 16]

Just took another trade. This one was an ambush play, and worked out fairly well for me.

 

Entry 14036

Stop - close above .618

Target - 14030

 

I'm still trying to fine tune this trade, but I need to keep practicing the setup and taking my gains. I think 6 points is reasonable for this trade, if anyone has any feedback on what to look for as far as targets and stops please chime in.

 

[TinGull 10]

I think 6 points is reasonable on that trade because its a short amidst a major uptrend. Nice scalp trade. Notice, too, that your original trade was a 20+ point trade. I was in the same trade, and my bracket order was set in as if I had 2+ cars to take off half at +10. So I dont know what you're going for as far as targets...I think you've said it at one point...but definitely try and let the winners go. Its a battle for sure, trust me, I know. Still battling with it, but gettin' there.

 

Good work, tho, man. You're kickin ass.

[darthtrader 10]

awesome post james.

 

I wonder if any market profile gurus could comment on that first trade. I still cant see the actual profile, still not done with mind over markets, but i would assume we were out of value around the pivot on the first trade? From that information would you have been biased to playing a break through of that pivot on the short side towards value?

 

James, I hear you on the 10/20 target stop as a newb and getting shaken. The problem though is that you need massive positive expectancy to just break even with that over time. I imagine scaling out and moving the stop takes care of this to a degree but that doesnt work with one contract. Even with that though it just seems there has to be a way to make this more algorithmic than just pulling round numbers out of a hat.

 

anyone have any thoughts on that? that was my main interest with the data mining thread i made. Something like if you knew the range up and down from your setup over the past week you could set your stops/target with better probability than random round numbers. I mean market conditions are not that much different than a week ago, even if market conditions totally changed dramatically tomarrow you would still only be totally off for a week.

[TinGull 10]

Hey darthtrader,

 

At the point in question for the first trade, price was at/near the developing value area low. Nice location for a long. As for the data mining, my stops are always placed at pivot areas based on recent trading.

[james_gsx 16]

The reason I went long on that first trade was because it was a retracement and we had been moving higher earlier in the day before going sideways. What I should have seen though was the rejection when we moved back into the mid point, that should have been my signal to exit the long and go short.

 

My biggest problem is looking at the big picture. It's easy to focus on one or two things, then completely miss something else. But if I continue to try looking at the big picture with every trade, then I will be successful.

 

I took a third trade that I'm not going to post here. It was a quick scalp at the S1 midpoint breakout for 5 points - so I dug myself out of that 20 pt loss.

[TinGull 10]

What time frames are you watching? I assume thats a 5min for the big chart in the middle, right? One thing Ive been working on with my coach is the bigger picture. I have a 15min chart as my main chart that I watch for direction and setups. When something starts setting up, I drill down to a 5min chart and watch for my entry. When I enter, I move back to the 15min and watch for exits. Im trying my butt off to not exit intra-bar and wait for the close. That's harder than I ever thought it would be...but worth the wait. It keeps me out of any noise that I'm not good at playing inside of.

[james_gsx 16]

They are all 3 minute charts.

 

What do you about your stops if you can't exit until the bar closes? Do you just exit at the close?

[TinGull 10]

I'll set hard stops based on prior market pivots on a 5min chart. For the amount of points you're taking, a 3min chart is good. But, for the stops you're using...20 points is too much imo.

 

For instance...the trade you took long at 024, why have a 20 point stop there? If price goes below that yellow line you have drawn around 021, is it likely to continue going down? At that point, I'd want to be out, especially if I was scalping looking for small ticks.

 

And, after you got your 10 ticks of profit, that point was broken and the YM dipped down to 14000. Tight stop, tight reward. My trade I took at 021 was a little later in the day now that I look at it. My stop was under the bar that broke out of the 30min opening range, giving me an 11 tick stop. The trade ended up going on for 30+ points, though I would've gotten out around 20 points.

 

So, thats how I utilize stops more so than an arbitrary round number.

[james_gsx 16]

Okay, I see what you're saying. It was a scalp trade, not a pivot trade so I should have set the stop tight. I was setting the stop as if it were a pivot play and was worried about getting shaken out. I should have just looked at where the next pivot was, and realized where the price would be going.

 

I seem to be doing a lot of counter trend trades, which is okay for scalping and having a small account. But eventually I want to trade with more contracts and look for bigger moves, so definitely looking at the big picture is something I need to learn how to do.

 

I'm surprised I did as well as I did today - I definitely screwed up. I went to bed too late and wasn't fully prepared. I slept through my alarm and still traded, a big no-no since I wasn't 100%. Trading is a profession, and I need to treat it as such.

[james_gsx 16]

Okay heres a quick trade I did on the NQ. You'll see the the test to the S1 pivot the blue candle, I went short there for a quick scalp. I wanted to take advantage of the test, theoretically price would have resisted going to the pivot and fell back, and I wanted to take advantage of that. I entered on the blue tick, and got out on the red.

 

o Entry short 2055.00

o Stop 2056.00

o Target 2054.00

o Target hit + 1.00 NQ

 

As you can see I kept my stop tighter this time as I knew it was a scalp. I also knew if it moved into 2056 that we would most likely be going higher, no point in risking more capital that that if that makes sense. I'm finding more and more that my "pivot plays" are more or less quick scalps to test the first reaction. I need to tailer my plan to fit this move since I think it may end up working out pretty well for me.

 

 

 

Thats all I can enter in for today. Thanks for any and all input.

[TinGull 10]

Nice work James. Great job on keeping the stop small.

[james_gsx 16]

Umm... where did my trades from today go?

[james_gsx 16]

Well here are my 3 scalps from yesterday. They were all profitable for a total of 20 ym points. I went into the day knowing I was a scalper and that seemed to help a lot. I kept my stop losses tight, as well as my targets and I looked for scalper setups.

 

• Quick scalp after fast fall

• Entry 912

• Target 920

• Stop 904

• Target hit

 

 

• Another quick scalp after fast rise

• Entry 13938

• Target 13933

• Stop 13942

• Target hit

 

 

• Scalper trade

• Entry 13925

• Target 13932

• Stop 13921

• Target hit

 

[Nick1984 10]

If you're using the pivots to scalp as a test of the strength of of the move to the pivot, have you found yourself taking a longer term position after you exit your scalp trade?

[james_gsx 16]

No, I don't but thats a good idea. I won't start taking the long term trade but I'll start taking notes and see if maybe I can incorporate it into my plan.

 

 

And if any of you have been wondering where I've been.. We just started our biggest sale of the year, it's been unbelievably busy and I haven't had any time at all. Today is my first day off since last Wednesday. I'm not trading since I don't have a plan, but I am watching and learning.

[james_gsx 16]

Finally back to trading, I will post some charts later today but heres a quick look at what is going on today.

 

 

4 YM scalps, 4 winners for 32 YM

2 NQ scalps 2 winners for 3.50 NQ

 

I'm trying a few different time frames today (1min, 3min, etc). The 1 minute seems to be working out very well for scalp and I can handle my emotion. But I still like the 3 minute for some reason, the 1 minute moves around so much it's hard to tell what's really going on - but i have caught a few good breakouts.

[james_gsx 16]

Yesterday I finished with 107 YM and 3.50 NQ

 

Today I only traded YM and finished with 85 YM - mostly testing a new setup that seemed to work pretty well with the volatility. Basically I found a way to scalp breakout tests. I'll post up charts later (maybe). I took the last 2 hours of the day off today because I had done so well - I didn't want to get greedy and over trade. These last two days have been extremely successful and one of the few days that I'll be able to get those kind of returns.

 

If I find time tonight I'll post up some charts and some of my notes. I had a few bad trades today with the new setup, but for the most part I did well. Yesterday I started making emotional trades and was able to identify them and quickly exit - and make note of it.

[james_gsx 16]

I am rather happy of this trade, I saw a h&s setup on the 1 minute chart and set a short after the neckline broke. Once I saw the candle slow down I covered the position and let the rest of it ride out. Don't worry about the other lines, I was just setting up a breakout trade and wanted to know what my entry and target should be.

 

[james_gsx 16]

Oops - here you go

 

• H&S Pattern breakout to the short side

o Entry – 13423

o Exit – 13414

o P&L – 9 YM