Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Wed. 01/14/2009 - Need to FOCUS on Execution!

Execution is turning out to be the hardest piece of the trading puzzle. My analysis of the market (market reads) are pretty much on the spot, and yet, I'm unable to turn a profit. I started the morning by trading in my real $ account, and took two back to back losing Long trades for a -$250 loss. I quickly came to my senses and realized I was trying to catch the bottom, which is a loser's game and stopped the bottom fishing. I'm glad that I was at least able to limit the losses. After two consecutive losses, I switched to Sim, and guess what...I ended the day up +$987 on SIM. I again took several screen shots of the TICK/VIX chart throughout the day and will post them here.

In order to rid myself of the bad habit of trying to nail tops and bottoms, I'm going to stick to the following rules:
1. Above mid-point of the market, initiate LONGS only. The only exception would be if price is really stretched and trading above 2X High Range.
2. Below the mid-point, initiate SHORTS only. The only exception would be if price is really stretched and trading below 2X Low Range.

That simple rule would have kept me out of trouble today.

Please post in the comments if you have any other ideas/suggestions on how I can improve my execution skills.

On to the charts...
I don't time to analyze each screen shot tonight, but the trade setups are the same as yesterday.

9:50 AM Central


10:21 AM Central


10:24 AM Central


10:48 AM Central


11:03 AM Central


11:19 AM Central



11:44 AM Central


11:46 AM Central


11:57 AM Central


12:04 PM Central


12:13 PM Central


12:34 PM Central


12:36 PM Central


12:41 PM Central


12:53 PM Central


1:02 PM Central


2:05 PM Central


2:43 PM Central


2:48 PM Central


Market Structure/Balance

2 comments:

  1. Only 20 screenshots? SLACKER.

    Have you looked at how your new midpoint rules work out during backtesting? (I assume you have - just curious).

    Setups look good as always. The execution will come with time and more live trades. Don't beat yourself up to much and keep at it. One-Lot Trading LLC needs your help! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually, I haven't really back-tested the rule. It's a rule provided by Joe Baker and David Dube, both are profitable traders with over 13 years of experience, so I'm taking their word for it. And although I haven't back-tested it, I have observed the mid-point in real-time over the last few months.

    ReplyDelete

At the minimum, please provide your name or Twitter handle when posting comments. Do not post as Anonymous. Comments that contain links to commercial websites will be marked as spam.