Friday, March 27, 2009

Friday 03/27/09 - Discipline is Key

Closing the charts early today (12:03 PM) with a nice gain of +$740.90. I'm not too excited since I did put on 5 contracts on one of the trades which provided bulk of the profit. I don't normally add to a losing position but I did just that today; I had a hard-stop 1 pt below support, and added to the position when it went against me, and when it went in my favor. Just wanted to experiment with a little more size (I was trading up to 12 contracts in my real $ account back in 2004 so 5 contracts is not out of the question in the real $ account). The key takeaway from today is to stick with the trend, and patiently wait for the market to show its hand before entering a new position. I jumped the gun on my earlier short trades, but was quick to bail for break-even or a tiny gain since I realized I wasn't being disciplined and was entering early before the market provided confirmation. Once I got confirmation, I entered and exited for a quick +2 point gain. Probably should have held on to it for a bit longer, but I have been coding all morning for that IT project which I have to push to Production today or tomorrow, so need to get back to that.

The Blog will be quiet for 2 weeks since I'm leaving this Sunday on a 2-week trip to Geneva, Paris and Dubai. I'll be back in the good ol' U.S. of A on Sunday April 12th, and will resume the regular postings later that week. See ya!

ES 610-Tick bar Chart (Morning Trades)


Open/Unfilled Gap Above at 827.25 - Price came down so close to the previous open gap at 808.75 that I consider that gap filled at this point.


ES/$TICK (3-Min) - Low Avgerage $TICK readings through the early morning climb up indicated weakness.


ES 15-Minute - Yesterday's chart indicated the 808.75 area as support, and it proved to be support today. Low of day was 809.50, at which point price bounced 10.50 points.

6 comments:

  1. Dubai,you lucky dog, I'd really like to see that place, looks like a cool place to visit.

    Have a good trip!!

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  2. Enjoy your trip - it sounds like a good time! Hopefully I'll still be around by the time you get back! :)

    Your trading is looking stellar so hopefully this two week break will make you even better.

    However I am disappointed to see you, of all people, adding to a losing position! I can hear you cautioning me over and over again for doing the same thing! I expect more out of you. :)

    Lates.

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  3. Hi Stan, you're absolutely right, I should not have added to the losing position. On the positive side, I had a hard stop-loss level on the entire position, the trade was in direction of trend, and I added to it when it moved in my favor as well.

    But I understand your point; I should follow what I preach, and this is the first time in months that I've added to a losing position. I actually wanted to mark up the charts and analyze that specific trade to see how the P&L would have looked if I just exited the position with a 2-point stop-loss and re-entered at a lower price but I still haven't packed so might not be able to get to that.

    Thanks for keeping me honest :)

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  4. I was just giving you a hard time, man. You'll still see me adding to "losing" positions because as perverse as that sounds, it is part of my strategy because I am playing pullbacks. However sometimes those pullbacks are actually trend reversals and that's when I get in trouble. Anyway, you know what you are doing but I still had to take a jab at you because I'm a jerk like that!

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  5. No problem buddy; I prefer you guys calling me out. It's one of the biggest benefits of having this Blog.

    Btw, I'm at my hotel in Geneva reading Reminiscences; awesome book! I can't believe I've had this book for YEARS and didn't start reading it till now. I'm going to read it, and re-read it.

    ReplyDelete

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