Market wasn't good for my trading method, yesterday was better but I barely had setups, I had one good and all others were mediocre, and it shows. I have my live account with Patak already but yet to make any trades in it, as I can't see good opportunities.

My trade log


I was giving much thought about how to better keep my trading journal, made an attempt to add setup screen shots into a spreadsheet but it's not convenient and useless when printed as it is not possible to see anything. So I will resume keeping my trading journal here in blog format. I will make an effort to comment on every trade with accompanying screenshot.


The only real good trade day before yesterday, good level proximity (magnetism) and quick buildup with lots of pressure on DOM. There was another potentially good trade when pushed HOD, but I bailed too quickly and then made an attempt to jump in again, only to lose twice. This is an important lesson to learn - you can enter the same river only once! I was stalking a good setup for the whole afternoon but it never came to play. Only after market reopened late into O/N session it did play for 100 ticks. It happens.


Trades overview from yesterday. Again, just one good trade, and multiple of break evens and few fails.


First trade went my way but reversed very quickly. The entry pattern was there but no strong level or favorable volume profile shape, I just relied on downward direction. I got hit by trailing 6 ticks stop , had I have manual trailing with my concept of moving stop after retests/moves, I would be likely safe. I reverted to manual trailing after that.
Second trade went very well, I did not anticipate such a big move so had my default target, it could yield much more that 12 ticks. There we had a combination of LVN, VWAP and previous swing high with s tiny consolidation and considerable pressure on DOM.


Here it was a decent attempt, no strong levels but very nice consolidation, it was just that market has died after triggering my entry. I moved to BE+1 but it slipped me back to BE.


I have missed this excellent setup by mere sub-second, I was waiting for a formation of mini-range with a mouse hovering over the price note and hit it only as price raced up so my entry was invalid. But there was no strong premise to enter earlier as formation only built up as it moved. 


Here I was worried about next mini swing high in just 5 ticks from my entry and was right about it. Closed trade manually as it made few ticks into black and reversed quickly. In hindsight it gave a chance to close at BE later but that would be a pure gamble. Right call to close. Should not enter it at all.


This setup was ok, no strong level but there were good signs of reversal and it could make a good trade. Unfortunately market became very sketchy by this time so I had to do some damage limitation once it turned to be a fake out.

Overall conclusion - strategy is good, risk and targets are good, it just I have to be much more selective in this holiday market. No big damage this week, but I am not in a business of bleeding accounts slowly either. Will focus on taking only the best trades.