Hi all,
Hope you all had a good weekend. Monday starts just about perfectly for me with a successful bread-and-butter pattern presenting itself, one that readers of this journal will have seen a few times before, highlighting that consistency of approach makes your trading life a lot simpler:
The market opens at 8am at around the 13245 level and moves up sharply to the 70 level. It then rolls over to a downtrend and I await the consolidation area forming in the 20-40 range. Price fails at 40 twice to form a small double top, enough for me to try a short at 33 as the downtrend resumes, stop at 43 above the immediate highs. This is happily instantly profitable and I close at 19 on the spike down for +14pts, +1.4R net.
This fake opening move that rolls over is common and so I am always looking out for it. Combined with my usual practice of waiting for a consolidation area to form and then entering with the resumption of flow, it makes the whole trading process habitual and simple. I did not have to agonise over this setup because I had done it so many times before: I see it, I take it, and I trade it according to how it pans out.
This is what a trading plan really gives you: consistency and much reduced stress. I would not have minded (that much!) if this trade had not worked out and I'd lost instead because it was a valid setup according to my trading plan. It's 100% OK to follow your trading plan and lose a predefined controlled amount; and infinitely better than just randomly shooting from the hip or chasing price. Have a plan, trade it consistently, accept with equanimity the results. As you practise and gain experience your plan can evolve and your results will gradually improve.
Hope you all had a good weekend. Monday starts just about perfectly for me with a successful bread-and-butter pattern presenting itself, one that readers of this journal will have seen a few times before, highlighting that consistency of approach makes your trading life a lot simpler:
The market opens at 8am at around the 13245 level and moves up sharply to the 70 level. It then rolls over to a downtrend and I await the consolidation area forming in the 20-40 range. Price fails at 40 twice to form a small double top, enough for me to try a short at 33 as the downtrend resumes, stop at 43 above the immediate highs. This is happily instantly profitable and I close at 19 on the spike down for +14pts, +1.4R net.
This fake opening move that rolls over is common and so I am always looking out for it. Combined with my usual practice of waiting for a consolidation area to form and then entering with the resumption of flow, it makes the whole trading process habitual and simple. I did not have to agonise over this setup because I had done it so many times before: I see it, I take it, and I trade it according to how it pans out.
This is what a trading plan really gives you: consistency and much reduced stress. I would not have minded (that much!) if this trade had not worked out and I'd lost instead because it was a valid setup according to my trading plan. It's 100% OK to follow your trading plan and lose a predefined controlled amount; and infinitely better than just randomly shooting from the hip or chasing price. Have a plan, trade it consistently, accept with equanimity the results. As you practise and gain experience your plan can evolve and your results will gradually improve.
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