Journey to consistency

I had a problem with changing my mind too often while in the trade although my initial bias was mostly accurate. So to correct that flaw I have implemented a protocol I go through more like a routine prior London open and right at Frankfurt open. I had been thinking about it all night and early in the morning. So after writing it down on my notepad prior Frankfurt open I tried to go along that protocol today. While I've seen an improvement on me being too flexible I missed out on the train - going short.

Like I've been saying all along I think I have nailed down the direction or bias but I am missing entry and exit. For instance today if I had drawn the second resistance and trendline I would have gotten in on that short. But I naively expected price to rally back up to the gap and the top horizontal resistance. I'm thinking how I can improve this substantially in the coming days. For a start, I definitely need to draw my resistance and support better ! I shouldn't miss any prominent resistance or support out of the picture.

I'll come back later.

On entry

Besides identifying relevant and prominent support and resistance areas I need to establish set of rules for entry for each pattern - range buy or sell, sell it from downtrend, buy it from uptrend, sell it to uptrend and their variations ! yes they're variations , story doesn't end at range sell or buy. I shouldn't be lazy if I want to grab that 50pips at London open. More work. I need to be as systematic as I can be. We're getting there. Hold on. I will print out my protocol for direction/bias. Now need to think hard on entry rules for each pattern and their variations.

Apr 5

-33pips

well today I had to deal with a variation of sell it to uptrend initially I thought we were falling but instead it kept pushing last HH and now finally en route <short> I'm going to say it here and now this was very new to me I've never dealt with anything like this before. Just when I think I've got the direction right here we go again.

as for entry this is still a major obstacle for me what I am seeing is that for entries horizontal resistance and support are crucial trendlines don't do much so does indicators they give false signals.

today was painful day both for my pockets and pattern wise.
I'm glad I'm trading smallest lot. D
don't think I'm ready at all to go higher at the moment.

good thing was I learned something new again.
will have to go back to my note and writing everything down.

losses will happen as I am still in the learning phase <hopefully this phase will be over soon>

I regarded todays pattern as sell it to uptrend but now looking back this wasn't exactly sell it to uptrend pattern instead buy it from uptrend. Looks like I'll need to master the patterns and further divide them into categories : I need to be "precise" when it comes to identifying the pattern I'm dealing with first and foremost but this will only be possible through trial and error by trading live I'll be able to internalize everything and of course the purpose here is not to make the same mistake over again.

in short my preplanned sequences aren't up to par with the beast that market is. for now it's a little too simple. I shouldn't laze around. got to be precise !!!

You don't fail to surprise me DAX !
Today was another example why I shouldn't take it easy for pattern recognition protocol.

A lot of work goes into perfecting the method - direction + entry + exit all of which are interconnected to each other so when I'm addressing direction or improvising pattern recognition protocol I also should take entry or exit into account case by case as patterns like to mutate adapt and change. I'll try my best to categorize those patterns precisely within the sub categories, for now I go buy/sell camp and in the buy there's buy it from uptrend, V pullback buy at the bottom, range buy etc, and they're variations within buy it from uptrend that's what I mean by I need to be precise. After this process is done I'll have a much better idea and visuals as to how 1 pattern should look and from there I will determine how I would and when I would enter.

I need to work tonight.

I really don't know, my friend...
This is the first of my entries this morning (when you all went short!)
DAX m1

And this is the close of the last... DAX m1
Attack full force!
Banking along the road.

I said it again and again...

“Act on facts and not on opinions!”
All is in this W.D. Gann's lesson!
Our minds just cannot accept the reality of the market.
We try to justify with our thoughts why Price should or shouldn’t be this way or that way,
when all we really need to do is see what the market is telling us now and act on that.

Appreciate the feedback and the visuals!!

On one of those days I miss your journal - it's like a cheatsheet but obviously I'll have to learn it myself cheatsheet won't get me far.

I was trying to categorize the visuals (mental roadmap) and made the mistake of over simplifying - you've been saying all along don't oversimplify, be flexible guess I had to go through it myself. And the result of that was I went short when it was going up I misjudged the initial retracement at London open to be a sell now looking back at the pattern I can clearly see where I went wrong.

Yesterday's pattern was (according to my mental roadmap) buy it from uptrend retracement but I mistook it as sell it to uptrend type A

I need to make a distinction between the two.

file a buy it from uptrend retracement
file b sell it to uptrend type A

I think yesterdays pattern eventually formed a range , range buy in my book and rallied up higher further. I have yet to trade this type of range since I only trade 1,6 hours after the open. But I'm going to keep that in mind.

how I can I differentiate a from b ?
we'll work on that after lunch.

for the rest of the visuals aka mental roadmap I typed it up yesterday we'll make further adjustments as we go along but for now I think the general structure is there to stay maybe more will be added variations not new structures necessarily.

I've also had some challenges with buy it from uptrend retracement and trendline break reversal/continuation sell. They can be mistaken with 1 another if I don't make clear distinction between the two.

For this though I was thinking for trendline break reversal/continuation sell price usually curves which means it makes a LL and horizontal support doesn't hold and finally makes a higher higher around London open before diving down where as with buy it from uptrend retracement as it says retracement it finds horizontal support and rallies up but around London open it retraces back down to higher support and goes up in a smooth uptrend line. That's the distinction. And i think I was able to tell them apart the other day.

If you're seeing this I know you went up on this didn't you Jupiter

I have two possible scenarios playing in my mind this could either be a buy or a sell haha.
Only time will tell and for this I'm going to wait on London open.

This could either be a buy it from uptrend if it falls and finds support higher OR V sell at the top if it keeps on pushing higher OR could turn out to be something completely different out of my mental roadmap I'm only prepared to deal with those two scenarios anything out of the ordinary I stay put.

now the odds slightly turned towards V sell at the rim but again always be cautious sometimes V buys can continue on will have to see how it reacts at horizontal resistance when London gets going.

Nice. Very nice. But... SURPRISE! No position at the Frankfurt Open... Conflicting signals everywhere! We'll see!

Trade well. Always in control!

Apr 06

-18.3pips

another red week
how nice

maybe I should reduce my specialty to range entries.....

Apr 03 - Apr 06

-70pips

I need to go through what went wrong for this week it was unlike last week where I was doing fine as far as pattern recognition goes but was having trouble with entries and exits. This week however such as today I was presented with unusual patterns and out of the ordinary scenarios which prompted me to take a good look at my mental roadmap I did categorize it the best I can and to be 100% rational I don't think we should make any amends to that nor do I think I should just stick with range entries because that may not be enough to go on I have to try to trade as much patterns as possible.

Before we reach any conclusion we'll have to see how I perform next week and the week afterwards, for today though DAX is acting up maybe its NFP whatever the reason maybe the damage is done and I'm out I don't even recognize where it wants to go looks more like tug of war.

I didn't perform well on any of the patterns for this week all 4 except for range sell setup that occurred on Wednesday I stayed flat because I missed the entry except for that I haven't gotten the direction right for the other two at all and let's not even start with entries.

For todays pattern I wasn't short a little early this was a painful short now looking back it still was a V sell but M kind, for that I guess I was wrong all the way but something about it didn't look right so I kept closing it until I finish up with my mental roadmap I guess I'll keep on closing "with" the direction positions - it's going to be a phase.

I remember I was struggling with this exact pattern V sell M.
Should I go at it 1 by 1, that won't do that'll require too much time.

why do I keep making the same mistake.
maybe my mental roadmap isn't good enough no I tried to fill in the missing pieces yesterday its better than before but it's got to with my ego - this week was bad overall. Maybe it's a little bit of both.

I obviously need to practice the screenshots on the weekends and go through my handbook <mental roadmap> and fill out any loopholes if there is any left.

And see how I do next week.

Sorry, but I must to be crude... you have to understand your mistakes or you will continue to repeat them time and again.
Market is always right: each effect has its proper own cause!
Market moves not because it wants to do it... market moves because it HAS to do it.

Scaling out @ 12.205

yes!
you are right in every sense.
I am trying and probably will have to try harder to understand my mistakes.
I'm at a point where everyday counts, under a heck loads of pressure lately, going off track here always appreciate your feedback !