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Rearden's Journal

  • #1
  • First Post: Aug 11, 2020 7:04pm Aug 11, 2020 7:04pm
A journal to keep track of my trades.
  • #2
  • Aug 11, 2020 8:21pm Aug 11, 2020 8:21pm
Looking forward to it.
Be bullish on you.
  • #3
  • Edited 4:25am Aug 12, 2020 3:54am | Edited 4:25am
Weekly Bias 10 August to 14 August: Bullish

First trade for the week

Trade 1 on 11 august
Entry 1.1720 SL at 1.1690 and target 1770. Target Hit : 47 Pips

Trade 2 on 11 August

Entry :1741. Manually closed due to price change in direction by closing below 1720 line SL: -22 pips. (On review , the price didnt really hold below the 1720 area. I closed it from my mobile phone and saw it differently.)
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: 11 August-a.PNG Size: 128 KB
  • #4
  • Aug 12, 2020 6:18am Aug 12, 2020 6:18am
Quoting Rearden
Weekly Bias 10 August to 14 August: Bullish First trade for the week Trade 1 on 11 august Entry 1.1720 SL at 1.1690 and target 1770. Target Hit : 47 Pips Trade 2 on 11 August Entry :1741. Manually closed due to price change in direction by closing below 1720 line SL: -22 pips. (On review , the price didnt really hold below the 1720 area. I closed it from my mobile phone and saw it differently.) {image}
Why didn't you go long on the 10th
Be bullish on you.
  • #5
  • Aug 12, 2020 8:52am Aug 12, 2020 8:52am
Quoting gejordan
{quote} Why didn't you go long on the 10th
Hi Ge,

The price was below the S50 and Pivot and also the distance to my white line (at 1720) was larger. My stop loss for the 11 Aug trade was at 1680. So I was waiting a bit longer to improve the entry. There was no Idea #2 or Idea 3 trades on 10 Aug and the only option was to take an Idea #1. So I wanted to reduce the risk as much as possible for taking an Idea #1. Thank you.
  • #6
  • Aug 12, 2020 9:25am Aug 12, 2020 9:25am
Quoting Rearden
{quote} Hi Ge, The price was below the S50 and Pivot and also the distance to my white line (at 1720) was larger. My stop loss for the 11 Aug trade was at 1680. So I was waiting a bit longer to improve the entry. There was no Idea #2 or Idea 3 trades on 10 Aug and the only option was to take an Idea #1. So I wanted to reduce the risk as much as possible for taking an Idea #1. Thank you.
I would encourage you to use your journal to talk about the trades like this instead of listing entries, SL and targets. Focus more on the thought process you are having and not the specific facts. You'll have those in your trading history. If possible, journal at the moment you take the trade. And possibly a post of what you learned about your week's trades at the end of the week.

It appears you aren't doing the exercise, so it will be most important to log what you see as you trade, not entry numbers and exit numbers. This will ultimately help you mimic the exercise over time. Entry number facts (trade one, entered at 1.1100, tp set at so and so) don't really tell you as much as you think. How you see the chart tells you everything.

Read post 3 versus post 5 and ask yourself if you came back to read those posts a year later or two years later, which one really tells you more.
Be bullish on you.
  • #7
  • Aug 12, 2020 9:55am Aug 12, 2020 9:55am
Quoting gejordan
{quote} I would encourage you to use your journal to talk about the trades like this instead of listing entries, SL and targets. Focus more on the thought process you are having and not the specific facts. You'll have those in your trading history. If possible, journal at the moment you take the trade. And possibly a post of what you learned about your week's trades at the end of the week. It appears you aren't doing the exercise, so it will be most important to log what you see as you trade, not entry numbers and exit numbers. This will ultimately...
Sure Ge.

It appears you aren't doing the exercise,

The intention of my Second trade yesterday was doing the exercise. Just that I was waiting for an improved entry at 1741. The price didnt actually show that it want to go to the downside. I was not in front of the computer and closed it from my mobile phone thinking it held below 1720.

On August 10, I didnt spot any opportunity for entry as per the criteria's of the exercise. Am i missing anything?
  • #8
  • Aug 12, 2020 11:23am Aug 12, 2020 11:23am
Quoting Rearden
{quote} Sure Ge. It appears you aren't doing the exercise, The intention of my Second trade yesterday was doing the exercise. Just that I was waiting for an improved entry at 1741. The price didnt actually show that it want to go to the downside. I was not in front of the computer and closed it from my mobile phone thinking it held below 1720. On August 10, I didnt spot any opportunity for entry as per the criteria's of the exercise. Am i missing anything?
As part of the exercise, I would have expected to see you go long immediately on Monday since you had a long bias and price was moving up. Price already below the #2 and #3 entry points so immediate entry.

Obviously, you know enough that this is not a great entry. BUT, the point of the exercise is for you to feel the emotion of price movement. This is why I suggest taking the smallest position size possible with this exercise because we know there is a likelihood of taking some losses. The point isn't about the profit or loss, it's to detach from the fear of price movement and further develop your ability to have a complete picture of what's happening on the chart when you decide to enter a trade.

Taking that Sunday/Monday trade out of the gate, would create more experience in your brain of watching price move within its normal bounds. Doing this over and over and journaling it in the manner of post #5, I believe, will lead to more of that first trade you showed and less of that second trade.

Don't get hung up on it. I think if you work on journaling out your trades like post 5, you will ultimately learn the same things whether you do the exercise perfectly or not.
Be bullish on you.
  • #9
  • Aug 12, 2020 11:35am Aug 12, 2020 11:35am
For the next few months, take every Simple50 and Pivot trade. Still follow the bias and directional rules. Don't close a trade until the chart confirms a change in direction and take profit when swings are challenged or broken. If you've had a good week, avoid Friday. Warning, you may lose the $20 or you may grow it, I have no idea. But I think you will get more out of the education in fear, frustration, and anger. You might just also start learning how to trade.

As a refresher, above is the exact text from the exercise I mentioned. Also, I gave an example later in the thread as to what to do if price opened below both.

Was that trade a Simple50 or Pivot trade? Nope. You have done idea #1 trades and put them into the exercise. Did you notice you did that? Strange things our brains do.

You took a good trade idea 1... it was excellent. But it's not the exercise. You have rejected doing the exercise since I mentioned it. It's ok, I'm just a guy on a forum typing to you, it doesn't hurt my feelings. BUT, I think if you give some thought on not even being able to do the exercise, you'll be closer to making progress in trading. It's similar to that great sentence Biker put in a post about doing a related thing.

Again, do it or not, what i hope you will do is post about trades in the post 5 manner with a picture of the trade and you'll start making some things real about your trading, become aware of them, and have the chance to improve more.
Be bullish on you.
  • #10
  • Aug 12, 2020 8:13pm Aug 12, 2020 8:13pm
Quoting gejordan
For the next few months, take every Simple50 and Pivot trade. Still follow the bias and directional rules. Don't close a trade until the chart confirms a change in direction and take profit when swings are challenged or broken. If you've had a good week, avoid Friday. Warning, you may lose the $20 or you may grow it, I have no idea. But I think you will get more out of the education in fear, frustration, and anger. You might just also start learning how to trade. As a refresher, above is the exact text from the exercise I mentioned. Also, I gave...
Yup sure. I will journal more on the thought process of each trade and movement as I see it than the trade data.
  • #11
  • Edited Aug 13, 2020 5:56am Aug 12, 2020 8:32pm | Edited Aug 13, 2020 5:56am
13 Aug 2020

0100: My weekly bias is bullish and price is above idea#2 and #3 entry points. The price is still in an upmove. I have placed a PO at 1770 and 1760 with SL at 1680(raw risk).
Factors to consider: Price is in range in daily, 4hr and also 1 hour and on 1 hour its towards the top of the range between 1720-1800. There might be a bigger retracement to 1740 or even 1720 area. I will wait for a hold below 1720 to confirm a change in direction

0800: No updates yet. The price havent closed below 1800 BRN. I moved my second entry from 1760 to 1770 to align with S50.

1200: The market has went quite a distance away from my entry points. No actions so far which supports a long trade for today.
  • #12
  • Aug 13, 2020 10:20am Aug 13, 2020 10:20am
Quoting gejordan
For the next few months, take every Simple50 and Pivot trade. Still follow the bias and directional rules. Don't close a trade until the chart confirms a change in direction and take profit when swings are challenged or broken. If you've had a good week, avoid Friday. Warning, you may lose the $20 or you may grow it, I have no idea. But I think you will get more out of the education in fear, frustration, and anger. You might just also start learning how to trade. As a refresher, above is the exact text from the exercise I mentioned. Also, I gave...
Hi Ge,I was reading your posts #8 and #9 several times and trying to digest the idea that you are conveying. And this is what I want to do. "The point isn't about the profit or loss, it's to detach from the fear of price movement and further develop your ability to have a complete picture of what's happening on the chart when you decide to enter a trade."

Yes, I noticed that I am taking idea#1 trades. Why I was doing those was to get as much exposure to the price movements to learn from more opportunity. With regards to the exercise, I want to do it as perfect as I could to learn the price movements. This is not ETB. But an attempt to understand it ,learn it and do it correctly.

So I got a bit confused, i think. I could be right too. For normal #2 and #3 trades, i enter in the direction of bias and take profit at the swing high/low and do close until the market shows a confirmation that it want to change in direction.

You mentioned about opening the trade on weekly open in the direction of bias(i saw the example on post 1198). I understood that. Could you please advise how can I do it in the Aug 10 context. Here is how I see it, I enter the trade on the open and the market moves up initially, ranges and then comes down without reaching the pivot. It pauses, break the friday low and retraces back up. I should not be exiting here since the price is still in an upmove(Infact that trade has moved to profit only today(Aug 13). and there is no reason for exit because price didnt show it wants to go other way). So as per the exercise I should be holding it till now. Please correct me if I understood it wrongly.

Why I ask this is to 1. Clarify my understanding of the exercise. 2. Looking the chart incorrectly and practise seeing it wrongly makes it worse by reinforcing bad habits because I will prioritize unimportant price movements and miss what is important.

Thanks Ge
  • #13
  • Aug 13, 2020 11:49am Aug 13, 2020 11:49am
Ideally, the exercise for this week would look like this...

You see it as Up Bias. Price in up move. They match, have at it.

If price is below the Idea #2 or Idea #3, enter straight away. So, you would enter on the 10th and 11th.

Now, the exit is at a swing. You could pick the big swing up top (1.19) or the smaller immediate swing at 1.18. For the exercise, either is fine. I would have expected you to exit at 1.18 area. The exit doesn't have to be perfect, just back at the swing. The learning isn't in the exact entry or exit. I know this blows your mind because everyone wants an exact entry and exit rule and location, but they forget to learn the important stuff.

12th, you would enter again. 1.1730ish area or whenever you get to screen. You'd again exit at top of swing, still at 1.18 area at that time. Exit at 1.1790, 1.1815, doesn't matter, just up in the return to the swing.

Today, no trade. You are above the idea #2 and #3 entries, so you would have been looking for a retrace to them. Hasn't happened. Wait till next day, oh, tomorrow is Friday, think to self.. good week with three trades, take Friday off and think about what you learned and felt. That would have been ideal.
Be bullish on you.
  • #14
  • Aug 13, 2020 11:58am Aug 13, 2020 11:58am
What did I learn doing things like this that you might learn...

Well, on a week like this, maybe...

- you would have felt the anxiety of an entry moving 60 pips against and not closing.
- adding another entry when one is down a bunch, mind blowing.
- Felt the excitement of watching them both go back up to profit.
- implanted the concept of high risk entry versus lower risk entry. (why I go big when trading from edges, I learned this, I don't just say it and hope, it's cemented in me via my experience)
- on the 12th, felt the anxiety of another entry playing around in an area where you normally just instantly shut it down. Then excitement of it going up.
- Today... you feel the chemical addiction of successful trades and have to fight the urge to not jump in.
- Maybe you get mad because you closed your profitable trades too early. Mad at profit. Think about that. I've talked about it a bunch over the years. Most people never even realize this is something that blows up their success. Even a "win" sometimes is never good enough. It's almost all losing for some traders.

As you experience this week after week, the chemical responses reduce. You figure out what you are made of. You learn about the chart, risk, see common themes. But you have to do it yourself. Over and over.
Be bullish on you.
  • #15
  • Aug 13, 2020 7:19pm Aug 13, 2020 7:19pm
Thank you for the posts Ge. Very helpful.
  • #16
  • Aug 13, 2020 8:37pm Aug 13, 2020 8:37pm
14 Aug

Price is still in an up move in a bullish bias week. Below the idea#2 and above #3. I will watch how price reacts at s50 and also the BRN area.
  • #17
  • Aug 14, 2020 8:03am Aug 14, 2020 8:03am
Hi Rearden - This is great to watch, just wanted to say its exciting to watch as you learn and I'll be following along (silently) to see how your trading develops over the next few months.

Good luck!
  • #18
  • Aug 14, 2020 8:06pm Aug 14, 2020 8:06pm
Quoting nyjetfan
Hi Rearden - This is great to watch, just wanted to say its exciting to watch as you learn and I'll be following along (silently) to see how your trading develops over the next few months. Good luck!
Thank you Jet.
  • #19
  • Aug 16, 2020 9:24am Aug 16, 2020 9:24am
Weekly learnings:

Attempting to follow the exercise and reviewing past trades in the journal, I noticed that a number of trades shown in past few months are similar to the ones mentioned in post #13. I also learned that I need to have more patience to wait for the trade to work out by focusing strictly on the process(12 Aug). I look forward to following the exercise in the coming week regardless of the outcome. I also learned that I should be aware of emotion inside me due to incorrect executions,missing of trades and the following disappointment. its very important to understand the chart and also understand my reaction to what is happening in the chart.
  • #20
  • Edited 9:56am Aug 16, 2020 9:36am | Edited 9:56am
Weekly BIAS is bullish(Based on MACD ). I will look to buy this week.
Be aware that the price is in a range. Be ready for bigger retracements and adjust the position size accordingly. Even though the bias is bullish dont be greedy with the target before the price hold above 1.1900 BRN
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