Today was a horrible day for me, as I lost control and re-entered the same move multiple times, being so sure that the market was ready to tank. It wasn’t ready yet. I stopped early, but will evaluate the setups that came throughout the day.
Open
The open went up eventually, and I took a poor 1m candle (the first big bearish candle after 6:30) being too eager for the short. This immediately failed, but the 1m made a proper signal shortly after. Instead of shorting this, I waited for confirmation on the 5m. This was not the worst idea, but it cost 40 points entering on the 5m instead of the 1m.
Day
The tricky part was afterward, when the 1m repeatedly pushed lower but refused to come to the lows. Ultimately, 5m MACD was determined to move up, and I failed to acknowledge that it wanted a full move there. When it finally gave up going for lows, the market exploded up and 5m got its desired wave.
After the wave, which I of course did not take, it made a great bearish gravestone doji, and promptly crashed through to the levels I expected (14640s). This level was determined based on the support created by the 4 hour chart as shown below.
Trades
I showed my poor trades in circles, with the ideal setups in rectangles.
- Yellow circle: Took a 1m short on a bearish engulf candle, way too large to be safe/meaningful, and also a late entry anyway. Poor context, poor trade.
- Orange circle: Repeatedly entered short in this area, doubling up when 1m pulled up and made bullish gravestone along 34. I did get a new low after this, but did not get the main move low, and so I held on and took multiple losses instead of taking a pause and waiting for the next move. Too eager for the main move today.
- Yellow box: First real signal of the day, 1m short which took the market down to the base. Could have evaluated this differently and judged to take profit early because of 5m MACD being higher once the low got breached.
- Purple box: First proper 5m signal, coming after the wave. Could ideally hold this short all the way, after the bearish gravestone.
- Orange box: 1m pulls up to 34, then sets new low, standard short term trade if original short was missed.
- Blue box: 1m second wave/fake pull up, then the full move finishes. #5 and #6 are less than the quality of #4, but #6 is the most straightforward profit.
Reflection
My mental suffered a bit during the overtrading phase, but I regrouped shortly after. I consciously decided that I will not allow losses to affect me mentally during this test of my new routine. I aim to accept the poor days just as easily as the good days and look at them as my personal flaws that will come up from time to time, rather than anything substantial. I will occasionally slip up, but as long as I come back tomorrow with the same focus and drive as this morning, it will all be fine. I can fall apart occasionally still, and that’s okay. I just need to be aware and take my breaks so I can put an end to it immediately, which I did not do successfully today. But this is why we trade other people’s money. I will survive.