Trading for 21st July

Here is my journal from the 21st July:

Today we don't have any major news to sway the market one way or the other. We currently are looking at opening with a 5 point gap or so up. From up here I would be looking for a move back down to the 1258 area at the open for some possible strength to come in. If we become a runaway market from the open I will look for some possible resistance to hit at 1270. I would like to see some good extremes if we reach that area for exhausted buyers.

9:43 I am taking a casual approach again so I won't be making many notes in here. We opened at the 1264 resistance area and used it as a support to move higher. Right now we are struggling at the 1268 area to break higher. Volume has been rather light this morning which makes me think there is a bit of uncertainty today. The Tick has sustained itself above the zero line at this point which is a sign of strength coming in from the stocks.

10:07 We have broken the 1264 support area but are hesitating at the Fast EMA. Volume was declining across our sideways move and we finally moved into negative territory on the Tick. At this point the Tick looks ugly to me and volume is hard to get a handle on. Right now I don't feel in sync with the market so I will take it very easy and most likely refrain from trades. I know this feeling I have right now and it is commonly associated with impulse trades. Will just stick to the rules and enjoy the market action.

10:41 Not much happening at this stage. We have been moving down but at a rather slowish pace, or maybe I'm just used to the volatility we have been seeing lately. We popped beneath the 1264 area and are now back up at it showing some hesitation to move higher. We aren't getting much information from the Tick as it moves rather sideways. It is looking as though stocks don't want to sell off today as the Tick is holding the positive zone pretty well. It is odd that the ES would see the down trending pattern it has been showing at this point. Volume is showing rises on the moves lower at this point. No trades have presented themselves for me so far.

11:21 This market is incredibly slow today and I'm finding it hard staying awake to watch it. Probably good though considering I was feeling off my game tonight. We are still showing reluctance to sell off by the stocks through the Tick. Volume has tapered right off with this slow down in market action. The quiet before the storm, just need to figure out if the storm wants higher or lower prices.

11:34 Well it looks like I was thrown a bone here. I entered short at 1263 for this move down. Stop was at 1265, initial target was at 1261.50 and was taken. I now have trailed the stop at 1264 in case we decide to push back higher. We are coming into some strength from the buyers here at 1261. If we can break this area things might be pretty promissing.

11:46 I took an exit at 1259.50 with the rest of my position. I think it could have been a bit too early but the Tick was registering some selling extremes and the price action was showing strong buying coming in here. It was a good trade.

11:51 Well I am calling it a night. In amongst what was slow action today I managed to hold on until a decent sized move popped its head out. With low volume all day it was a bit harder to interpret the action, I noticed we had died off more though with the sideways action even though buying was predominant on the tick. All in all a good day with all said and done.

Daily Wrap Up

Well I imagine it was as quiet for many traders as it was for myself. The action was slow and the volume wasn't really great. In those circumstances it's hard to spot volume extremes as the levels I am used to don't appear.

I took a few trades early in the morning with the simulation account just to get myself used to entering and exiting trades again. It had been quite some time since I last traded so I wanted to get back into the motion of it. I don't count them in my results today even though they were profitable.

I stuck to my game plan of only trading at s/r levels today. The trade I entered today was the only strong trade opportunity at the s/r levels and I took it. It was odd because prior to that moment I didn't have any trades come to me and then all of a sudden I picked up on the market weakness as shown by the failure of buyers to prop the market up even though the Tick was positive all morning.

I kept my stops tight and traded pretty much in an ideal way. I was casual today which was great as it is working for me. The next step is to transfer the trades on the short side from simulation to live trading. For following my focus today I give myself an 'A'. I kept good patience and followed the plan as best as I could on a day like today. Coming out with a reasonable gain on these days can be tough.

(Simulated Trades)
Trade 1a: 1.5 Win
Trade 1b: 3.5 Win

Daily Result: 5.0 Gain