Trading for 29th July

Here is my journal for the 29th July

Today we have the Consumer Confidence Index being released at 10am. So around that time I will try to remain pretty cautious of entering any new trades. Otherwise the rest of the day the market will be left alone from the influence of news. Right now we are trading at the 1240 area.

I will be looking for some possible weakness at the 1243.50 area through the Tick and/or volume. If we break that level I will test longs but still remain cautious with them beneath the 1251 area. Again I am not too confident in any longs beneath the 1251 area but should we show good signs of a reversal down at 1233 I will look at testing the long side.

9:50 We haven't really gone far from the open at this stage. Right now I suspect the news will need to hit before we decided to pick a direction at this point, if we pick one at all. Volume has been high as we moved marginally lower but is now tapering off on the 2 minute. The Tick has remained strong sticking above the zero line pretty well at this stage. Being so early there are no clear signs to me right now with either side. At this point I sit on the sidelines and wait until after the news hits. The safest way to be at this stage.

10:07 I entered short at 1245.75 with my stop at 1247. It was based on a push on news above resistance with a Tick extreme on big volume. We hung around the 1246 for a little bit of time but then pushed higher. I kept a relatively tight stop so I'm not too fussed. It wasn't following the plan exactly but I made the attempt. Next trade I will try to make it closer to the plan. The tick is showing strength sticking above the zero line and volume has supported the higher move at this point.

10:30 Hmm out for a loss again on the short side. I entered at 1247 with my stop at 1248.25 and my stop was hit. I wasn't at a resistance level again. I am trading the failure to push higher after the volume extreme and Tick extremes. Right now I am going to trade better if I stick to the plan. Volume has tapered off on this move sideways and the Tick hasn't made any strong moves beneath the zero area. This market is up so I am best working with that.

10:56 I'm in short at 1248.25 with my stop at 1249.50. Reason being the resistance area hit with a divergence on the Tick and lower volume on the second push higher. I just took my trade off for a tick gain as we weren't pushing beyond the zero area on the Tick. It was a risky trade and I wasn't willing to give it much space. This Tick has been showing stocks holding up like a mofo. Yet somehow I still would like to short the market.

11:23 I am definitely best leaving this market alone today. I have made some less than ideal trading decisions. I just shorted the market again at 1247.25 with my stop at 1248.50. The idea was a 1-2-3 top with the Tick moving into the negative for the first time today. Volume had also tapered off on the move. I'm going to call it a night right here and work on improving tomorrow. Considering I did many things that were not in my plan tonight I think I have come out pretty well. I do believe I have moved back into the short trading problems I had previously.

11:29 Well I just took another short trade for a point loss. Impulse trade mania. I'm closing my platform right now.

Daily Wrap Up

Wow is all I can say. I seemed to be on holiday last night whilst someone else took over and traded my account. I honestly am a bit confused as to where some of my decisions came from. Of 5 trades, really only one of them was according to my plan. It was the third trade which was a move from the 1251 resistance area with a divergence in the tick and declining volume.

Beyond that one trade at the resistance, I would have liked my focus to be turned to trading the long side. I'm not sure there is much I can say beyond recognizing the fact that most of my trades today were impulse based trades. This seems to be a recurring problem I face with my short trades. Not wanting to miss out on what is a "sure thing" move has me entering some short trades that don't exist or too early if they do exist.

The good part of today was that even though I took 4 out of 5 hits, I haven't taken a massive hit in my account. I much rather take the trades and lose so I have something to learn from rather than not trade and wonder what would have been. There is some learning to be done from today so I will accept the way I traded. It doesn't make me a bad trader, I just made some bad trades.

Today for following my focus I am giving myself an 'F'. The saving grace was that I did take a good trade at the resistance area even though it didn't pan out. It was the one trade that was in my plan and I did take it.

Trade 1a: 1.25 Loss
Trade 1b: 1.25 Loss
Trade 2a: 1.25 Loss
Trade 2b: 1.25 Loss
Trade 3a: 0.25 Win
Trade 3b: 0.25 Win
Trade 4a: 0.5 Loss
Trade 4b: 0.5 Loss
Trade 5a: 1.0 Loss
Trade 5b: 1.0 Loss