Trading Results for Monday

2 Steps forward, one step back.
Lost 2.75pts today.

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Red arrows highlight the planned trades that I made today.
Today was pretty choppy as indicated by the numerous occasions that ES alternated between green and red bars. That should have been my warning to adjust accordingly (eg. either use wider stops, or be more vigilant with timing my entries), but I failed to do so.

Trade1: short @1450.75, stop@1452.75, exit@1449.25, profit=1.50pts
Trade2: short @1446, stop@1447, exit@1447, profit= -1pt.

Trade1 was a play of the reversal of the premarket run-up: I was looking to short @1458-1460, but the reversal occurred before that resistance level. TTM Trend changed colour and MACD crosses zero within 2 bars of each other. The retrace did not even violate the MA's, which increased the probability of the setup.

Trade2 was a play of reversal at the 1446 resistance level. In retrospect, I jumped the gun on this short, and should have waited for confirmation of a reversal.


Then I tried to chase the uptrend with 4 unplanned trades, but the pullbacks stopped me out. That was the biggest mistake that I made today.

I've observed that if I have already made a couple of losing trades, and don't time my entry well enough on the next trade, and then the position goes against me, then I get discouraged, and lose my focus and judgement.

The most important thing at this stage is to guard against losing my focus.
I think for me, staying focused is more important than missing out on a trading opportunity. I don't think I framed my mindset in that way before, so that is what I will need to work on going forward.

Boredom is also a significant, yet subtle obstacle to staying focused. Now that I think about it, I think the boredom trades that I've taken in the past have caused me to lose focus as well. So for sure, staying alert and focused will become one of my trading process goals.

In today's session, ES took 2 hours to grind out the double bottom, but less than 1hr to run-up 20pts. To guard against the many opportunities to get sucked into boredom trades during the dead zone (9am - 1030am PST), I will set a price level alert before I stop trading during the dead zone. I never really got into the (good) habit of setting alerts, so that will have to change going forward.