First, a very happy birthday to my dad who's still on his game at the age of 82. Have a great day Dad!1:30pm OK, I'm beginning notes earlier today than normal to make sure I stay on my game -- and most importantly out of trouble -- as I continue to position for Tuesday afternoon's Q1 lap turn.
And I feel I need to be particulary focused given my horrendous track record for Mondays, and fact that I'm sitting on a rather strong +$14K intraday chip gain as we approach today's afternoon session as the result of fading the early oscillations and TICK extremes after the gap down.
2:20pm In watch mode only and not interested in fading further unless we get a significant mini-squeeze to the north or further long puke to the south. No-man's land here. Stay focused Don. Pace atrocious now and I'll be more than OK with not taking another trade until Tuesday.
3:00pm Last hour approacheth. Not your strength Don and pace still a mess. No problem with sitting out any final hour trend extension to set up the higher probability morning trade. No trades since closing out last sequence at 12:44pm.3:40pm Seeing divergences on climbs but not getting cute. Focus not particularly there at this end.
3:50pm That's a wrap ... took a few trades but nothing with size and held onto the A.M. gains.
4:00pm In hindsight, I'm very pleased with sitting out the PM session for the most part. As they say, "when you have to squint to find a trade, back away". Very good PM discipline as noted on the scorecard.
I could have held one late morning short longer (thus the orange grade for "exits"), but overall not too many complaints and a surprising Monday +$14K splash in my favor as we reach for the turn tomorrow.
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6 comments:
Congratulations Mr. Miller. You've given your son a reason to crawl out of his basement and put on a suit and tie (and a purty little flower). Next time I hear my $TICK alert go off I'll know that its you, Don, pounding your DOM window.
Hello Don,
May I ask about what time you took your first sequence?
Thanks,
Severino
Happy Birthday Mr Miller. Have a great year.
Hi Sev -
I did some light overnight trading, but started testing the waters at the U.S. open as the TICK hit -1000 and higher with light size to get a feel for the trade.
I recall many of the early post-open sequences were break-even or scalps only as the bounces were weak -- which of course indicated that a late morning short would likely be the prime profit candidate which turned out to be the case on the 11:15am climb.
That's the one where I nailed the short entry yet was a bit too early on covering the final position as I was waiting for second lower 1-min high for a heavier entry which didn't materialize.
Don
Hi Don,
Been lurking for quite a while here and figured I better pipe up - I have to thank you for this blog. It has been a great way to learn about trading both specifically in its technical aspect but also the more broad psychological approaches to trading as a personal business and personal skill.
Your latest posts and this weekend's video were helpful as I had a very difficult time trading (or should I say being profitable) thursday and friday and it was nice to hear that an experienced trader felt the market was tough to trade as well!
I'm sure I'll have more to say as time goes on but for now, Hello - and thanks again, really great to ride along with you as you're doing your thing.
Surly
First I have really enjoyed reading your blog; you are obviously a great trader and an entertaining writer. I just had a few questions.
1. How do you stay so focused throughout the day? Do you get tempted to just go out and do whatever for the day after you have a good open?
2. Do you attribute a lot of your success to only trading a couple of markets and do you think your trading would suffer if you went to other markets?
Thanks for your time, and I am sorry if these questions have been asked before. I am relatively new reading your blog.
Justin
Surly - Hang in there.
JW2 - Keep in mind I have non-market obligations that sometimes help and sometimes hurt in terms of ability to monitor the market and focus. So that isn't an issue for me.
And yes, at least for me, I strongly believe trading pretty much a single market helps keep me in both the short- and long-term rhythm of the market I'm trading. No doubt about that.
Don
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