Friday 17 January 2014

Don't Use Doji As Triggers, Make Even Whole Numbers Prove Themselves

PL:  R-3.61    £-69.19

Summary: Today's action just didn't go anywhere. While now obvious that it was in a range, during my session one could easily argue 2 and 8 were potential continuations and 7 a potential "W" (I'm trying to stay away from labelling price action but this was fairly clear). The good news is I got all the best trades (1,2,7,8), the bad news is I exited them early because I got a counter signals.
 As I was trading this session I kept asking myself: "How can I be trading a 5 min chart for 90 mins and be getting 8 trades (12 yesterday) while JMF3 trades a 1 min chart for 90 mins and gets no more than 8?!"
These counter signals are creating the over-trading, answer my question and are what I need to eliminate.
There were two issues today:
1. not using candles (3+4). Despite preferring the look of bars the long at 3 could and should have been avoided because the trigger was a doji (Al Brooks) and certainly shouldn't have been used as a TSL point either. But I missed it because bars are not as clearly defined as a candle... If I hadn't entered 3 I wouldn't have had to SAR on 4. Might introduce a small Candle window to my screen so I have a clearer view of what's going on.
2. using 1.36 as a S/R level (5&6)... For no other reason than it was a whole number. Price had confirmed areas near it but it was not a confirmed area of S/R.... but I insisted on using it as one. 
Might have scraped a BE without these errors, or at least a smaller loss!
So main issue was really Prep... Failure to prep doji and using a lazy S/R level (1.36).



LHs, LLs = down trend got to wait for prior PB to be tested before REV.
1. Buy off test 2nd test of prior low, draw new S line. Prep good, Patience good,  Discipline good (though did want to scalp out some profit) R+0.4 GOOD TRADE
2. Sell on test of RLH, draw new R line. R-0.5 GOOD TRADE, BAD EXIT (doji TSL)
3. SAR Long on imd  REV (2 likely a shake out), draw new S line R-0.8 Shouldn't have exited 2 (doji TSL) Poor Prep!
4. SAR Short on imd REV (3 likely a shake out),  draw new R line. R+0.1 Shouldn't have exited 2 (doji TSL) Poor Prep!
5. Long on of 1.36 test (should have been 1 lows) and REV,  draw new S line. R-0.8 Shouldn't have used 1.36 as a S/R line , it hadn't been confirmed as one! Poor Prep
6. SAR Short on imd REV (5 likely a shake out),  draw new R line. R-0.6  Shouldn't have used 1.36 as a S/R line , it hadn't been confirmed as one! Poor Prep
7. Long on test of most recent S line (5). draw new S line. R-0.3
8. Short on test of (4) RLH ,  draw new R Line. R-0.9 Prep Good , Patience Good,  Discipline Good, hard luck getting stopped.

2 comments:

  1. Hi George, what stop loss are you using on these trades and what is the R:R in pips that you are looking for?
    Keep at it Tuesday was a great day for you.

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    Replies
    1. Steven, thank you for your very kind words. I'm using the hi of the Rally (short) or low of the pullback (long) as my initial stop (give or take a pip or two). Looking for around R2, but will exit earlier if a signal tells me to. I should really be looking to hold longer but it can be agony ;)

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