In the past 3 months or so my method has changed enormously. So much so that it does not fit the small scope that the title of this blog gave me. For that reason I have chosen to continue it under a new address and title that is more befitting of where my trading and I are going.
Intro: All in the title really. Today I planned my primary trades(trades off long term levels) well but needed to prep my secondary trades (short term trades into long term levels) a little better.
Thoughts: Because of yesterday's confusion I came in with almost a disregard for secondary trades, obviously there's a line I need to find. Today I only labeled one level of interest for secondary trades on all pairs this obviously was a quite short sighted.
Summary: I believe the "line" mentioned above can be met by simply labeling a few more levels of interest (high momentum areas) on the M30 chart to aid in not missing too many moves.
Intro: Today I struggled with my bias and missed a great trade on the GU. At the end of the day (literally) I believe that this is because I am getting my directional bias and trade plan in a muddle.
Thoughts: My trade plan in its simplest term is to buy low and sell high. Low to me is H4/D1 supply and high is H4/D1 demand. Entries are found on the M30 chart, I use HOLP to get long and LOPH to get short, stops are placed at there extreme's and my profit targets are the next level of H4/D1 supply or demand. That's it, this is my strategy.
Recently I have been finding that when price is between H4 supply and demand levels I have no trades so I have added to the Trade Plan that, when price is between H4 levels to trade away from the one that has most recently been touched, this I call directional bias. So if H4 demand was touched last I should be shorting at areas of H4 and M30 supply into H4 demand. But it must be emphasized here that this is only if there are no "Trade Plan" trades available.
Summary: Where I have been going wrong is that I have been starting each day with a bias on "directional bias" trades rather than "Trade Plan" trades which should always be overriding. Each day must start with me simply IDing Long term S&D and planning trades off them and waiting for price to come to them. Should I be lucky enough to get the opportunity to profit from a move into one of these levels I can take it but they should not overwhelm my time or attention which should be spent on focusing on the former. In other words it's not an issue if I can't figure out the DB because it's secondary. As long as I am objectively identifying trades at long term levels I am doing fine.
Here's a video of me focusing a little too much on Secondary Trades rather than Primary Trades on Thursday morning...We can see the process is labored and uncertain.
BAD
Here's a video from Friday morning with focus on Primary Trades over Secondary trades... We can see the process is clear and concise.
Missed GU Trade: GU price pulled back to an H4 demand level I should have got long on a HOLP with my stop at its low and PT at H4 Supply.
Issues: This trade was very simple but because I got my H4 demand level in the incorrect place I missed it. The lesson here is that on levels which have been touched multiple time it is better to draw a "best fit" supply/demand area rather than take it from the extreme of a pivot high or low like a did this AM.
Intro: EU price action has been in a range so my plan this week has been to buy at demand and sell at supply.
Trade: Price returned to an H4 and M30 supply level so I took a short just below the M30 supply level with a stop at the top, hoping there would be some left over sell order there and price would decline into H4 demand. Shortly after entry price retraced much of the bearish bar prior to my entry, this was not the momentum I wanted to see so I exited at R-0.4.
Summary: Not unhappy with this trade, the plan was clear simple and logical which is all I can ask for. Only thing I would say is that price had been in this range/congestion for sometime and that in terms of pips it was quite small. As such waiting for a fresher level might have been prudent but not essential.
Intro: Had some trouble with my directional bias on all pairs at the start of the day. This was predominantly because the H4 pivot highs and lows were not that clear/strong and because M30 price action was quite congested. Here's a video of my anguish...
Plan: Ultimately decided that the EJ was a better short as it had last touched an area of longterm/H4 supply and so shorting into longterm/H4 demand was the action I wished to take. I labeled an M30 level of supply and shorted it once it was reached.
Summary: Had issues with profit areas, strictly speaking I should have shorted into H4 demand but ended up taking profit at the bottom of M30 congestion, where there might have been H4 demand but was unclear as the pivot low it would have been based at was imperfect (as mentioned above). Turns out it was demand, perhaps the more telling thing is not how perfect the pivot high or low is but the strength/speed of the move off the hi or low.
Late start that meant I missed two very easy shorts, one on the GU, one on the EJ.
Interestingly the EU was at a level of H4 demand but i preferred a short on it as
1. this tallied with the GU and EJ direction
2. the EU long term trend was down and because of this...
3. demand levels would have less impact
4. finally price was at a M30 level of supply
Intro: So got my directional bias sorted and was looking to get short the EJ and EU on Friday morning as price has most recently touched H4 supply on both so I wanted to get short into an H4 demand level below. I labeled an M30 supply level I was interested in getting short on both pairs and placed an alert there... The alert triggered and I just didn't know how to enter, whether to use candle confirmation or sell limits around the level. Good news is I got the direction right but didn't get in.
Here's a video from Friday morning before the move.... and a screenshot in the afternoon after the move.
Summary: got to work on my entries, John left me a comment last week with a good link to a entries topic on a forum so going to start there (thanks John)...
Intro:Can't help seeing that I got the direction wrong on the GU and EJ but still like my trade plans because they were logical and objective. However the fact is I should have been long with the very strong trend today...Whats the answer? Honestly wrote the answer in a post last month ....Today I did the exact opposite to what it says, that being trading away from the last H4 level that has been hit. In both the GU and EJ the last H4 level that was touched was a demand level so I should have been looking for longs into H4 supply in both pairs.
GU Trade: GU price action had rallied to D1, H4 and M30 supply, I drilled down to the M5 and shorted on a Bearish engulfing pattern, after 3 bars of no downward progress I exited as momentum clearly wasn't showing up.
EJ Trade 1: Got impatient waiting for price to reach H4 supply and traded off a M30 supply level alone, once I realised I was wrong I closed out for a small loss.
here's a video about it...
EJ Trade 2: With the updated M30 supply level (from the pivot high this AM) just overlapping H4 supply I felt I'd have another go at shorting the EJ, again momentum didn't step in so got out on a time/momentum stop.
Really shouldn't have got into this trade 8 hours after it triggered and had shown no signs of momentum in the direction i wanted (short). glad i realized this and got out. Poor prep: this was not a trade institutions were waiting all day for!
Into: Actually a little under the weather so not beating myself up too hard for this but wanted to document this observation as I would love to capitalize on something similar in the future.
Idea: GU H4 trend down, price rallied to H4 supply (even D1 supply level), M30 price put in a top creating M30 supply then M5 price rallied to this M30 top/supply level (in an H4 supply level!) for a strong M5 short. see below...
Plan: H4 trend was down on both the EJ and GU, labeled overhead levels of H4 supply and initiated shorts when price reached these levels on the EJ and GU....
Thoughts: Small losses all round. EJ trade was off a fairly well used level of supply so in my opinion had less chance of working as there was likely not that greater a supply /demand imbalance there any longer.
The GU trades I were happier with as actually they originate from a previously untested supply level but we can see momentum never stepped in and price shot up to the next level. c'est la vie...
Summary: Not remotely bothered by any of these trades. I objectively identified places where I thought there would be a supply/demand imbalance (edge) and waited for price to reach them before trading. Price moved against me which has only further heightened my interest in getting short tomorrow at higher levels where there will be an even greater supply/demand imbalance.
NB: quite wanted to move my stop to BE on all these trades, but resisted the urge.... kind of wish i hadn't but kind of know I shouldn't ha.
