Wednesday 11/19/2008 Trades

Was busy this morning talking to a friend from overseas who I haven't heard from in a while, so wasn't able to focus or watch the market open. When I did get to my charts, it looked like a short was setting up, but I completely messed up my timing. Usually, I watch for setups on the 5-min chart, and use the 1-min as my execution chart to fine-tune the entry so I don't have to take a lot of heat on the trade. That wasn't the case this morning. It looked like a good short setup on the 5-min, and the 1-min was bullish but I still entered short. Not sure why I rushed into it; maybe because I didn't have much time left for trading or maybe I didn't want to miss the move. Regardless, I started shorting the small morning run-up around 855 and kept adding upto 863. My stop was at 868. I was still in my trade when I got to the downtown Chicago station, but the setup was valid so I put in OCO orders to exit half at 857 and the other half at 855 with a stop at 868. By the time I got to the office, both trades had hit the profit targets and I was out. I think I would've left a couple of contracts short at those levels if I was trading full-time, but since I can't manage the trade, this was the best I could do. Afterwards, I was busy most of the day but took some counter-trend scalps; some worked, some didn't. Should've just stayed out of the market all together during the day since I don't have time to manage the trades but took a few "gambles" since I was up $1400 or so and felt comfortable risking $2-300 of "the market's money". Need to eliminate that thought. Once a P&L is booked, it's not the market's money and I shouldn't be taking trades which are equivalent to gambling.

End result was +$1,254 for the day.

TradeStation Performance Summary


Equity Curve for the Day


Trades Plotted on 3-Min Chart


Current FIB Levels (Daily chart)


Market Structure Chart (5-min)