Thursday 12/11/2008 - AM Chop, PM Drop

This morning was one of the tightest ranges I've seen in the ES in the last few months. Very choppy and slow pace. Trade entry and exit required a lot of patience, and patience is something I have in very short supply. I took 2 quick scalps on the train ride for +3 ticks. Then I shorted 2 contracts in the 902.75 area, but got stopped out for -2 points. I was early on my entry and I kind of knew this going into the trade. I should have been more patient on the entry. On the bright side, I got back in with 2 contracts short at 904.50. I covered one at 903.50 and moved stop to break-even and let the other one run. My target was 898.50, but I ran out of patience and exited at 899.50 for +5 points. I'm glad I was able to get back into the trade quickly after the stop-out and actually hold out for a 5-pt gain. I was busy with work remainder of the day so couldn't watch the market and missed out on the PM puke. XLF gapped down, and was unable to fill the gap which indicated weakness. XLE gapped up but was rolling over and showing weakness. This gave me a bearish bias. Overall, I'm happy with my market reads today. I think I could do much better if I had the entire day to trade. Net gain for the day is +$133.

Performance Summary/Stats


Trades Plotted on 1-Min Chart


Market Structure/Balance Chart (5-min)