Monday 04/20/09 - Not bad considering

I hate days like today where the big trade is right at the open, with little opportunity to enter later. Judging from other traders' Twitter posts, I wasn't the only one looking for a halfway decent retract to enter short. Unfortunately, the retrace never materialized, and mostly out of frustration, I started taking stabs to the Long side. I had 4 trades total; all Longs, but only one gain (the small scalp at the end). The first trade was entered based on support at 843, which didn't work out. The next two trades actually went 1-3 points in my direction before reversing. I was holding out for a retrace to the 842 area. Usually, I move my stop to break-even pretty quickly, but I didn't want to get shaken out of my trades so stuck with my initial stops, which are fairly tight to begin with (2 pts max). I had to take my continuing education realtor's exam in the afternoon (passed with flying colors), so only traded the morning and ended the day with a net loss of -$172.10.

Going forward, looking for 823-825 area to hold as support. On to the charts...

ES 610-Tick bar Chart (Trades)


Open/Unfilled Gap at 867


ES/$TICK (3-Min) - $TICK below zero-line all day.


ES 15-Minute - Price broke below the 200 EMA