The quest continues!!!

Thu, Aug 22, 2019

Total trades: 3
Total volume: 12
Closed P&L: $400.00

Off to a good start today. I woke up on time and made it to the gym! I had a good workout then came home and had a light breakfast. Im ready for a good day of trading today!!!

On the news front the weekly jobless claims came in at 206K vs an estimated 216K so thats good for the economy. The biggest thing on the macro side is the Fed governors meeting in Jackson Hole Wy today and tomorrow. Powell speaks at 1000 Friday so that could effect markets. Apparently there was discontent among the voting fed governors so this meeting could be interesting. Germany lowered their rates last night and are now selling negative yield bonds. Im not sure how that is going to work out however, Japan started it a few years ago and they haven't failed yet. We will see and I'll do some more research into that. Just doesn't make sense to me, unless you're expecting the markets to plunge, why would you buy something that will start losing money as soon as you buy it?

The plan for today is to scalp the ES. If its slow I'll look at the NQ and maybe even the RTY. With regards to trading, i plan to be disciplined and patient and just trade my set-ups...We will see though...sometimes i feel like i just have to be in a trade or that 'its only 5 ticks what could go wrong?". My target is $300-400 profit and if I get 2 bad trades in a row I'm done for the day.

Below are my pre-market levels I'm looking at.

So i got 3 trades in today. For what ever reason my mind this morning was looking for a bullish day so i was waiting for a reversal as the market tanked from 0950 and on in the morning session . However, once I heard that the 2yr and 10yr inverted again and that there could be a contraction in manufacturing I started to look for a short entry. I entered once the ES cleared the 2918 level which was yesterdays close and also a break below my pivot points that I use. Once I was well into profit I moved my stop to +$300 in the green and left the screen. I went and did my honey do list!!! Well the market reversed right at the 50% retracement of the prior swing high which also was my lowest pivot point and I was stopped out at +$300. Not complaining but I could have made a lot more money if i would have stayed on the screen. From my observations and charting the ES lately it has conformed almost to the tick with my Fibonacci analysis. 

So things to improve on are:

1. trade what you see and not what you think. Come up with a if and then plan for bullish and bearish scenarios

2. manage active trade alot better: stick to the screen. maybe set alerts for key fib areas/pivot points in order to tighten up stops in the case of a reversal.

Tomorrow will be a short trading day for me and will shut down around 1130. I have plans for lunch and also some things to do the afternoon. 

Below are my intraday charts for today (notice the fib lines almost to the tick) and the last chart is of my trades on a 30 second chart depicted by the yellow arrows: