30th November – Trading the S&P emini, discipline is key
Ok, first trade was a long at 148550 as the market breached the previous swing high, this was initially profitable as you can see in the chart but I had my hopes on a higher target at 148925. Unfortunately, the market made a high at around 148750 or so before it tanked taking out my stop loss. If I had got out, I would have taken around 9 prices here.
Second trade was a long again at around 148100 as this looked to be a base. Once again, I targetted the previous target at 148925.. It went as high as 148500 before falling and hitting my stop. My stop was pretty tight at 147950.
It was frustrating at this point as both trades were initially in profit and I could have made a tidy sum.
Third trade was a short below the break of the base at 147825.. I targetted 147550 which got hit… hoorah, +11 in the bag!! However, I saw that the market was moving still to the downside so then I put in another short at 147475 as it retraced a little from 147325… I should have been a little careful at this stage as the stochastics were in the oversold territory.
In fact, I should have been careful, as the markets reversed here to take out my stop at 147675 for a -9 loss.
Overall for the trades was -7, -6, +11 and then -9 leaving a total of -11.
I would have been happy if I left the trading after the third trade for a total of -2. It was a particularly trendless day.
The moral of the story should be to only trade when all your ducks are lined up. I should have made sure that the stochastics were properly aligned also with the price movement before I took the final trade. I was excited about the possibility of a final sell of at the end.. sometimes it does happen the the profits are significant, however, it just didn’t happen today!
Please note, today’s chart shows on the entry positions. I also show my target for the first two trades (which didn’t make it :() and the support line which broke
