Day of reckoning – S&P emini trading – Head above water?
Today I came into the market nervous. I had emailed my trading mentor to discuss my trading and my recent losses. He said that in usual cases, it’s a case of 3 losses and then you get relegated/demoted/beaten up or whatever you want to call it. I’ve already had 3 losing days and he gave me an extra lifeline.. I had to make it today else all the above, which, of course, put on the extra pressure.
Anyway, from the chart you can see another set of arrows.. these blue arrows are the trades which I wanted to trade but didn’t as I was nervous and didn’t want to screw up.. this was my final chance afterall! My trading mentor told me not to trade at all today until I called him to discuss my thinking.
The first thing I did was to call him and I left a message as he didn’t pick up… hmm, I was hoping he would call me back soon but then I spotted the first potential trade. I saw that the price action had bounced on the trendline (as in attached pic). I was thinking of the long here but also aware that the 5 day MA was very close. It would have been a 10 pricer if I had taken it but I’m not used to trading slanted trendlines like this and my trading mentor hadn’t called back… arrgh!
Anyway, when the price level then dropped to the previous low of the day, I went long.. I couldn’t wait any longer for him to call me, it was a good opportunity but at the back of my mind, I knew that I couldn’t afford to lose any points… I would have felt better if I had spoken to my trading mentor first.. if I had lost, I know he would have asked me why I traded without his consent particularly when he told me not to trade until we spoke.
I had targetted 135275 but I chickened out when it got a bit volatile and move my stoploss to breakeven. If I had kept the target and not moved the stop, it would have hit my target.
Darn!! I let the first one get away!
Anyway, my trading mentor called up soon after this and asked me about this trade.. I told him what had happened and he said that I should have held. I said that I would have in usual circumstances but at the back of my mind, there was no room for mistakes today… it was make or break, sink or swim… unfortunately, in the world of trading, most people have lead weights attached to their feet!
I then watched the market drift lower and break the 135000 level. I was on the phone at this stage and trading mentor (I shall call him TM from now on) said that the market was way oversold already today and was expecting a bounce at 134500 or so… hmm, this was the opposite to what I thought so I left and watched it. Gee, TM is good.. the market did indeed bounce at 134500 (how on earth did he know that?) and then shot up. I had missed the boat at this stage but my next entry was when the market broke above the neckline 135000. I went long at this level to target 135275 and once again, chickened out, closing early at 135125… hoorah, at least I was in profit of +6.
Then the market started to fall but my stochastics chart was looking to turn up. I went long on a pullback at 135050 but it went down and stopped me out for -8…. shit, now I was -3 down.
Ok, it wasn’t a big loss but I just didn’t want to lose.
Stochastics were still signalling a move upwards so I went long again after it had stopped me out. I targetted 135500 and before I had a chance to set my limit order, the market shot up and I was forced to manually close it.. I got out at 135425 for +17!!! Yes.. I’m in the safe zone!!
I was +14 up for the day and I didn’t want to risk this. The second blue arrow was when I wanted to short it but like I just mentioned, I didn’t want to risk it so I left this trade. However, I pulled the trigger on my spreadbetting account on the Dow Jones index and made 35 points!
Ok, my first winning day since going live… it could have gone a lot better if it wasn’t for the nerves but at least I’m here to fight another day!! Yippee!
