The past 2 or more weeks have produced less than satisfactory results. We don't risk trading mini Russell futures for a net profit of +1.6 pts. It's time again to focus on the Trade Plan, and consider whether or not it is being followed. Today, the early Test-n-Reject sell-off completed no buy signals in the TF, NQ or YM contracts, and yet there was a clear buy signal at support in the ES. So this aspect of my Trade Plan must be reiterated: "Consider All Four Contracts." I have eight monitors (perhaps overkill), so no excuse for not being able to see them nearly side-by-side across my market view. Next item was a Trade Plan Violation. I was short 2 YM contracts near the 9:55am ET prelim economic reports without showing a profit premium just prior to the news. My plan calls for a hasty exit to any position taken before the news that is not showing a profit in the remaining position, and a profitable exit of 1 of those contracts, if 2 positions were taken. Today, I violated the rules on both counts. I failed to exit one of the 2 positions when an initial profit appeared, and I failed to exit the 2nd position when it came back up to my entry price just prior to the actual news announcement. Consequently, I lost unnecessarily in both. "Follow your rules. They should be specified in an exacting manner. Don't worry about what opportunities you might miss. The rules prevent you from undue damage. Respect the rules and the rules will respect your capital."
Next, I failed to take breakout signals post-news on inflection signals when they appeared in 3 of 4 contracts. Perhaps I felt frozen out of further action by having been caught short in the earlier trade. "Take the trades as you see them, where your plan calls for them. Be alert and shake off your mistakes and your stp-outs quickly from previous trades."
20121012
Short 2 YM 13296, 13298, -12, -14
Short 1 TF 826.7, -0.5
Short 2 TF 828.7, 829.0, -0.7, -0.4
Long 2 ES 1428.75, 1428.75, +1.0, +1.0
Total YM -26
Total ES +2.0
Total TF -1.6
Weekly Trade Summary 2012112-20121008
Total ES +2.0
Total YM -40
Total NQ +23.75
Total TF +1.6
