20131028
Long 1 TF 1115.0, +1.5
Short 1 TF 1116.9, +1.1
Long 2 YM 14488, 15490, -2, +7
Short 1 ES 1757.25, +0.25
Short 1 NQ 3379.25, +2.25
Long 1 TF 1115.9, -0.3
Long 1 TF 1112.8, -0.7
Long 2 TF 1111.3, 111.4, +1.0, +0.7
Long 1 TF 1110.1, +1.4
Total Ym +5
Total NQ +2.25
Total TF +4.7
When is a trade only worth holding for a minimum profit and when is it worth taking multiple lots and peeling them down to a runner....? Well, if I had that answer definitively, my trading would take one giant step for mankind. For instance, although I was short both the ES and the NQ near the highs of the 1st Frame today, I could not be sure enough that we had reached a final buying climax in the that early bull trend til it was well behind me, and I had already exited. In fact, the ES was producing so poorly I dumped it immediately as the NQ continued to peel off. One solution is to step out of shorts as support and structure approach, but look for stp n rev levels back to short should the apparent pullback gather enough extension to warrant the identity of a new trend. Breakouts are my weakest play. I find then so fraught with failure, that, like today, I'll pass on committing to an entry at the breakout level in anticipation of a bounce that gives me a pullback in-trend entry, rather than going with a fresh break. But the market is not always so accommodating, especially on the bear side, where once it gets the message that the trend has turned down, often leaves the station on the express train, and waits for no man. We continue to examine our breakout filters, and hope to eventually crystallize a more concrete set of parameters with which to govern trade behavior at those critical junctures. Always be a student... both of the markets, and your own trading behavior.
