20131105
Long 2 NQ 3368.0, 3368, +1.5, -1.5
Long 2 TF 1098.4, 1098.5, -0.5, -0.4
Short 2 TF 1098.0, 1097.9, +1.5, +0.7
Long 3 TF 1097.1, 1096.6, 1096.4, -1.4, +0.7, -0.7,
Long 2 TF 1096.3, 1096.1, -0.7, -0.5
Long 3 TF 1095.9, 1095.9, 1096.0, +0.7, +0.7, -0.7
Long 2 TF 1094.01, 1094.01, +1.7, +4.0
Total NQ -0.0
Total TF +5.1
Was determined again to take the breakouts, when they fulfilled the Trade Plan requirements and were not filtered out by caveats. Today, nearly missed a short on break on the way down because I failed to set up my platform for a stp-n-rev trigger. After it broke, it returned for a moment back up to the breakdown level, which means I only caught that short by luck, as many breakdowns do not have initial counter trend reactions, and instead, just run away. As it was, had I used the two-contract breakout strategy on stp-n-rev's I had intended, I would have exited one with +0.4 TF, and been stop-d out the second on the initial counter-break reaction at -0.4 TF, net nothing. As it was, since I entered on a pullback after the breakdown, I got a better fill than the breakdown itself, and was in with a pullback auto-strategy, which exited the first of two contracts at the better +0.7, and left the second open for some play. If this was the more normal occurrence to breakouts, it would beg the question as to whether breakouts are generally better taken not on the breakout itself with a stop-entry order, but on a pullback into the pre-breakdown pause pattern that spawned it. Breakouts are tricky, and again this throws me back into some research.
The best part of my trading today, however, was not the usual absence of my balking at a Trade Plan breakout play, but the persistence I showed when the final buy signal came in the TF near the Low of Day. With a support number at 1094.0, I called entry at 94.01 into a strong Serial Sequent structure buy signal. I remember some years ago when pulling such a trigger against all the usual beginner Do-Not-Do rules, such as, 'never buy a new low', would have kept me out of that trade. But with the True Trend Momentum Indicator actually turning up while the market was making that new low, and a significant exhaustion level being penetrated for the necessary finishing confluence, I was able to enter that order without much emotion at all, and could see to call off the initial targets for better profits than the auto-exits would have on the way up.
And finally, another good night's sleep, with about an hour earlier to bed than usual, lent a distinct background to the mental ease with which I seemed to approach trading today. That odd paradox of patience and persistence seemed to be right at my beckoning when needed. Get your needed rest. Stay focused. Follow your Trade Plan. If your plan is not working, go back to the simulator until it does, or until you've found a Trade Plan that actually works far more often than it fails. You're lost without it.
