20140923
Short 3 TF 1123.2, 1123.8, 1124.3, -1.4, -0.8, -0.5
Short 2 TF 1124.7, 1124.7, -0.5, -0.5
Long 2 TF 1125.5, 1125.5, -0.0, -0.2
Long 2 YM 17071, 17072, -5, -5
Long 1 TF 1126.1, -0.7
Total YM -10
Total TF -4.6
When your entry model is incomplete, or is conflicted by counter signals from other contracts or entry filters, it's best to just pass on the trade. But we are an arrogant lot, we humans. When after a winning streak of many days, we are just unwilling to think that pulling the trigger again despite such entry conflicts will produce anything but the expected profits. Today's signals were difficult using the means I usually employ, but I made a crucial mistake regarding the outcome of the early trend that not only could have been avoided but in reverse would have enjoyed participation. Study all your entries with care. The best lessons that come from trading are those that surprise you and cause you to lose. The improvement you seek is not in your winners. It's where you lose that hides the success and improvement you seek. Those technical 'situations' will return, as rare as they might have seemed at the time. Categorize and catalog them. Be ready for them when they return. All things that happen in the market are in context. Look for opposites. Most of the technical language of the markets can mean the opposite to its 'norm' when that context changes. The market teaches us the best places to trade from every day. Open your mind. Listen to the market. The market is its own authority on trend excursion and reversal. Each day its history is there in plain view, and so now are your assumptions and misunderstandings about it crystallized by every bad trade.
