Fri Jan 29 Trades & Journal

20160129
Short 1 ES 1900.5, -1.0
Short 3 TF 1016.6, 1017.1, 1017.7, -0.0, +1.5, -0.4
Short 1 NQ 4215.75, +2.0
Short 2 TF 1120.2, 1119.7, -0.4, +0.5
Short 2 TF 1121.0, 1120.7, -0.6, +1.0
Short 1 TF 1120.6, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1015.4, +2.0
Total ES -1.0
Total NQ +2.0
Total TF +5.6

The market's behavior is often perversely designed to encourage you to do the wrong thing at the wrong time, especially on Persistent Trend Days. Yes, the first trend direction of the day will eventually fail, but on a Persistent Trend Day that seems to come out of nowhere, it's repeated impulse spikes are surprising. The reversal signals appear and offer your position encouraging results, so you hold, thinking it would be cowardice and a crime to take profits too soon. ....only to have the market surge back into new extremes to stop your proposed big runner out. Then, when a more final, exhaustive sell signal does appear, you nearly miss it, and this time you are so please to be capturing at least a decent profit that you let it go too quickly and forego all the gratification of holding the right runner you mistakenly took for earlier reversals. It doesn't matter how stupid you look. Take each position for what it is. Acknowledge the signs of a possible Persistent Trend immediately as they appear, and take any profit gained accordingly. Wait for that more exhaustive signal that finally comes after a true WorkDone target has finally been achieved, and when a true pullback finally appears, hold on and give the position a chance. Stay calm. Don't let your early mistakes rattle you. You've seen this before. Let the market speak. Just listen. Accept it for what it is, and modify your behavior accordingly.

Thurs Jan 28 Trade Summary

20160128
Short 1 TF 1010.7, -0.5
Long 1 TF 1007.2, -0.0
Long 1 TF 1005.9, -0.1
Long 1 TF 1005.0, -1.4
Long 2 TF 10004.0, 1004.1, +1.4, +1.6
Long 1 TF 1004.1, -1.4
Long 1 NQ 4136.25, -3.0
Long 1 TF 1000.9, -0.7
Long 2 TF 999.3, 999.7, +1.0, +3.6
Long 1 TF 999.7, -0.9
Short 1 TF 1004.2, +1.0
Total NQ -3.0
Total TF +3.6

Wed Jan 27 Trade Summary

20160127
Long 1 TF 1008.6, +1.3
Long 2 NQ 4199.0, 4197.75, +6.0, +2.0
Long 1 NQ 4193.0, -3.0
Long 1 NQ 4190.0, +6.0
Short 1 TF 1003.5, +1.1
Long 2 TF 1007.0, 1006.0, -1.4, -0.1
Long 2 TF 1006.0, 1006.0, -1.4, -1.4
Long 2 TF 1005.1, 1005.1, +1.0, +3.0
Total NQ +11.0
Total TF +2.1

Tues Jan 26 Trade Summary

20160126
Long 1 TF 1000.8, -0.7
Long 1 TF 999.0, +1.5
Long 1 TF 996.0, +2.0
Long 1 TF 996.0, +2.0
Short 1 TF 1002.3, -0.3
Short 1 TF 1003.0, -0.5
Short 1 TF 1004.3, -0.7
Short 1 TF 1005.7, +2.0
Short 1 TF 1007.7, +1.0
Total TF +6.3

Mon Jan 25 Trade Summary

20160125
Short 1 TF 1014.1, +1.1
Short 1 TF 1013.8, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1009.4, +2.0
Total TF +5.1

Fri Jan 22 Trade Summary

20160122
Short 1 NQ 4207.5, -3.0
Short 1 TF 1012.5, -0.5
Short 2 TF 1013.8, 1013.7, -0.7, -0.7
Short 2 TF 1015.9, 1015.9, -1.4, -1.4
Short 2 NQ 4232.5, 4230.5, +8.0, +2.0
Short 1 NQ 4233.75, -3.0
Long 1 TF 1012.2, 1012.2, +2.0, +1.5
Long 3 TF 1011.7, 1011.0, 1011.0, -0.0, -0.5, -0.5
Long 1 ES 1890.0, -0.0
Long 2 TF 1008.7, 1008.7, +2.0, -0.4
Long 1 TF 1008.2, -0.4
Long 3 TF 1107.0, 1107.0, 1107.3, +1.0, +3.0, +4.0
Total ES -0.0
Total NQ +4.0
Total TF +7.0

Thurs Jan 21 Trade Summary

20160121
Short 1 TF 995.8, +1.7
Short 1 TF 996.5, -0.7
Short 1 TF 1000.0, +2.0
Short 1 TF 999.4, +1.7
Short 1 TF 1004.2, -0.0
Short 1 TF 1005.0, +2.0
Total TF +6.7

Wed Jan 20 Trade Summary

20160120
Long 1 TF 967.0, -1.4
Long 1 ES 1832.75, +5.0
Long 1 TF 962.4, -1.0
Long 1 NQ 4017.5, -1.0
Long 1 ES 1822.25, +4.0
Total ES +9.0
Total NQ -1.0
Total TF -2.4

Tues Jan 19 Trade Summary

20160119
Long 2 TF 1003.8, 1004.2, +3.0, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1003.5, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1002.7, -0.0
Short 1 NQ 4176.5, +5.0
Total NQ +5.0
Total TF +7.0

Fri Jan 15 Trade Summary

20160115
Long 1 TF 995.7, +3.0
Long 1 TF 999.9, -0.3
Long 1 TF 1000.4, -0.5
Long 1 TF 992.6, +2.4
Total TF +4.6

Thurs Jan 14 Trades and Journal

20160114
Long 1 NQ 4163.25, -2.0
Long 2 TF 1003.3, 1003.5, -1.4, -1.4
Long 2 TF 999.3, 999.7, +1.0, -1.2
Long 1 NQ 4128.0, -2.5
Long 1 TF 996.7, +4.0
Short 1 YM 16070, -10
Short 2 TF 1003.7, 1004.6, -0.0, -0.7
Short 2 YM 16113, 16113, -0, -0
Short 1 TF 1010.5, -0.7
Short 2 TF 1011.4, 1011.4, +1.0, -0.5
Short 2 TF 1116.2, 1116.2, -0.4, -0.4
Short 1 ES 1909.25, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1010.8, +1.7
Long 1 TF 1007.5, -0.7
Long 1 TF 1005.7, +2.0
Total ES +2.0
Total YM -10
Total NQ -4.5
Total TF +2.3

Entry levels tend to come in zones. A trader might have an exact set of numbers from his Pivot / Exhaustion Grid, but the more volatile the day, the more likely those numbers will bleed. Same can be said of any tool that analyses structure. The momentum behind fast charging prices push the waves out far beyond expectations. If the entry models are still intact after such over-throws, then you only have two choices, to assess the day as too hot to play, or get back in the positions when the next entry level arrives after suffering a manageable dollar amount of stop-outs. But stop-outs can take the wind from your sail, and yet can come just at the time when you must be most alert to the truer turn and reversal signals. Regardless, don't let your stop outs exceed the dollar amount of your profit goal. There's always another day if you keep your losses to a minimum. With the bear tending to be more volatile than the bull, we may yet be facing some very challenging days ahead for short term futures trading.

Wed Jan 13 Trade Summary

20160113
Long 1 NQ 4338.5, +8.0
Long 1 NQ 4342.25, -1.0
Long 2 TF 1039.6, 1039.7, -0.3, +1.0
Long 4 TF 1038.2, 1037.0, 1036.6, 1036.5 -1.4, -1.4, -1.0, -0.5
Long 2 TF 1034.0, 1034.0, -1.4, -1.4
Long 2 TF 1032.1, 1032.1, -0.2, -0.2
Total NQ +7.0
Total TF -6.8

Tues Jan 12 Trades & Journal

20160112
Short 2 TF 1051.4, 1051.4, -0.0, -0.0
Short 2 TF 1052.6, 1053.5, +2.3, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1045.9, -0.7
Long 1 TF 1144.0, -0.0
Long 1 TF 1143.9, +0.5
Long 1 TF 1144.2, -0.7
Long 1 TF 1143.6, -0.7
Long 1 TF 1142.6, +3.0
Total TF +5.7

Trade management is a series of 'what-ifs'. There is simply no time to think otherwise. And in the case of a trade going a distance against you but not quite enough to stop you out, that what-if is best served as a reprieve. Pre-acknowledge that you can entered too early in some cases, and instead of trying to extend your luck, back out of the trade at break-even or near break-even when given reprieve. If indeed a true turn or break out is at hand, the market is now proscribing for you what the entry range for that position should have actually been. Reset your entry nearer the edge of that newly established range instead of the one you had assumed it to be. There, your entry now stands a better chance. This kind of what-if must be rehearsed, practiced, and re-rehearsed. You don't have time to think about it, or weigh the possibility that the outcome will finally benefit you. You entered poorly...at least according to what the market structure now tells you, so enter again at a better place, or forget the trade altogether and wait for the next larger swing signal opportunity to present itself later. If your system of acquiring market structure and support / resistance do not lend themselves normally to greater accuracy in the first place, then you are using the wrong methods of determining such things. Take the time to find and develop them. You can't rely on luck or crude methods for long in the world of stock index futures.

Mon Jan 11 Trade Summary

20160111
Short 1 TF 1050.8, +2.0
Long 2 TF 1140.0, 1140.2, -1.4, -0.0
Long 1 ES 1913.00, +4.0
Short 1 YM 16335, +15
Long 1 ES 1911.25, -0.0
Long 1 NQ 4248.5, -2.0
Long 1 TF 1036.3, -0.0
Long 1 ES 1905.75, +4.0
Total ES +8.0
Total YM +15
Total NQ -2.0
Total TF +0.6

Fri Jan 8 Trades & Journal

20160108
Long 2 TF 1058.8, 1058.8, -0.0, -0.0
Long 3 TF 1054.7, 1054.7, 1054.0, +2.0, +2.0, +2.0
Total TF +6.0

Sometimes you have to stalk your trade signals patiently... but that result looks more accidental today than any gift of patience I displayed. Truth is, the NQ offered valid signals at nearly every swing turn in the First Frame, and yet I stubbornly sat on my hands as if the TF were the only car I'd drive. Four contracts offer four opportunities. It's great when they all add in for the same swing signal at a potential turn, but what if they don't? Ignoring an opportunity in the ES or NQ when the TF is off in an alternative universe is like suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. Don't let your joints and tendons get that stiff.

Thur Jan 7 Trade Summary

20160107
Short 1 TF 1174.3, -0.4
Long 1 TF 1172.4, -0.7
Long 2 TF 1170.1, 1170.1, -0.5, -0.5
Long 1 TF 1169.2, +2.0
Short 1 TF 1175.1, +1.2
Short 1 TF 1178.4, +1.3
Total TF +2.4

Wed Jan 6 Trade Summary

20160106
Long 1 TF 1194.0, +1.8
Short 1 TF 1195.8, +1.4
Short 1 TF 1186.0, -0.5
Short 2 TF 1198.3, 1198.2, +1.0, +1.2
Total TF +4.9

Tues Jan 5 Trade Summary

20160105
Long 1 TF 1103.7, +2.0
Long 1 TF 1102.8, +1.2
Long 1 TF 1101.7, -0.7
Long 2 TF 1101.9, 1101.6, -1.0, -0.0
Short 1 TF 1100.5, -0.5
Short 1 TF 1108.1, -0.5
Short 1 TF 1109.2, +1.7
Total TF +2.2