3-20-2013

My Notes:

My goal today is to not take the trade if I do not understand the setup.  Thanks to Mongoose I am going to focus on my trading goals which are to only take 2nd entries or 2 legged pullbacks from the trend channel lines or at support/resistance areas.  This will help me avoid the frustration due to my learning curve which is why I am only going to take trade setups that I can understand and easily recognize.  If there is any confusion on if it is a good trade according to Mack's rules then I am not going to take it.  I am going to ignore the voice inside of me that always tells me to take the trade or I'll miss out on a winner.

One other thing to focus on today is look at your 1st two successful trades and how they setup b/c one of those same setups will probably happen later in the day.

I need to adjust the support/resistance level when in a range.

Mack's Notes:

Before an FOMC announcement there will not be a lot of action like there was today when it got close to it.
The only way to make money on range days is to buy at the extremes.  Buy at the support and sell at resistance.  You also have to make sure you have enough room for the trade to run when you are in a range.
A strong trend is when most of the bars is on one side of the EMA.

My Trades:

1.  2nd entry long and 2 legged pullback off of EMA.  Great trade.  I'm torn between letting my runner to try to go to the upper channel or take a 1.5 to 2 point profit.  Not sure which one is more profitable.  This time I just took the 2 point profit.

2.  2nd entry long off of EMA and lower trend channel.  Great trade.  This time it created a double top with the previous high so we are probably headed lower into a range.  Didn't even hit the 2 point runner profit target, took out my BE stop.

3.  2nd entry long and 2 legged pullback off support.  I don't think this was a good trade even though I got a scalp out of it.  I think the 2nd entry long with a 2 legged pullback to support was around 9:00am.  That was where I should have taken the trade.  I would have gotten in a tick better and the entry bar had a short trap.  At least it worked out b/c Mack always says even if you buy at the wrong spot the trade can still work out if you are either trading with the trend or buying at support and selling at resistance.  That is exactly what happened here.  Bad trade, the setup was around 9:00am.

Missed Trades:

1.  2nd entry long and a two legged pullback to the support level.  This was the correct spot to take the long trade.  I took it too early but it still worked out.  Great setup.