4-25-2013

My Notes:

The 2 legged measured moves are the basis for almost all of my trades.  I look for this first for almost all of my setups.  Then I look for a 2nd entry off of the 2 legged measured move whether it is the end of a measured move or the beginning of the 2nd leg.  The only time I take a 1st entry is if price is in a very steep trend and it is off the EMA and I doubt I will take that trade very often b/c I like the 2 legged measured moves w/2nd entries so much.

Today I am going to focus on dropping orders back inside the entry bar when the fill is almost my full 2 point stop.  I am going to drop the orders 2-3 ticks back from where my entry would have been depending on the size of the bar.  I may miss some trades this way but I think it is safer then utilizing the full 2 point stop loss too often.

Made one bad mistake today but saw very clearly what it was.  Trade #2.  Learn from it.  Always be aware of the 2 legged measured moves and if they have not completed yet.

Mack's Notes:

He just went over a live trade.  Didn't really say anything that stuck out to me.

My Trades:

1.  End of a 2 legged measured move down and am looking for the 2nd leg of a big measured move up.  This is where I dropped my entry 3 ticks from the signal spot since the fill would have taken up my full 2 point stop with no wiggle room.  I got the scalp at least.

2.  Was looking for the 2nd leg down of the 2 legged measured move.  Obviously that leg had completed even though it didn't reach the target.  I see why this was a bad trade now.  This was finally the 2nd leg to the big leg from early this morning.  Price had made a 2 legged measured move lower (even though it didn't complete by about 1 point) and was going up to it's measured move.  I missed seeing this until it was too late.

3.  End of a 2 legged measured move down and was looking for price to bounce back for at least a scalp.  I still could have gotten in better b/c where I got in was not a 2nd entry.  The 2nd entry was 4 bars to the right.  I'm not sure why I got in where I did b/c it wasn't a 2nd entry even though it was the end of the measured move.  Look how fast price shot up on the 2nd entry after it formed.  Once I saw this was at least a 2 legged measured move I got out 2 ticks below the top of the measured move.  If price goes up much further than the end of the measured move then this is the first leg and I'll look to go long on a pullback for the 2nd leg.

4.  2 legged measured move short with a 2nd entry off of the EMA.  This is a beautiful trade where I knew what to do and what I was looking for.  Once I saw the strong leg down I was pretty sure that was the 1st leg of a 2 legged measured move so I put my entry one tick below the previous close once price pulled back.  I counted the 2nd entry from the high at 1588.25.  My 2nd lot exit was 2 ticks above the low of the 2nd leg of the measured move.

Missed Trades:

1.  Failed 2nd entry long counting from the low and was the 2nd leg of a 2 legged measured move down.  I missed this b/c I got confused and was looking for the 2nd leg up of a 2 legged measured move that was incorrect.

2.  The end of a 2 legged measured move down and was a 2nd entry from the swing high.  This would have been a beautiful trade to take if price had moved down another 3-4 ticks.  Since it didn't get there I was not looking for the long yet AND I didn't realize this was the 2nd leg of a 2 legged measured move down.  I got confused and subsequently I made a losing trade just after this b/c I was off on my interpretation of price action and what it was doing.