3-7-2013

I think my intentions were good but my execution is lacking in certain areas such as trying to make trades out of nothing.  The volume was low today due to contract rollovers.  You do not want to get long close to highs or resistance levels.  The bad trade I took was when price went outside and closed a couple of bars outside of the channel so I should have left it alone.

1.  Double bottom matching lows with two good signal bars off of the lower trend line.  Good trade.

2.  2 legged pullback with matching double bottoms.  Good trade.

3.  2nd entry long with good signal bar off of lower trend channel.  Good trade.

4.  2 legged pullback and 2nd entry long.  Mack said it was a failed 2nd entry short.  Good trade.

5.  2 legged pullback with matching double bottom lows off of lower trend channel.  Worked out but bad trade.

6.  Thought the resistance had turned into support and price was going to bounce off and go up.  Bad trade. You do not know how to take these yet.

7.  Horrible trade of the day.  2 legged pullback and 2nd entry long.  But it was at the top of resistance that price had not been able to break through the whole day.  Bad trade.

8.  2nd entry long, 2nd legged pul back to support...Great setup and trade.

3-6-2013

Well I traded pretty much the whole opposite direction of what Mack did. Haha.  I should have been taking shorts but I was taking longs pretty much the whole day.  I was thinking price was going to turn up since it went up over night into the range.  I also drew the incorrect trend lines in violet and was waiting for price to hit those which it never did since I didn't take any of the shorts he recommended.  I drew Mack's trend lines in black b/c those were the correct trend lines and my violet lines were a little too wide.

Mack said if you get thrills from winning and get down on yourself from losing then you are not there yet emotionally.  When you really start to get good then watching price action will become boring and it becomes a job.  When you get to the point where you have a winner you don't get excited and when you have a loser it doesn't upset you.  It means you are getting over the emotional roller coaster ride that comes with trading.  When you get to that point you are getting ready to start making money.  It is mechanical, you do what you are supposed to do everyday.  Trading is not exciting.  It takes a lot of time, practicing and studying to get to this point.  You trade to reach your daily monetary goal and then you close up shop for the day.  You do this over and over everyday.  It is a process that takes time and effort to get to.  Don't worry when trading doesn't excite you because that means you are getting there emotionally.  That is the point you have to get to before you think about going live.  When you eliminate the excitement you will eliminate your mistakes.

1.  Matching double bottom, fake breakout low off of support.  Expectation is to the upside since price went up to settle into the range.  Good trade.

2.  Long off the support.  Not really a valid trade.

3.  Long off of support.  Not really a valid trade.

4.  Long off of support.  Not really a valid trade.

5.  Reversal bar long off of my incorrectly drawn trend line.  It ended up working out but I still got out before the point profit.  Not a good trade.

6.  I thought this was the overnight low so I put in a long limit order.  The overnight low turned out to be right when the new day started.  That is the red line where price bounced off of.  Should have had my limit order down there.  Not a good trade.

7.  2nd entry short off of my incorrectly drawn trend line.  Good signal bar on Mack's chart.  Was a long trap on my chart.  Good trade.

Missed Trades:
1.  2nd entry short off of Mack's trend line and off of support turned resistance.  This is a great trade I saw and labeled at the time which I should have taken.  I did not take it b/c I was looking for price to go up to my trend line and I did not bring over the support turned resistance area.  If I had then hopefully I would have taken this trade b/c this is a beautiful setup.

2.  2nd entry short off of Mack's trend line.  Matching double top.

3-5-2013

Look for two legged pullbacks to the trend line.  Add this one as trade to take as well as 2nd entries.

I notice that while I am trading and I see the market moving either up or down the urge inside me wants to take a trade just to get a trade in and be part of the action.  My emotions are telling me to not miss the action so look for anyway to take a trade to get in on it.

I need to get better at knowing when to take profits and knowing when to let it ride.  On one of my trades I could have taken a 2 point profit but I held on when it hit resistance thinking it was going to blast on through and go to the range target.  It looks like there is at least one to two failed breakouts a lot of the time while in a range before price resumes the trend from the direction it came from.

Mack says that when a trend breaks the trend line but goes up (or down) and makes a new high outside of the trend line then you will at least get a correction that lasts at least an hour or so.  If you are not doing so well, stay on the simulator.  Don't worry about how many trades you take.  Trade as long as you can and take as many trades as you can that you think meet Mack's criteria.  If you win or lose don't let it shake you. At the end of the day go back and study and figure out what you did right and wrong.  Concentrate and try to do better the next day.  If you do this everyday, eventually you will start to get better and it will start to become 2nd nature to you.  You'll get to the point where you can glance at a chart and spot all of the entries real easy.  Eventually you'll be able to spot them in real time.  It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of study time.  It doesn't come easy for anyone right away but it works and if you can stick to the rules and learn it then you'll eventually be successful.  This takes time and effort, there are no short cuts when reading the price action.

If prices are generally above the EMA then we are in an uptrend.  If prices are generally below the EMA then we are in a downtrend.  If prices are on both sides then we are in a range.

When you have a pullback to the trend line and the EMA then you have a very strong setup.



Trade 1:  2nd entry long off of the lower trend channel.

Trade 2:  2nd entry long off of support.  I think I could have gotten in better if I had put my entry down closer to support after I saw the 2nd entry.  It could have shot up and I could have missed the move but I think the wiser play would have been to put my entry down at support after the 2nd entry formed so then I would have had a closer stop loss and a greater profit target.

Trade 3:  2nd entry Long off of support.  Notice that it was coming off of a failed breakout higher.  It seems every time price comes back from a failed breakout higher that it goes lower than the previous support before it turns around.  I think the reason why is there are a lot of trapped longs who are getting out of the failed breakout.

Trade 4:  Great signal bar and failed breakout lower.  I was looking for this after price had just come down from a failed breakout high.  Price previously had moved up to this range area so the emphasis was that price would eventually move back up.  I saw this yesterday where there was a failed breakout long that came down and created a failed breakout short before it turned up again.

Trade 5:  Failed 2nd entry short.  Not sure about this trade b/c I don't think it is a valid trade and I don't think I would have stayed in for the two point stop loss w/o moving it up even though it was below the low of the move.

Missed Trades:

1.  2nd entry long off the lower trend channel and EMA.  This is a trade that I saw but did not take b/c I was looking for a signal bar.  This is a trade you have to take every time b/c price was bouncing off of the EMA and lower trend channel while making matching lows.

2.  2nd entry long off of the EMA and the new trend channel that I had not yet drawn.  It also made matching lows which is another good signal.

3.  Double bottom against support.

4.  Failed 2nd entry long

3-4-2013

Good job today in identifying that today was a range day pretty quickly.  Very good learning day.  Mack went over the trades and explained them very well in how to identify the spots and where to trade.  After reviewing his video I see where I went wrong in my thinking and where to look for trades.  I have shown a little progress b/c after my first failed trade I realized that it was probably going to be a range day.  2 of the 3 trades I missed will come in time as I am able to recognize price action and the setups with more ease.  I see exactly what he was talking about.  He reiterated again that this takes time to learn and most people give up before they give themselves a chance to be successful.  He's probably the most honest guy I've ever met who teaches.  He said he trades first and that is where he makes his money.  He just does these Youtube videos b/c he likes to and he has no desire to do a trading room anytime soon.

Trade 1:   2nd entry long off of lower channel.  There was not a good signal bar.  I think I got over anxious to take this trade when I saw it pull back to my perceived lower channel line.  I got caught in the long trap side but luckily I recognized this when the bar after my entry bar did nothing.  I was able to get out for a one tick loss so I'm happy about that.  Bad trade to enter but good exit.

Trade 2:  2nd entry short off of resistance.

Trade 3:  2nd entry short off of false breakout.  Made matching highs then my entry bar created a long trap and closed on its low.  Got out at a great exit a tick or two before the support level.  Good trade.

Trade 4:  2nd entry short off of resistance level.  I hesitated taking this because price came up off of a failed breakout short and when it does this then price seems to break through the resistance.  I got caught in the short trap for my entry bar.  A horrible trade all the way around.  I should have gotten out with a 1 tick loss but I held on thinking it was going back down and got destroyed.  Just a terrible trade all around.

Missed Trades:

1.  Failed 2nd entry short off of support.

2.  Failed 2nd entry long off of resistance.  This was a better point to enter than where I entered according to Mack.

3.  Price came off a failed breakout short and came back to test support and then skyrocketed up.  The bias is up since price came up into the range so there is a very good chance that price was going back up to at least test resistance.  The failed breakout short signals price is going back up.

3-1-2013

Today was much better.  In the two bad trades I did take I was able to recognize that price was doing what it should have so I was able to get out at break even (BE).  Your stop goes two ticks below/above your signal bar.  I need to draw all trend lines that create a channel even if they are steep b/c I missed out on a trade by not drawing a steep trend line.  Just b/c they are steep does not mean they will not work.  It just means they are not going to last for too long with a steep angle.

Mack says to keep practicing and eventually it will come to you.  It may take months and sometime even years but eventually you will get it.  Do not go live until you are sure and know you are profitable.  His system works and he shows why and how it works everyday.  Follow his price action rules and eventually you will be a profitable trader.  Use his stop techniques and place your stops how he tells you to which is 2 ticks above/below the signal bar then move to BE once your 1st target of 1 point is hit.  Sometimes you will need to get out early when price does not move the way you expect it to.  You will be able to recognize this instances through practicing and experience.

Trade 1:  Failed 2nd entry long.  I missed the entry off of the top of the trend channel b/c it wasn't a channel yet.  After price came down below the EMA I waited for a 2nd entry long since price seemed to be in a channel and took the short one tick below it.  I got out almost at the bottom by dumb luck. I had moved my 2nd exit down to the bottom of the page and price came and took it out before I could move it any lower.  I would have moved the short to the bottom of the channel so I just got lucky for almost maximum profit here. Because more than likely I would have gotten a point on the 2nd contract rather than 3.75.

Trade 2:  2nd entry long.  I had drawn the support line using the top as the trend and that is where price perfectly reversed for a 2nd entry long.  I had my target 2 ticks below the high of the day.

Trade 3:  2nd entry long.

Trade 4:  Signal bar entry off of support line.  This isn't a trade I take right now so I'm lucky to recognize that I needed to get out at BE when price came back down before going up to BE enabling me to get out.  It would have been a good short b/c of the double top off of the EMA.

Trade 5:  Signal bar short.  I got out at break even after price made a higher high.

Missed Trades:

1.  2nd entry short.  It wasn't off the trend line b/c I hadn't drawn one yet.  I didn't take it b/c price had closed above the EMA for 2 bars.

2.  2nd entry long.  I didn't take it b/c I had not drawn the long trend line when I should have even though it would have been with a steep angle.  If I had then I would have been able to take this.

3.  Top of the measured move, top of the channel line and signal bar short.

2-28-2013

(After reviewing Mack's video I am not getting the same feed as Mack so many of my bars are different than his which affects some of my trades)

The theme of today for me is do not try to create channels.  If there isn't a clear channel then the market is probably in a range.  I took many losing trades due to trying to force price into a channel when one wasn't there since most of today was a range day.  Days like today are the reason why I am nowhere near ready to go live.  I got destroyed.  I feel the frustration inside of me but I did not make any trades based purely off of the negative emotions from a previous losing trades.  All of my trades were reasoned out and I followed the trades I take except for one at the end which I still felt was okay but maybe after watching Mack's video it isn't.  We'll see.  I could not spot the trend or where the high and low of the range were.  I did recognize that it was a range day at about 10:00am but it was a little late but at least I recognized it so that is a start. After watching Mack's recap I added in the blue range arrows b/c I had forgotten about that when price breaks out of a range it usually goes as high/low as the previous range which is did.  I may come back and redo this day at a later date in the future to see how much I have improved since then.

The best entries are at the far edges of the range.  After a strong trending day the next day can be a range day of consolidation.  That is what today was.

Trade 1:  2nd entry short off of the overnight high with a good signal bar.  I'm good with this trade.  It seemed to have all of the makings of a good trade but made one last push up before turning down.

Trade 2:  2nd entry long off of lower trend channel.  Not sure about this trade.  It may not have been in a trend channel and I was trying to force one.  I was able to get the scalp but looking back I think I was trying to find a channel too hard.

Trade 3:  2 legged pullback long.  Not sure about this trade either.  It worked out for a scalp but I don't think it was a good trade b/c it wasn't off S/R or in a channel.

Trade 3:  2nd entry pullback long.  Again I was looking to hard to make a channel and it was just a short trap off of the EMA that got me good.

Trade 4:  Failed 2nd entry long off of the EMA.  After my long failed it looked like we were in a channel going towards the low of the day.

Trade 5:  2nd entry short.  Again I was looking too hard to make a channel.  There is not a signal bar and price had closed 3 bars above my "fake" channel.  Bad trade.

Trade 6:  Failed 2nd entry long.  I thought price was heading back down to the lows of the day but I forgot the key concept in failed 2nd entries.  Price cannot be closing above the EMA when I am looking for 2nd entry shorts.  Price has to be hitting off of the top of the EMA and only closing below it.  This was another losing trade due to me looking for a trade out of nothing.  If I had remembered about the EMA and where price was closing then I would not have taken the trade.

Trade 7:  Naked support trade.  I thought price would bounce off of the resistance turned support.  It wasn't a 2nd entry long or anything.  Just took it blindly.  Should just have marked this as a trade I considered to take since these types of trades are not in my rules.

Missed Trades:

1.  Mack has it as a 2nd entry long but my charts say a 3rd entry long with a signal bar.

2.  Mack has it as a 2nd entry long with a good signal bar off of support.

3.  Matching highs off of the resistance level.  I missed this b/c I had just entered too early b/c I thought price was in a channel and it was a losing trade.  I didn't recognize that price was in a range and not in a channel.

4.  Price was closing above the EMA and creating higher lows.

5.  Price broke out of the range and closed a couple bars above it.  The resistance had turned into support.

6.  Price had reached the top of the range and created a great signal bar at the top of the channel.

2-27-2013

Back after having to take about 10 days off due to travel with business outside of the country.  I wanted to do some reviews but time didn't allow for it.  Today I was hesitant to pull the trigger and let my runners run which would have been a great day if I did.  I think rust from taking almost 10 days off is a factor to this.  Where I am at in my learning curve it is going to take a couple of reviews before I'm back to where I was before I had to travel.  I did well by only taking trades in the direction of the trend.  My fear was that I would be caught in a big pullback by going long.  I expected a pullback but one never happened.  That is why I have to leave on runners when the market is in a trend b/c I could have made 20+ points only trading 2 contracts.

When bars are small and look choppy but are going in one direction then that is a very strong trend.  It fools everyone b/c they see the small and choppy bars but they are steadily going in one direction and is a very strong trend.  I need to draw the support and resistance bars, especially on a trend day to help show me where price is bouncing off of.

Every time price pulls back to the trend line you want to look for your signal bar.  They are high probability setups that rarely fail.  You are looking for a trend bar in your direction.  You have to trust the pattern and setups and go with them.

Trade 1:  2nd entry long from the EMA and a 2 legged pullback to the EMA.  Took the 2nd trade out at 1.50 points b/c it was close to the upper trend line.  LOL.  If I hadn't then it would have been a runner for 17+ points.  That is the debate I have to do more of.  To either take the profit at the top of the channel or to hold it in case of instances like this b/c it usually seems price comes back to take out my BE stop most of the time.  But I guess that the one time it doesn't I would have made 17 points on one contract.

Trade 2:  2nd entry long off of the EMA.  I didn't like the setup bar as it had almost 6 overlappoing bars previously so I got out with 1 tick profit.  Looks like I should have stayed in.

Trade 3:  2nd entry long off of bottom trend line.  Might be a first entry depending on if my feed gave me a false 1st entry near the top of the trend line.

Trade 4:  This is either a 2nd entry long if the 1st entry is a false signal off of the top of the trend line.  Either way it is a double bottom with a great signal bar entry off of the bottom trend line.  Looks like now price might be in a mini-range during the lunch hours.

Missed Trades:

1.  2nd entry long off of the bottom trend line.  In my mind I thought price was setting it up for a failed 2nd entry long which is why I didn't take it.  My charts did not show a good signal bar but price was coming off of the bottom of the trend channel in an uptrend so I should have taken it.  The next bar was a short trap.