REASON I TOOK THE TRADE: Saw the price consolidating at the $399 level then broke out at the top of a trend line, so after the whole day of a down trend I was confident this was going to be the bottom, so I bought 1 call contract at ~$399.30 and had a stop loss at the $399 level. I thought this was going to be the point where the price would jump back up after being on a down trend all day but price consolidated for a few minutes, then jumped up to ~$399.80 where I sold and took a 39% gain.
CHART SUMMARY: 5 day moving average crossed below the 20 day moving average so I was expecting after the day before where everyone was shorting the market, that we were going to start moving up. We moved down for the first hour of the market but then moved up until it reached about 11:30 and we started another down trend. There was high volitility on the last 2 hours of the market closing. It seemed hard for me to take a trade today because I wasn't confident in any setups and wasn't sure wether or not to take a call or put. I started trading today at 11:30 a.m.
MY TRADE: Took a trade at 14:56, bought 1 contract of a call at strike price 399. My reasoning for the trade was since we had reached almost the bottom of a down-trend trend line, as well as the low for the day was right at the point I took my trade, so I thought we were going to bounce off the low of the day and that was going to be the bottom of the down-trend, also the rsi was at 37 so it looked like it was about oversold but not at the 30 level yet. So since I thought that we were going to bounce I decided to play a call but after I bought we consilidated for a few minutes at the low of the day, and I had a stop loss at a key level 397.19. After we broke the low for the day a couple times on the 1 minute chart I didn't feel good on my trade but since we hadn't reached my stop loss I was looking for a break even. I didn't break even but I got real close and only took a loss of $5 or a 2% loss.
REASON FOR TRADE #1: I noticed we were in an uptrend so I thought I could buy the bounce at the bottom of the trend line and take a scalp and make a little profit of about 0.60-0.80 points. I was wrong and the trade started to breakout of the trend line which then I then thought we were about to start a breakout which then I took my second trade and bought puts.
START $: $530
END $: $510
REASON FOR TRADE #2: Once I noticed we were in a down-trend, I thought I could buy puts and catch a decent profit because it looked like, looking at the whole chart, we formed a head and shoulders pattern. It was going well for a few minutes unitl, looking back on the trade, we retested vwap, and also looking at the enitre chart a cup and handle was forming, and we reversed up and as soon as we broke the high a day I stopped out of the trade. I definitely shouldn't have taken this trade. I should have noticed a cup and handle was forming, as well as the jump through vwap which we then retested vwap, and when we retested vwap and bounced right off of it is when I should have taken my trade.
REASON FOR TRADE: Saw it was bouncing off the 20 day moving average, as well as rsi on the 5 min chart was at 30/31 so I thought we were going to bounce off the 20 day moving average and go up. We were on a downtrend so I thought after we break out of the trendline and we move above the 405.05 yellow level I would take the trade long which I did.
WHAT WENT WRONG: We consolidated a lot, there were a little more sellers than there were buyers but almost everytime we went down we went back up. I had my stop loss at the low of the day, so after we hit that low I was still a little bit bullish on the market, so I didn't end up selling until a little after we hit the low of the day, which we ended up making a new low of the day
REASON FOR TRADE: Noticed we were on a downtrend so once we broke out of the trend line I decided to take the trade long. The trade was positive for a little over 30 minutes and was starting to form an uptrend
COULD HAVE DONE BETTER: Should have noticed the uptrend that was forming with my trade and marked it on the graph and as soon as it broke the trend I should have sold. If I would have marked the trend line and sold once it broke I would have been in the green. Instead I wanted to make more profits to make up for my losses and didn't see the break in trend and broke even.
REASON FOR TRADE #1: Once we broke out of the top of the falling wege I wanted to take it long. I got really greedy and chased. Retested ORANGE 390.33 and once we came up I did not like my position AT ALL and just decided to break even.
SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER: Should not have been chasing and should have waited for the retest of ORANGE 390.33 like we did and taken a position long
2%
REASON FOR TRADE #2: Thought we were coming back down to retest ORANGE 390.33, so I wanted to take it long and realized quickly I was wrong.
SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER: Need to be more patient and let the market present itself to me, and take prepared setups
-17%
OVERALL: Today was a shit trading day for me. Takeaway: need more patience, DON'T CHASE, don't be greedy and try to make your money back if you're not ready and prepared for a setup
TRADE #1: This trade looked almost identical to how was started the first down trend, so when I saw they were moving the same way I waited for the confirmation of the breakout of PINK 389.61 and decided to play it short. I was green for a little bit but was wrong quickly when it reversed. I would have taken the quick scalp but I thought since this trade looked identical to the last downtrend I thought it was going to be a bigger move.
-18%
TRADE #2: Wanted to take a little bit of profit and make some money so I wanted to take a quick scalp off the bottom of the channel but I was wrong and when I bought we consildated for a little bit and broke out of the channel. Need to stop trying to play the top and bottom of trend lines for scalping because I never truly know if it's going to go my way or if it's going to be a breakout unless there's clear structure.
-10%
TRADE #3: Thought since we broke out of a bear flag we were going to retest YELLOW 390.33 or 5 DMA and go right back down. I was very wrong and should have been more patient and definitely should not have taken this trade.
TRADE #1: Wanted to catch the retest of the 200DMA and did exactly that. Just stopped out and took profits when I was comfortable. I was finally looking for a green trade so I took the nice little profits from this short.
+15%
TRADE #2 & #3: For trade #2, I thought we were going to use the ORANGE 392.96 as support but I was wrong and once we broke out I sold immediatiely, but then my original plan that I had before I bought the calls for trade #2 was to use the 200DMA as support for the second time. Again, I was wrong and I sold immediately as we went below the 200DMA. Dumb trade, shouldn't have tried to guess ORANGE 392.96 was gonna be used as support and also shouldn't have traded the 200DMA when we tried to retest it for the second time.
-13% & -10%
TRADE #4: My best trade today. There was a bear flag that had formed so once we broke out of the top of the channel and as well as we broke above the 200DMA, I went long. I noticed a trend line forming with my trade so as we kept going up I decided to place my stop loss at the break out of the trend line. So as soon as we broke below the trend line I sold and took some good profits.
STRANGLE: Decided to test out a stangle this morning so I bought 385P and 409C with both of them with a ~0.2 delta
409C = -45% 385P = +3%
TRADE #2: This was actually a trade I perfectly waited for, I just had my stop loss WAY too tight. Once we broke out of the falling wedge I wanted to wait for another confirmation so once we turned ORANGE 398.18 from a support level to a resistance and retested it that's when I bought in short. I had perfectly planned this trade out in my head when we broke the wedge, but the unfortunante part is I put my stop loss above the last high where we jumped above ORANGE 398.18 . I should have looked on the 3 minute or 5 minute time frame because we perfectly retested ORANGE 398.18 . So after I sold, of course we dumped down. Not even mad about the trade. It was a good setup I was prepared for, I'm just learning to stop stopping out of trades so quickly cause of losing profits.
TRADE #1: Bought in once we retested and consolidating at GREEN 392.34 level. None of the candles were closing below the level so I was pretty positive we were bouncing off this level. I noticed the trend line forming so I put my stop loss under the trend line, so once we broke out I sold. One thing I did notice was when the rsi hit 70 it started to sell off which I kept this thought in the back of my mind going into my next trades.
+31%
TRADE #2: After my last trade, since we retested and used GREEN 392.34 as support I thought after it looked like we broke this level and opened a new candle on the 3 minute chart under the level, I thought we were going down so I bought in short but I was wrong and took the small loss.
-12%
TRADE #3: I've been taking a lot of retest trades which is great because I think if I add up a lot of my retest trades, I'm in the green and i've been getting better at controlling them, watching for them, etc. I don't like to take the bounces or rejections straight away, I like to wait for the retest. So after my last trade was wrong when I thought we were going down, it was clear to me were were headed back up again so I bought back in after we had bouncing candles off GREEN 392.34 level on the 1 min, 3 min, 5min, 15 min charts (I've been using the 3 min charts A LOT to take confirmation for bounces). This trade headed straight up and I stopped out once we hit 70 on the rsi, which was perfect because I sold at the top before we started a small selling channel. Overall great scalp and great preperation and awareness.
+36%
TRADE #4: This trade was very clear. Had a perfect rejection off the 5DMA, so I took the trade short. Took my profits at a good time when we started to consolidate a little bit.
+19%
TRADE #5: To be completely honest, this was a gamble and forced trade. I wanted one more trade before I headed out to work, and since I had made a lot of profits today, I thought I could use a little bit to take another trade. I thought we were going to bounce off the 5DMA and go up but we dropped down and I sold because I didn't want to lose too much. Not too mad about this trade becuase the amount of money I made today. Still finished the day +$80 and it was my best day yet with my best profits. Only thing I could take away from this trade is to not force any trades based on time left to trade and also not to gamble any trades because I don't have enough market knowledge yet to be doing trades like this.
