Grade: c
Goals: Be more selective and raise winning %
Reminders/Aphorisms:
- Don't fight the trend;
- Be patient, take good set-ups
- Respect at least 2:1 R/R
Overview: There was a half trading day on Friday which I didn't trade for. Looks like we had a tight consolidation all day between 401.5 and 403.We have been on a micro uptrend since October 13 within the larger downtrend. We are starting the day below the 400 level again. We had gapped down $2-3. I got ot my computer a little late so the review is a little shorter than normal. Potential scenarios:
1) We gap fill up to 402.33 where we had closed the other day. At this point it would be a nice place to look for a short reversal trade.
2) We could reject at 400 and then move down to premarket low and then the 395-396 zone we have. However we do have the 1h uptrend at around the 397 level.
Trade Analysis:
- Trade 1 was a trend continuation long on the 5m chart. I got a bad fill on TOS but we got a pop above 400.5 and then rejected, recovered it, and then rejected hard again. At that point I decided to close the trade at breakeven because it did not look like it wanted to continue in the direction I was looking at.
- Trade 2 was a trend continuation short trade. We just had a strong move down and I was looking for continuation down - silly me. Took this for a loss.
- Trade 3 was a trend continuation short trade. We had a bounce on low volume so it seemed like someone covering a position. However we did not get continuation down and I cut it for a little bigger loss than normal because I was using the chart as a stop loss rather than a hard 25c. Both these last 2 trades were with smaller size.
- NOTES: The SPY continues to struggle to choose a direction. On days like this it may be better to scalp for 30c moves. Also looking at the QQQ they look a lot cleaner than the SPY, which may be something to trade instead.
Lesson moving forward: PATIENCE. Not every day will provide opportunity and there's no reason to force anything.