November 16, 2022 (3 Trades) (+$62.00)
Grade: B+
Day Summary: Yet another day of nasty price action. It has been such a choppy market recently, and I have mostly done a pretty good job of being selective with the trades I take. I missed a good scalp today which I will show at the end of the review after showing the trades that I actually took today. I think the best thing to have done today would have been to play the interactions with the demand zone as there were a lot of them today. That being said, as Gonz pointed out, the ATR was low and volume was shit today, which is not an ideal time to trade, but there were definitely some scalp opportunities. I'm trying to get myself to stop being in such a scalpy mindset because I need to work on holding winners, especially when we get back into a trending market. However, as long as we stay in a choppy market, I need to recognize this and make sure I'm taking profits. Intraday supply and demand zones have been working quite well recently so I need to keep that in mind going forward.
1YR:1D - SPY
1D:5M - 1D:1M - SPY
Trades
Trade #1 - Long 3 Put Contracts @ Lower High after a big wick and under VWAP
Grade: B+
- This trade worked out pretty well but i wouldn't say it was a definded set up per say. I had actually missed a trade just before this (will show later) and i think I had a bit of FOMO from that but I still felt confident that this trade would work
- In my mind I was thinking this would be a lower high, and once I saw it push up and immediately start to wick back down without breaking the previous high, I bought the ask to get in quickly (I missed my first trade for not buying the ask)
- This trade basically worked instantly, and I did an ok job of holding partials, but this was a trade that I should have held the full position with a target at the bottom of the demand zone
FIX: Hold full position to target, especially when I had virtually no risk on this trade. I already know I need to get better at holding my winners and I will say it 1000 times until my brain finally gets it
Trade #2 - Long 1 Put Contract
Grade: C+
- This wasn't a horrible trade, but it was unnecessary and I only used 1 contract because I wasn't super confident in this trade
- Being that I wasn't super comfortable in this trade, it was good that I used just 1 contract. That is good risk management. **Remember that proper Risk Management is the first and most important thing in becoming a successful trader**
- Looking back, had this not been a choppy day, this probably would have broken lower, but as soon as I saw it pop back up and show a fake breakdown wick, I jumped out on the bid to get out quickly but to avoid slippage
- Good job waiting for the trendbreak retest
FIX: Don't really need to take this trade. If I'm only comfortable taking 1 contract on a trade like this, that means I am already mentally doubting it will work and probably just better to avoid all together
Trade #3 - Long 2 Call Contracts at Support and Rounding Bottom (also anticipated Higher Low due to 5Min previous fake breakdown, double bottom)
Grade: B+
- I actually like this trade a lot. I've seen this happen so many times before and I was 1 candle away from catching it
- My mistake on this trade was I panic sold like a little bitch haha
- The problem was that I didn't have a great spot to define as my risk because the bottom of the green candle that broke into the range was quite a bit lower and I didn't really want to risk that much on an afternoon trade. Sucks to come back late day and give back money so that caused me to sell as soon as the candle after I bought turned red and looked like it was going to break support.
- I wanted this trade to be one that works immediately with little to no drawdown, so at least I stuck to my plan of getting out if it didn't start working right away, but sucks that it worked on the next candle
- Big target was VWAP but definitely would have taken it once I saw weakness on the 1Min chat because this was a late day scalp
- VWAP would have been a 4:1 R/R
- Good job using just 2 contracts because it was the afternoon
FIX: I was sized down so maybe should have risked this one to the low of the green candle (1Min) that broke back above support
Missed Trades
I was confident I could have scalped this trade
Missed Trade #1
- I was stalking this trade from when we broke down from PM Low. One of my favorite trade set ups is a reclaim pullback to PM Low or in this case, a significant level (top of demand zone) near a level like PM Low. Reason being is you know people are still shorting it there below PM Low, especially in this bear market, and they all jump out once it breaks back through
- Man, I'm so mad that I didn't buy this on the ask. I was trying to get filled on the bid and I knew in my head I should be getting in this trade on the ask. I made this mistake last week and ovbiously didn't learn from journaling. See Here: https://www.tradejournal.co/post/november-7-2022-5701-buy-the-mothafuckin-ask/
- BUY THE MOTHAFUCKIN ASK - ITS LITERALLY ONLY A FEW CENTS YOU'RE TRYING TO SAVE ON THE BID - ON A TRADE I AM CONFIDENT IN - FUCKING BITCH lol
- This was also a trendbreak retest - GONZ & Colby will for sure talk shit about this trendline hahaha - but that's the power of a Nate trendline
Takeaways: Be confident in your trades. Take them when the set up is there. Continue managing risk properly and holding those winners to eat up losers. Good discipline on such a choppy day today. And lastly, great job walking away after just one failed trade in the afternoon. Old me woulda degened the rest of my profits away trying to make back what I just lost.
Easy Money: Using the demand zone that had previously shown lots of interactions to scalp my way through the chop
