Today was a max loss day (-$250) per account. Made a lot of mistakes today and had some technical difficulties with my Ninja trader crashing which sadly made me miss a pretty decent 60 to 90 point move.
I missed the two best plays of the day, but did catch a nice short that could of paid nicely had I just taken profit.
Mistakes:
Overall my three big mistakes I made today
- Took an Invalid Breaker: I took a short on a breaker that hadn’t actually formed and mismanaged it, costing me +$100 loss
- Married my Trades: I had two positions today that came back against me. Both times my entry was invalidated, but I let them run to the highs. Take risk off and allow the second contract to stop at breakeven. No reason I was negative today.
- Didn’t Take Profit in High Resistance Conditions: High resistance MEANS PRICE DOESNT LIKE TO MOVE. I must stop letting good wins turn into bitter losses.
- Took Some Gamble Trades: End of day after getting smoked, I tried to short the next high several times. I again didn’t take profit as I was praying for a homerun that would clear most of my losses. I was up $80 and I let it come back to breakeven.
Where I did Well:
I was very patient today, until the end. I allowed my first two trades I missed to run and looked for the next play. I did jump the gun on the third trade taking an invalid breaker, but I still waited.
I followed my trade on the 5 and 15 minute charts, making sure the structure remained bearish.
I was right on where to look for the “reversal”
What Needs Work:
I need to make sure my breakers actually form, that was a big mistake.
When price is retracing deeply and obviously high resistance, I need to take risk off at the obvious first low. If price just isnt moving and taking liqudity on both sides (seek and destroy), walk away with what the market will give you. If price is low resistance, maybe hold on a little longer.
Be okay with taking smaller profits on high resistance days. Green is green.
Trade 1 – No Entry
Perfect unicorn setup with and SMT and at OTE with 30 points of risk. The first presented FVG of the AM session was also at the low to act as extra support. The only reason I didn’t take this trade is because there was a news release and I feared it could wick me out. Overall was probably best I didn’t take the trade, but it would had been the best entry on the day.
Trade 2 – Missed
After not taking the first 1 minute breaker, I scaled out to the 3 minute and found another breaker that lined up perfectly with a liquidity void caused by the news release. I was ready to take this trade, but my Ninja Trader crashed before I could get an entry and it took off quite violently after tapping the breaker. Considering the 1 minute breaker was below it, I would have had to use slightly more risk, at least 30 points.
Trade 3 – Loss
In hindsight this was a terrible terrible trade, but in the moment I can see why I took it. After missing both long positions, I waited until price hit the weekly opening gap which is quite large.
Price traded up and then broke down with displacement creating a unicorn like entry. I had a 1 and 5 minute CISD and 1 minute MSS. However did not have a 5 minute MSS nor did price breaker below the suppose breaker— making it an invalid breaker. Price also failed to displace below the low of what I thought was the breaker. There was also a major liquidity pool sitting right above the high. While this doesn’t mean its not bearish, I should have used reduced risk and allowed more room for the reversal to confirm
But the biggest problem with this trade was I held onto it way to long. I sadly took two contracts on this with a 27 point stop loss, so it was a $100+ loss.
Two big takeaways from this trade.
First I need to make sure that price actually displaces under the low of the candle that would make the breaker— AKA confirm the breaker has actually formed.
Second, I need to stop looking for reasons why the trade can still work out. The invalid “breaker” was clearly violated and with the liquidity pool sitting right above the high, the probability of it continuing to drop was low. Had I killed the trade with the same invalidation that I entered, it would had been a $30 loss.
Trade 4 – Loss
After sweeping both the previous high and a major liquidity pool, price displaced heavily creating a 1 minute MSS and CISD. However came shy of a 5 minute CISD. The breaker formed with a FVG just above it so I kept my limit order high and was going to position it lower if we started rejecting the breaker. Price wicked up fast and gave me a flawless sniper entry before displacing down fast.
I thought this was the trade. We balanced the lower half of the NWOG and then started displacing lower, followed by deep retracements back up to the breaker with every sweep. It felt high resistance, but I was married to the bias of lower with a low resistance liquidity run down.
But again high resistance. After being up $200 two times during this trade there was some insane displacement up into the breaker. I thought it would buy back down (hoped), but it didnt. There was one candle that wicked down hard, but bought back up just as hard and it was at this moment I should of killed the trade breakeven.
The lesson here that I need to desperately learn is when price is high resistance, I NEED to offload some risk in profit. There is no reason why I couldnt close one contract out +$100 and let the other one run to glory or stop at breakeven. Had I done that I would had been slightly red on the day instead of max loss.
It was a great entry that I mismanaged and let hurt me.
HIGH RESISTANCE = TAKE PROFIT EARLY!!!
