Feeling a little anxious, current events & the prospect of the future with today’s election in progress are contributing factors to this feeling. Personally, feel maybe a little off balance after having spoken with my parents yesterday, my mom for quite a while as she helped me to fill out the ballot, and speaking to my father briefly, him wailing and deteriorating and making sure I know it. Even just this brief exposure and already I’m affected, I even notice myself having a wave of eros thought, and wanting that life with a considerable stronger vehemence than just a day or two ago, all of a sudden I’m feeling agony that it may be slipping past me, but days prior I was feeling almost the opposite, like I was almost ready to abandon all debauchery and maintain this pure path of growth. I don’t know if the family exposure was a catalyst or contributing variable to this feeling, but I did notice it starkly last night and even now I feel myself imagining scenarios of the groundwork I’d need to lay to finesse what I want. Money becomes involved in this groundwork which can be an ill portent & reason to trade with caution as there are subconscious motives bubbling up that I may be attaching to my trading. I must resolve to move forward and I’m not yet at a point where I must adhere to strict no trade rules after any exposure to my family, but what I must do is recognize the effect over myself and engage with the market accordingly.
Opening the platform now. At a considerable daily level of 3860, deliberating 5 points above it, attempting to break out of daily high of 3867. seems like a precarious zone, could be prudent to wait for clear momentum above this 3867 level at least. Generally trading around daily levels seems to carry with it considerable chop. I am more inclined to fade.
I got in as price action seemed week at the 3865 level, coupled with the fact that we were hovering above a daily level after having made a significant stride up to it earlier in the day, seemed like it would take far more effort to go further than it would to collapse. Got in, had the crumbs goal, got out. I am still early in regaining my footing, I could have had the goal of the daily level of 3680, but instead I opted for 3681.5.
Second trade, after seeing the break of 3680 manifest & briefly hold below with signs of weakness on the tick I got in again, for another 2 point quick gain.
Third trade. Saw price continuing to drop & tick touch -1500. entered & almost immediately flushed, there was some brief deliberation, I think for just a bit above my entry, but then a healthy flush manifested. I initially put my stop in near what was a recent small congestion area of 3842.5, but as I saw a brief retracement happening I wanted to protect profits, ignored my initial stop that I’d put in for break even and got out.
Takeaway is that if I see tick surpass 1500 on either side, this is a surefire indicator that I should have reasonable gumption to Stay with the trend. As for this trade, I chickened out a bit, wanting to protect profits, but I did well enough to get back in with the momentum to capture more than what I had originally planned for. There is likely a lot more on the table and even now I watched as the price flushed to what my original target of 3742.50 was before there was a brief retracement and I decided to exit with profits—a frustrating miss of $200 extra dollars that would have been mine, but alas, I am still relatively early in my own retracement of all of my losses from the prior two months. My crumbs ‘strategy’ is giving me cushion to move with, today would have been a good time to exercise and risk some of that cushion perhaps, as the reward would have been substantial, but I cannot be too remiss as I did capture more than I set out for, and 4-5x what my consistent daily average was. However, the trade that I could have capitalized on was, again, an easy trade, and all I needed to do was hold out a bit longer.
I did incredibly well reading the price action and anticipating the move down. I did well setting a goal and achieving that goal at least twice. I did well in protecting profits and walking away. Another thing I should be proud of was my pre trading analysis of my own anxiety & feelings. I think I was aware enough to be cautious of myself, and this may have contributed to my overall caution in the market today. It is ultimately better to be overly cautious, and given that I worked through my emotions & anxieties before opening the market, I am proud of the outcome and the resulting evidence that I can enter the market with some emotional baggage (though I must be exceedingly careful when doing so) and it’s still possible to get in and out and meet the goals that you set. The test will come, of course, when I have this emotional baggage then enter the market & take a loss first thing. This will be the true test of the outlining of my feelings before hand.
What I can do better is having listening to the market: a -1500 tick reading is no idle thing, and considering it happened at what was already a point of weakness (the 3860 daily level and the breaching of it, coupled with daily price action at or near what has been a monthly downward trendline) there were multiple confirmations that would have justified more conviction in holding the trade.
