Archive for category: Day Trading Lessons

Emini Day Trading Lessons: +5 Points – Trends Aren’t Always Easy to Trade

If you can be patient it will usually pay off.  That's what I tell myself when we have a quiet market open like we did today.  It can be difficult to sit around and wait for a trade that fits your plan.  If you're the gambling type you might feel the urge to get involved, to make a play... just to get a bit of action!

If you're a trader though, what's the hurry?  Are you doing this because you want the energy and endorphin rush that comes from taking a risky, unplanned trade or are you doing this to be PROFITABLE? Read more

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Emini Day Trading Lessons: +14.75 Points – The Importance of Outlier Trading Days

Today was a good example of why I don't subscribe to the oft-repeated trading maxim of just making "a couple points a day" in the Emini S&P 500 (ES).  There's a lot of traders out there that are content to just call it a day if they can pull out two points but it makes me wonder, why sell yourself short?

Back when I started trading I was focused exclusively on Forex but the marketing wasn't really any different.  "If you can make 10 pips per day you can achieve all your dreams as a trader".

I never really understood why people were willing to focus on such small goals that didn't really make sense in terms of fully exploiting your trading edge.  If you're willing to stop after just making 2 points or making 10 pips, aren't you just limiting yourself only on days when you're actually trading well and the market is giving the best trading opportunities?

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Emini Day Trading Lessons: +2.5 Points – Gauging Performance Through Process

I'll admit it - I'm not entirely pleased with my trading performance today.  At this stage in my career it's never really about the short-term results.  Instead, I try to focus on my process.  That means that I gauge my performance based on taking good trades that fit my plan, keeping risk low and controlled, and managing my trades well through objective decisions based on the market information I have at the time.

If I can do all this while keeping my emotions in check so they don't influence my decision-making in a negative way then I consider it a good trading performance overall.  It doesn't matter if I made ten points or lost a couple if I traded my plan the right way.  A day like this where I made a handful of points could have easily been one where I lost a couple of points instead but that wouldn't matter to me as long as I stuck to my rules.  If I do then I know the edge will play out.

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Emini Day Trading Lessons: 4.5 Points – Prioritizing Patience

I'm going to try and keep today's Journal post short and sweet as I've got lots of things on my plate today.  Lunch with friends, some annoying appointments to keep, some afternoon hockey, bottling my recent homebrewed beer creation... just regular stuff.  I might even try to get a YouTube video out there.  Since putting these recent journal posts together a few people have got in touch to give me a hard time about that which seems fair enough.  It's definitely been a while since the last update!

Overall we're still in the midst of slow summer markets but the trading isn't really that bad at all.  Sure, I'm having to wait a bit longer sometimes for setups or to let trades play out but there's nothing wrong with exercising some extra patience once in a while.  Patience is kind of like a muscle in that way - the more you use it the easier it becomes the next time.

After a while most experienced traders have no issue just waiting things out and sitting on their hands if they need to.  After all, they know that sometimes the best trading position for building and maintaining profitability is simply not having a position at all.

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Emini Day Trading Lessons: +8.75 – The Trading Edge Plays Out

I suppose you could call it a return to form.  After yesterday where I came out of the session with a small loss, today saw many of the same setups and management ideas turn a very tidy profit.  The sample size of trades for the week is still relatively small but the edge is already coming through as it usually will even if you start out with a small string of less than stellar trading outcomes.

A competent trader knows that this shift into profitability is going to happen over and over again which is why it's not worth worrying too much about the outcome of a single trade or even a single day.  Sure, if you start to string lots of poor trades or days together then it makes sense to really dig into the data and adapt accordingly but if the sample is small then you just need to be confident in your trading edge and having the patience, discipline and skill to see it through.

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