June 14th Day Trading Recap: +8 Points – Enjoying the New 09-13 Contract
It's been a little while since the last trading recap I posted, so I thought I would put one together. I've had a number of you asking about these and while I do enjoy sharing some of my own trades, the focus of Samurai Trading Academy is rarely about me. It's about all of you. Your trading, your development, and your goals.
I created Samurai Trading Academy specifically because people were asking me for quality day trading education that would help them become consistent professionals, so that's always where the focus lies. Recaps like this where you get another trader's perspective can be very useful in terms of educational content, but it's vital that we also look at some of the less sexy elements of good trading like expectancy, having a solid trading plan, and breaking our trading plateaus. I suppose it's no real surprise that most in this industry focus on the extreme income that can potentially be made day trading, but is this really fair to the aspiring trader?
Trading can be a lot of fun and the potential income is great, but from time to time we need to ground ourselves a little and realize that being a consistent professional comes from building a skill over time. Each individual is different, but those who come into trading with the right mindset and who are determined to reach their goals can and do achieve them.
A Typically Sluggish Friday Morning
We are now on the new 09-13 contract, and after a slow start yesterday it started to move but was still quite sluggish overall except for a couple good swings. I started off by waiting patiently and only got involved in the market once we started to see movement.
This is actually a fairly crucial concept. While there were possibilities for very small scalps, they were also high risk and low reward. This kind of low expectancy trading might work some days, but unless you are very experienced it will usually hurt you in the long run. A trader searching for consistency is better off waiting for more promising opportunities where they can see an improved risk to reward ratio and a superior overall expectancy.
Too often traders treat each day like a race, thinking that if they aren't in the market at all times that they will be left behind and will miss out on good opportunities. While this is sometimes true (all traders miss out on a move from time to time), more often than not trying to guess on future movement in low momentum markets is more akin to gambling than trading with a proven edge. Be patient, wait for your trade, and attack it with confidence!
The Day Trading Recap Video
- Strike While The Iron is Hot - March 1, 2021
- The Path to Becoming a Full Time Trader - February 22, 2021
- Looking to 2021 and Beyond - January 20, 2021