Thanks to my wife for her loving support. Thanks to Brain Zimmerman and Lance Beggs for their friendship, support and coaching.


"The world aint all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and it doesn't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward...how much you can take and keep moving forward. THAT'S HOW WINNING IS DONE!! If you know how much your worth then go get what your worth, but you have to be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you aint where you want to be because of him, her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that aint you. You're better than that". Rocky 6









Thursday, December 15, 2011

12-15 trade review






Over the past few months as I made the switch to crude and I had some difficulties  engaging the short side.  Timing was hard as price action was whipping around the area I planned to trade in.  I was only taking long trades as I  had better success with those.  The short side was going to have to wait until I gained better confidence on my timing.  One thing that laid in the back of my mind was its just not a market to be short in. Only time will tell. I think that time has passed and over the pass few weeks as crude is trading lower with good momentum the entries on the short side are better.  The timing is not as wild.  Reason?? Through screen time i gained an understanding of price action and seen strong markets and how difficult it is to fade them.  So my theory remains true and the problems I had shorting crude (correction /reaction moves) when it was in a strong bullish market it just simple..... it not easy fading a strong market so don't do it.   Look at the daily below


In order to fix a problem I  have to identify the problem.  Next for me is to take what I learned and apply it.  In hindsight is all easy to say I should of could of.  Since I don't trade in hindsight and trade in the moment I need to learn how to adapt to this.  First thing that comes to mind is don't take the amature route and start looking to changing the whole system.  If I'm having trouble with entries take a step back and look for reason.  Ask and am I on the right side?  Now don't look into this too deep and after a couple of losers freak out.  Just be aware or the surrounding. I don't know if a market will continue to blast in a trend until its over so I have to realize that.  I don't know if a sup/res level will hold and in a strong trend it will always look extended
 (over sold/bought).  

How do I adapt??   To be continued.......  I'm hungry

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

12-13

Big push up at the open   

Timing the short had been an issue with CL.something to study and work off of.  Crude fell apart after its maga run up at the open but expected a macro complex structure to develop.


Hard to say since its after the fact but those first 3 trades on this chart could be forced as its not clear on
direction yet but its close.  support does hold and shorts could be ready cover so I wanted in.


good trade these are what i like.  I was not fast as i should have been  here and it cost me 2 ticks.  

Monday, December 12, 2011

12-12 trades

Classic tight range.  Slow mover today and I didn't stay patient enough.  I took a few trades but it wasn't one of those days to come in trigger happy. Live to trade another day.

Friday, December 9, 2011

i hate my boss

Funny I work for myself (which makes me the boss) and I still hate my boss at times. Trading has tested my personality many times forcing me to focus on my weaknesses in order to move forward.  A year ago I struggled with taking losing trades.  Today I struggle dealing with new equity highs.  The more I make the less I want to trade.  Complacency is poison to any performance driven result sports, sales, etc.  I hate losing and hate it even more when I'm winning.  For me its like walking up a hill with weight on my shoulders and the higher I climb that hill more weight is added until I cant move higher anymore.  Lately I find my trading at a stall.  I lost that chip on my shoulder that allows me to engage in the market.  The P&L is positive and I find myself comfortable and this is BAD!!. This is causing conflicts with decision making.  I want to trade as I'm feeling like a bum doing nothing but cant find the edge to engage.

Today I force a trade and wanted it to lose and just maybe it would boost my motivation. REALLY?? Since I'm more motivated when I'm losing as I'm in fight mode i thought this would be a good idea.  I took a trade with 6 tick risk.  The trade was low probability and when I got in I was entered with -1 tick slip and on the exit was granted-2 tick slip  resulting in -9 tick loss plus commission.  Well so much for that idea because now I'm pissed at myself and not motivated and $95 less on a Friday.  One thing is for sure is Ill take a winning trade at some point , feel better about my trading and find myself sitting in front of the screen doing nothing but patting myself on the back for some long length of time unless I find a way to change this mental process.

Most traders including me try to avoid losing trade but yet its reason this whole stock market thing works.  Has to be buyer and sellers.  Some of us perform better when our backs are against the wall. Maybe I can find a way to embrace the losing trades more. I learn more from them and it fires the motivation up.