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Gav's trading blog - Perseverance, Consistency, Confidence

Gav

Survivor tips for trading U.S market from Asia

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Trading U.S markets from Asia is interesting. We have different time zone, so I am keeping my day job as a IT professional crew and do my “full time” trading at the evening time. I normally get to my bed around 1am or 2am.

Here are some ‘survivor’ tips I have gathered and experienced after few months of active daytrading. I guess Eyal might have better tips since he has been trading from New zealand and Singapore now.

  • Water! Drink plenty of water during day time. Keep my body hydrated at all time. (this is tip from my Mum since I was 3 years old)
  • Cut down caffeine consumption during day time. I limit myself from sipping 2 cups of coffee a day.
  • Cut down my carbo and serving portion of dinner. Heavy dinner makes me sleepy. I have cut down my size of dinner by half. Sometime, I even share with my fiancee.
  • prepare some light food, like small cakes (please, I mean small) or cookies.
  • Hit Da gym! I maintain at least twice a week of cardio and weight training. Though I still fail to get my six packs, at least , I got my heart beating smoothly and maintaining my waist line.
  • Heavy and nutritious breakfast. This is to pump up myself for the day’s work.
  • Pop in multivitamins everyday. This is a must.
  • Do a cat sleep after lunch in office. Make sure I am energetic enough for afternoon’s discussion.
  • Absolutely no alcohol allowed. Well, a couple of beer during weekend is fine. My last taste of alcoholic drink was 6 months ago. And I don’t feel missing anything.

After all, trading U.S market from Asia is still bad for health. I am just doing something to reduce the possible damage. I need a healthy body to spend the money I make from trading.

Postmortem 17-Oct-2006

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Dear diary,

[photopress:picsrv.manutd.com.jpg,full,pp_image]

Manchester United rocks! I know Rooney is getting back to his best form soon. Go Man U go!

I did not have any trade for ‘Trades that got away’ posting today. The only low-risk dummy trade was the YM trade. Looking at the charts of index futures in my watchlist (ER2, ES, NQ, YM), we again had a ‘mid day reversal’ action. Gap down, sold off, BANG! rebounded. I would have been stopped out at break even if I did not exit my trade according my plan.

Not so much to write home. Some profit in pocket and a better trade.

Michelle B wrote another good post at TraderMike’s blog. She wrote something about rules :

Having rules, and some traders have many, is not the same as being disciplined. A disciplined trader follows his rules, while a trader who has rules may not necessarily be disciplined enough to follow them.

How true. A long list of time tested rules are useless if I am not following in.

Be a better trader.

Dummy day trading #36 17-Oct-2006: YM Long trade closed

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Dear diary,

Market seems to know my frustration(just fed up with them) over those people who are questioning dummy trading. It gave me some small rewards today. Short position of YM was established below the low of 6th candle (945am NY time candle). That was a fast trade. Target at Fib extension 61.8% was achieved at 8th candle.
Cash market was losing -90 points. I chose to close my position since first target was hit. One trade closed with 2.38-R gain (27 YM points gain)

Trade Grade:
Trade score: 1: Target hit
Execution score: 1: Followed trade as dictated in my plan

Here is the beauty. Kiss her.

17 Oct 2006
17 Oct 2006
    • Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? That was a big gap down. Looking to get Short

 

  • Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Below the low of 6th candle (945am NY time candle) which was below Opening Range low and resisted by 5-MA.

 

 

  • Where would you put the initial protective stop? Above high of entry candle (High of 6th candle)

 

 

  • Where would you exit the position? Fib extension 61.8% and 100%

 

 

Be a better trader today.

Postmortem 16-Oct-2006

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Dear diary,

It was not a strong day. I made a trade and scratched it 2 hours later as It failed to form the setup I was looking for. I categorized this entry as implusive. Yup, it was a valid dummy setup, however, in my trading plan, it would only got Long above a UP candle. Well, I broke the rule, I was anxious to trade. Darn.
I was lucky to realiase my own mistake and scratched the trade when it closed below 8-MA.

Few months ago, when I just started active daytrading, I read some great blogs like ugly, tradermike, tale of tape , Maoxian etc who are doing dummy trading. I read some good comments on dummy trading. These two months, well, I would say it might not as good as early of the year for dummy traders. So, now I am reading some negative comments about dummy trading now. Some fellows left some comments at uglychart.com.

Dummy trading is not a holy grail. Even the cat outside my house knows that. You wanna trade a system? then follow the system. Follow the system? that means follow it through good days and bad ones. Manage your risk, that’s it. Dummy entry is meant for trader who are dumb enough like me to join a trend. That’s all.

Ok, enough, just some random thoughts after reading some BS from people who didn’t even start trading dummy setup and putting in some silly comments. When come to trading, people always like to think too high of themselves. Be humble and shut up, cut the BS.

If you are too tense, go Wallstrip.com. Watch the video!

Let’s trade better tomorrow.

Trades that got away 16-Oct-2006

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It was not a strong day for index futures, but there were couple of set ups for quick profit (well, if only I caught it).

This is NQ. It was not a good setup, but it showed me how the setup works with 20-MA. Potential entry would be above high of 14th bar. Noted it went down to touch 20-MA and closed above all 3 MA and Opening Range high.

[photopress:NQ15_got_away.jpg,full,pp_image]

  • Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? Trend is up. Looking to get Long
  • Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Above 14th bar high which was above opening range and closed above 3 MA after testing 20-MA
  • Where would you put the initial protective stop? Below the low of entry bar
  • Where would you exit the position? Planned target would be 61.8% and 100%. It failed to go further after reaching 38.2%. Possible exit would be below the low of 18th bar

This is a trade which I had missed out. I was having position in NQ. Again, this is another setup that would provide some small quick profit. YM bounced back after testing 20-MA.

[photopress:1Dow_15_got_away.jpg,full,pp_image]

  • Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? Trend is up. Looking to get Long
  • Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Above 14th bar high which was above opening range and closed above 3 MA after testing 20-MA
  • Where would you put the initial protective stop? Below the low of entry bar
  • Where would you exit the position? Planned target would be 61.8% and 100%.

Dummy day trading #35 16-Oct-2006: NQ Long trade closed

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Long position of NQ was established above high of 6th bar. I scratched the trade when it closed below 5 an 8 MA. One trade closed with -0.66 R loss.

Trade Grade:

Trade score: 4: Out at a different price from stop, but a losing trade

Execution score: 2: Followed trade entry, but closed out position before predetermined target was hit 5: Impulsive

[photopress:NQ_15_fib_trade_close_1.jpg,full,pp_image]

  • Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? Trend is up. Looking to get Long
  • Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Above high of 6th bar which was above Opening Range and 8-MA. Hindsight, this is not a good entry, and I was lack of patience and broke the rule-entry bar should be a up bar.
  • Where would you put the initial protective stop? Below the low of entry bar
  • Where would you exit the position? Fib extension level 38.2% and 61.8%