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Dummy day trading #24 05-September-2006: E-mini Nasdaq: Short trade closed

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Short position of E-mini Nasdaq was established below 930am (chicago time) candle. It failed to achieve my 1-R gain. Stop loss was triggered with 1-R loss.

Chart was distorted due to trading platform price feed down.

1) Why would you be paying attention to this futures contract ? There was a sell down with good volume during first hour. A long candle was formed.
2) Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? Down. Looking at Short position.
3) Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Below 930am(chicago time) candle
4) Where would you put the initial protective stop? Above 930am (chicago time) candle
5) When would you stop trading for the day? Immediately after position (max 2 per day) established or after 1230noon NY time
6) Where would you exit the position? Time when Stop is triggered.


Two trades closed with no gain, I shall call it a day. Postmortem will be posted tomorrow.

Dummy day trading #23 05-September-2006: mini-sized Dow: Short trade closed

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Well , I do not have a great start for the month. Short position of mini-sized Dow was established below 9:30am (chicago time) candle. 1-R gain was achieved and stop loss was moved to break even point, and it was triggered.

Well, too bad. One trade closed with loss of commission.

1) Why would you be paying attention to this futures contract ? There was a sell down with good volume during first hour. A long candle was formed.
2) Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract? Down. Looking at Short position.
3) Where would you get long/short this futures contract ? Below 930am(chicago time) candle
4) Where would you put the initial protective stop? Above 930am (chicago time) candle
5) When would you stop trading for the day? Immediately after position (max 2 per day) established or after 1230noon NY time
6) Where would you exit the position? Time when Stop is triggered.


Today, I experienced trading platform data feed down. Basically,price feeds were frozen after all my stop orders were entered (Thanks God). Chart was distorted due to this, I have decided not to post chart for today’s trade. Another good experience. Anything can happen.

Weekly Economic Calendar: 05-September to 08-September-2006

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Summer is over. Most likely we are seeing some changes in term of volume and volatility. Well, I certainly hope so!

Here is the economic calendar for the coming week.

Weekly Economic Calendar

Date ET Release For Consensus Prior

Sep 06

08:30

Productivity-Rev.

Q2

1.6%

1.1%

Sep 06

10:00

ISM Services

Aug

55.0

54.8

Sep 06

10:30

Crude Inventories

09/01

NA

2481K

Sep 06

14:00

Fed’s Beige Book

.

.

.

Sep 07

08:30

Initial Claims

09/02

NA

316K

Sep 07

10:00

Wholesale Inventories

Jul

0.7%

0.8%

Sep 08

15:00

Consumer Credit

Jul

$7.0B

$10.3B

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Revamp the way of writing trading journal

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I was looking for a way to write my trading journal in a short and effective fashion. I revisited Maoxian’s trading for dummies again, and I studied the way he compiled the 90+ trading for dummies lesson.

I found that writing my trading journal in Q&A (Question and Answer) style is something I need to seriously consider. Sometimes, unintentionally, I cheated myself by not writing down my trading mistake. Or sometimes, I am just writing too much of something that is not worth to be mentioned in trading journal.

By forcing myself to answer a series of questions in trading journal will help to keep the journal clean and clear, at the same time, to remind myself about my own trading rules.

This is not new, I know few traders are doing this.

Here are the questions I quote from Maoxian’s Trading for dummies lessons.

1) Why would you be paying attention to this futures contract ?

2) Is the trend up or down? Would you be looking to get long or short this futures contract?

3) Where would you get long/short this futures contract ?

4) Where would you put the initial protective stop?

5) When would you stop trading for the day?

6) Where would you exit the position?

These 6 questions are effective in keeping me disciplined. If I am unable to answer these questions, something is really wrong with my trading.

(If one day, bloggers are able to claim and charge copyright of their postings, Maoxian will no longer need to trade. The copyright fee from dummies lessons should feed him very well 😆 )

Dummy day trading #22 29-August-2006: mini-sized Dow: Short trade closed

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Another lousy day. Short position of mini-sized Dow was established below 10am(chicago time) candle. Dow mini did move in my favour and it was 2-ticks away from my 1-R break even point. AGAIN?!?!?! So near, yet so far….
I am especially cautious this week. After seeing position stalled for an hour and FOMC meeting is scheduled at 2pm, I decided to cover the position with tiny 0.15-R gain.

I am pretty good in making my broker happy huh?

Time for me to catch some sleep. Postmortem will be done later.

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