Dear diary,
No dummy trade for the day. After watching YM as well as NQ moving around OR (opening range) in 15-min chart, I hesitated to get in Long position. Indeed, they broke out from the range only in the afternoon.
People were waiting for the tomorrow’s NFP(Non Farm payroll) report.

No fun. It was a boring day. I made one squeeze trade with 1-R loss. That’s a small R. So no big deal.

Since my choice is pretty limited for stocks index( now, only NQ, YM , ER and ES) , I need to implement different trading approaches to squeeze some profit out. This is going to take some time.

Quality of trade is something that I need to take care. Blindly get into any setup is not something I am interested in doing.

By the way,  Mercado de Estoc?stica is another blog that I found to be excellent. He showed his real trades. His approach is kinda similar to Trader-x. I learnt something from them.

Ok, enough.

I will trade better.

Dear diary,

It was a good day for stocks traders, but not for me. I did not have any dummy setup in NQ, YM and ES before 12 noon. I decided to call it a day without making any trade as I was physical exhausted, I guess the flu virus and haze in Singapore start to attack me. Opportunity for Squeeze trade appeared in the afternoon session around 2pm NY time.

[Read more…] about Postmortem 04-Oct-2006

Dear Diary,
Ah..Dow is trading at record high..Ah…So what? Who cares?

It was another boring day for dummy trader (DT). I did not have any DT. Instead, I started my scalping here and there using squeeze technique. And I named it Moron Scalping. Basically, it is a break out trading based on bollinger bands and Keltner Channel. Nothing really fancy. I am still learning. I am refining my game plan now. No big profit, but enough for me to get some nice coffee for breakfast.

It was not a bad idea to scalp some small trades during the days like this. Market did a turn in the afternoon and moved up. It was just another tough trading day.

The only interesting event during the day is the excellent eCBOT was down AGAIN. What is going on there? Technical issue AGAIN? I am a IT guy, I know “Techincal issue” is BS. That’s what we use to answer customer’s complaints.

e-CBOT Trading Platform Down Due to Technical Issues
Due to technical issues, the e-CBOT electronic trading platform shut down at approximately 9:30 a.m.

e-CBOT is in pre-open as of 10:30 a.m. Opening rotation will begin at 11:00 a.m. e-CBOT day orders were cancelled and need to be resubmitted.

Further information will follow when available.

Dear diary,
Good morning from Singapore. I have made two trades today. As I told you before, I am integrating NYSE TICK and NYSE TRIN. Looking for holy grail after bad months like August and September? 😆 NOPE!

I have been looking for a way/tool to give me a better picture of market breath. Market tone is an important element of dummy trading. Dummy entries work better when we are actually ‘joining the crowd’.

Looking back at the last 2 trades, the solution should be DON’T TRADE. I was looking at TICK over +400 but TRIN was trending up (An up trending TRIN shows volume are flowing into declining stocks.) When dummy setup appeared in this kinda situation, I should just ignore it. (In fact, TICK and TRIN had been keeping me away from SHORT position during first 2 hours of trading)

Anyway, it was indeed another choppy day. Opened low, flat, up then down. No damage to my account since I am almost flat for the day. But, good feel of trading with TICK and TRIN.

Learnt something. Let’s fight another day.

Dear diary,

I was reluctant to trade after watching the first 30 minutes of cash market opening. I told you that. In fact , there were setups for Short trade in 15-minute chart of ES and YM. However, TICK was not supporting this action. I am still new to trading with TICK. This morning, most of time, it was moving within +400~-400 range which showed the market was kinda non decisive. According to Carter, this range was also called NOISE.

So, I did not make any trade, my dear diary. Looking at the chart, you might say “hey, why didn’t you trade? you could just exit the trade at the bottom the long tailed candle. That will give you couple of Rs” Well, you are right. Well, it is easy to say these retrospectively.

[Read more…] about Postmortem 28-September-2006

Dear diary,

Ah..another losing day. Though the loss is too small to be mentioned, but I got no reason to feel good. In fact, I would categorize this E-mini Nasdaq trade as impulsive. An inside bar immediately after a big down candle is not an nice Long entry. Though the day was choppy, it was tough to trade, at first place, I should not have taken the trade. [Read more…] about Postmortem 27-September-2006