Friday Wrapup (11/27) - $254 loss

Well up until 1PM this day was rolling along very smoothly.

Notes from today:

7AM - So far no trades placed although very tempting.  i consider it a success that I've been able to watch w/o entering a trade just because I was bored.

8AM - Still sitting on my hands almost entered a countertrend setup but after further review I realized the requisite volume spike wasn't there.

Just cannot bring myself to enter anything yet, don't want to end the week on a bad note.

Took my first trade shortly after the open around 9:45.  Suffered about 4 ticks of drawdown before my 1st tgt was hit.  Ended up exiting the trade for about a $40 loss when the setup became a bit choppy.  Have no interest in being in a so-so trade today (or ever for that matter LOL).

Next trade was a long pullback off 3 min chart.  Took 2 ticks of heat before moved in my direction.  Scaled out nicely and took last lot off early when momentum appeared to be waning.  Made $220 on this setup.

Tried a countertrend short at 10:25, but got cold feet and exited for a 1 tick gain.  Vol spike was decent, but trade wasn't going anywhere fast.  Don't want to lose money on a marginal setup today.  Update - Hindsight is always 20/20, but could've squeezed out much more profit out of this trade as we quickly fell 2 pts.

11:30AM - Sitting on my hands again waiting for setups, it's ok not to trade

Wow, continuing to stay dialed in this week.  Nailed  a countertrend setup, scaled out of it for best possible profit.  The turned around and played the pullback off the 1000 tick chart for maybe 1 tick heat.  Now up $575 for the day.

12PM - Content to sit and watch for the rest of the day.

1PM - Ugg had to take one more trade.  Sure I wasn't the only one that got caught in the last downdraft.  Personally I expected a re-test of the day's highs into the close.  Bought the first meaningful pullback and planned to scale out.  Touched my first tgt but didn't fill.  Added 1 more lot 1 pt lower and is quite often the case, I lowered my stop.  I tend to think that when the market is volatile, I'll get stopped out on a runaway tick.  Ended up suffering a $1200 drawdown and was lucky to get out for a $850 loss which was about $500 larger than it should've been.  A shitty finish to an otherwise good week.  Geez I'm pissed at myself.  Should've been happy with a $600 gain on a day I wasn't even planning to trade. Had my brain been working I would've realized the time of day and the fact that 1) traders who were long would need to flatten and 2) not many would want to hold over the weekend for fear of further losses.

Despite this last mishap there were many positives to build on.  Gained over $1500 for the week, which is decent especially since this week is typically very light trading. 

Looking forward to what should be more heightened volatility next week.  Will just need to remain focused on risk management and taking good setups.  The rest will work itself out easily enough.