Tuesday Wrapup (1/12) - $388 loss

11:30AM
Off to a decent start today.  Woke up early and was greeted with a nice pullback setup around 5:45AM after price had printed a new overnight low.  Took an initial short entry with half size and added another half once the prior bar low was taken out on the 1000 tick chart.  After my second entry I took 3 ticks of heat as price quickly reversed, but then just as quickly it reversed again and easily hit all my targets.  Nice $462 gain to start the day.

Next trade was also a short pullback at 10:26AM though the setup was not nearly as clean.  Trade pretty much went against me from the start rising as much as 4 ticks from my entry.  As such I scaled out of the trade on the first mini-pullback for a $125 loss which I was quite happy with.  So I'm 1 for 2 on the day with a $337 gain to show for my efforts.

On another note it was nice to see some early volatility, but it's been so long since we've had any I honestly feel a step slow.  Need to remain focused.

4:00PM
Totally out of sync with the markets this afternoon.  After lunch I placed 5 trades, the first 3 of which were long countertrends and the last 2 short pullbacks.  Early on I kept thinking we were going to bounce pretty hard, but it never materialized. 

As I look back at these trades, the first 2 taken around 12:30 were definitely valid setups.  The first countertrend I took I got cold feet after about 3 mins when it went no where.  Exited at breakeven which was a good call.  Then a few mins later after we had re-tested the prior low, I re-entered on the first break higher.  But the market quickly reversed taking me with it.  After a 5 tick drawdown I closed the trade for a $275 loss.  About a half hour later around 1PM we had nice vol spike on the 3 min chart, and it appeared we'd bounce.  But I didn't even manage 1 tick profit before this one too turned lower.  Managed to scaled out of this one for a $125 loss after a 4 tick drawdown.  The next trade just after 2PM was also valid.  We had spiked higher on a nice vol spike and I waited until the 2nd chance opp to enter.  Trade initially moved in my favor hitting my first tgt but again reversed and I chose to get out managing just a $25 profit. 

And finally the last trade of the day was easily my worst.  Sold the first pullback following a driver lower heading into the final hour.  But instead of reversing the market shoot higher.  Didn't panic despite having an 8 tick drawdown, remained calm and exited on first mini pullback.  Exited the trade for a $350 loss which I was pleased with overall.  Could've been much worse.

All in all I ended the day $388 in the red with essentially 1 for 5 trading.  I have to feel good about minimizing my damage on a day like today where nothing was going my way (except for the 1st trade of the day). 

On another note, if I string together one more day like today I think I'll cut my position size by half while I trade myself out of this temp funk.  Let's hope today is much more fruitful.  In the back of my mind, I'm still expecting a trend day down at some point, but I've got to trade what I see, not what I think.