debs said:MON 6 DEC
10:40 ENTER short at 10551 (ema-10557, sl-10577). Entered on PB to ema.
12:08 - dow crosses ema at 10542, move sl to 10562.
12:41 EXIT at 10565 - loss of 14pts
13:09 ENTER short at 10544 (ema-10548, sl-10568). Entered on PB to ema.
14:24 EXIT at 10572 for a loss of 28pts.
Two trades -14-28= -42pts (excl costs).
Debs
TraderTony said:Debs - I get your first entry and can see why you held by CM's rules. However, I'm not quite so sure about the second. By that stage you had been stopped out of a short at ema +20 (I assume) so should you not have been looking for longs or standing aside until a clear trend was established? I don't get any sense of a downtrend by 13:09.
debs said:Hi Tony,
Thanks for your comment. I am guilty of unthinkingly just entering on any PB to the ema.
You are absolutely right - even tho there was a PB to the ema at 13:09, there was no clear trend, if anything it was probably biased to the upside. I can see this was supported by the PD on CMs chart. I should have been looking at the bigger picture.
But I am also wondering now if I should have entered the first entry. It had fallen quickly on the open and I just entered on the first PB to the ema. But if I had noticed the triangle pattern with the 'breakout' (on CMs chart), I wonder if I would have (or should have) still taken the trade.
Debs
TraderTony said:Well, that might depend on what your rules are . To me, it was a clear pull back in a down trend, so worth a shot. I'm sure you could talk yourself out of every trade if you tried hard enough, but I do think you need to ask yourself if the market is moving up or down before looking for a continuation. Of course, that's not to say the trend may end as soon as you enter, but that's trading.
debs said:Yep - I'm very good at seeing why things won't work! This is not a habit that I am proud of and it needs to be broken if I want to make any progress. As usual, your comments have been extemely helpful. I am learning more each day.
Many thnx, Debs