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Monday was another horrible day. Again, trying to guess tops of swings….etc. Minus R 8.5. 20 some trades. Tuesday was much better, plus R 2.8 in the end. I am going to slow my trading pace down, and try to use trendlines and major support areas from 15 minute charts for my entries. I will also trade gap fills. I want to wait for the price to come to me, and trade it. Goal is to trade MUCH less. Once to twice per day. Trying to make up for losses by continuing to trade/ scalp is killing me. S/R points will be on the chart prior to market open!!

SPY Trades:

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This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I had a rough day yesterday, to the tune of minus R 9. My feeling was of trying to catch up. I wasn’t looking for momentum moves, 2 B tops, or 2nd time through trades….I was trying to dig myself out of a hole I made from trading the open. I was trading chop, trying to guess tops of swings. The very thing I swore I wouldn’t do. I looked for a good trade to post, I found one, out of 30 or so. Then I felt sorry for myself and ate chocolate instead of posting it. I knew a day like that would come. And I welcomed it…. after I pondered my lessons. I need to concentrade and trade the charts. Plus R 2.8 today. I was down for most of the day, but I was calm, and looking for quality setups. So, day 8, and I am still up R 10.7 trading the indices. Charts on the weekend….of what I saw today. Discipline = moola.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Half the reason I post these trades is to get me away from staring at the charts after I have identified and traded a setup. So here I am. I saw a momentum push with volume this afternoon, and waited for a setup to follow…which it did. Momentum precedes price.

SPY Scalp:

2 more…

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

Looks like a breakaway gap today for a “rally”. 2 wins, 2 losses. Kept my losses small….about all I did right today :/. Plus R 0.7.

SPY Scalps:

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I looked after 2 pm eastern today (volume picks up then), to see a momentum push down on SPY 2 minute chart to support. A bear flag formed, and support failed the 2nd test of the day from a bear flag. Played pullback to 8 ema on the bear flag, waited for momo to shift down, and captured 18 cents.

SPY Scalp:

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This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

What a day. 3 wins, 2 losses. My execution was horrible. I am glad these errors are popping up now that I am trading small. I kept my losses small, but let a R 2 gain turn into a loss on my second trade. I bought more shares instead of selling them on my 3rd trade. I am going to look at the “close position” tab on Book Trader with IAB to fix this finger F problem. At the end of the 1st hour of trading (my “day”), I am up 20 SPY cents, or 28 bucks and R 1.4 net. I have gained R 12 in 5 trading days. As a reward I will trade 300 shares tomorrow. Marty Schwartz look out.

On a side note, I eventually plan to scalp YM. I was watching it this morning, and the spread was 1 point more than 95 percent of the time (a guesstimate).

SPY Scalps:

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This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

2 for 3 today with a loss that I let get out of hand for my style. I think I will put in a hard stop in at 10 cents for the current market and my methodology. My 2 winners had drawdowns of 1 cent and 3 cents during the trade. Plus 21 SPY cents total, R 1.8 net, or a whopping 36 bucks.

SPY Scalps:

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This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

2 scalps today for 12 SPY cents. I could have gotten a lot more out of the second trade. I was ready to bail on a 6 cent initial protective stop today. I still consider 10 cents my “official risk”, so I netted R 1 after commissions. My max drawdown on each trade was 1 cent using market orders. I am pretty freaken happy with that! Done early as I see low volume ahead of the weekend.

Chart SPY:

Time and Sales SPY:

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This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I went over my scalp winners for today and yesterday, and these are the drawdown amounts after my entry for each trade in SPY cents before I exited for a profit:

7 cents
2 cents
4 cents
5 cents
2 cents
3 cents
1 cent
1 cent
2 cents

I am very happy with these results. These are with market orders, so I am pleased I am hitting the momentum at the right time for the most part. My stop is mentally set at 10 cents, with a 30 cent hard stop in case the shit hits the fan. I am wondering if I should tighten my mental stop to 5 or 6 cents. The smallest winner (2 cents) had the biggest drawdown (7 cents)…..go figure.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com

I forgot to mention I have a NYSE TICK chart up as well. So, 89 tick, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, and 5 minute chart, and NYSE TICK chart, that is all I need (Steve Martin joke).

I tried to play the open like I saw on tradethemarkets.com. The first trade worked, but then I kept scalping immediately for 2 more trades for a 12.5 cent loss and a 10 cent loss. I should have had 10 cents out of the first trade, but for some reason my trade details and ticker disappeared from the IAB execution screen. I gotta figure out what happened there.

I need to wait for swings and a definable setup to scalp the way I do. So my very bad. I recovered, and ended the day up R 2.25. I quit early as I see chop, and low volume ahead of Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving all! My wife is cooking….I mean buying a cooked turkey from the Marriot Hotel here in Mexico. Nothing like the taste of home ;).

All times central on the trade log.

This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com