ES 2/28/14 +3.50

Had a hard time figuring out my trend lines for most of this morning. Going into noon, I was still tinkering around with the main channel, as I wasn't quite sure whether it was correct or not. Also, pissed that I missed the big down move that started around 14:30 and lasted to 15:10. My limit order to sell short at the beginning of this move was not filled. Yeah...I'm still not comfortable with using stop orders yet.

ES chart 2/28/14

ES 2/25/14 +3.75

Missed the entire morning session today. Might miss either most or all of this Thursday's too. Will likely be helping a friend move to her new house.

ES chart 2/25/14

Anyway, here's another pic that Sai Yeung Choi sent me. Protesters camping out. Looks like a tent city. I believe that Sport Science Bureau stadium is near MBK Center.

tents BKK 2014

ES 2/24/14 +2.00

Missed one trade and took two. Had to stop at noon to run an errand.

ES chart 2/24/14

ES 2/21/14 +6.75

Had to step out to run an errand, after the 4th trade. Overall, the market was in a range.

ES chart 2/21/14

ES 2/20/14 +4.50

After the 2 skipped trades, I wasn't able to pull the trigger on any of the other 3 setups I saw. When/if I get 2.50 points or more, I tend to have a hard time entering on any more trades. Am afraid of giving some or all of the points back. Which translates to a lot of missed opportunities.

The past few days, I've had some difficulties logging into NinjaTrader. Have been getting an error message whenever I tried to connect. Not a technical person at all, so I just rebooted my TWC modem. It worked. Hope I don't have to do this every time I want to log in.

Also, got some pics from SYC of his TH & HK trip.

NT connection error

ES chart 2/20/14

BKK protest 2/17/14

BKK protest 2/17/14

ES 2/18/14 +2.25

It was a rangy and relatively light volume day. Did 2 trades only.

ES chart 2/18/14

ES 2/14/14 +3.50

Took 3 trades, which is about my average per day and skipped out on 1 other.

ES chart 2/14/14

ES 2/13/14 +3.00

Trend day today. Again, I tend not to do as well as I could have, in these kind of days. Could have just went long at the regular open and sold near the close for 20+ points. In hindsight, of course. One of the main culprits of this less-than-ideal performance is my countertrend trading tendency. I keep thinking that the market will reverse at any moment. Instead of just jumping in with the trend, I am always scouting for reversal trade setups. An ass backwards way of thinking.

ES chart 2/13/14

ES 2/12/14 +6.00

Not a good day. Could have easily ended the day -3.00 or -4.00 pt. I've found another problem with my trading. Whenever I'm stopped out of a trade for a loss, I tend to reverse immediately into another trade, without any good reason to. I think they are all revenge trades. Today, I had one more example of this. My 3rd trade, a short, was stopped out for a loss. I then instantly went long, because I was pissed off at the market for stopping me out. Of course, I entered right at the top of the trend channel. Hadn't even realize that, as I was too blinded by my emotions. Needless to say, prices started pulling back. I was then forced to break another trading rule - never average down. In fact, I broke it twice (could have been disastrous). The trade worked out in the end, but emotionally-driven and not properly thought-out trades usually don't. Should have just taken the loss and step away from the desk for 10 minutes to cool off. I just hope this was my last infraction.

ES chart 2/12/14

2/11/14 6E -0.0007 & ES +2.50

Don't think I can handle trading 2 different instruments at the same time. Obviously, it requires double the effort, concentration, analysis, etc. Too much for me to handle right now. As with my previous attempt at trading the NQ, this current crack at trading the 6E does not seem to be working. I think I'm a single instrument and single chart type of trader. So, it's back to trading just the ES.

6E chart 2/11/14

ES chart 2/11/14

2/10/14 6E +0.0007 & ES +1.50

Both the 6E and ES were slow and difficult to trade. Range-bound, light volume and very choppy. The 6E had only two good setups - took one, but missed/skipped on the other. Did two trades on the ES. Didn't get my full target on either one. Had to exit early on both due to the choppiness. The one trade that I passed on (countertrend trading) turned out to be a good one. Was very tempted to brake my rule and jump in.

6E chart 2/10/14

ES chart 2/10/14

Met up with SYC

Met up with SYC yesterday to give him some intel on areas of interest in TH and HK. He's due to fly out this Saturday afternoon. Will be gone for about 3 weeks. I also jotted down a list of products for him to bring back. These are either unavailable here or costs about 2-5 times more online (Amazon, eBay, etc). That's crazy. Anyway, have a great trip SYC. Wish I can go too.

Cathay Pacific

Onto a different matter...my Internet connection. I've had about 2 months of uninterrupted TWC service, after changing to a new modem. But, since my post on TWC outage a few days ago, I've been experiencing more and more loss connections. These past few days, I've had to do about 1-2 modem reboots per day. Thought about switching to Verizon FiOS, but the monthly cost is about 50% more. Might just have to bite the bullet, if/when my pain threshold with TWC is crossed.

6E 2/6/14 +0.0011

Only had to reboot the modem once today. Hadn't experienced any drops/outages so far. Anyway, I did a long for +7 ticks and a short for +4 ticks. Could have gotten my profit target on the short, but was playing it safe and exited early. I have noticed that the afternoon sessions for the 6E are mostly dead. Needs 5X the caffeine to stay awake watching it vs the ES. Was also looking at the M6E (E-micro Euro FX Futures). Basically, it's the baby version of the 6E. Interesting.

6E chart 2/6/14

TWC Sucks!

Had no internet service last night. Tried rebooting the modem multiple times, but to no avail. Had to use my mobile phone for any web-related activities. No trading today, as I'm wary of the internet going down again.

TWC outage 2/4/14

2/4/14 6E +0.0003 & ES +3.75

Traded both the 6E and ES. Was watching the charts for both instruments. For most of the morning session, I was looking more at the 6E. However, around noon, volume just dissipated. Time would have been better spent watching paint dry. As a result, for the majority of the afternoon session, I was concentrated on the ES.

I did 6 trades on the 6E. Way too much, IMHO. My ideal would be 2 - netting a total of 14 ticks (daily goal). Today, every winner was matched up with a loser. The trade results sequence was win, loss, loss, win, loss, win. The good news is that since my risk/reward ratio is positive, even with a 50% win rate, I'm still positive. Not so for the ES. I would likely need a minimum 60% win rate. Anyway, for the ES, I did 3 trades today.

6E chart 2/4/14

ES chart 2/4/14

6E 2/3/14 +0.0007

Have been comparing the ES with the 6E (Euro FX Futures) this weekend. Definitely less volume in the latter. However, I think it would offer a better risk/reward ratio for me. My current setup trading the ES is 4-5 ticks targets and 6-8 ticks stops. Wasn't and still not comfortable with this arrangement. With the 6E, I'm going for 7 ticks targets and 6 ticks stops. Decided to switch and traded the 6E today. Did only 1 trade, as this was my first time trading this instrument, for +0.0007. Anyway, this could be just a temporary thing, though. Would not surprise me, if I revert back to the ES within the next few days.

6E chart 2/3/14