Trade plan and Price action review: (Price action) I was late coming into the morning session. ES opened below Fridays value and this brought in responsive buyers. The market moved up into Fridays value area and stalled at the globex highs area. We had a PB into my support area and it was a great place to get long. The market shot up and hit the next level above at 1337 where we had a small rotation back into the 1333.1335 level that was broken this morning. The market had another strong push above the IBH and trough the 1337-1338.50 level. Sellers were active at the 1341 level and the market pulled back and broke back into the IB. This was a warning sign that we could see a rotation back to the lows. We retraced back into the IBH and down we went for an almost complete rotation. The market bounced back up in the 50% area and the 1333-1335 level where sellers were active once again pushing ES down into the lows of the day and breaking the IBL. The day established value lower down with sellers in control closing the day at the lows. The vpoc shifted down from Fridays session.
(Trade plan) My trade plan was pretty much right on queue today. I was expecting responsive buyers to be active at the lows of the bigger range and that's exactly what we got. Buyers moved us back up into the recent range.
Trades review: (Hypothetical) I missed the action in the morning because of work but there were a few nice trades. 1st was at 1331 on the pull back into my level and previous low of day. 2nd After breaking the A period on the MP there was a little PB into the 1333.75 A period high. 3rd was the retest of IBH after breaking back into the IB. And 4th was selling the down trend line in a down trending afternoon. The ones with the black circles are the hypothetical trades.
(Actual)
1st trade: I tried a long here at IBH looking for the market to continue higher. It was a good area to look for a long as long as we stayed above it. As soon as we broke below the IBH and had trouble getting back above it I should have bailed on the trade. I did take off one lot to hedge some risk and that was a good idea.
2nd trade: I bought the 50% retrace looking for the market to still move back up. This trade ended up being a winner and I only kept my target at 2 points because that was my first target and in case we couldn’t get back above the IBH then it’s the best place to be flat.
3rd Trade: market was moving lower and I was expecting the retest of the lows of the day. I used order flow to get in this trade and go with the momentum that came into the market.
4th Trade: This trade was an impulse trade. I shouldn’t have taken it because I was trying to guess that the market was going higher so I tried to buy the little break above that swing high. But if the market was going to go up that was the place for the buyers to keep pushing. They didn’t and I was stopped out for -6 ticks. That was also the 50% retrace level of the bigger move down. It wasn’t a good place to try and get long at all because the market was trending lower most of the afternoon and with 50% right in front of me it was poor risk to reward on that trade. I deserved that one lol.
5th Trade: The market was breaking down and I tried a short after it broke the trend line and the previous swing low area. I was almost 2 points up and I saw signs of a supply and demand shift so I bailed for BE on that one. I was looking for the market to follow through to the down side.
Conclusion of the day and thoughts going forward: I was really happy with my trading today. I feel like I’m finally starting to make the turn. I’m having more confidence in my trades now and I feel like I am better able to read the market. When you’re able to read the market you can look for trades to take. I spent a lot of time trying to just find set ups and all along I was missing what the markets were all about. It’s not about set ups it’s about context and price action. I’m eager to move forward and see what the rest of the week brings.
Grades:
Following my plans: A+
Following my rules: A+
Trade execution: C+
