Trading Recap 1/26/15

Today was sort of a dead day in the markets and I chose to just focus on the best setups and not overtrade in this environment. I am taking what I said Friday seriously about just finding the best setups and trying to add size when possible, especially in dead markets. In addition, I am starting to incorporate having a big picture sense of things and not being shaken out on the 1min movements.

White arrows are entries.

LUV: I had this on watch for either a short or a long depending on how it played out. Initially I wanted to go long around 9:37 before it went green but as I was putting in my order, it went without me. I still kept it on watch and saw a potential ABCD pattern emerging. Going off of what I had said Friday, I tried to buy higher lows/dips in anticipation of the continuation. However, the move didn't happen right away and it pulled back and triggered my stop for a very tiny loss. It then proceeded to go nhod but I saw that it was having trouble and possibly getting stuffed at the nhod so I went short and made a small gain on the downside. It double bottomed before going to new highs in the afternoon but I didn't play that.

FXCM: Decent winner for me. I saw the failed follow through momentum and lower highs so I decided to get short near the highs. In hindsight I should have waited until the base cracked and then short the pops due to the SSR, but the setup looked good. When it cracked I added, but I should have been more patient with the adds since the SSR was on. I thought it could crack more right away and wanted to get in but it started grinding a little but I kept my over/under 2.60s as a guide and it promptly trapped some longs and flushed again. I kept the full position for the rest of the day since like I said, I am trying to incorporate the big picture into my trades. It held the 38s for a while and I should have covered some there at least to give myself some room but I used .50 over/under as my guide and it kept peaking there so I kept it on. I covered right before the close.

Things to work on:

1. Add on pops and don't be impatient for adding size because you think it will go down right away, especially when SSR is on.
2. On ABCD patterns, just wait for it to break the "ceiling"/previous high. I have noticed that there are plenty of ABCD patterns where they fail and never triggered above the prior high but the ones that do, usually have a nice reward even if you didn't buy the dip.
3. Wait for the crack of support on SSR late day fade plays before shorting. This one worked out, but others may not.