Im Back

Im back.

Here we are once more in the mix of the market. I am ready for some action. 

I got a good chunk of change to work with again built back up, put it in to a new Tradestation account and made a couple trades yesterday.

Swings.

Which failed same day. I blame Fed and crazy whip action. 

But thats my fault for starting my trading back up on a day where we knew there were going to be some major vol spikes happening. 

Either way, yes swing trading. 

I am not able to day trade like I want to. I dont have the tools, the monitors, the information edge I need to day trade. I do have enough to swing trade though.

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There is a lot to unpack here. With job, with trading, with trading on the job. Not sure where to start.

I have been still keeping track of sentiment, and added several new sentiment sheets on top of that to take a closer look at what the market is doing behind the scenes.

FANGMANT, BIG Tech, Mega Cap, Spyder sectors. I am tracking these all individually, and as a whole, to really get a holistic view of the market. I love it I think its a brilliant idea and gives me more themes to work with.

Which since I am swing trading only, this is necessary. To identify with areas of the market have to clearest patterns.

I think this is what finally brought me back to trading again.

I didnt force it, didnt set a time to come back.

I was at my home desk one night, getting ready to chill. I hovered my mouse over the start button and it suddenly came to me. 

"I havent opened my tradestation platform in a while." 

And that was it, I was off to the races to get back in it. I opened it up and got that flash of emotion coming back. It was time.

Having all these sentiment trackers has been huge. Strictly speaking, tracking SPY with my sheets there is edge here. Just trading SPY alone. My tracker is able to identify when market is hot, when its not, when its turning, expanding, when it is doing things it hasnt done in a long time. And then watching the market days later unfold and me being able to see it coming a day or two before hand, has been big. 

And as always, build on whats working best. I knew I was going to get into swing trading again, I needed a deeper look at sectors. I created it, and I have patterns and clues about whats coming in certain areas. Combining that with everything Ive learned the past 6 years, only expands my edge. 

I have also been able to see these 'cycles.' There are roughly 20 days in between each CLEAR pattern break and turns in the market. It is not everyday. Not every week. But when its there, its there and I see and now that im trading again, ill be ready. 

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Work and Life.

Job is good. Im still rolling with it, getting punched in the face a bit more by my own mess ups. But still a great learning experience. Im still progressing getting better at things, getting more overwhelmed at times too. It is surprising how things can stack up real fast. Suddenly im not able to keep up, and stuck in catch up mode. I dont like being in that mode. But it happens. 

A big change in perspective for me. When I last wrote about the job, I had been there for a week and a half. Now im 5 months in. A surprising thing, I thought that when you go to work, your salary based job, you work 8 hours. Straight. A lunch break in between, but 8 hours of solid work day in and out. Wrong. There are days that I am here and have 30 minutes of work and thats it. Of course the opposite is just as true. 

Im kinda the odd one out it seems. I dont mind having tasks to occupy my time all day. There are days that happens, and days thats just not happening. I like to be in motion constantly. No surprise, just like trading.

This also brings me back to my IMG days. I was the one that would stay later and finish the workout. I would be the one to do what others wouldnt. That mindset I applied here as well. Im on top of my game, but im also not near experienced here as I am in baseball. There is a humility period I keep running into where I cant force myself through a brick wall. Same as trading, there is a learning curve. I want to get over that curve as fast as possible, but there are things only time can give me. Things only my leaders can give me. 

And that is where there is going to be a mental adjustment for me to make. My trading is going to have to slow down. Im not daytrading. Im not able to day trade. I am swinging. I am entering my position. I am adding a momentum lot if its there and I am able to stack it on. I am getting rid of momo lot. I am adding to swing position only on larger pullbacks. I am not exiting the whole trade on larger pullbacks. Larger pullbacks being on the 30min/1hr chart. I am trading around a core essentially. 

That is the trading plan.

    -Enter swing same way as I have day trades.

        -Risk is HOD/LOD

        -PT is D target

    -Add momo lot if able

        -Risk is near breakeven

        -PT is intraday target

    -Take off same as I would day trades with warning signs.

    -Add to swing on HTF pullbacks

        -30min/1hr pb that holds a level/vwap

    -Add momo if able etc...

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Picking up where I left off,

I had done several projects looking into stats and numbers to refine my trading even more.

Problem now is that not everything applies to what I am trading now. 

The few things that are relevant.

    -Trade selection of 8 main star variables or better only. 7 acceptable if Theme/Rel strength

    -15 all tags or more only.

    -Best setups (BO 2nd, PB F)

    -Rel Strength/Weakness and Consistent PA, Theme were very notable. 3 future variables to pay attention to in future for higher risk setups. 

    


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