Doing it this way I do not get any sense of how the individual bars are behaving minute by minute, no 5 second updates on the TICK, no play as a volume bar alternates between green and red as the price hovers or reverses...less noise basically. I give myself about 10-20 seconds, or less, to decide on a trade as each bar passes and use the entry of the close of the last bar (most bars will test this number before moving on...not all so not all orders are necessarily filled).
I am finding that using the straight 200SMA as an entry platform is too restricting, especially on ranging days as often this line becomes the median, or it seems that way. Trades invariably end up with 1/2 sized moves as a result and often the trade goes negative quickly as well. Getting in at the end of a swing or at the bottom of a pullback seems to be a better target in general. With tight stop loss orders and trend appropriate targets these should be able to be nice trades.
Like anything else, it boils down to familiarity.
I know I have been all over trading without emotion but that cannot be eliminated completely so I decided to just observe moderation. Should a trade go against me I concentrate on the setup and determine what I might have seen that would indicate this turn. Often there is nothing to see, the fickle market just decided to take some of my cash, other times I entered with no real firm edge and failed to exit once I realized that the trade was likely to go south. Even after being in a profit position, albeit small, and thinking to myself, "I should cut now" I hold figuring that the price has already been near my loss point, I'll let it go and see....
Yesterday was a fairly tight range bound day as the S&P 500 reached up for 919 and down toward 908. That makes SPY range from a high of $92.11 to a low of $91.04... barely a dollar to play with. I made 4 trades, five actually but I don't count the fifth as I did not follow my rules but went on a whim trade based on a post by someone else...I should know better. More on this chatter another time.
Anyway, of the four trades, two lost a bit and two gained a bit. I don't have the numbers in front of me but I was down overall due to the fifth trade and perhaps the commissions.
Seeing as the market seems to be poised to go SOMEWHERE soon I hope to recognize the type of trading day early and get the opportunity to make the best of it.
Jeff.
The TICK chart was good at indicating high probability entries, I am still working on real time recognition but it is coming.
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