Hurry and stops

I was in a hurry today because I had to leave early in the afternoon. This gives a kind of pressure which is not good for trading. Besides that I don't like fridays trading because most of these days pass by very quietly untill the US opens in the afternoon.

The first trade was a loser and I knew it. I had time and the opportunity to close earlier. Before I take a trade I allways have a way out, this means I allways have a stop loss. I use a maximum stop of 10 points but in most cases my initial stop is lower and is determined by market circumstances like momentum, resistance/support levels and old tops and so on. Quite another type of stop is more discretionary taken. When I feel a position is wrong I close. This type of stop is intuitive. I got it after trading some years. So I closed my short trade after the FDAX breaking a resistance.

The second trade was risky because of the forming of a double top intraday. It gave me some points and because I had to leave I closed. When I came back to my pc I saw the FDAX moving at a lower level, confirming this double top. For the moment this is not enough for me to see an and to the strong bull trend of the DAX..

daytrading
FDAX

Harami

I performed 2 trades today. The FDAX highly volatile in the afternoon. I dont like candles with big shadows. In general I avoid trading these. I intended to go long after the channel breakout and when it did I traded two times succesfully. I didn't feel anything at the first trade: clean, quick and easy.

The second trade was more difficult because I came in at the end of long bar up which was then followed by a classical harami, see blue arrow in the chart. This doesn't work allways but it did now.

Surviving a dull day

A dull day on the markets till now. The FDAX without direction, so I was not able to take a trade. Did some reading and found something on chatrooms for traders. Sounds interesting enough to me, talking to other traders throughout the day sharing thoughts and trade ideas. I will try the software from hotcomm and see if I can join some group.

I use for my trading candlesticks. I never heard of it but it seems that with use Heikin-Ashi better predictions could be made about trends and trend turns. Heikin-Ashi is another way of charting data based on regular candlesticks. Very interesting and I will have a close look at this too.

daytrading
FDAX

Surprised by the DAX

I am still surprised by the strong bull movement of the FDAX recently, see chart. Today again a big white candle indicating this trend may be not over yet but off course this will come to an end some day. Will I recognise it?

Intraday I went long early in the morning.