August Mega Recap: Sicily, Venice, Florence, Rome & London…..next stop St. Petersburg Florida Trade Desk

The Day Trading Academy blog now presents this mega recap by one of our graduate master traders that just ended up taking his entire family to Italy for the summer!  We met up with him in Italy and toured Venice, Rome, and Florence with him.  Here are his recaps from the experience.

Wednesday August 7th, 2013.  St. Pete Trade Desk.

It has been a long vacation.  A month and change in Europe.  Frankly, I am glad to be home at my St Pete Trade Desk.  I can’t believe how much I missed trading.  It is now a part of me.  The ES has become an intimate friend that I rendezvous with Monday thru Friday at a place call the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange).  To quote one of baseball’s greatest pinch hitters, “baseball ES has been, very, very good to me.”

I reconnected with my old ES friend on Wednesday of last week (08-07-13).  After my ongoing battle with jetlag, I managed to sit behind my desk and find myself in familiar territory.  It’s obvious we are in the middle of the dog days of summer.  The volume is low and the market is a bit slow.  Once I recognized this, I reminded myself to be patient and not to try to force anything.  Wait for the market to become inviting and compelling.

I missed the first two setups.  I received a call I couldn’t refuse…vacation remnant I guess…but once off the phone I immediately went back into my trading zone.

Run to the upside but a failure to launch into an area made the trade less compelling…so I passed on it.  As a side note, sometimes when you pass on a trade, it will at times go on to work, but the key is to be consistent with your decisions.  One of the phrases that I use often in reference to compelling trades is, “I’ll take that trade every day and twice on Sundays”.  The flip side to that saying is “I’ll pass on that trade today and twice on Sundays”.  Get the point?  Whatever decisions you make, make them consistently.  Stick to your game plan and success will follow.

Anyhow, once the momentum shifted clearly to the downside what to do was easy.  Wait for the pull back and pull the trigger.  I took two trades for two wins.  I’m done for the day, see you tomorrow my old friend (ES).

Thursday August 8th, 2013.  St. Pete Trade Desk.

My second day of trading and I’m slowly but surely overcoming the jetlag curse.  Good morning old friend (ES), what have you been up to overnight pre-market?  Up for most of the night…great and going long on the next pull back.  Sure enough, it pulled back and I rode it to the first area and closed it out.

News flash…The market volume is very low and the volatility is there but it is slow…do not force, don’t be greedy.  Next long setup was not compelling to me at all so I passed on it today and would twice on Sunday (hint, hint, lol).  Waited for my old friend to make it clear to me what direction she wanted to take, so I waited patiently.

Oh, downside?  No problem meet you at the mid-band.  Pulled the trigger and second win in a row.  So far four winners in a row.  I think my old friend missed me!!!  See you tomorrow.

Friday August 9th, 2013.  St. Pete Trade Desk.

The end of the week and I don’t typically trade on Friday’s.  Nevertheless, this is no ordinary week…..I’ve been gone for over a month.  I missed trading.  Similar activity to yesterday.  Took the first long and passed on the second.  Actually I just noticed the pattern as I write this blog.

I’m so focused on the current day; I’m disconnected from the day before or any other day in fact.  You can only trade what’s in front of you….yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not here yet.  Learn to disconnect…no matter how well or how poorly you did.  Today is today.  Waited for my old friend to tell me clearly, what direction she wanted to take and once it is clear we are back in business.

The market ran down with some strength so the expectation is continued runs and retracements in that direction.  So once my pull back happened I wasn’t filled on the first pull back but the expectation made the following just as compelling so I pulled the trigger and rode it to my expected target.  Sure I left a few ticks on the table, but so what.  I extracted exactly what I had anticipated. Therefore, I closed out without hesitation or regrets.

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