Needless to say, I’ve made some adjustments to get back in alignment with what works versus what I’ve been doing the past couple weeks.

Here is what I’ve changed:

1.) I am going back to a scalp-focused method of trading and dedicating my efforts to mastering the scalp
2.) This should automatically lead to a reduction in the quantity of trend plays I attempt on a given day (I’m targetting the 2-4 range)
3.) When I originally started this blog a year ago, it was to hold myself accountable for each and every trade that I make. Therefore, I will begin to start posting my daily trading log and review of either A.) My best trade of the day or B.) My worst mistake of the day
4.) I will again switch over to an R-Unit basis which will make for a more unifirm understanding my trades

Another reason I believe that my Trend Play results have deteriorated, other than the fact that I’ve been making too many of them, is that the target is usually pretty open ended, which allows for much more judgement errors to creep into play when exiting a play. I have caught myself overstaying my welcome on multiple occasions recently. In scalping there is no such “judgement call”, you either get your 2 ticks or you don’t period. But by scaling back on the quantity and up on the quality, this sould allow me the breathing room I need to once again have my trend plays return to consistent profitability for I used to have only 1-2 days a month where my Trend Plays would lose money but recently I’ve had more losing days than not. I expect that this will revert back with the changes I’m initiating.

My daily goal is simple, .80 cumulative R-Unit Return per day with a daily stop loss of -2.00 R-Units. With a successful scalp yielding .20 R-Units per trade, this means that I have all day to make 4 successful trades. This is a perspective which I had lost sight of after switching over to a Trend-Focused methodology. When viewed in this light the whole process seems so much easier and less stressful.

FYI: I day trade almost exclusively in the ER2 Futures market. For Scalp Plays I use a 7-8 tick stop limit & 2 tick target. For Trend Plays I cut the # of shares traded in half and use a 15 tick stop limit with a target of 5+ ticks depending on the market conditions.