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Happy Sunday to you! Markets finally broke out of Augusts ~5% consolidation between 2,800 and 2,945 (S&P 500 futures) to the upside closing the week at 2,983 thanks to positive trade hype that US-China trade talks are now going well again, and with the possibility of both countries continuing negations later on this month.
I hope you have been well, and enjoyed the long holiday weekend with your friends and family. This week I’m back with my stock market reviews as volatility looks to continue in the market thanks to the US-China ongoing trade war, President Trump’s tweets about the US-China Trade War and stance on Fed Chair Powell’s monetary policy, fresh new economic data and if the Federal Reserve is to cut interest rates.
Today was a half day, or more like a quarter day for me since I had two work meetings in the morning that I had to balance with trading. Within the time I had to trade, I was able to focus and take trades in my zones as planned resulting in +$565.
The market gapped up over 1% due to USA and China reaching a trade truce. The market held its gains overnight and for most of the morning session. Once I hit over $600 in profit, I shut it down for the day since trading gaps this big can be tricky.
Today I was able to squeeze out $542 in profits. However, I definitely overtraded and broke a key risk management rule I have by moving my stop and adding more contracts substantially increasing my risk for the last trade. The trade ended green, but to me today I give myself a D+ for the way I traded today.
Today I traded NQ again. Most of the volatility and movement happened overnight with plenty of long and short opportunities. However, the morning cash session only had a ~25 point range so I scalped 2-4 points at the ends of the range and during rotations to lock in $505.
Markets rallied overnight thanks to Trump tweeting in hopes of a China deal soon. All my trades were long and finished within 30 minutes. Even though I missed the bullish move right at open, I was able to buy some dips in my zones to lock in a nice $901 gain.
After taking a break from the Small Account Challenge, I have decided that my time is best focused on working on passing another TST Combine so that I have the buying power to trade full-time, and reduce my emotions of using my own money. I see using the $3,000 from the Small Account Challenge as an investment in myself to instill long-term trading habits.
One of the best things you can do as you progress in your journey as a professional trader is to continually improve your technical and mental skills. Thanks to TRADEPRO Academy, I have discovered Sierra Chart’s Chart Replay feature which allows you replay intraday charts so that you can practice and/or back test a strategy.
So far it has been about a month since I started the Small Account Challenge, and I can happily say that I did not lose any money nor did I make any money. Well actually I’m up a whole $49.83, which isn’t bad at all considering the hard lessons I learned about my trading this month.
