Monthly Recap: September 2024

September 2024 was a quiet month. There were a few missed sessions but I managed to get some trades in. I completed one session which produced a combined total of +0.07R. Here are this month's trades:

• 2 September 2024
  • No trades - US bank holiday due to Labour Day
• 9 September 2024
  • Trade 1: -1.00R
  • Trade 2: +1.07R
• 16 September 2024:
  • No trades - Missed session
• 23 September 2024:
  • No trades - On holiday
• 30 September 2024:
  • No trades - Missed session

My first and only weekly session on 9 September yielded two trades which were taken as follows:

I started my trading session after price had formed a high for the day, moved down to create a new low and was moving back up to retest the highs. After a small doji candle was formed at the lows of the day, price began to move higher with several successive bullish candles. My session began while price was just over half way up to retesting the daily highs. I watched and waited for a potential pullback to enter but the market had a different idea and grinded higher.

Price paused around the previous highs of the day then broke higher once again with consistently small positive candles, each of which printed new highs. I had been watching price move for around an hour and a half before the move higher began to flatten and stall. I was waiting for the pullback that never came. Eventually the market started forming bearish candles which created some new lows and pulled price back toward the 20 EMA. After a large bearish candle found some support, signal Candle A was formed. Given the momentum of the day, I anticipated another leg higher. As Candle A's high was broken I opened a trade long at Position 1. Very soon after opening my trade price fell – well, more like collapsed – and stopped me out while taking out the lows of Candle A and the candle before it.

Given the speed at which price was moving lower I realised I may have been on the wrong side of the market. The preceding 22 candle move higher may have exhausted the upward trajectory for the day. I then decided to call it for the session having watched live price action for just over 2 hours.

I came back to see how things were going after having been away from my desk for around 20 minutes. Volatility had increased significantly and bearish momentum was piling up. I had a feeling that I needed to be in short. Price looked like it was going to fall over. I don't know if this was intuition or me trying to make back my losses for the day but I felt I needed to be in on the move and so I pulled the trigger. I opened a trade short at Position 2 after signal Candle B broke the lows of the previous swing. I targeted a swing level on the way down denoted by the red zone in the figure above. As the evening progressed, price moved my way and my stop trailed down. I was a few points from my target and decided to exit the trade manually and book my profits. This may have been my desire to break even for the day calling at me but I closed the trade anyway... Shortly afterwards price moved lower and would have hit my original target.

I don't normally open any new trades after I leave my desk for the evening so I feel conflicted about Trade 2. It allowed me to break even for the session but it was outside the bounds I set for myself in terms of my trading session rules. The move just seemed too good not to be involved. I'm undecided on whether it was an intuitive subconscious hunch or a conscious calling to try and improve my performance for the day but whatever the case was, I opened the trade and it produced a profitable outcome. Performance aside I'm still going to try stick to my typical trading hours going forward.

I felt a bit challenged this month – not due to the trades I took but rather the sessions I missed. Out of five potential sessions I only completed one. Labour Day and holidays aside, having a full time job and the its accompanying unpredictable circumstances interfered with my planned sessions. It's not really the trades I'm concerned about missing but rather the opportunity to sit in front of the market, take in the live price action and learn. Hopefully October will bring a return back to my normal trading schedule.

Until next time :)

~Alessandro