If you read my previous post about David Goggins and the Badwater 135-mile race in death valley, then you know this race is one of the top 10 hardest things to do in the world!
Another hero of mine, Frank McKinney, is going to be running the 135-mile "death race" in about a week. If you know Frank, then you know he's a HUGE philanthropist... this guy builds self-sustaining villages with running water, homes, and food sources for families in Hati.
Through Frank's iron will and awesome foundation, you can feed a family of eight for 2 months! All you have to do is donate $1.00 for every mile Frank runs at the Badwater race. Watch his video for more info...
Remember that beautiful head and shoulders from yesterday? Well, it played out perfectly today. I had a target of about 903-905, which was about a 15 point potential from the close of market yesterday.
For those of you that know my trading strategy, you know that I don't trade over-night and pre-market. So, I didn't pick up the whole move, but I was able to get a low-risk entry around 10:00AM.
In my first Twitter post, I talked about why I use Twitter and the basics of how it works. I recently started using a pretty cool application called "Tweetdeck". It's basically a user-friendly way to get around Twitter and manage your messages and followers.
I thought I was done trading after a profitable short this morning... then a nice long showed up at about 12:15PM EST. I actually did a live trading video for my coaching students.
Anyway, we have a nice inverse head and shoulders lining up on the higher time frames. I don't try and guess what's going to happen over-night or the next day... all I'm sayin' is this is a nice pattern with the potential to go up tomorrow.
There's still room to retrace back up to the 900-907 area to get into our "sweet-spot" retracement zone (between 38% and 61%). Again, I don't really care what happens overnight but it's nice to see clean potentials.
Is twitter just an OCD way to tell everyone what you're doing? Not really...
For me, twitter is a "micro-blogging" tool and way to communicate with people. If Facebook and an Instant Messenger had a baby, Twitter is probably close to what you'd get.
For instance, if I have a cool link I want to share with my followers, I'll just post a "tweet" so everyone can see it. If someone wants to respond to me, they'll just "reply" to my "tweet" by using my name (@chrisdunntv).... starting to get it now?
Also, if somebody wants to "quote" me and send my message to their followers, they can simply "re-tweet" (symbol: RT) my message. This is a powerful way to get your message out there in a viral, ever-growing online community.
Summer is in full gear, which means the volatility and volume is lower than usual. The best thing for me to do right now is sit back, relax, and wait for our high probability setups. A trader who tries to force this market will surely get chopped to pieces. A patient trader has a greater chance of protecting his trading account and maybe make a buck or two.
Today, we started off in a bit of a channel. There was one short opportunity while in the channel, that could have taken about a point (if you tried to trade the channel). This damn channel stayed with us up until lunch when we finally saw some selling pressure come in the market. We were able to get into a low risk short that ran for about 7 points. Shortly after that, we hit another 2 shorts that racked up about 5 points.
Even if it's a little slow, the opportunities are still all over the place...
Have you ever had a time where you felt like you were in the flow of the market, executing every trade perfectly? On the other hand, have you felt no matter how "hard you try", you can't seem to beat the market?
If you've had any experience day trading, you may have experienced both of these states of mind... In a state of flow, you feel in sync with the market. You're confident and making decisions based on "humble boldness". You're not forcing trades or chasing the market... rather, you're pinpointing your entries, letting your winners run, and cutting any losses quickly and efficiently.
In struggle, you feel at odds with the market. It seems like no matter what you do, you can't seem to win a trade. You hesitate and miss the big winner, you get in too early and get stopped out by a tick... it's just damn frustrating!
Does this bring up any "ah-ha" moments for anyone? When I understood these two positions, and learned how to control them, my profits skyrocketed! This particular subject has nothing to do with my trading system, but has a major effect on my bank-roll.
There are many exercises one can do daily to make sure they stay in the flow with the market. For example, I'll take 10-15 minutes prior to trading to prepare myself for the market open. First, I'll turn on some relaxing music, sit back, relax and envision myself trading effortlessly. I look at myself from a third person point of view and see myself relaxed and confident, alert and ready to execute a trade. I then see myself enter, beautifully manage, and then exit my trade.
Once I get through the first part of that exercise, I'll see myself take a trade that gets stopped out almost immediately. I'll allow myself to feel what it would be like to "lose" a trade... I'll focus on the feeling of great execution and immediately start looking for another opportunity. The key hear is to practice "losing" and to feel ok about that. One of the worst things you can do in trading is to get mad or emotional when you lose a trade.
Think like a casino... it's all about the odds and probabilities. The more confidence you have in your trading system, and the more you practice proper mental programming, the less the emotional stress of trading will play out in your business.
