From Scratch..

I'm considering the last 30 days of my trading a learning period. I made alot points and conversely lost alot. The only reason I did not hold onto my profits is because I lacked the discipline to NOT trade when my set-ups weren't presenting themselves and I was shooting from the hip on a couple trades. I consider this to be my #1 obstacle right now.

Trading should be conducted as a bussiness. Up until now, I've been treating it as a hobby. I realize now that there needs to be a control (in the scientific sense). If I cannot logically explain why I took a trade then my results will not fully reflect my strategy (bussiness plan).

From this point forward, I am only allowing myself to trade my main setups. Granted my strategy only offers a handful of set-ups a month, but they are high probability and high point gainers. If this does not work for me over the next month, then I will try something new. If I deviate from this plan, then I obviously don't have what it takes to trade and at least I will know.

This month, starting tomorrow (August 10th) will be a true test of my commitment and discipline and will be an accurate assesment of my trading strategy's real-time performance. I am also making a commitment, to document every trade I make this month on this blog. That shouldn't be too hard because it will only be a few.

The following are my set-ups:

- Long Trade : short term RSI on 60 minute chart is below the 30. The longer term RSI is ABOVE the 35. The low has NOT take out the previous low. 5 minute chart is used for timing.

- Short Trade: long term RSI on 30 minute chart breaks above the 65 and retraces. Shorter term RSI then moves to above or @ the 70 mark (on SPX or INDU). Short on bearish candle.