This was a frustrating day, as for both of my trades I had the read of the market, however interfering with my stop loss and profit target resulted in a break even day instead of the +4R profit I should have seen realised.

I was late to log in for the morning session and missed a clear M5 MAB at 08:33am. Had I seen this in real time I would have probably taken it, with a stop loss below the 10434 key level. This was THE trade to take for the morning session, with a clear Bullish start and price being drawn up towards the Yes. High and H4 & Daily ema levels.

The screenshot for the previous potential M5 MAB trade shows me preparing for my first trade of the day. The 5min ema was proving very supportive throughout the morning, and so when a trade entry formed at the confluence between the 5min ema, a 61.8 FibCon and confluence between two supportive M1 channels I felt I had to enter the market. I anticipated price rising strongly after its interaction with Role Reversal structure confluent with the trades golden zone, the target being the Daily ema. I entered the trade right at the confluence of the 5min ema, the golden zone and the channel boundary.

Higher timeframe charts showed the Daily ema sitting in and around a higher timeframe golden zone, and with price looking like it was going to test Yes. High I felt that if price broke the resistance of Yes. High we would see price next target the Daily ema. Based on this, I moved my profit target up to just underneath the Daily ema and set a couple of LiP levels to cover myself. If price was going to hit the heights I was hoping for, I thought it would take a while to play out and so I went for an early lunch.

Price couldn’t get past the H4 EQZ border at 10538, which had proved strong resistance a previous two times in the recent past. I hadn’t noticed this when moving my profit target and this proved to be my biggest error with this trade. Had I acknowledged this, I could have left my profit target alone, which would have still seen me hit a +2R profit for the trade, below the resistive 10538 key level. I feel that I had the right idea to attempt to maximise any profits for a trade and raise my profit target, however there needs to be sufficient ‘white space’ between my entry and target and next time I need to pay a lot more attention to the key structure on the chart.

The early afternoon saw price fall quite dramatically back down to the open, presenting a couple more opportunities. I entered an H1 MAB trade, with the Open also in play. As price began to move towards my +2R target (which I had left well alone after the previous trade) and broke through an M30 channel midline, I moved my stop loss to break even. Unfortunately, price moved strongly against me for another bounce off and tussle with the 1hour ema, hitting my stop loss and taking me out of the trade, only to move back down strongly straight through my original +2R target.

The entrys for todays trades I feel were well thought out and well executed, but both trades suffered when I chose to move the stop loss and target. The desire to make a good profit and to cover myself and not have another loser won me over, after a previous couple of days of bad trades and losers meant that I ended the day with no profit. Next week I need to pay more attention to the key structure on higher timeframe charts and use this information to dictate where I take my profits and enter trades. I don’t feel that covering myself with a stop loss at break even is too bad a decision in certain circumstances. If I find that not giving the trade more room to move is effecting my potential winning trades more often, I will review it again.