Plan the trade, Trade the plan

Plan the trade, Trade the plan!! Simple as that.

Four days in a row now with very serious plans. I now spend at least two hours before each trade session to develop my trading plan, and it´s worth the time.

I think that the time spent in the trading session itself has become of lesser importance if you compare it to the preparation.

I´ve started to look at the volume profile on both long and short term basis. It´s very good to have as target.
If you develop a plan and you have a bias in either direction, you can use the VPOC as target, or at least scale of some there. Of course it also depends on the context. Are we in a range or is it trending?

15 min chart:
 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow lines are VPOCs, Where there has been a lot of volume traded at a specific price area.
Red dash / dotted = Overnight / Yesterdays High
Cyan dash / dotted = Overnight / Yesterdays Low
White =  Support / Resistance areas from different time frames

 

Volume Profile:
 

 

 

 

 

 

Left window is daily and the right one is monthly.
The red line was the price at the time.

 

The plan:
“Overnight gap is apx. 120

VPOC 1 13123

VPOC -1 12900
VPOC -2 12850 ( Strong ) Also a congestion area

On the mid term, I think it´s range bound.

Open outside yesterdays range, just a bit on the upside.

**** Short side
Bias is on the short side, looking for VPOC -1 and the look for continuation to VPOC -2 which is quite strong
Target, Overnight low??
****Long side
If it moves higher, it could go into the range between 12970 and 13230, there we have VPOC 1 at 13125

On the long side, don´t take any before 12970 or if you do, be careful when it reaches that level.
If it breaks 12970 we could hang on to VPOC 1.”

 

The trades:

I only traded between 09:45 – 10:10. Was very bearish today and followed the short term trend towards Overnight high. I had half an eye on the $TRIN indicator and it actually turned out to be very bullish at about 10:15.
Rookie as I am, I still have a hard time changing bias from one direction to the other, I want to reassess and make a new plan.
Anyway, it was a good day, I was quite satisfied, and changed to sim-mode just to get more screen time without spoiling a good day.

 

One thing I really have to work on, is the emotion side. When I´ve traded a good session and it has been very intense, I tend to almost feel ill afterwards. I don´t know if I´m exhausted or if I feel that it´s too good to be true.
When emotions becomes too strong, I quit instantly and change to sim-mode.

/J