Nasdaq Intraday Review - Tuesday 19 Nov 2024

I trade Nasdaq exclusively
Trading in GMT time zone
Sharing my post day review and analysis in case it can help you!

Did my analysis at +- 5:30 am GMT (00:30 am EST)

Economic news - None
News - None. Tomorrow is Nvidia Earnings release

Directional bias - BUY (read yesterday's post entitled "Nasdaq Intraday Review - Monday 18 Nov 2024" for more insight into today's directional bias and swing trade entry)

Yesterday I opened a swing trade at the B. hand icon.

My mental stop was placed at the thick pink line.

Wow....what a day, what a draw down!
But held throughout and I am now 1'300 pips in the profit with a big position and secured at entry i.e. trading risk free.

Here's the reasoning for holding and also where I would have entered today if I had not had a swing trade going:

Holding swing trade:
As is evident from the 1H chart, a huge red candle closed below my mental stop. In normal trading i.e. day trading I would have closed my trade.
But in this instance I entered a swing trade based on the 4H TF. On normal day trading days, I enter on much lower TF and judge how candles close against my mental SL on much lower TFs.
As a rule, if candles start closing below my mental stop, I would close.
But over the years I have also learnt that the time frame you enter on, is the TF you should judge if you want to close your trade. In other words, if I enter on a 4H TF, then in theory I should only close my trade if 4H candles start closing below my mental stop. This is very hard (especially because Nasdaq that can spike thousands of pips at a time). But over the years, as I have grown my account and gained experience, I have been able to hold fast on this observation.
And so, as can be seen on the 4H TF, a 4H candle did not close at my mental stop.
This draw down had me sweating bullets and if I had my position sizing wrong I could easily have bust my account on a 2'700 pip drawn down (esp because I trade with a 500 leverage). I was also nearly in panic mode because the news is full of stories regarding the Ukraine Russia War escalation. So I am pleased that I held my cool, stuck with my trade plan and didn't panic close my position at a massive loss.
Whether it was luck or truly my past "observation", I thank my lucky stars that price ultimately went my way.

Entry point for today:
I did not add another position today because my exposure was already at the max.
But if I hadn't had my swing trade going, I would have entered on the 1H TF at the smiley icon (because the move down was really strong, so I would have looked for confirmation on a higher TF)
Also the 1H DB formed on the strong Weekly support.

Now we need to see if price can break through the strong sell fib levels and I am hoping Nvidia earnings will help with that.

Hope you had a good trading day! Over and out!

P.S. Note how price exactly respected the market pattern profit target theory market at C. (i.e. that price will move the same distance as the height of the market pattern, once the market pattern in broken). Price formed a rising wedge on the 4H TF and then broke downwards and moved the exact distance down as the height of the market pattern.

Abbreviations:
TF = timeframe
TP = take profit
1H = 1 hour
4H = 4 hour
D = day
W = week
M = month
S&R = support & resistance
H&S = head & shoulders
EMA = exponential moving average
SL = stop loss
Chart PatternsTechnical IndicatorsNASDAQ 100 CFDnasdaqnasdaq100Trend Analysis

Related publications

Disclaimer