Futures - Morning Session

After taking the day off from futures trading yesterday, I was back at it this morning. Problem was, my platform was freezing up right at the open, which flustered me a bit. After getting the platform up and running following 3 re-boots, I noticed that my momentum indicators were firing long - so, I took the trades in both the YM and ER2. After taking the entries, I checked the range of the YM for the day. Even though the range was about 90 ticks, this review should have been done before I entered the trades, not after. I was quickly knocked out of my trades in both the ER2 (-18 ticks) and YM (-40 ticks). Fairly sizable loses for the system and time frames that I use. But I pressed forward. I proceeded to enter into 6 more losing momentum trades in a row. Still, I looked at the days range and noticed that we were well above my rule of 50. What I didn't consider was that the range was only 36 ticks following the market open. The remaining 60 tick move was due to the globex session. We had not even seen 50 ticks since the open and here I was ripping through momentum trade after momentum trade.

I checked the days range from 6:30 on (Cali time) and saw very clearly that it traded in a 36 tick range ping ponging between the high and low extremes. It was right then that I should have stopped and sat on my hands. But no......

I then engaged in ego trades that were designed to recapture all of the lost ticks that I endured in the morning. The result could easily be guessed. I dropped another 48 ticks on the ER2 and 22 ticks on the YM. As can be seen below there was something very, very wrong with my futures trading this morning. We had a 36 tick range since the morning open (excluding globex session), but I had a disproportionate loss to the range offered. I should have noticed the issue following the first two losses and then waiting for a break of that range and 50 tick morning range before following my momentum indicators on another trade. If that trade faltered, I should have stood aside and conducted a critical observation of the days action. That approach most certainly would have minimized my morning losses. Another approach, which would have minimized my losses would have been to follow my trading rule of 2%. That rule would have prevented my ego trades because I would have stopped trading when I lost 2% of my account. Well......its back to the trading plan to do a little tweaking re: the mornings range and a little self-reflection to determine why I didn't follow my plan today.

My morning results are presented below:

YM: -133 ticks (equal to -$665 per one contract position)
ER2: -74 ticks (equal to -$740 per one contract position)

Mornings Range: 36 ticks