"KILL THE LIGHTS, EVACUATE THE PIT!!"

Between the holidays, having a son, and being consumed with the 2015 Intensive I really haven't had much time to do... well, most anything.  Including updating the blog, as the last post's date shows.
To make up for it, I'll share Friday's trade.  Before you get too excited, let me caution you: the market did not make much of any sense in retrospect, so the trade wasn't exactly spectacular.  There is always something to be learned, though.

1/22 Trading Session

Context is always first: Previous session got stuck at the highs, building a P-shaped profile associated with short covering.  Late in the day it spiked up - a dramatic departure from the fat area.  So, will this departure hold?  Using the concept of value to determine acceptance of the higher prices, the answer is yes.  Neatly bouncing off the spike base, the C period low proved the be the low for the day, until all the trendline timmy's got dumped overboard once it became to clear the longs that no one was really buying up here (no meaningful range upward extension.)  This should've provided the nice opportunity to scoop up the market when it was on sale - so, I bought at the top of the buying tail, along the single prints, expecting it to hold due to 1) clearly higher value in acceptance of the spike, 2) prominent POC near the highs, and 3) a poor high in effect.

Now, a friend of mine has a theory that whenever I enter a trade, it is somehow broadcast to the entire market.  "HE'S HERE!" sounds like an alarm across the Chicago pits, and the market is suddenly uncooperative as brokers quickly walk the line of trade screens, punching them off one by one to cut off my support.  And some days this feels absolutely true.  The market really had no reason to flunk, and every reason to rally off that very good price I entered at.  Yet it did.

Since this happens a lot, I've developed a certain feel for if the market is going to be difficult - and it often materializes upon my fill.  Funny as it sounds, I could tell the second I was filled it was a "HE'S HERE!" type of trade.  My limit order was just... punched. It was railroaded by too much force, the momentum slapped it, and went through it where the usual scalper's battle ensued.  If trade location really is excellent, there won't be an outright rush to slam the level, in fact most of the time activity should be decreasing, making it hard to be filled on a limit order.

So, I bailed out, not interested in my stop being hit at the session low.  And, sure enough, the market made a new low & then even closed on it, for yet another weak close.  Fortunately, it was without me.