Market-generated & Psychological influences

Another day, another day-timeframe dominated auction.  The slow volume and volatility combined with the mechanical bounces off references alerted me to this early on, so I set my trade location and expectations accordingly.

5/21 Session

Clue 1.
Off the open, it tests the previous range/multi-month balance area, and the probe is mechanically bought up within one tick,

Clue 2.
sending the market to the previous prominent point of control, which was the next upside reference.  Consolidating a bit, the market makes a test of the half-back/opening print area,

Clue 3.
which holds to the tick.  Seeing the risk was so small (stop located at session low) and the probabilities in my favor that it wouldn't go lower again (since the day low was also a test of an important reference), I entered at the opening print reference.

A batch of major econs hits at 9, and the market continues the upward press.  I remove risk from the trade by relocating my sell-stop order to +1 tick, and begin to monitor the trade for continuation. 

The first thing I do is review the volume that the first half hour printed: just over 100k.  Pitiful.
Additionally, low volume was printing on the break above 2124 (the A period high) - not a whole lot of buying was lifting the market.  I'm now entertaining the possibility that the market will not go much higher, and could just chop 'n rotate in yesterday's value area.  The nearest reference is yesterday's high, which is also the life high, a far ways up at 2132.

And one more thing: my last trade was a beautiful, fast moving break down that put me up many points in a short amount of time.  And just as quickly, out of nowhere for no discernible reason came back and blew me out at +1 tick.  Yes, I'm still irritated about that.

So, to recap:
-I'm trading with weak money at an obvious reference,
-1st period volume was pretty bad,
-the uppush is average,
-and my last good winner turned into pocket change

Sometimes, we need to give ourselves a little psychological boost and just lock in some profit.  This relieves the risk of the trade coming back, while guaranteeing at least a decent win.  So what if the market kept going?  I've already accepted that I'm not going to capture every price movement, or the bulk of every move.  If I wanted to ride the entire wave I would trade on a very long term time horizon - not day trading.  Longer-term trading (investing) has its inherent challenges, too.  I just deal with mine on a faster and more frequent basis!

So I decide to dump the trade around the value high/half-back of previous range area.  No regrets.