Just thought I could chuck this up here as a potential help for some of traders newer to the game, an example of what NOT to do, and then what to do, as just occured for for me, hopefully it will be useful to some. (plus I think it is useful to review trades and learn myself!)
My first bad trade was where I drew that horizontal black line, which was a short. I think this is a bad trade because I am going short into some resistance from 11 38(ish). Obviously that graph is after the event, but I went in on a nearly full green bar (lol) that had a tiny upper shadow, I foolishly took this as the key to the continuation on downtrend!
I had seen it happen a few bars earlier and didn't want to miss it again. Got busted out for -7.2 which for a start is higher than I want my losses to be.
The good trade was at the red chart line, at 4277.6 I have got my criteria ticked (proper candlestick formation) and it has pulled back to the level of previous support, now resistance. Perfect. Target was the turqouise spray, which got filled. It may go lower, but I am happy to lock in 10 points. My stops are (usually
) only 3 or 4 and 10 is usually the level I start to put very tight stops behind all bars, PLUS the previous resistance. I was really just looking for my 10, if goes lower so be it and there may be further opportunities to get in.