2 Losses, 2 Winners & Charts Crashed! Just another MONDAY!

Once in a while we have a tough day in the markets we trade, and today was the the worse case scenario.
We started off with a VERY slow and choppy market today.

Crude Oil had all the same trigger lines across all timeframes, so we knew it was going to be slow until they separated a little.

We also noticed everything had fewer large buyers/sellers and RED Pace of Tape Indicator, so we also knew that the market was seeing VERY slow price action to start the week.

Could it be Monday?

Could it be the Super Bowl?

What could the issue be that is holding up the price action? We didn’t know exactly, but we don’t NEED to know WHY, just need to know HOW to trade it.

So we had to use patience to wait for the market to give us something to work with.

To make matters worse, JJ’s charts froze @ 935am EST just moments before we got started in the US Session, and that’s when we knew it..

“Its MONDAY….AHHH!”

So on top of a very slow and choppy market we had charts jam and freeze on us, which added another obstacle to overcome…patience to get them working again.

Just like any other professional, we traders need to be aware of HOW and WHEN to use our tools properly.

Just like a General Contractor needs to know how to use his/her tools correctly, so does a trader, and today’s trade room was a great example of that.

Its hard enough to trade in today’s choppy market, but with a technology issue as well, it really tests our control over our emotions.

We learned a valuable lesson today when our charts froze:

1. Know your limitations. Is your computer going to crash if you push the limits?

2. Back-up your info. Save your workspace and any other materials on a SEPARATE folder outside of NT to make 200% certain that it cant be corrupted or ‘lost’ if NT crashes or corrupts.

3. Know your Broker’s direct phone number for the trade desk. Who would you call if you were in a trade?

4. Close out NT and re-open your charts, slowly, without making the issue worse

5. When you re-load, repair your database first

6. Load charts and BEFORE you begin trading, go through your ROUTINE

7. DON’T SKIP YOUR ROUTINE, you need to get back into the ‘rhythm’ of the market that you lost when your charts crashed.

So, we opened the day with slow choppy markets, so we waited…and then charts locked up and closed on us, so we had to re-load them, get back into our routine, and then keep our emotions from getting the best of us while we worked at getting some profits out of the markets today.

All in all, it was a great learning experience today!