Trying To Stop A Train

How would I describe Monday, March 22nd? A train. That's exactly what this day was like and I tried to stop it. In short, I failed miserably.

After recovering my Topstep Pro account, I was sitting with a small profit cushion. This kept me comfortable as I had a bit more breathing room. I was able to make plays without the risk of hitting my weekly loss limit.

MNQ, on Monday, decided to simply rally higher. There were slight pullbacks, but they didn't really amount to anything. As I'm a bit more of a contrarian, I made several attempts to short into this rally. Here's a plot of my entries.

MNQ

I am a contrarian so I'm often looking for intraday reversals. The downside is that I would get killed when there aren't any. If there's a day when the index is just trending higher, I would essentially miss out on the entire move as I'm not much of a swing trader.

With that said, this isn't really an excuse. I simply can't take a string of losses and sit around thinking that it's "all good." Had I decided to buy on a pull back, I could've rode a nice wave.

What this does mean is that I would still need to incorporate time-based charts to get a big picture view. This is something that I haven't focused on. I've found comfort using volume bars as they form based on contracts traded. If price rallies and then exhausts, this is a good indication to me that we may see a reversal. Even if it's temporary, I would've been able to lock in a smaller move.

As of now, I am sitting back at even. The profit cushion that I've accumulated is gone. I guess I should be proud of the fact that I didn't revenge trade. I simply ended the day in the red. I didn't try to make back my losses by doubling-down my lot sizes or chasing any movements. This is progress, I'd say.

Overall, I survived to trade another day. Although I am now at breakeven, I still have a cushion from my weekly loss limit.