DAX: Not respecting the range
Thought I had the DAX pegged for a nice scalp within a tight range yesterday. Market opened, drifted sideways for the first hour, volume was nothing special, seemed like a textbook fade at the top of the range. Put my stop just above the prior day's high, felt good about the risk/reward. Then, out of nowhere, a sharp uptick, nothing fundamental to drive it, just pure momentum. Blew through my stop in a minute. The market didn't even bother to retest; it just kept grinding up for another hour. My mistake was assuming a low-conviction range would stay low-conviction. Should've seen the decreasing volume on the subsequent tests of the range ceiling as a red flag, not a confirmation. It wasn't about the price level, but the price action leading into it. Ended up chasing it a bit, compounded the error. Basic stuff, but easy to miss when you're fixated on the P&L.
Ah, the classic 'textbook fade' that decides to rewrite the textbook right as you're in the trade. It's almost as if the market has a personal vendetta against well-thought-out risk/reward. Hope the next one respects your boundaries a bit more.