There is a thousand right and probably ten thousand wrong ways to do this as I have stated before. I am also a price trader. For me, keeping too many watches or watching too many things at once takes away from my trading for the simple reason that you always get conflicting signals. I like to keep it as simple as I can. I love using analogies so i'll use one to illustrate this. Think of the market as a car. Price being the speed at which you drive. Speed increases and decreases as necesary. Think of how many factors affect speed and your ability to change it. Tire pressure, asphalt temperature, type of tires, capacity of the break system, horsepower, inclination on the road, etc. etc. Do you really need to know the number of all those factors in order to stop or accelerate the car? The more numbers you need to process the slower the reaction time. Please note that I am not saying that it is impossible, im sure that there are plenty out there who can do it, im just saying that I cannot do it and encourage you to try, hopefully it works for you, then trading becomes just like driving, second nature without having to watch the tire pressure or the octane on the gasoline to measure horsepower, you will just press your accelerator or your breaks accoordingly without any hesitation.
I'm reading Malcom Gladwell's book "blink". He talks of "thin-slicing". which is a way of rapidly detecting a small amount of specific things to sway your decision. I think both, Anek and Piscuy understand that concept. -Tech
I just found out who Piscuy is. He's actually my partner in trading, did not have a clue until now. He is not so much a trend follower, more like a scalper who likes to squeeze every possible drop out of those bars with minimal risk. Anything he says regarding price action, pay a great deal of attention. He is a master at breaking the market's ass in a day to day basis yet I've never seen him take a stop bigger than 1.5 points. Anek
Anek, I took two trades today and both reversed before reaching my target. It felt like the market was choppy so I sat on my hands the rest of the day. I was wondering if you (or anyone else) would comment on my entries. On the bright side I had a great day trading gold
Ed, The morning was very choppy, I only took one scalp myself and before noon ends I usually have 4-5 trades in the bag. Now, the afternoon was vastly superior so just because a portion of the day is choppy does not mean the rest will be as well. Notice how price was over extended right before your entries. It looks like you were buying tops and shorting bottoms. You never gave the the bulls much of a chance to sell or the bears much of a chance to cover. There is an attachment from a few days back called holygrail.gif or something like that. Look at those uptrend/downtrend formations, they got structure. This morning was erratic. Anek
Im not going to comment on your two trades specifically but will give you this tidbit of advice. When entering a trade it is always important to have a reason for an entry, being this a break of a major or minor support, resistance, trendline, or pattern like a wedge or an ascending triangle. Review your trades and try to find the reason for taking it and evaluate the validity of that reason. I know it is easier to do it after the fact but constant practice after the fact helps you develop enough insight to trade efficiently. You wont always be right but it will help in the long run. As for exits, dont expect anything out of a trade cause that gives you a bias, watch what the stock is doing and if its not doing what its supposed to do get out, and if you find yourself wishing praying or hoping run out cause your alredy wrong. you will have retracements but dont let a retracement become a looser. You will have to adjust this to the time frame you are trading and the risk tolerance you and your account have. If your not comfortable with a trade, get out and look for another one. A re entry is usually cheaper than a loss. Piscuy
Just coded some paintbars to accentuate price action. Fairly simple stuff, have not tested it live but should be semi useful. Screenshot attached. Anek
Thank you Anek, and Piscuy, for your responses. I greatly appreciate your taking time to help me on this journey. Your generosity is remarkable and invaluable. I will be studying your comments and the charts and will hopefully do a little better tomorrow.