Mark, Your posts crack me up. Well, here is a suggestion. You can trade what I teach here or you can come up with something different that's better. When you do your own stuff, you lose. When you follow the rules, you do great. You tell me, what's up. Sounds like your discipline is fubar because you know what must be done. Anek
Great Job!. That is an awesome day! Chart? Yesterday I broke even with WAY too many trades...today I gave back 30 pts to end up minus 15. My charts are way to busy and messy to show. I made dumb mistakes betting against the trend a few times. I even can feel when I put a bad AHG trade on and get 0 satisfaction if it works when it is against the rules. But, in the heat of the battle, I make dumb mistakes. I am about -$200 since I started after today including commissions after one week. I am going to re-read this journal from the beginning until I get these rules etched into my head!!! AHG seems to be working for you....
Fish, It's a two part process. -Understanding what must be done and screen time to polish it - Discipline The first part is much easier than the second. Discipline is your greatest asset in trading, provided that you have a winning system, and with AHG, I assure you, that you do. Anek
The Trend I'm not even gonna say it, you know, the friend stuff. The statement exists for a reason. Lots of you seem to be playing G.I.Joe with your own capital thinking that you have predictive abilities that will make a trend change on a consistently basis before it actually does. Here is a tip, YOU DO NOT!. Here is a simple AHG rule that is simple but it does not seem to be very clear. Unless a confirmed reversal formation has completed you do not trade against the trend, ever. Not even as a fun scalp because the odds will be against you, you want odds in your favor. I never ever do it unless I see multiple confirmations supporting the stunt and that's taking into consideration that I'm fairly adept at reading the tape. You should make it a post it note and stick it in your monitor. It's not worth it guys. Anek
Mark1, I read some of your earlier post and it seems you were doing quite well with equities. What are you doing differently with futures?
932 ticks seems very slow, especially for entries. Could you just confirm you are using 932 TICKS and not volume? Thanks! Also, how did you decide to enter at 2004.25 ? The downtrend was intact until a higher low at 1998 said "caution" but the absolute earliest I could have called a reversal (had I been there ) would have been when the contract traded above the high at 2008. A downtrend line was also broken at about the same point. I am getting good at recognizing trend direction, for example the double top which had me looking for shorts even tho my "gut" kept wanting to buy dips. But, I continue to get stopped out way too often. I need work on my entries, and perhaps wider stops.
I can't tell you how many times I have gotten the urge to buy a dip but a little voice says, "The trend is down. Your trading plan does not allow a long trade here."
Patience A good trade does not present itself every three minutes. When taking this into consideration you deduct that patience plays an extremely important role in trading. Not only is patience required to be the predator trader that you should be but it's also imperative for letting those good trades do their own work. Not everything works in 15 seconds even after it has every characteristic of looking great. Couple of things you can do to work on your patience. - Fool around in ET forums - Stretch your legs - Music, I personally subscribed to live365.com and got digital music streaming at all times - Get a snack - Practice tape reading skills - I seriously advice against turning on Bloomberg or CNBC, this will give you a bias and screw with your trading. Those people there know nothing about trading. Hope it helps. Anek
That's the way to trade. That's the key. You know why ? Because every freaking newbie is exactly doing what that voice is warning against. I see it all the time in public rooms, don't do it, its completely amateurish. Anek
That can be frustrating. I know when I first started reading the journal I devoured it and started trading. However I kept losing and couldn't figure out why. I started papertrading instead of going live. Anek said in one of his post "If you beging losing money go back to paper trading until you start making money again." (Or something like that) Anyway when you can papertrade without the pressure of having real money in the market, you can think clearly and begin to trust in what Anek is teaching. After you see it work for a few weeks with real time paper trading. Your confidence builds and you are able to go back in and take a little heat without breaking AHG rules. I know Anek and most the traders on here like small time frame charts, but for my style (And everyone is different) I like the higher time frame chart. I have seen a 7 point winner turn into a 2 point loss, but when the big moves come I usually stay in. the great thing about what you are learning on this thread is it can work for whatever your style and risk tolorance is. Anek, I hope I'm not stepping on your toes here.