Background: Private trader with two and a half years exposure to the market. The first part of that year by the side of a professional that schooled me on everything I know. The second year paper trading. Now live with real money. Strategy: My strategy is simple yet effective. I employ the use of pivot point calculations from three time frames (daily, weekly, monthly). Candlestick analysis, as well as Volume Spread Analysis. I have two rules: Never buy while price is heading into resistance. Never Sell while price is heading towards support. For the first few days to a week I will only post generalities about my strategy but will screenshot net profit/loss. After that I will have much more time and will go into any detail that is asked for. I have started a new account with 11,500. I will take this to 23,000 then terminate the account.
so in a nutshell...you do reversal trades off of s/r...what testing led you to that conclusion?...what levels of s/r...1,2,3...what if blows by one of the levels?...what are you trading?ES,YM,NQ etc....please answer
Hi increasenow, Yes, in a nutshell I look for reversal points using pivot points, candlestick patterns and Volume Spread Analysis. Well as far as testing is concerned I witnessed my mentor use this exact strategy over a year to make 400%. It was enough to convince me to start paper trading it after about a year. I use real money now and the profitability trend has continued. As far as support and resistance numbers go I will use Daily s1,s2,s3,r1,r2,r3. Weekly s1,s2,s3,r1,r2,r3. Monthly s1,s2,s3,r1,r2,r3. Daily high/low plus weekly high/low. Previous swing highs/lows. Market profile Value high and Value Low pivots. I take all of those levels and find places where they cluster. If none really cluster then I just use standard daily pivots (They always cluster somewhere though). I then employ Volume Spread Analysis to give me an Idea of whether there is currently accumulation or distribution indications in the background. Lastly I use candlestick patterns such as morning and evening stars, engulfments, hammers, shooting starts etc. to.... Buy at a support level when there is an indication of strength in the background. Sell at a resistance level when there is an indication of weakness in the background. The key is that I won't just sell or buy at the level blindly and hope price reverses there. Only when there is a candlestick formation at the level that coincides with my bias. If it blows by the level then I just watch it blow by, There is another level waiting. I trade ER2 and nothing else (on this account). The magic of this approach really lies in the trailing stop methods and exits. I'll get into detail with that as soon as I have more time to devote.
Update for 01-04-08 Just a quick post before I start my weekend plans... Next week I want to get into how important trade management and exit techniques are to my success. In my opinion so many private traders could ramp up their results by doing two things... Trading less and holding on longer.
Where are your trades?? Since you're trading End of Day you should be able to post all of them the night before. If you don't your journal will have zero credibility. I can also whip up a statement showing I've made money. It's easy. All you need is MS Word and a computer. Why? How long would it take to type Long AAPL @ xxx
Hi traderNik, I am taking a bit of a different approach to this journal, Instead of a dry record of buy here sell here my aim was to stir up a discussion based on my strategies. I certainly will be posting some trades I make but I am more concerned with making sure my execution and management is flawless as opposed to making sure I prove myself on EliteTrader.com, Honestly. I Can't put the cart before the horse... I agree with your statement that anyone could whip up an account statement with MS word. But you have to ask yourself why would some wretched soul need to validate themselves in such a way? Makes you wonder... But I digress... Maybe you could give the Journal another look after a couple of weeks and notice where I'm trying to take it. I really don't have anything to prove to anyone so I'm not as concerned with gaining credibility as I am with seeing if I can get a unique journal started and maintained. And of course like I mentioned above my plan is to double the account so posting the equity statement is fairly important. I hope I was able to answer your question, Have a great weekend...
So you have nothing to prove... but you're posting the statement in order to... prove... that you're accomplishing your goal of doubling your equity. Right? After all, why not just tell us that you're accomplishing your goal. You could say 'I am up $543.60 so far'. Why would you have to physically post an account statement? Do you see how those two claims are a bit difficult to reconcile? Sorry, I'm more confused now than before you posted. Anyhow, good luck, whatever your goal here is. We'll likely find out soon enough.