first you need to get in then eventually you will learn when is optimal time to get in. First thing first is what he's saying.
Ironfist, Don't go searching for that never losing call, it does not exist. In fact, one of the first exercises you should do as a trader, hopefully a paper trading one still, is getting into the habit of taking small losses. NN
I'm not looking for a holy grail indicator. I'm just concerned because it takes 4 5-tick scalping wins to cancel out that one 20-tick loss I just posted. Then what? Don't small losses have to be offset by one of the following: 1) big wins 2) more frequent small wins? And yes, I'm still a paper trader as of now
If you play $20/hand, each and every hand in blackjack you will have a negative outcome. It is learning when to split, double down, and bet heavy that creates the edge. Trade a position in the context of the market.
Ignore the loser above. Least you need right now is envious pricks like the one above hindering your confidence. Stupid mofo. NN
IronFist 1. If you set your targets too low you will never win over time. 2. Wait until you see a good entry with a natural stop that gives you good risk return. 3. Don't sweat those small bumps that look like they could be HH/LL's but be aware that there is some natural volatility in the market. Its hard to describe it but with screen time you will get the feel for it. 4. I would recommend getting a real money trading account and try some small trades to see if you like it. Cheers
...and if you set them too high you also will never win over time because they will never be hit... Kind of ambiguous Is this what you mean? "Good natural stop?" Vs. "Bad natural stop?" So they don't count as HH/LLs because the fastMA slope didn't actually change? Not until I'm consistently profitable with fake money Besides, I'm still trying to find the best broker with which to trade futures (YM). I'm comparing OEC (with whom I have a demo account) and IB. I always heard IB was the best but I hear they aggregate their tick or volume data or something which makes it sound to me like their feed might not be accurate.
Today's scalping only following PBP. Entry: only when price respects PBP. Exit: profit target of 5 ticks (arbitrary) Stop loss: a) FastMA slope changing b) crossing above/below the "natural stop" set by previous high or low. Sadly on this beautifully trending day I ended up negative. Two losses wiped out all my profits. Here are my trades. Please note that "total" refers to the running total for the day, not the number of ticks made on that trade. Morning: Afternoon: Scalping with small profit targets is scary to me because it only takes a few (2, in this case) bad trades to wipe out all my profits for the day. Before when I was holding trades for longer, I wouldn't care because when you're up 30 or 40 ticks on one trade, having a 15 tick loss isn't catastrophic. Trades: +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 -7 +5 -15 -16 ------- -8 But at least I didn't ovettrade today I thought about setting a stop loss to -5 ticks for a 1:1 R/R. I thought this would be good because PBP generally results in more than 50% of trades going in your favor! But most of my trades for the day went at least 5 ticks against me before they went in my favor. So that wouldn't have worked.
Ironfist 1. Stops look the way I would trade them. 2. Re exit, I watch the trade and try and exit when I see a change in trend. I'm not terribly comfortable with this but haven't got a better solution at this stage. 1 point is better than a loss but unless you can consistently do better you wont make money. I'm happy with my entries and my stops but am still wanting to have a more logical exit point. Cheers