Hi Walter, I believe Kingjelly recently wrote my book: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=178741&perpage=10&pagenumber=1901 I really found Al Brooks and Mark Douglas to be the most useful books for me. I hadn't looked at Brooks book since reading most of it tediously over a 6-month period starting in August 2009, but I picked it up just last week and it appears that once you approach 10,000 hours of screen time, the book magically translates itself into plain English! I was part of a Skype group for many months and discovered that every trader has to find their own path. Finding time frame, methodology and instrument(s) to trade that fit your comfort level is what will make or break you as a trader. You can read about high probability setups till you can draw them in your sleep, you can see them forming in real time, you can call them by name and you can know exactly what you're supposed to do when you see these setups. You can be in a chat room with me, and as a setup forms in real time I can tell you where to place an order, where to place a protective stop and where to target a minimum profit. But if you're not comfortable with any part of the process, you will not have positive results. I had the privilege of spending day after day with a professional trader with decades of experience, and I couldn't bring myself to trade like he did and for the longest time he thought I was nuts for trading the way I did. I now fully understand how he trades and frequently trade that way, and he told me recently that since trading CL he decided I'm not nuts after all, the instrument I trade is nuts One of my Skypemates relied heavily on trend lines. I remember one day we were watching CL (oil) sell off hard and in the middle a huge red bar in progress he said, "Looks like a good place to buy right here," and I thought he'd completely lost his mind, and price stopped cold about .03 from the price where he made his announcement and began running back up. Turns out he had a trend line drawn and price bounced right off the trend line like it was a trampoline. Although I now draw trend lines all day and trade off them, at that time it was simply not in my comfort zone to trade like that. Another of my Skypemates was learning to trade and I was working with him on a particular price action trigger that had a very high rate of success. However, the method of trading required the ability to allow price to wiggle back and forth from green to red before the reward of a full profit target was attained. He had great difficulty holding trades to target because it just wasn't in his comfort zone to allow an unrealized gain reverse to an unrealized loss, even though more often than not the price went to full target or better, and average losses were significantly less than average profits. You can learn trade setups and how to trade them anywhere, in books, on-line for free, on-line for a fee, and in trading rooms for free or for a fee. But none of that guarantees success. Success comes from finding one or two setups you're really comfortable with, learning to trade them without hesitation, and following your rules for managing the trades. Then as you accrue more screen time and experience, you'll begin to recognize additional types of setups and gradually add them to your repertoire. I now trade about six different strategies whereas a year ago I traded maybe two.
The best way of proving this entire theory is to make live calls in advance in a journal .Chart looks good in hindsight, processing of chart information is easier in hindsight.So make a thousand live calls under the stress of live bucks at risk.This will also prove the 10 % psychology /90 % system correct. Call the thread price action live calls. I am looking forward to seeing it.
You should do DAYTRADING on 1 min , tick and 5 min charts, just a bit of super price action , trendlines and reversals in chop , and that Merc will be yours. Those pies will be in the gut.
In this attached article are listed most of my discipline problems 1)time frame 2)enviromental distractions 3)fatigue and overtrading 4)overconfidence 5)unwilling to accept losses 6)Excessive leverage 7)type of trading :day trading 8)patience loss of(result of quick day trading) 9)trading plan system for new style of trading 10)personaility traits 11) mental overload with too many things Some of these discipline problems are endemic to day trading, if day-trading is eliminated most of the disciple problems are reduced. The other problems can be eliminated by having a system eliminating all the discipline problems.
Hi oilfxpro, You continue answering your own questions that you're currently not suitable for manual day trading (also known as discretionary day trading). Simply, you know what's profitable for you (automation day trading and automation swing trading). Yet, you remain fixated on discretionary day trading that doesn't work for you. It seems logical to me to spend time & energy on something that works instead of on something that so far has not work considering you're in a very unique situation via having other options. In comparison, most losing discretionary day traders do not have a profitable automation day trading or automation swing trading system like you do. Further, the #2, #3, #5 and #10 from your above list are very problematic. There such a problem that any trader I meet that mentions such about themselves... Don't open another chart, don't take another trade and go get professional psychological help prior to returning to day trading (seriously). Also, most traders sabotage their own trading before realizing what they've done. You seem to be coming to grips with what you're doing. Further, it will be interesting to see if you're addictive to day trading via continuing exploring it with your day trading discussions and chart examples of particular types of intraday price actions as a discretionary trader (no automation) while knowing you're currently not suitable for it and knowing you have a profitable automation trading system involving day trading and swing trading. Mark
I am not going to continue with day trading or explore any methods related to day trading.It is not for me. I am going to use the profitable automated methods , and apply a semi automated version using better trade management .This method using existing profitable strategies applies additional money management techniques to get consistent returns in difficult markets.I have been working on these for about two years, and I am just setting them up. I have developed a unique position size and risk management system , which can tolerate 75 consecutive losses, it only risks 5 % as draw down with 75 consecutive losses.These trading systems have 43 % hit rate. This is what I am going to apply for trade management. A load of these automated and swing strategies have signals during the day, but it is not day trading per se. I am going keep this thread open for knowledge , and memory of what I shouldn't do Thanks for your posts and suggestion , it is nice to have met somebody knowledgeable and helpful.
Very interesting thread and it seems you have acknowledged your weaknesses and are fixing them. I am of the opinion that the level of complexity and risk increase as time frame goes down. Making split second decisions with high leverage is a tall order for any trader. My suggestion is to increase time frame ie swingtrading, position trading longer charts or something that suits your style. Having success on longer charts is great for confidence boost and putting money into your account a bit easier. Master longer time frames and gently work down to fast (day trading). Good luck!
I did thousands of back tests on day trading systems , not one back test showed profitability over 10 years. The only systems that worked profitably , were on longer time frames with stops between 45 to 100 pips , and on targets of 100 to 250 pips. Just for the record.
how much is your account? most overtrading problems come from small account: scared money! day trading is actually fun,not a nuisance. for small account, it is a good way to generate efficient cash flow. can make small become bigger. if you have 5k, do it 10times, that is 50k. if you have 50k, that is 500k. the only problem is: you need fast fingers, time the market very accurately, youneed better timing skill than run a big account.