"Hi. Thought it might be fun to watch a very bad trader (me!) embarass themselves. Recently, I am losing VERY consistently. Quite impressive, really. Last month or so, i've been averaging about (-60 ticks) per day on the CL. Typically about 10 trades per day (using 5 minute chart for entry). I'd expect better results flipping a coin wth equal stop/target, but i could be wrong. I'm tempted to just fade myself, but before that, I've been tying to tweak things and monitor results." You haven't given much information here. How long have you been trading ? Have you always traded the same market ? Have you been consistently profitable and if so, what has changed since that time ? Mo
I'd potentially be interested in this offer. I'm short this very second from 94.37 stop at 94.52 target 94.12
Practiced/demo traded for about 1 year. Then live trading (on and off) for about 2 years. I've traded most markets. Equities, CL, ES, forex. I had a spell of consistent profitability for about 6 months or so, on both 6b and CL. I don't know what's changed. I guess markets really are always changing. The cycle could be something like 3 years testing to find something that works, to give yourself a 6 months of consistent profitability.
Why are you going short when price is going up? What's your reason for entering on any trade? Also I think your stops are too wide for the 5 min....
price going up? We were down on the day at the time of the short, price had dropped off nearly 40 ticks from the high of the day, AND we were below the 20 ema on the 5min chart. How many ticks does it take to quantify up? (or down) If I had have went long there instead, and the price dropped, people would say ''why were you going long when the price is going down??' lol regarding stops, some are saying they're too tight, others that they're too large.
and if it was a matter of buying when price is going up and visaversa, surely an MACD crossover is the holy grail?
You have to be a contrarian, when the market is going up you have to assume you missed the move and start looking for short setups. Even if your buying pullbacks in a up trend your still a contrarian because your trying to time the turning point. The funny this is when your trying to time turning points you actually can use tighter stops and take more shots at it, you can be wrong a couple of times and then catch the move. Another thing is use multiple contracts and scale out. When your first target is hit it takes the pressure off. You can get your first target hit, get stopped out and its ok. Mentally it'll make all the difference. Learn how to read order flow by watching the DOM, I know there's a lot of fake orders on the bid and ask but thats not what i'm talking about. Watch how price moves on the DOM, for an example, i trade the es, If I'm long at 1760 and every time price hits 1760.25 and jumps back down 2-3 ticks or keeps jumping off that price then i know there may be a big seller there holding the market so i just may scratch the trade. If you start watching the DOM you'll know what i'm talking about its a certain way it jumps off prices. Trend trading is dead IMHO, a lot of new traders want to be trend trader which is a huge mistake. There's a GRAY area with following the trend and fading it. With experience you'll learn the difference. IMHO brake outs are the worst of all, the market already moved a certain distance and now you want to jump in. Think about that in terms of your everyday life, would you wait until something gets way over priced and say now is a good time to buy it, you wouldn't so why do that is trading. Say you buy a brake out and that ends up being the high of the day, do you know what that will do to you mentally, you were stupid enough to buy the high of the day. I've done that a few times so I know how it feels. The loss wasn't that big of a deal just the fact I bought close to the high of the day made me feel so stupid. A lot of people don't like to talk about this but learn Market Feel. No one can teach you this it just comes with experience. Start trying to listen to want the market is trying to say, I know it sounds a little new age but its true, try to feel the market. Keep asking yourself during he day,WHAT IS THE MARKET DOING RIGHT NOW. STAY IN THE NOW. Master one setup, train yourself to just look for one thing, then once you do that then add another setup. Wipe the slate clean and start over. Theres no rule in trading that says you cant start over. Go back to the basic. WHAT ARE MARKETS, start from there. if you ever read any trading book about great trader there's two thing that keeps coming up, order flow and risk management. Don't let anyone tell you you can't become a great trader. You can be anything you want to be but you have to believe it first. Tell yourself either your going to become a profitable trader or your going to die trying. Put in the work and you'll get there. You owe to yourself. This is just my two cents. This is how i see the market and it works for me. Good luck