With all due respect to those who got involved in the "Help I've been chopped" thread the discussions were elementary at best with a lot of general basic comments that most traders should know before entering the market "battlefield" Death by a thousand stops is nothing to take lightly in trading, especially if you are a price action trader, don't think for a second that a couple of do's and don'ts are going to save you from bad action because it is actually PA's Achilles' Heel. It's a topic that deserves chapters, maybe even a whole book, not just a few random posts in a public forum. I know many of you mean well, and your contribution actually makes this cesspool a better place when you are active but it kind of rubs me the wrong way when someone tries to trivialize what is far from trivial; it gives amateurs the wrong impression and a lot of false hopes. Knowing when not to trade or in some cases when to just "hold" is for many the one thing needed to take them from small gains to smooth rides in their overall trading decisions; in many cases, the last piece of the puzzle needed for true success.
FWIW, my personal rule to avoid trading around a flat 20EMA on my main trading chart (5-min) keeps me out of the vast majority (at least 80%) of chop trouble I've encountered.
Or pulling back once one has a lower high and a higher low. Nobody's going to read a book on this. Real-time guidance -- or what passes for real-time guidance on message boards -- is preferable. If no one is interested in that either, then "a few random posts" are better than nothing.
Thatâs a big tell right there â repeatedly entering yet the trade fails â well damn Takes me up to 3.., sometimes 4 B/Es/ small losers to get a clue (far short of 1K rest assured) ============= How about characterizing your instrument â Iâm sure it repeats behavior around certain times each day (or at least close enough for government work) Now if one chooses to jump around willy nilly and trade different instruments â good luck with that ========== Times when current bar closes/ next one opens â I leave it to you figure this one out ========== Volume AND momentum - present or not â hell.., thereâs a clue ========== How about the act of simply creating context â base on price not oneâs stupid opinion - and monitoring to see if price continues to plod along the path its established Simultaneously on a couple of different TFs ================ How about a PB - it evolving into a continuation (of the original move) - a retrace - a reversal - or is it stalling out =============== One needs the ability to monitor / read / adapt / and trade this shit in real time Either you can or you canât Multiple chapters â not necessary Ability to think on one's feet.., adapt.., and act accordingly â necessary RN
In my opinion, the trivialization of an advanced topic yet continues. Good guys good people, let's agree to disagree. Best wishes in the new year.
Since the topic of being chopped up & "death by a thousand cuts" was brought up how would you traders that actually know how to trade handle a day like today in CL? It was choppy to start, then a downtrend, then back to chop. I bought pretty much every high & sold every low. Negative 72 ticks. ( Simulator )
If you want to improve, why not begin by explaining why you took all these trades? I see no evidence of a plan. I can explain what I would have done according to my plan, but so what? That isn't going to help you.
I agree, it looks like you were just reacting to price movements instead of trading a plan. Can you describe the trading plan setup description/rule for the entry and exit on each trade? Without describing any entries, exits or anything else, each of my trades today was based on a setup/context with rules for entries and exits. I traded 3 setups today which I'll call A, B, and C. There were contextual situations on my main 5-min chart that disallowed what might otherwise have been reasonable setups. I described these things in my "chopped" thread, things like inside bars, back-to-back opposing bar breaks, congestion between camps, HL/LH (symmetrical triangle), etc. These conditions don't last forever; eventually the market tips its hand. If you don't have the experience to play in these conditions and avoid damage, it's best to let the market tip its hand before trading.
20 (0.10) Thought the double top would get taken out & run the stops of bears. 19 (0.02) Was going down, so short. Changed my mind, because I thought the obvious double top would lead to a stop run, so I reversed. 18 (0.09) Looked like it was about to take off, so long. 17 (0.07) I figured since it fizzled out on the last trade that it was weak & would go down. 16 0.04 Pin bar reversal. Tried to hold for a 15-min trend bar, but it fizzled out. 15 (0.08) Buying near low of choppy/rangy price action. 14 (0.06) Price was going up & looked like it was breaking out. 13 0.05 15-min bar breakout. 12 (0.09) Short on small retrace. 11 0.06 Short on a small retrace. 10 0.10 Breakout attempt was a bull trap, so short. 9 (0.06) Looked like price was breaking out, so long. 8 (0.08) Price was going down, so short after retrace & continuation. 7 (0.04) It was choppy, so I thought this would be a bear trap. 6 (0.08) Short after retrace of downmove. 5 (0.08) Price dropped straight down to bottom of range. Thought it would bounce since the drop was so steep without consolidation. 4 0.01 Not sure. 3 0.02 Price attempted to go down, but rejected, so long. 2 (0.04) Price was going up & retraced, so long. 1 (0.11) Price was going down & retraced, so short.