http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?search/762711/&page=17 That link will take you to a page listing my posts here at ET starting with my first. Anyone can go through them, starting at the oldest and working his way forward in time and draw whatever conclusions he desires. I do agree that DbPhoenix's threads are incomplete and do not provide a stand alone day trading system. The missing component is the back testing and forward testing of trade set ups that each individual must do as a result of having identified such potential set ups on his or her own as a result of the observations (and journaling of those observations) made by the individual. Of course, DbPhoenix is up front about this - but many ignore it, and even those who do not ignore often jump too soon to observing without first having studied enough background to know what they should be looking for. It is striking that obviously successful traders here at ET like Handle123 will tell us how he will back test thousands of instances of a specific behavior identified through his experiences and observations in order to determine the rules for trading it and the money management rules to exploit it, and yet here at ET we get one whiner who refuses to do even the smallest portion of this work, and a whole hornet's nest of trolls comes swarming about attacking DbPhoenix. I, for one, am very glad that I found DbPhoenix with a still open mind. "This seems a simple thing, but very few people can do it. That is because ... they have not studied and practiced it." Richard Wyckoff, Method of Trading in Stocks, Division 2
Sorry, I just checked it and it still works for me. You can always do a search with my user name as the filter, and then click on the last page and read from the oldest to newest.
Actually, I misspoke. Having gone back to my first posts here at ET, I would say that anyone who goes to the first three charts that DbPhoenix posts in his SLA journals and who understands what DbPhoenix conveys through those charts can start day trading with that method today. Most won't, don't, or can't seem to understand them straight off, so for those people, the added work of observation, back testing, forward testing, etc. will be required.
Limiting Beliefs: Mistakes and failure are bad. I'm not good enough. Change is difficult. What makes me good enough or important is having people think well of me. If I make a mistake or fail I'll be rejected. What makes me good enough or important is doing things perfectly. Old doesn't work. Newer is better. Gringo
False Maybe this was true when it was stated, but I assure you these tactics have been tested, utilized and exploited to non-relevance by more money than Wyckoff could ever even dream about-- i am talking about teams of PhD's backed by BILLIONS--- not lone wolves in their den or basements. It's time to face reality. surf
If you wanna apply SLA wyckoff intraday , best bet is the CL or TF doing it in NQ or ES is a bit nonsensical to me. As in you wanna apply a trend following system to a mean reverting index ?
My bet is it is no better than random entries. Heck, with good money management and the right volatility, random entries can make money. surf
40D, we have been through this before so I don't want to argue, but since this is pointed directly at me, its only fair that I get to respond. I think its safe to say that psychology is the biggest factor in this trading business... correct? Sure you need a statistically profitable trading plan and all that, but many people struggle with issues that they grew up with, that manifest themselves when they try trading. I don't deny SLA works if you follow it purely mechnically, but neither you, nor your friend that you taught are trading SLA. You might use the elements of SLA and AMT especially, but you guys aren't waiting for RET entries on 1 minute charts. So this isn't as simple as reading Db's PDF and making a killing. If a person was a machine and the account was well funded I'm sure that after a month, the profits would outnumber the losses, but there is no way you would suffer the losses in chop as SLA would sometimes pull you into, so there shouldn't be any reason why anyone else should, hence SLA on its own is difficult, even more so for a beginner rather than someone more experienced who can handle the loss emotionally. But since I opened with psychology being the biggest barrier to success, what you gave your friend through your mentorship is of utmost importance (perhaps you're even doing this for the guys you are Private Messaging). Perhaps he came to this with less issues than the rest of us, and you yourself must have as well. I think it was a big help that you had already been trading stocks for a year like you said. In fact, I have read a few times that its easier to start swing trading with higher time frame charts rather than jumping into day trading. Anyway, my point is that your friend had an entire week, from morning till night, to see how proper psychology works. As a beginner when I started trading SLA, I would actually sit there initially and hope my entry wasn't triggered. It was placed where it should be, but I was scared of the trade triggering and price dropping right away. Sure you could make the case that with enough testing I should see that this is no big deal as this happens often, and logically I could tell you that as well since I've seen enough charts, but this isn't an issue of seeing, its an issue with regards to psychology, with what happens to you once you're in a trade. To have someone to watch who doesn't get phased by this, to have someone with you there to tell you conclusively what is to be expected and what is out of the ordinary and hence cause you to exit immediately is vitally beneficial. As a man, I naturally have less fear than a woman when it comes to noises at night. Her fears might be unjustified when she hears a loud noise in the hallway since she is behind a locked door in the apartment, but nevertheless, the fear is there for her and she relies on me to make her feel safe. Over time, this fear is diminished both because she either gets used to the noise, or because she never lets me leave the apaprtment at night! LOL My point though is that if we take the approach that this trading game is more about psychology, which it clearly must be as you guys can't understand how so many of us can fail if we just do the work, then this is something the PDF cannot provide, something Wyckoff cannot provide through his lessons. The fact that you didn't have these fears when you started I think is wonderful. I don't think Db ever had fears about anything... hence he's not human and doesn't count! And your friend, who knows what he might have done with this, but because he watched you for a whole week trade and make tens of thousands of dollars in just that week I'm sure, maybe even in one day, and because he had you to put him on the right path from the get go means that we will never know what he would have done with this. So feel free to keep saying that the reason I failed thus far is because I'm not doing the work, I simply don't care anymore. But I just want everyone out there reading to realize that I view things differently and its just not fair, nor logically correct to say that I've failed thus far because I didn't do the work as you keep claiming over and over again.