You wont be able to make good money trading in this way, its not possible. Sorry to spoil your drawing lines gang
Here we go again! Looking through your posting history, I come across this quote "Oh and I'm break even to slightly profitable at trading and I have put in over 5 years work with no Help from anyone, I think if I had a good mentor I could have done it in half the time" http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?threads/is-day-trading-worth-it.275680/page-135#post-4059820 So now at least I have some idea of where you are. I want to ask you two questions.... 1. Why you say this won't work as evidence for a claim is of utmost importance. 2. Since you claim this doesn't work, how you trade was my next question. The above quote means that I no longer need to know how you trade since after 5 years you're just at break even... so no need to waste time on that. But why are you convinced this doesn't work? A person with your long posting history hopefully isn't so ignorant that he would just be flaming and trying to get kicked out of this thread... correct? PS. As you can tell... I'm one of the gang members! LOL
Try it for a couple month with real money and you will be allot worse than my break even to slightly profitable my friend
Can you post your tested results of the SLA method? Both back and forward tested for an entire year. If not then how can you make that claim?
Working on it right now with my live account. I'm not saying its easy, nor am I saying that Db gives the complete picture. Its all in how you draw the lines, how you exit, and which RET entries you take and which you don't based on context. There is quite a bit the trader has to do himself, and so much more work in terms of the mental/psychological/emotional issues that sometimes are the bigger problem rather than the trading method/technique. But if you get past your fears, if you can think from a trader's mindset in terms of a series of trades, if you really don't care about the money and don't care what price is doing because you're just following it up or down, then there really is the holy grail at the end of the journey.
If you don't care enough about it to read the pdf, why should anyone waste his time answering your questions? If you're satisfied with where you are after five years, great. If not, perhaps you should study your situation to figure out where you're going wrong. A basic understanding of demand and supply will help.
Both, but of course favoring the trend unless the range is really wide. There is one type of trade that I'm exploring which is a REV trade based on a rejection of a prominent level. SLA would still get you into the trade because eventually you will have a line break with a RET setting up. But as Db says, losing the lines is important, and I do understand this. The most important parts are the extremes, the levels beyond which trades can't find trades. If they break through, you buy after the first RET, if they reject it, you sell after the first RET. If the rejection puts you back into a trading range that you may have been stuck in, this is where context comes in to tell you not to trade. I think Db said something smart+funny once (ok... not just once.. LOL), but it was something like "if traders don't know what they want, how I am supposed to know?" So if you're stuck in a range, this tells you both buyers and sellers agree on price, so you wait till you leave this range. Its also difficult because you gotta look at different time frames, and Db often shows 1 min charts, 5 min charts, hourly and daily. The reasons for this are, as he says, its just easier to make money if you're trading in the right direction, and knowing the LOLR and the context helps point you in the right direction. But you also gotta be completely prepared to change your mind on a dime if what you see in the now moment shows a change in the trend you were expecting.
And if you don't know why you aren't doing any better than breakeven after five years, perhaps you should question whatever it is you're doing. The responsibility for not being farther ahead after all this time is something you're going to have to own. It's no one else's fault. It's no one else's responsibility.