There are many ways to trade these markets and what you are describing does make sense. However I didn't lose money because of TA or FA, it was ONLY because of my own out of control money management, nothing else. My system worked just fine and if I followed it SWM would be just another trade with a bit above ave. return. But this is how I trade, if yo use FA then I agree with what you are saying.
Thank yo NoDoji. It was due to money management. Luckily I'm in control of that one Though big slippage didn't help either.
Thank you RN for your comments, I'm a better trader today, not yet richer. And this weekend I'm planning to do just that, working on my rules.
redneck, what a bunch of it..... a bunch of great advice you just gave. no rules no success. break the rules you lose, maybe not the first few lucky trades even but eventually will flame out. I know too well this is only fact worth knowing. trade your rules and do not curve fit or you have no system. seat of pants is not a good system....gut is not a good system.....happy trading do you curse like that constantly in real life or is the trading making you like me, half goofy, if not completely...lol
Thank You Very Kindly Yes I am totally goofy - my family will attest to that As far as my cussing â my apologies if I offended⦠but sometimes I just need to get a point across - and I know of no better way to be clear and direct (sans beating around the bush/ useless fluff) Good Trading Sir RN
RN....would u agree with this. The new trader should trade demo until he sees a robot like trader, not breaking rules, gaining great patience until he sees his entry signal, and the fewer of them the better. If he /she cannot make funny money pts then sure as heck do not throw real money at the market. But demo is not easy either, as nothing on the line. Buying dips selling rallies with the trend, whatever timeframe he chooses. I choose the 5 minute NQ ES intraday from 8:30 to usually 10:00 for the best move of the day for the last 10 yrs of data. Me, my brother and my original boss, who introduced me to this. How do you feel concerning time frames for intraday eminis? Not asking for personal system. I have mine and no changes required after 8 years. I will never ask you or anyone else for their system. I have on Es forum as nuts there attacked all I said. 10 yrs is mine and my boss's backtesting. Most of mine live. I like to say All charts are dead except the live bar. Live or dead look the same to me as I am TA all the way. No anticipation only what chart candle patterns say most likely is next. Happiest of all Valentine's to all
Codliver, With all due respect â I would like to remain on topic as per TFâs direction/ posts That said â I trade stocks utilizing multiple time frames Demo/ sim trading is a tool â no reason to not use it when/ as appropriate RN
I'm guessing a little here , but it seems to me your edge /probability is lower than you think and that your waiting longer for small profits and getting occassional big losers , which isn't an edge at all , just twisting the win loss / profit loss ratio to an extreme . In my opinion if your edge was higher your rules would be a lot less critical , plus you'd be a lot less nervouse , in my opinion your problem isn't lack of discipline it's lack of edge/probability , I know you won't agree , but it's easy to fool yourself in this game .
Nice thread something I began doing recently which may or may not help you is recording my trading day with a screen recording software narrating my thoughts for entering and exiting trades. I then review the video during the evening or weekend. Eliminates a lot of writing
bigpapi, that's a great idea. I stopped journal-style trade documentation as of this week, because writing up my reasons for entering, my trade management, my exits, my mistakes, etc. was causing me to lose focus on other good setups forming. Even just an audio recording to review with the chart at the end of the day would work well. TF, your journal reminds me so much of my own. I was averaging around $1000/day during my first 3 weeks day trading, then I had this brilliant idea to put on some swing trades with really wide stops because these momo stocks had wide swings and so I placed stops where price would NEVER go... Next day one stop was hit for a $6500 loss. I don't think I traded any more that day. The day after that the other two stops were hit right after the open for a net loss of $10700. I immediately detached myself from those losses. I said to myself, "You're an excellent day trader. You netted $17K in your first 3 weeks day trading. Then you gave back most of it by changing what worked. Just go back to what works." I got right back on the horse, had a $100 losing trade, then had a couple trades that netted nearly $1000. My losses were a result of changing what was working well for me. Your loss was a result of straying from your rules. These are things that can be fixed, and you are right to throw away the "number" and resume doing what works. But don't ever throw away the lesson. Unfortunately, my early lessons had to be repeated several times, because instead of developing a set of strict rules, I continued to let my personal opinion influence my trading. The problem with that is it works really really well until the day it doesn't.