Just a note to those who looked at today's trades based on what I said yesterday. Today was the worst day for this type of trading since Jan 8th so don't be discouraged or dismiss it. Incredibly choppy ugly trading today.
It was ugly on a p&f basis as well. It happens about once every two weeks. this is why I have a max loss per day so days like this don't take a way a weeks worth of profits. After I reached my loss limit I continued to trade on the simulator. It was real ugly.
On the other hand, trading on a support/resistance basis worked just fine, at least on the NQ, bouncing between support and the opening high until after lunch, then breaking through resistance and moving up from there. LC
Yeah I found today to be a real teeth gritter as well. Even so, you would have broken even if you had just stayed with the plan. But by your two posts you have actually shown us the two different modes of the market: i) Trend ii) Trading Range My suggestion to SoCalTrader is that he pull his charts up and decide which type of trading he wants to do ... or conversely he could easily adopt more than one strategy if trading multiple contracts and trading an App that easily allows you to do so, like NinjaTrader or Button Trader (not an endorsement, they just work very well for the futs). Good trading.
I havn't read the whole thread, but has anyone mentioned steve nison's book "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Second Edition" http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Cand...d_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202946771&sr=1-1
Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown. Now buried in the depths below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits' end, like drunken men. Meantime, secure on Garraway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead. Price action - Human instinct is doomed to fail on the futures markets, the worst feeling trade is the one to take, let it keep you nervous as you hold, feelings of euphoria are signs of exit, let your emotions tell you the reverse story, use them to feel the fear of others - and then all will come clear - it takes time I grant you. Today was a gift like all the others. Kap
The imagery from that poem was pretty intense, wasn't it! That was a thing of beauty ... but I can't agree with the trading recommendations (sorry guys). Emotions do not belong in trading, period, check them at the door. There's no telling how High is HIGH, or how Low is LOW. Never break the trend, unless you have something that tells you you're pretty good at doing so, and have no concern for what others do. Keep your own counsel. *** The Poem is still professional quality though, and like all good poetry it speaks from the heart, to the heart. I'll be framing a copy of it for my wall.
Thing of beauty it was. I agree as well, emotions do not belong in trading. There IS a means of telling how high is HIGH and how low is LOW but it takes practice and patience.