A few suggestions.Stop all sim or live trading for now.Remove all indicators,volume,ema's,etc. on your chart.Don't use anything faster then a 1m chart (like a 500 tick chart).Focus only on one market and one chart.Nothing else.Do this for one week at a minimum.Forget about scaling in,targets,etc until you can read the market better.Make all the price bars one neutral color for now until you can focus on if the market is going up or down at a minimum on the chart in front of you.Just draw a demand(up) trendline in an uptrend or a supply(down) trendline in downtrend(see nodoji and db's chart examples).Notice how they wait for a break of a demand trendline and a LH before even anticipating the trend has changed. Fan the demand trendline if the market makes a new high soon after a break of the demand trendline.Once the market has follow thru down after a demand TL break and LH then look to draw a supply TL.Next watch for a break of the supply TL and a HL.Fan the supply TL if the market makes a new low.Continue to monitor for another supply TL break and HL.Some days the market will go into sideways markets part or all day.Other days the market will trend more in one direction most of the day.For now just focus on annotating the TL's and monitoring what happens after each break.Keep stats each day and for the whole week of the amount of total TL breaks,demand TL breaks with LH and without LH,supply TL breaks with HL and without HL.Try to see how the type of day will affect the stats.Look at the size of the bars when market is going with the trend versus just retracing slightly.Review what the opens and closes do in stronger trends versus sideways markets.Start to really view the market and forget about trading it for now.Stop reading or viewing any other material for now.Print out the two examples from nodoji and db.Study them over and over again.How does db's example differ from nodoji's? Post your chart at the start and end of each day.Try to post your chart realtime when the market breaks a demand TL and makes a LH.Do the same for supply TL breaks and a HL. Post your stats for the day.Comment on what the market did that day in reference to the TL "breaks".Do this and you will begin the journey of seeing the market better.
The one by Charles Duhigg or Jack Hodge? http://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-W...1395703416&sr=1-1&keywords=the+power+of+habit http://www.amazon.com/Power-Habit-H...1395703416&sr=1-2&keywords=the+power+of+habit
I am kind of overwhelmed with the help all of you have given. Thank you very much for getting me to look at things more clearly. I'm not one to ask for help, I'm always trying to nut things out myself, but this trading issue is just the hardest thing for me to do well, and perhaps my hesitation to ask for help is another of the issues holding me back. Attached is some of my trading for today...in sim. As you can see I am trying to enter on the pullbacks, and giving myself an additional 2 scale entries before I cut the trade out and call it a loss. These types of days always look like I should be holding my winners longer. Until the next day, when I do, and its a non-trend day, and then I miss out getting out at the extreme.
What I found to be helpful is to focus on a fixed minimum target that works in both trend and range conditions, but if there's significantly more airspace to a key level well beyond my minimum, then hold for more. Today in CL (oil) is a good example of how I used this concept. Price broke down from the open all the way to a very key level (lower trend from last week's action). Once a reversal setup triggered a counter-trend long position off that level, then closed above the supply line (indicating a trend reversal), the 60-min range high/upper trend line was in play, and that level was nearly a full point higher so you could just lock in the minimum and hold for the big move.
So today I entered a long at 46.25, 44.25, and 42.25. the price stopped me at 40.25. I entered a short at 36, 38, and 39, then hit my profit target of 34... edit: 39, not 49
What time were these trades? I can't make sense of it? Also, on the short trade, why wouldn't your profit target have been at least a measured move of the move off the high? Why target the previous little low when you're shorting a pullback in a downtrend, meaning price is likely to make a lower low, not a double bottom as you'd expect in a range?