When a setup appears normally you place the order to enter the trade and manage the trade from there. That's a 1st entry. A 2nd entry means you watch price react at the level that you'd normally place the order, knowing that far more often than not price makes an adverse excursion off these sorts of setups. If the reaction at that point sets up a trap of those who took 1st entries, you can a) trade the opposite direction altogether, or b) wait to see if a 2nd entry opportunity sets up at the same price or a better price off a higher low/lower high so a tighter stop can be used. Sometimes there's no 2nd chance at the same price.
Hey NoDoji, always love your posts. What are you using for entries now? 3bar, 50%, 20ema? Or purely based sup/res in relation to max stop placement. Thanks
didnt see any mention of s/r areas ,start with those and work backwards,sheer repetition watching it bounce off these numbers will give you an idea of the percentage of the times this works, and how it acts when t doesnt work,these are the areas that get the most buyers and sellers and that volume combined with s/r # is a good tell .. a good way to start is take the highs or lows at end of day and draw backwards,finding out why that was supp.res
There's a lot of complaining about the OP not listening to advice, when the very first comment really was that there isn't a trading plan. Working in a simulated environment would be a good route for him to try, maybe at PFGbest with a $50,000 sim account? Doubling money in the first two years is nearly always due to luck, and he hasn't mentioned what his drawdown was during that time. There are models you can use to predict direction, but even a 5-30 minute bar won't produce anything but randomness as there is no linear relationship between price and time.
I do exactly what Al Brooks' book (Reading Price Charts Bar By Bar) taught me to do. There are no big secrets I can reveal. I recently read through Brooks' book again and realized that every strategy in my trading plan is pure Brooks. I definitely look at the S/R in my time frame to determine where a stop should be placed and if that stop placement is greater than X, I either accept it (1st entry), wait for more clarity (2nd entry), or skip the trade altogether (if price runs and offers no 2nd entry opportunity, or if no clean 2nd entry setup appears, such as when the setup is bull/bear trap). If I miss the entry because price runs and there's no 2nd entry opportunity, I look for 1-min continuation setups if a well-defined trend is in play or if a key S/R level offers enough room to make my minimum acceptable profit per trade. The details of my tactics are irrelevant (they are all found in Brooks book, and in great detail there); what's important is that I have a plan based on intensive study of the instruments I trade and the plan has written rules for setups, entries, and trade management. As long as I follow the plan, I am profitable. If I trade outside the plan, I may sometimes get lucky, but most of the time the result is unnecessary loss. Trading without a plan or trading outside of a well-researched plan is pure gambling because the odds are no longer in your favor. ADD: The OP's problem was how to enter trend reversal zones, how to get in without the inevitable whipsaws that occur at turning points. The answer is to a) study 2nd entries and how best to read the PA that confirms a possible reversal, and b) learn to recognize and sit on hands during the early confirmation of a reversal and how to catch the next meaty leg of the new trend.
1. First of all, use two charts. A big chart, for example the ES 60 and a small chart, for example the ES 5 min or 10k. 2. Identify the trend of the 60 min chart. This is the trend you want to trade with. This is determined by highs and lows. Trends do end, this is where the skill set of a trader can take him/her to the next level, early identification of change of trend, however this is not a necessarily skill to make it, IMO. 3. Wait for pullback to S/R (prior R turning S or prior S turning into R). Use additional confluence like Trend lines, Fib or flag channels, etc to increase accuracy. Wait patiently for this event. Things need to line up. That's when the big boys are ready to jump into the party. 4. Switch to the small chart and manage an entry with as small a risk as your skill/knowledge permits you to operate. This is tricky and there are several techniques for these, including Vics 2B, taking high/low of prior bar after S/R test, etc. 5. Shoot for a new low or new high if you have the balls to. If not, get out at any opposing price action, enough to give you sufficient RR for the win%, ensuring positive expectancy.