You know what's funny? Looking at your stats just for today, its obvious that if you only cut your losers sooner, you'll make much more money. Luckily you're not as affected by your losses as I am, and this clearly turns you into a winner, but controlling those losses is perhaps the only extra little thing you need. Here, it seems like anything over 6 points of adverse movement turns into a loser. Why are you holding for bigger losses? Of course this is such a small sample of trades, but it seems like just letting go of your losers is key. In the ES, I see you mostly use a 3 point stop which seems to work well for you, especially since you are always booking at least 5 or 10 points profit.
Sometimes the market moves in a way that I feel like I have an 'edge', and some days, I feel completely clueless and every move is a surprise! I think the trick, if there is one, is about spotting the market environment, and then deciding on the sort of setups you'll look for. Unfortunately, It is only obvious to me at the end of the day where you can see, for example, that it was a strong trend day all day and I shouldn't have been looking for longs!
Yes, that is possible. However, when combined with the other factors, although possible it is unlikely.
I hear you man. What I've read from successful guys here is that after 3 losing trades in a row, they are done for the day. This makes quite a bit of sense to me. Sure you can say that on some days you make it back, but in my experience, when your initial setups don't work, its gonna be a screwy day, and you cant' trade a screwy day, so best to do something else. Its actually part of having an edge.. knowing when to stay out. But I of course only know this from always doing it wrong myself so don't take me as a preacher. There really is a skill to see how price moves, and if its moves in a way you like, bang... you're gonna kill it, but if its moving erratically and the algos are angry, best to not have them take it out on you!
Remember, nearly everyone is using TA. If you think you can discern things that others and computers designed to do such things, can not from the past price chart patterns-- maybe you can--but I have never seen it done. surf
Its party that, but also partly based on what is happening right now. I'm clearly not going to go too much into my patent pending price action system... LOL... but I've been watching this fucking thing for about 18 months now every morning and the same shit happens over and over again. First example is this. Its a level I'm watching (this right here is key... its gotta be a level of some sort). Yes price drops below the level... but look at what happens next. Specifically, look at how the area I point out, where there is a little micro crash to flush out early longs just don't drop below the previous low. Seeing this in real time, expecting a reversal at this level, perhaps there is enough here to go on here to take a long. As for the second example... I'm too lazy cause I know most people will think my 5 sec charts are crap so I don't want to bother. Once I make it work, I will start up my journal again to hopefully do some good journaling of consistently profitable trading.
Oh.. and here is my so called map to guide me. The circled areas are places where I would/could/should look for a trade. I will now stop sharing since I'm not making money yet!
I personally know successful hedge fund managers here in London and in Europe and they all use charts. Are they looking for cups and saucers and teaspoons ? Probably not. But they all do some form of technical analysis. To a man.