Hello, Just need some opinion or logical thoughts on a consideration that has been on my mind lately. I consider this ET forum/members apart of my trading journey and I value everyone opinions, so please charm in. My current trading status: Learning and studying and backtesing and daily trading intraday via price action and technical analysis. I manually (sim) day trading with just candlesticks and drawn resistance and support. I started this route January 2018 til now, and after about 220 trades my balance in spreadsheet is $8000, with about at -1800 max drawdown. That is with tons of mistakes, errors, oopps, etc. I think I have about 1000 hours logged of screen time. To be honest, I just trade what I see (no indicators, nothing fancy). I have no formal education on price action trading besides what was taught by others on the forum, or youtube, or some online article. So lately, I been reading or watching youtube on price action trading and its like , wow!! I feel my confidence increasing the more I know. like candlestick patterns, market context, etc. Lol, I didn't even know what the term price rejection was til about 2 months ago. I just feel, I may need some formal training to enhance my skills. I am thinking about the knowledge part and just learning more. My question: From your experience as price action trader: 1. Did you learn price action trading on your own or some course? 2. Do you recommend a course? I am just considering this because I feel education and learning increases skill set. But on the flip side of things, I may just stick to what I am doing my Own way of trading and learn from what I am seeing on the chart during my own studying. Just doing my own thing. Cause a big disadvantage of a course is learning the wrong thing. Thank you,
I would stop Sim and start trading live, instead of doing a study on price study. I think you will encounter different kind of problems, that has nothing to do with price action, but everything with your personality and how you will handle live trading.
Here's the thing @SimpleMeLike ... To trade successfully, you have to make whatever nugget, tidbit, or full blown methodology, technique or style your own. You MUST own it! Unfortunately that won't come from a book or course. What you gain through books/courses are "ideas". Ideas to run with and develop further or dismiss: using whatever criteria you have(at that point in time) for the information to be worthy of ownership. You are asking for referrals for paid stuff... whittle away some of the shit is good, BUT one mans junk is another mans treasure. Referral may or may not be useful. Nowadays there is soooo much stuff available for free on the internet, spending oodles of cash is just not necessary. And when coupled with the thought of "ideas" and ownership, clicking and downloading will get you where you need to be faster, and with more background knowledge than one or two books/courses could even compete with. You said you found a "wow!" through your own searching... start there... try turning it into, A-ha!!! Ideas and ownership should be your takeaway here. +1 Use micro contracts, one share of stock, one option: Whatever you have to do, but go live!! Sim will pollute you via the Dunning-Kruger Effect and similar cognitive biases, and as pointed out, your emotions and ethics will become ill or unprepared the longer you sim. Adventure On!
You did not state what amount you started with. Hard to say how you are doing. So, you are day trading? Focus on the setups of pullbacks, breakouts, reversals and master them. Hopefully, you have a trading journal to monitor your trades and pinpoint mistakes, a trading plan to guide you how to handle your trades when they work out and also, when they do not work out. Risk management to minimize the chance of blowing your account. The thread on Optionsellers.com shows you that if you do not practice risk management, even if you have hundreds of millions, you will blow up your account! What more the retail trader?
Thanks for responding smallfil, I started with $2000 in my trading journal. And yes I do day trade. I have a trading journal to pinpoint mistakes and what I did wrong, right, and need to improve on. I appreciate your response.
Thank you danielc1 for the response. good comment. Yes, I was thinking of this as well. Rather than purchasing a course, just stick to what I am doing now live, atleast that will tell me the truth about my trading methods.
I am quite sure this will elicit a roar of laughter and ridicule but the most complete PA training out there is what Mr Brooks offers in his 4 volume set of books and his video course. That said, a trader will have to go through the materials several times taking copious notes and then practicing the concepts on a Sim (if a trader can’t make it work on a sim it sure won’t work with money on the line) until the concepts become second nature and one shows consistent profits via sim. Once going live with money it will be harder but the drills on the sim will help.
On your question on price action. The way I handle it is if I believe XYZ stock will go up but, after entering, there is no follow thru and the stock goes down instead, you can reverse that trade. The stock is going down. That is all you need to know. So, close your trade at a loss and trade the opposite way. This is a high probability trade now because chances are good XYZ stock is going down in the near term atleast.
When I started to learn, I was really confused by the term price action. I was looking for a a good resource. I found yourtradingcoach.com approach very fitting to my "beliefs" about the markets. Eventually I purchased the course. I recommend it. But I suggest you read his articles first and see if what he teaches resonates with you. IMHO, it's not about finding the best method, but rather finding the best method(s) that fits your personal style/beliefs.