After some serious struggling, sprinkled with a few emotional roller coasters now and then, I am seeing that everything that has been stated in this and previous journal seems to reflect the reality with remarkable consistency. So, I am hoping the 'long sidetrip' will be really worth it.
Tried a drill today in an attempt to see the pace changes better. I drew the gaussians on 2 levels on the price chart. I traded the tape level ones and incorrectly saw peak volume AGAIN, twice. My errors are clear in hindsight as usual. I got back on the right side but got churned, increased risk and had unneccessary exposure. Still have a hard time being confident on many change signals.
I have been focused on one thing only: building traverses with tapes and channels with traverses. I am nowheres done with this. I can feel in my bones that ALL (well, virtually all) my and most others difficulties lie in "seeing" the fractals. I would have swore I had an aha moment. Then I examined a bunch of charts. No more aha. See below a snippet Spyder posted. Note the orange pt3 TRAVERSE. This is followed by LATERAL MOVEMENT. WMCN? Why, of course, a DOWN traverse. What do we see? A down tape (lime green which I drew in), BUT no completion of the sequence of a down pt3. Clearly, I have once again, failed to comprehend. I am now beyond 150 static charts and have begun doing the fractal/crayola exercise. Oh how I long for a Vulcan Mind Meld. Perhaps a good bash to the cranium with a 15lb hammer might do it
OK lets count the chips .... for 12 point range ....extraction was 6.7 points .... lost 2 points (my mistake)...didn't take 4 points ( not acting)....net profit 4.6 points
Thank you nkhoi. So, in your opinion, is this a case of the LM NOT being a "retrace, a traverse, or a channel" type situation. I know others are in the same boat. Seems like there are very often two ways to "see" the chart at a given point. Somehow, I manage to see it wrong. The neat thing is, I'm quite consistant. SOmehow, I almost always select the wrong interpretation (like in this case seeing the LM and not what you drew in). Spydertrader has repeatedly irked some people by saying something like, "you're really close". THing is, I think I am really close. So close, so damned close, that I can't see it. Thanks again for your reply.