I hadn't seen this before. No idea how long you've been trading, but you need to keep your promise not to do that any more. Put a time limit on yourself. Try the suggestion above, give yourself time with it, and give yourself time to try any alternative you may come up with. Max 6 months. If you're not trading live and profitably, pack it in. Your mental health is as valuable (perhaps moreso) as your physical health. Quality of life issue. There are content and fulfilled amputees but no happy depressives. Even if you eventually became rich, at what cost? As Bob Marley said "money can't buy life". If you're not showing consistent success in 6 months, and find it difficult to contemplate quitting, then you need to search inside for what you are trying to fix / compensate for with a trading life which is clearly not for you.
I have no official students. No one I've spoken with or read about on forums trades like I do, though a few people know exactly how I trade and could tell you almost to the tick where I went long or short on any given day. Knowledge is transferable but the ability to apply it fruitfully is not, IMHO.
Any chance you could explain a little more on how I'm influenced by charts in ways I don't understand? I think I'm aware of what you're saying, but not totally sure. A chart is nothing more than a record of the price going up & down. I understand that the "patterns" and "indicators" can mean absolutely nothing. For instance if traders are buying & buying & buying, then a little double top, or a cross below a moving average, or a head & shoulders pattern, or a trendline violation, or whatever else a person sees is meaningless. If traders are buying, & nobody is selling, & price is going up, & there's no reason for it to stop then that's all you need to know. I realize the visual signals you see on a chart can trick a person & be totally random occurrences. I don't see how watching the Order Book with no chart is any better. It still comes down to the decisions you make. One person may look at the Order Book & decide to buy. I might look at the chart & decide to buy. We both have our reasons, and they might be the exact same reason. The decision isn't a product of the chart or the DOM as far as I can tell. I'm not experienced with watching the Order Book though, so I'm not 100% certain on these views. Just trying to understand.
You will never be a 10%er with such pre-conceived notions. The so called answers to do this successfully are all over the web for the taking. You are not able to understand the process but that is no reason to reflect your inability to comprehend upon others. Did you flunk drivers ed?
No, bighog, they aren't. If that were true, there would be no losers. Donna seldom takes less than 20 ticks on a trade, and never has losses thanks to the magical break even stop. (I heard she doesn't even need to trade any more, because Glencore paid her seven figures to teach Al Brooks, EMA, pullbacks, and 5 minute chart price action to their energy desk). Top 10%? You guys are funny. You really think that top level of trading comprises 1 in 10 people? You're off by at least three orders of magnitude. I forgot that fully 10% of the membership here have 7 figure accounts and trade a million bbl at a clip. You can tell which ones by how many thousands of posts they have, the more posts, the more contracts they trade! All good clean banter though, isn't it? Everyone here knows how well they do with these popular / easy methods which are just there for the taking all over the 'net. I sometimes wonder if folks are trying to fool others, or themselves... Common sense is a pretty dear commodity here, isn't it? No, I think I'm done posting here. Not my job to think for other people. A few nudges yes, but you can lead a horse to water... I suggested an alternative approach, which was in turn recommended by a member who most ought to be able to see is speaking from successful experience. Take it or leave it, everyone gets what they deserve out of the market in the end. Its a free world, and for the individual to choose which approach to follow. When I post the obvious shortcomings of the popular yet unsuccessful approaches used by many on ET, it takes away hope from members who prefer the comfort of certain beliefs and delusions. You can generally tell which ones are stimulated this way by observing the personal attacks on my character. Its most interesting of all when those who KNOW their approach isn't successful try to defend same or similar approach. All of this is because I am an idiot, or rude, or negative, not because their approach is wrong. Today, I am supposed to have failed my driving class. It appears you might even be influenced to resist any attempts to take away your charts. It makes you feel insecure. If that is the case, you're still holding onto a false belief that the chart and how you interpret it is somehow helping you, hence the reluctance to try an alternative approach. You need a major catalyst in order to break away from what isn't working. That hasn't occurred. It may do in your future, but nothing I can say will hurry it up. Have a think about what makes you feel secure and insecure. Dig deep into yourself, if you're brave enough. Probably a good time to examine your motives for trading also, and whether it is bringing you any of what you desire... Do look after yourself ...this business isn't for everyone, and its sad to see people develop damaging obsessions...while being egged on down the wrong path by others who didn't make it either. Life really is short and your time is precious. Spend it wisely, on experiences which enrich you and those close to you. Sometimes you don't fully appreciate this until something happens...eg serious illness (you or someone close to you), death of a loved one, etc.
The way I trade profitably is found all over the web and in books. The reason there are losers is 99% of those who aspire to trade for a living either don't do the work required to develop a business plan or they know what to do but just don't do it (yes, you can lead a horse to water, as Bighog led me once and I refused to drink until I was about to die of thirst). I don't have any desire to be a "top trader"; I'm happy to trade for a living. I trade small, under the radar, and the results of my trading plan are more than enough to make it worthwhile.
1st: LONG (-17) At 60-min support. 2nd: LONG (-12) At 2nd 60-min support. 3rd: SHORT (-14) Retracement in downtrend 4th: SHORT (-12) Retracement in downtrend 5th: SHORT (-13) Double Top 6th: SHORT (7) Resistance + volume climax 7th: SHORT (-15) Scalp 8th: SHORT (-14) 9th: SHORT (-14) Trendline break 10th: LONG (-17) 11th: SHORT (-17) Retracement in downtrend 12th LONG (-7) Anticipate BO 13th LONG (-15) Shakeout in uptrend 14th SHORT (-8) Retracement in downtrend SIM TRADING TOTAL -168 Ticks (minus commissions) 1 Winners 13 Losers NOTES I feel like I sort of maybe didn't do very good today.
Mac, Looks like you to find an edge first? Clearly you missing consistency, but you are also missing positive expectancy, and that spells trouble.
over trading my friend. one good thing today is that you only butchered the sim trading account. If anything has been gained by your journal and help from Nodoji is that CL trades in a trend. So try not taking trades until you have established a trend. As you can see from studying these pullbacks within a trend, they consistently give you 15-20 tick exits after they breakout of the pullback. Why dont you wait for a trend to confirm before putting risk on? at 946 central time there is a double bottom after falling 100+ ticks. At 955-10 am u can see it gets over the 20 EMA and builds a range from 94.45-94.35. .43-.45 gave you a nice entry and exit for 13-15 ticks depending on fills. The same exact set up happens at 10:08-10:18 CST with a entry from .56-.58 with a 20 tick exit. IMO you should have had only about 3-4 trades from 10am central time to 11:30 central time. after we get into the chop from 1145 to 1300. Even though it is 40 point range, you need to be more experienced to know when to put on risk. Like I said, Im no expert, I have been in overtrading mode before, and it wasnt pretty...I have started limiting myself to really good looking setups. I might open a SIM account this weekend and try to trade before market opens and after 1130 market time since my equities trading is usually wrapping up by then.