Hi Matcha, Thank you very much for your response regarding the stops. I need to fine tune mine as it is an important part of a trade. Every tick counts. I am glad that you got the book. Hope you like it. I re-read Marcel Link's Chapter 1 on "The Tuition of Trading" tonight. I like the way he put it regarding PPC and cutting losses. The analogy of playing great tennis and trading (pg. 11) is right on. The key to being a winning trader is to play not to lose. "If you hit the ball over the net 4 times, you'll win 80% of the points. Don't worry about winning points. Let the other guy lose them... It's easier to win when you switch your focus from trying to win to trying not to lose..." His tips on cutting losses (on page 12) was funny but also right on - "Handing out $20s" and how it relates to the importance of using protective STOPs to a bad trade. When I first read his Chapter 1, I did not think too much about what he said on the learning curve that he suggested a trader needs 3 -5 years to get through the learning period. It just takes as much time to get a college degree!!! I thought it doesn't apply to me..... :eek: Marcel Link also stresses the significance for keeping a trading journal as you have done it here. He also mentioned that paper (SIM) trading is an important step in the training programs of professional trading firms (pg. 19) that new traders don't trade live in their first 3 months but only intensive classroom learning and paper trading. I think you did the right thing on starting out committing the time in SIM trading. This will speed up the learning curve without having to pay too much tuition... Have a great Sunday! --po
Matcha is such a sweetie and she is intelligent too! what i like most about her ...hmmm, she's smart, funny, and a very filial daughter!
I still use a lot of marketable limit orders, but I think I definitely had 2 or 3 last week move heavily without my order getting filled. I trade crude oil futures which is very different from the stock index futures in that I may be targeting a .30 move and price can easily jump .15-.20 of that in a few seconds. Of course, if I chase an entry it will jump right back and stop me out; if I don't chase an entry, it will continue to move another .80 without me: Murphy's Law of Chasing Trades
Hi Matcha: Congratulations, I have not been able to read all your thread but what you are doing is the basis to find a profitable system: a lot of application and leaving a trace of your thoughts and discoveries. I used to trade YM and now I mostly trade ES, but I have both instruments overlayed in one chart 3 minutes. In both charts add pivots points and yesterday high, low, close, open; today open, high and low, and see how they also act as reversal points or how after they are breached, in any of them, price pulls back to the broken level to retest it and sometimes continues running from there. I humbly recommend you to add round numbers of YM in your chart, ie. 8600, 8700, 8800 and you will see how price stalls and has problems breaking those levels. At those levels in YM, if YM holds ES will hold too. Next time you will be able to anticipate price reaching 9700 and maybe take a trade from there when you see retests and failure to break it. I have noticed that pivots levels in ES work better than pivots levels in YM and you will see YM reversing for 'no reason' at the moment ES is reversing or testing its pivots or the other levels, and viceversa. Those are very low risk entry points, trend and counter trend with caution. Also I keep track of all the big transactions that happen on ES and YM, to see where the big players want to go. In YM I monitor orders of 20 contracts or more, as confirmation I am entering in a side that is backed by heavy guys. Wish you the best luck in your trading and also to everybody. Gerardo
Another day full of great opportunities, but I missed some very great setups. Took one failed counter trend trade and chased market on another failed trade. I marked those trades on chart. I am still over trading a lot. I hope when I am trading 2 contracts, I can hold position longer. I always have my target in place, but I barely wait until the trade hit my target. I feel like the more I hold the position, the more risk I am taking. With one contract, I just couldnât wait until the target is hit. 9800 level today was a significant over supply level,(refer to 6/30 chart, order inbalance),price made extended move overnight. The last move(4th wave) was fairly spiky, so 9800 could be the turning point here. After validating the turning point, I have had a short bias. But when price landed on EMA, I contradicted myself, I went long⦠then I was stopped out. Then I went short, stopped out, Then I went long again, stopped out to b/e. Finally a big trend bar violated the double bottom pattern, I entered short. That was the trade A. TRADE A: short. Entry: 9750 Exit: 9728 Re-enter: 9726 Exit: 9708 40pts TRADE B: taking this trade is a bit struggling too. I was trapped by long before I went short. Entry: 9636 Exit: 9625 11Pts Todayâs PnL: +$214, 15 Trades, 60% winrate
Hi, Nodoji. Can't thank you enough for your time to read my journal and giving me valuable advice! You were one of the reasons I decided to try day-trading. Your journal inspired me a lot too! I am reading the book the second time. The first time I only can skim over. The second time, I am highlighting the great tips for my future reading. I refer his setup on my daily YM chart too. I hind the right edge and look for set ups bar by bar in history chart too!! I sometimes even draw some setups on papers for me to generate instant reaction when I saw those setups in live market hours. So I don't hesitate whenever I see a setup. I hope I can remember everything and all the logics behind the price actions. I am still trying to connect all the dots together. I think it takes more than another 1000hours screen time for me... Trading like robot is my eventually goal... I am not trading on reversal trades, but I do require myself to "anticipate" and "Identify" the reversals-the turning point. Thanks for great tip, I just started to count waves/pushes a while ago to prepare for the turning point. Sometimes it can get confusing(you would think it's so elementary to count). See how precise you are, the entry is still my problem. I sometime went in a trade, i just wanted to get out when I saw "red" PnL showing on the Matrix. I believe lots of detail analysis, lots of screen time will eventually help me get rid of the problem. Plus I heard "the worst fill is the best trade"! :eek:
The book is a great and pleasure reading. I liked it! In order to be a master, you got to achieve 10,000 hours, it takes 4 years to study/work fulltime to master the skill. So 3-5years is the right time frame to learn how to trade. But in this career, 10,000 is not garenteed to be a CP trader... There are so much emotions to deal with. One blow out could wipe out everything. So we have to tell ourself as we learn, control risk, place stop, control limit loss. But I think we can do it! Even though I might need to go back to full time job, Eventually I believe can make as a trader. I don't give up easily. To avoid some major blow out, I need to stay in SIM. To tell you the truth, when I first started to look at the market, that was last April, I had no idea there is such thing called sim. There is such thing called stops. I thought Fundamental Analysis is the way to succeed in trading. I bought a book called fundamental analysis, I analyzed JPM, HP, CSCO and a whol bunch others I heard from TVs. I also briefly studied Benjamin Gramhan's formulas on stock future value. I did all the stupid forcast for each companies with "realistic" projections. I purchased those names last May, they did go up at one point. So I made some profits. I thought myself was a Hero at that time. Then I repurchased some other stocks in July, based all on my ridiculous fundamental analysis. Until December, all my stocks didn't do anything. So I was a little discouraged. One day, Friend's friend's friend who is a so called guru told me to buy some options, so I totally listened. I bought whole bunch of naked puts. In January, all the options went to 0 value. At that time, I was just traveling in Asia. My dream of shopping like a queen there went to toilet too. After I came back from trip, I thought that this is not the way to trade. My porfolio shrunk 25% over a month! Then I started to do research on trading and realized trading is the most difficult career in the world. Technical anaysis is the key to success. Now I am thinking everything back, the blow out could be the best thing ever happened to me. If at that time, I did make a lot of profits from those options and stocks, I would have probably lost 50% or even 80% now because I would have put down more money. I will have to still stay in SIM for a while... because I know I am still not ready yet...As you said, focus on loss first.
Nice meeting you here Gerado! Thanks for compliment! I am glad I am on the right track to learn. Thank you for reminding me to add round numbers, I did today. I once read about how people pschological reacted to those round numbers, but I just never apply those numbers. Very interesting about the order flow reading. I would pay more attention to that!
Today I took $550 off a trade when it pivoted from just below the round number after putting in a significant new low. I assumed it would put in the round number bounce and I'd re-short there. No. The thing ended up crashing and then I kept thinking it had fallen too far to short. If I'd simply managed the trade using textbook with-trend trade management, I would've been in the trade for another $1100, simply trailing a stop at the high of each closed bar. When you're trading with the trend, let the trend - not round numbers nor S/R or nor MACD nor Mr. Elliot Keltner Fibonacci - be your friend!