Maybe you should give your trades more breathing room. Analyze all tf d1 h4 h1 5m, and whenever you get a good signal that agrees with all tf you enter with a bigger stop.
I could mentor you and then you just have to do the opposite of what I say! I really liked the thread that geez had as well and it worked so well for him. He knew the long term stats of his setups, that's why he could do what he did. I also liked that because he was working, he couldn't watch the trade, so he either hit his loss or profit target, none of this stupid emotion crap getting in the way. I of course can't help, but I know deep down inside for me that if I just went through the charts, bar by bar, and tested just one type of thing I'm looking for and then analyzed it to death, seeing how often it works, how far price goes against me before it does work again, and what I need to look for to let me know that its best to get out.... if I did this then I think I would put the control back into my court as opposed to getting run over. I thought I had something good by looking at overnight highs and lows, and I still things its something good and I point out often in my journal when it does work and when it doesn't, but I haven't done to work to come up with the stats. I almost think that its a solid plan, an automatic reversal trade with a 2 point stop loss and although you might get stopped out 2 or 3 times in a row for 2 points, when the trade works, you're getting 10 and 20 points out of it. But I don't take the take because I'm too scared, because I haven't tested it myself, because I don't know the ins and outs of it. So if you have better discipline than me... find something and look for that very thing in the past few weeks of charts and track how often it works or not. (and then tell me what it is! tee heeeee)
^Hey thanks for the feedback guys, it's appreciated! And yea, I'd love to take a few 15+ point moves, but for me it would be really tough to sit there and sweat every bar so the only way I could do that is if I wasn't there! The thing that I really like about what geez did is that it fits with my personality quite well and the whole plan makes sense. When I was doing those trades, I was mostly looking to just trade HL or LH setups (Higher low, Lower high). I like them because they're a fairly high probability pattern and also just as important is that they're common. It makes it simple to make a plan around trading them too. Identify the trend, and look for HL or LHs and that's it. And it also takes a lot of the emotion out because I only have to make one good decision, the entry, and the rest is taken care of. Another reason that I like geez's style is because I can get away with not sitting through the trade. I like to just place the order, go to the gym, go for a walk, or do whatever and come back and see how it did. Or sometimes I'll do a quick refresh of bigcharts on my phone just to see where things are, but that's about it. I really don't like sitting there watching every bar, it makes me anxious. And I remember some posts that even geez would say that he felt it was best to pretty much let it go to either stop or target. I do know that he sometimes would move his stop to b/e if he got a certain percentage of the way to his target. And if I play around with the ATM strategies on Ninjatrader a bit I can do the same thing too and avoid having situations where the trade will come within a half a point of my target then reverse to stop me out if I'm not there watching it. But this game can take an emotional toll on you, that's for sure. Although it's really hard at times, you have to keep your head up, stick to your plan, keep your emotions out, and have the discipline and patience to wait for your setups. Easier said than done of course! So having said all that, going forward I will mainly focus on my 3pt stop, 6 target trades. And if I happen to see what looks to me like a very nice opportunity for a quick scalp, then I may try one, but the majority of my focus will be to get back to a more structured system and style like I started with.
Well, I came out ahead today, but I'm kind of all over the place. I just posted last night how I was going to go back to the 1:2 r/r trades mostly and get back to more structure. Well today I traded more in one day than I ever have. I placed 6 trades, and none of them were the 1:2 r/r trades like I was talking about. The second trade for +0.75 was another ATM strategy mistake. I didn't realize that I had it on, and it had a b/e+3 ticks set into it, so it triggered. The third trade, the 3pt loss was me jumping in a little after 2:03pm or so. I was watching the market start to go down, and I thought to myself how can I sit here and watch an easy 5pt short get away from me. I placed the trade and my heartbeat barely had time to rise and I was stopped out for a 3pt loss. Against better judgement, I took off the stops and went back in for a couple more trades. In the end it was a breakdown in discipline, and after that quick 3pt loss it was really hard to stay out when I "knew" I could get it back if I went back in. I really need to watch that, because next time I might not be so lucky. I also received some good advice from NoDoji in k p's thread, and I'm going to take awhile to think about it combined with everything that's happened in the last two days. Today's results: 6 trades: 1st: +1.25pts 2nd:+0.75pts 3rd: -3.0pts 4th: +2.0pts 5th: +2.5pts 6th: +1.25pts Net P/L +$67.32
How do you place your orders? Do you place the orders directly on the chart or do you use a DOM or...?
Well just this week I started using hot keys for order entry. But the DOM is the only window that is 'live', the rest are set to the sim account. I also just started experimenting with the stop strategies as well. Do you use NT as well, and do you like the DOM best?
I don't use NT, but I played with it once to test placing orders directly on the chart instead of on the DOM. When you're preparing to place an order and when you're in a trade are you focused mainly on the chart or are you watching price move on the DOM? The reason I ask is that your trading seems very nervous, as if you're focused on the DOM instead of on sensible entry levels and profit targets which are easily seen on the chart. After you were stopped out of your FOMC short, you bought at 46 and there was no signal or reason to sell until at least 10 minutes had passed. It seems from looking at the in-and-out trading that you're chasing price around based on the DOM action.
Oh ok, I'm focused on the chart to make all of my entries. But I can definitely see how it might look like I'm focused on the DOM. I don't use the level 2 or any of that on the DOM at all. And you're right, I am nervous in a trade, that's something I really need to work on and overcome. It's why when I was doing the 1:2 r/r trades I'd place the trade with my stop and target, then get up and walk away. It's silly really, even when I have my 3pt stop, I know the most I can lose is only $63.78 but I still get sort of anxious or nervous while in a trade. I guess that's a reason why these quick little in and out trades appeal to me. I don't have to feel that 'pain' of sitting through a trade. I suppose that my strategy with these little scalp trades is to just try to capture a very small piece of movement and that's it. But I'm starting to realize that a strategy like that may not be all that productive for me, and that's what led me to ask you that question in k p's journal today. And I know, looking back at my buy at 46 it seems so obvious now that I should have held. But the thoughts going through my mind at the time when I saw I was up a couple of points was to just lock in some profit because the loss from that short was fresh in my mind. I guess it's a fear thing perhaps why I sell quickly, the fear of losing my small gain! I still have a lot of work to do, that's for sure! But I like what you wrote in that post today in k p's journal. I'm going to start to think about making some changes in my strategy to look at slightly larger stops and taking bigger moves. And also I'll start to think a bit more in terms of trading with defined trends and the extremes of defined ranges. That's an excellent start!
Keep in mind the only time you focus on DOM if you are trading tick charts. Any time frame focus on a chart