2 of the zones make sense Lower zone.., I would move the lower line down a skosh.., then add another zone in the middle (see attached) RN
Then skip the target... and explain your plan for managing each trade brief and specific - for each please If your plan is "break of the TL made by the HLs... or LHs" so be it.. but include that This is your plan - for each trade (it may appear redundant - but it needs to be second nature while trading) And short and to the point it also give me insight to how you're reading a chart / PA RN
I think everyone learns the hard way, truely "No pain no gain". Longgg ago an old trader told me this "Long term go for homeruns, day trading go for targets", I had spent years trying to make him wrong, then one day I thought this old guy has several million in his account, stop questionsing the backtesting. All markets has an "average" profit that is attainable most of the time based on time of the day, mornings can get more than afternoons. I gave up long ago of "letting profits run" cause of the fact that when I could have gotten so many points then watching it turn around. If you doing breakout trades, you are giving up usually half of some swing, from the distance of a low to finally getting in, that's why so many trading books mention taking the distance from a low to entry price and doubling to get exit. What I keep seeing of this journal and countless many others is very little on the other 99% of the method, the getting out. I use to have students go bar by bar and each bar had to have a number on top of it which represented what was going on. Sort of a checklist for each bar had to be completed then a number given.
Yup Iâll get him there.., may take some arm twisting⦠or pissin him off a bit â possibly even some kickin and screamin So be it First though â we gotta start where heâs willing This is interesting ====================== Slugar I'm not asking you to do unnecessary work - quite the opposite - I plan every trade Otherwise.., I'm clueless..., and resigned to guessing (no consistent profit had from guessing) RN
The back and forth between you two (slugar and RN) has been great. Thanks as I'm picking up some nuggets of info also
The Nasdaq is certainly the best market to profit in for day trading, I won't say the easiest but it is closest for anyone suceeding cause it is so forgiving if one gets in wrong, almost all my trades in this instrument I can get out at breakeven plus one tick, let the newbies pay for my fees. I think it is imperative to concentrate on not losing very often, lower one can get losing weekly percentages, if it gets under ten percent, then you can average down on each signal so on trades where you ultimately get out at breakeven, cause you averaged down, you end up cleaning up as you exit all contracts at the original entry price plus a tick or two. Years before I would have had winning percentage of 50%, then 10% losers and 40 breakeven trades, but now cause I average down I get 90% winners and 10% and less losers. The only downfall of this though are days when I get three losers in a row are huge losing days, my losing days greatly bigger than winning days, but have worked very hard to not have a couple per year of these. I throw away all my methods three years ago to just concentrate on low losing methods, which always means spending all my backtesting time into Money Management rules, "numbering the bars", certainly not invented by me, I have many older books on trading some dating back to 1920s when there weren't any computers, I bought out the business section of a bookstore going out of business in LA area back in the 80s as they had many older books out of print. Actually store them in a safety deposit huge drawer, LOL. Books that are the best for me were John Hills books in late 1970s, all done before home pc came out, most of the charts are drawn by hand. Just an incredible amount of information for like $50 each. By far people have made hundreds of systems sold based on his works. I still read each twice a year and gain more from them. RN Do you include Volume in your trading? I started several months ago cause I wanted more consistent reversal extreme trades(after an extended move), or at very least know when the end was near. I look for increasing volume at lows and decreasing volume at highs. Time to trade !!!
I'm learning alot also, trying to pick RN and handles brains but in the long run it has to be my system or I won't stick to it. But RN has been very giving of his time to nurse me along
So RN yesterday on my 1st trade my 1st target would be the last swing high around 3541. Is this the kind of pre trade plan you are talking about?