+$123 Day +$223 Week +$866 Month Short CL @ 73.75, pullback from overbought, covered @ 73.52, pivot off oversold at support for +$44. Short ORLY @ 40.76 on lower high, stop moved to b/e because a true downtrend had not been established, hit for +$2. Short ORLY again @ 40.70, still looking for a breakdown, stop to b/e, hit for +$2. Got sick of ORLY and shorted CL again @ 73.90, when test of HOD failed leaving a double top. Covered @ 73.66 pivot off oversold for +$46. Watched CL to see if the bounce off oversold would thrive or fail. I looked away for a few minutes to check out ES action and missed the failure and a further .30 cent drop. Short CL @ 73.63 when previous support became resistance. It started moving in my favor right away and I went to put in a stop at b/e and accidentally left-clicked instead of right-clicked, thereby entering a limit order above the offer and terminating the trade at market for a mere +$16. Short HAR @ 24.67 pullback from a very slightly higher high on the day, moved stop near b/e, hit for b/e. Short STEC @ 32.66 pullback from lower high, and mistakenly placed the stop too close above the lower high instead of above the HOD. I was taken out on a small movement within the range for -$20, when it really didnât go much higher before eventually breaking down .30 cents from my price. Oh well. End of day got a partial fill of 96 shares shorting CL for an overnight swing. Boy oh boy, how exciting is that? My ES paper trading went very well all day long based on entries from either edge of the Keltner channel (Hog, no I can't get rid of them, they are so cool!): Short @ 935.75 pullback from test of previous resistance above upper channel line, cover @ 932.00 pivot off low for +2.75. Short @ 936.50 pullback from test of high and failure to break out, covered @ 933.75 pivot from bottom channel line for +2.75. Long @ 934.00 after a series of higher lows left this as a nice support area, sold @ 938.00 pullback from extended new high for +4.0. Reverse to short @ 938.00 from failure to make a new high, covered @ 936.00 pivot off bottom channel line for +2.0. Finally near the end of the day I was so tired of paper trading ES and since I got one foot wet last week, I decided to get the other foot wet today (which means I should be fully qualified to trade live from now on). I shorted @ 933.75 when price broke down through the lower channel (also a breakdown of the support level established by the previous 4 bars), trailed a stop and covered @ 933.00 pivot off the low for +$32.70. This was actually a great reversal zone for a long since the pivot was off the first dip below the lower channel line since the open, but I was so happy to have traded live that I called it a day! (Hog, I know it was just a scalp but it had to be done, so donât yell at me.) No charts posted today folks because itâs Friday and Iâm gonna go out and play!
Nod, Well on a range bound day Keltner channels will be ok. Just be sure to keep the main objective those BO trades with an eye toward 5 handle per trade objectives winners, they will come soon enough as well as often enough. throw in some 10 + wins and you will "be a fan". Small range today 7 3/4 max. Welcome to a summer Friday. Charles Keltners book, How to make money in commodities (first printed in 1960) was the first book i ever read about commodities. They had a wheat statistical service as a recall, a newsletter. That was when commodoties were food stuffs. Keltner channels have been around a long time which proves the simple stuff still works. Great paper calls today you did there, keep it up. Have a good weekend. Ditch that Prius, anyone that can trade a range like you can needs a new ride. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6t9y38pT-U&feature=related
Dammit, tomahawk, making a comment like this is like saying "I dare you!" (Can she do it, can she do it, can she buy a breakout from the day's high.....)
Not at all ... I just had the sense that you were handling the breakouts appropriately (fading, which is the right choice most of the time), so I wanted to assure trader david he had nothing to worry about ... lol. Really was not my place to step in anyway, so my apologies to both of you. Keep doing your thing ... it's working!
David, I understand this strategy of wide stops, especially if you're a VERY experienced trader with a deep understanding of your trading instrument (and deep pockets), but it's not for me and this is why: I believe in a bare minimum risk:reward of 1:1. I personally can work with that because I tend to have a high win percentage. If my win percentage was 50% or less, I would choose an R:R of greater than 1:1 to ensure overall profitability. The reason my win percentage is high is because I've had full time dedicated screen time during market hours combined with intense chart study EVERY evening and weekend for a year now with only 4 weeks off during that time. I have a good visual memory for patterns and when I see specific setups that frequently indicate specific price direction, that's my signal to trade, and I immediately know the price at which I would find the trade to be invalidated in my expected time frame. This is my stop price and I've learned never to move it except in my favor. I've found that I can comfortably place a 2-3 pt stop in ES. This is based on one month of paper trading, which is not nearly enough time to confirm the validity of a method, but it's worked well. In fact, often my ES entries are timed well enough that I can safely put in a 1 pt stop, and in certain cases I would in fact do that. So for me a 10-20 pt stop would be like having no stop at all, because a hit on the low end of that range with just 1 car would be equal to my "disaster stop" when trading a stock. And considering it's a fine day in the market when ES makes a 10-20 pt move, why would I allow a full day's move against me instead of reversing my position very early on and letting it rain money on me?
Nod. I wonder how much you consider your musician background as unintended advantage or hinderance in learning how to read and implement technical analysis. I would assume there is a certain ingrained discipline from performing. Trading itself is far more complicated to navigate through the minefield of risk than any of us imagined in the beginning. I say that with a smile because that part of your trading adventures seemed to be a far smaller hurdle than normal. I read the book "SAMURAI!"by Saburo Sakai, unfortunately a leading jap fighter piloy ACE. He tells about being chased by a few American fighters in Hellcats as he flew just few feet above the Pacific waters trying to escape their repeated attempts as each plane attacked him and how he evaded them. He said: he evaded the hellcat pilots repeated attacks by doing the same evasive maneuver over and over. "I must keep rolling! I had no fear of evading any single plane in a firing pass. They all used the same tactic to shoot at me. Had any of the hellcat pilots chosen a different approach for his firing pass or concentrated on his aim, i would have surely been shot out of the air. Not once did the enemy pilots aim at the point toward where my plane was moving. If only one fighter had spilled his tracers into the empty space leading me, toward the area where i rolled every time, i would have flown into the bullets." But there is a peculiarity about fliers. Their psychology is strange, except for the rare few who stand out and go on to become leading Aces. Ninety-nine per cent of all pilots adhere to the formula they were taught in school. Train them to follow a certain pattern and, come what may, they will never consider breaking away from that pattern when they are in a battle where life and death mingle with one another. .......................................END....................................... Nod is going to break the mold of fear not allowing change in the heat of battle and will become a ACE trader. PS: What greater challenge than getting into your fighter and go mano v mano and the winner goes home to face death agin in the morning. Real men in a boys body back then.
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