Yeah, I understand that. If you already have a good edge there's probably no reason to trade any other way. I used to trade some of Larry Williams methodology and probably averaged one es pt/day. This works better for me, and I don't mind letting someone else do the major work, once I got used to letting go.
So when there's a long period of DU and VDU, like today, do you still draw the channels in? In my thinking, since there isn't any volume to corroborate the price movement then we really just have noise and hence no channels / trends. Anthony
Consistency is one of the biggest and most crippling obstacles that will destroy any trader if they lack it. Without it, you just run into not believing the wide range of potential and what's possible. So, I'm somewhat of a purest wrt the independent components of the market. Then there are those who can only do one thing at a time (ie. setups)... At some point when I begin mentoring one of my siblings, I will push him all the way out to a 60 min chart and overlap setup and continuous by pointing out how every single bar can be set up... If you're going to build from somewhere, at least start building from wins as opposed to losses... Building from positives is always better than building from negatives... EEK Pre 2:15... Volume is building..
Last I heard they were waiting for the new website to go live and then advertise here. I think it went live today. (I did get half price on the room this month.)
Yet it is, for most, if they ever get it, the last thing they learn instead of the first. I truly believe you can take any classic "setup" out there and make money with it. Flags, ascending, descending triangles, head and shoulders, whatever. Just pick one and trade it until you work out the kinks. The emotional hangups are the ones that need to be worked through but if you keep changing what you are doing you are able to transfer the blame for failure to your current "system" instead of dealing with the real problem.
"Consistency" is a funny thing. A trader who grinds a sound account into a little nub does not lack it for sure. Actually he is a skilled dwindler although he may not know consciously how he does it. If he did know, it would solve a mystery for him and make feasible the comic advice given to a person crying for help to fade himself. Applying the word "consistency" to the term "set up" is curious too. When I hear a person use that term, I take it to mean that he believes he has a description of something which he has bound into a form that he and another can recognize as leading to a gain. Notwithstanding the fact that there are set ups that can be described by the same numbers and lines, without "discretion" as one might say, I do wonder at times if a set up can be separated from the setter-upper if it is to have any efficacy. That is, is "consistency" in the set up or is it in the setter-upper?
Grob quote from sexy idea thread. posted 9/30/03 ", I am begining a PnL and I narrate the trades in sound and they are archived and there is a written log too. " did he ever upload this anywhere? if so, does anyone have a copy? could it be distributed amongst the group here or on the msn site? hmmm what is consistency anyway? as icarus alluded to, losers are consistent in losing...they don't lack for consistency. so, here's a question...does changing what you do from one day to the next automatically assign an 'inconsistency' label to oneself? i suppose it would. but what if THAT inconsistency leads to consistent profits? guess you would call that iterative refinement. if you consistently apply the right ideas and beliefs in a different light day after day (what to some would look like inconsistency)...is that wrong? we know that applying the wrong ideas and beliefs day after day in new and varying ways (inconsistency) is wrong simply due to the ideas/beliefs held. so is it a matter of being consistently inconsistent OR inconsistently consistent i guess ideas/beliefs are more important than consistency. humans are by their nature consistent. we either do the right thing over and over....or we do the wrong thing over and over until there is a belief shift. lol.
these are my current core beliefs and acting upon these beliefs is yielding positive results. going back to what mak said about reinforcing positive actions...i still need to get further from the past failure reinforced brain functions (caused by having wrong beliefs). my beliefs now are that: 1. washing is necessary, doable, and effective. This also requires MADA skills and is not a "stop or target" type of thing. 2. you can (and should) be on the right side of the market and making money right from the start. This is a huge fundamental shift from my past where i believed (consciously or unconsciously) that 'either a trade made money or it didn't'. You know, the old 'set up' trading type mentality using a fixed stop and target...letting the market take over MY JOB. It is as icarus says, 'the setter-upper' and not the 'set up'. you can see how the two beliefs play off each other. losing 1-3 points is unnecessary and not an option from here on out on a 'bad' trade. washing also allows for a more timely reverse when my skills eventually are up to par for that. there may be a third that i have yet not put into words. I have not found HOW to use volume to help me make money...BUT i do see its various modes (DU, fast pace, etc.). those further down the road than me, am i walking carefully on the ice?
another way to phrase the consistency issue... (this is my belief) looking at your results, are you happy with them? if not, it is probably not due to consistency...we've already seen that humans are by nature, consistent. therefore it is a core belief issue...something might be wrong in the trunk of the tree. (switching branches at that point is pointless) if you change the belief, you change the action, which changes the result. changing the action does change the result but ONLY so much as to STILL be in line with the belief. you're not going to be creating 'new' results without changing a core belief...that's almost like on the subconscious level. does this make sense? also acknowledging a core BE-lief as important is not the same as making it a part of your makeup and then asking the question, "now how do i DO ____". If you can ask the question then you will come to HAVE the answer. putting off answer the question of how to respond to a new core belief that you recognize as superceding/superior to an old belief will only lead to frustration. (that's my own experience). man i sure hope i'm not talking out of my A__ here. lol. someone stop me, lol.