Anthony, it looks like you need to update your LT. I got 1.25 of the bar 3 rocket... should have had more but I manually trailed a stop and got stopped out with a lot of the move left. Also missed the big one on bar 15. I was slow to realize it was a rocket and then didn't want to get in too late, so I just watched it go up and up and up. I'm going to stop for the day and go into study mode. bar 29...
Sure thing. I actually do these using word, instead of printing them out. I suspect that doing them longhand has a more "ingraining" effect, however for pragmatic and logistic reasons I keep them electronic. For 1. I describe what it is that I'm doing that I want to change; I try to keep it in an affirmative type of description - "I am playing games." instead of "I am not working." I also try to be as descriptive as possible, and I just kind of let my thoughts go (i.e. I don't "over" think it - I just write what comes to mind.) For 2. I then write out what it is I want to be doing as a replacement for 1. Again, I try to be affirmative and as descriptive as possible. For 3. I review what I wrote, and make sure that it really is what I want to be doing. I then say out loud (which helps to reinforce the change) what I want. For 4. I file it and go do something else. Lately I've been doing these before I go to bed, but I really should do them as soon as possible. They only take a minute or so to do, and I feel they are effective. When I first started doing them, I thought (absurdly) that you only needed to do them once - wrong! I realized you need to do them repeatedly until you have what you want for 3 - especially for really ingrained habits (like my video game addiction.) I'm going to start using them proactively for understanding - as Mak pointed out. HTH Anthony
:eek: Thanks! I got so busy watching price that I forgot to update my charts. For LT, you mean the thick purple line? (That's what I (incorrectly?) call the ST because it's 6-10 days from the 60m chart) Four stepper time for updating charts! Anthony
Right or wrong, here is a large view of my 60m that shows how I see the ST, IT, LT. Thanks for posting the 4-stepper. I am going to give it a try -- I could fill volumes of binders with all of the stuff I want to improve.
No I didn't, I had to take my trading partner (my black lab, Lucy) to the vet this morning. The vet bill was about 7 pts. I have decided to paper trade for the rest of the week as a disciplinary action for my performance yesterday. I had 4.25 pts in the AM and decided that I was ready to make non-rocket trades - gave it all back and more. What a mistake? I know better than this. :eek:
I also wrote a fourstepper. I was only simulatortrading today. The channels were working very well, the support and restince-lines were like magic, it was almost boringly easy to understand where price was gonna change direction. And still I lost. There´s something I can´t figure out about this game and I don´t know what it is. I feel I´ve improved enormously over the last month. There´s so many things that I can see coming in advance, and I feel that I start to understand the basics of the market - but still I don´t trade any better Maybe keeping a journal of my trades can help me. I´m gonna try that. Good luck to you all, bedtime... /Stalker
Couldn´t fall asleep so I took another look at the charts. At first I thought I didn´t have any datafeed and looked at the morning session, but no... Just to mock me price changes direction at almost exactly the same bottom and top on YM once again. And where does it stall? 10235 of course... Well, I´m sure I would have screwed it up a second time in some way or the other if I´d stayed... /Stalker
I thought, the first couple of years that I was trading, that the market, somehow tracked my every move and faded it. Well in fact it does outwit the majority, the majority of the time. How could it be otherwise? I regret hugely not sim trading until showing consistent profits at whatever I was doing. There are some decent sims out there now that will put you in queue, etc. and of course the result will not be too accurate but if you cannot show a consistent profit on paper how in the world would you ever show one in cash? I threw away thousands of dollars, and wasted a lot of time because I was too hard headed. Choose a method, a simple one, with exact entries and exits and sim trade it for a couple of months at least. The market is not going anywhere. You cannot hurry this thing, believe me. Save your cash. Its hard to come by for most. p.s. Obviously papertrading will not kill the emotional demons. Those still have to be conquered in cash, but at least give yourself a head start with something that works on paper. P.p.s. I in no way mean to imply that you should go outside the present thread. There are plenty of easy trades within this method.