Thanks Sypder. What I'm finding on my journey of learning this methodology is that the confidence building process is slow (for me anyhow) but positive. I have to wait until the context looks and feels right (i.e. there are few questions in my mind that what I'm about to do is the right thing). I'm hoping that with continued practice and more tools, I will recognize the opportunities sooner and more often.
Hi, Spyder. It is great to know that you are already quite profitable from trading the futures...Could you mind giving us some stats? eg. 1. How many trades in average do you make per day? 2. Win/lose ratio? 3. Ticks per winning trade? 4. Ticks per losing trade? Thanks.
In terms of average numbers of trades, The market decides for me. A flat (tight range day) provides more opportunities, but each opportunity provides less profit. On the flip side, a day like 3 weeks ago provided fewer trades (by a huge amount) but each trade provided much bigger profits. In addition, someone trading at a different resolution level than myself, would have a completely different number of trades. Fine Resolution (bug / leaf) has more trades; Coarse Level Resolution (Forest / Tree) would have fewer trades. I have had days were I only made 4 trades and days where I made 32 trades (and everything in between). I consider the wash trades as +/- 2 tics or break even. Over time, the wash trades even out. Some days, I have multiple wash trades in a row. other days, I have none. Occasionally, I have a loss of 3 tics, due to my inability to react fast enough to a swift market movement, or my own confusion about 'market context' (which side is right?, and is this an FTT or an HVS?) In terms of profits per trade, that too depends on volatility and range. Three weeks ago we had a single bar which spanned 12 points. During Friday's in late summer, the entire range might only reach five points. I have had days where I only walked away up 2 points, and I have days where I banked an extraordinary amount of capital (and everything in between). I also leave plenty of money on the table - meaning I do not normally extract three times the daily range. I have done so a few times, but again, it is more the volatility and range of the market which dictates the amount of available profit, rather than, my skill as a trader. I haven't yet fully (and correctly) used all the available tools (Tic charts for example) in my daily trading. During the day, I only use the tools currently being discussed in the Journal, but monitor the next tool throughout the day. In this fashion, I can answer questions more easily - based on what everyone else has available to them. After all, nobody wants to hear me say, "Oh don't worry about that. If you were using STR / SQU, you'd have caught that spike." Such a response isn't helpful with respect to assisting people learn the methods being discussed. I hope you find the answers above helpful. If not, please let me know. Good Trading to you. - Spydertrader
sorry for intercepting but please note that Spyder's style of trading differs a lot from traditional "setup" trading. If you trade some pattern you trade stationary picture by definition and you can speak correctly about average win/loss/%wins etc. Spyder's style implies non-stationarity just because market price is not stationary.
Although I wish you all succes in trading it's kind of comforting to read that not all your trades are perfect so we have something in common haha. Do you also open your position on point 3 or on FTT (intermediate) You annotations are very detailed and helpfull but there's nothing like realtime experience and to see the channels develop as the day develops. It would be very interesting to see you annotating and or commenting realtime for example in a recorded camtasia session. Of course we all have to learn and find our ways and develop our styles ourselves. But at least that should give a clearer idea if I'm on the right track (apart from P&L and comparing our charts after the day has finished). Of course it's just a question and if you think that's not a good idea or it interferes too much with your own trading etc. that's fine. regards, Ivo