Here is the Daily ES chart for Dec/18/07. A point 3 up channel has been added, lets see if this is correct. Although I will not be getting in much trading this week, I look forward to contributing and posting some trades soon.
I encourage you to spend some time reviewing Gaussians. Your Gaussians (according to the chart you posted) do not appear to follow the P-V Relationship. - Spydertrader
How did you get chopped up so badly? Some of your trades seem to be WAY down the rabbit hole, or are you using if1/if2?
No ES for me today. I did sim the DAX for 33 points in 2 hours though (roughly 24 ES points). Having missed the initial move I then sat through lateral movement going in and out of break-even for the best part of 2 hours (typical!) before being rewarded with the new point 3. This was an example where the 15 minute chart showed the action more clearly than the 5 and I used that to help me reverse long and hold with conviction.
I lokk at IF1 IF2, but it's not my main trading tool. There's always a trade-off between being early with a new trend and misreading a new trend. Every time I change my perception of the market I reverse, so occasionally I get chopped because my skills are still rusty ... I'm happy with my today's results: +3.85 points in 2 hours, 14 trades. After commissions this is about $130/contract. At 10 contracts ... If you're interested, I can post the 15 screen shots of my 14 trades, taken a few seconds after I pushed the reverse button. I usually take them for my later debriefing.
Throw them up in a zip if you want, I think they would be helpful to view. No complaints about the results =) .. just wondering if you could have held onto more of all those points you made. I decided a while back to work on staying in all the time. Your chart is a good example, in that you catch all the good runs and give some back during the chop. Obviously the goal is to minimize the amount given back during confusing situations. This is easier IMO than hoping to get in at the right time all day long. People are always saying avoid looking for ftt's all day long, I think the same goes for pt3s. One of the hardest things for me to do was to pick out the "point of no return" during a retrace. I also dont believe this was meant to be a "setup" type of methodology, but if it is providing you with profits, cant argue w/ that... PS.. Good idea to print screen just before/after trade entry/exit... Always found these to be helpful for debrief
Ok. I'll zip them up. My thinking about being in the market is very much as yours is. I find it less stressful to just decide "now long" / "now short" than deciding both the direction and if I should / shouldn't be in. As another example, yesterday I made 24 trades in a little less than 150 minutes that yielded 6.5 points. I almost always trade only the last part of the session. These kind of win / loss ratios are common for trend following trading methods, as this is (in my opinion). They make me happy and my broker happy too