NoD: You sum up your success very nicely here. You have developed a solid and reliable system with very high probability and you also execute your trades carefully and this combination ensure your excellent performance. Question here is: Do you think which part is more critical? Development of a reliable system or the execution? A lot of people in general think that the trading execution is more critical because it involves discipline, psychology and money management and others, However, in a lot of situations when people were hesitated, forced and rushed to trade, entered or exited too early or too late were because their systems gave ambiguous signals so they got confused or misled or second guessed the market when they tried to make a decision. But on the other hand, once you have established a system that would work 90% of the time with minimal DD for the other 10%, the execution part should be essentially easier and not too stressful. Of course keeping alert to the market dynamics, it is important, but then again, if your system is accurate and robust enough, it would tell you what to do in time. I think many people beating themselves hard on their discipline and psychological errors, it is probably the system they rely on is in need of improvement, and the system is the foundation that would offer CONSISTENT performance. Look at you, you work hard and smart to finally established a high probability and reliable system, now every day you profit handsomely no matter what, good day or bad day, feeling good and wonderful or feeling tired and lousy, you always end the day with GREEN. Thank you for your reply in advance.
Hi Walt, It's not about how I trade the ES; it's about how I trade anything. I've told the story here a few times of how I'd never traded anything but stocks and my son was about to demo trade forex with a friend. He saw price had made a huge run up and wanted to sell short because "now it has to come down". I looked at the chart and told him, "No, that's a bull flag, it's going to break out." His reaction was to immediately sell short. And it broke out a couple minutes later, a full measured move up in just minutes. Technical trading is about the same across the board, from what I can tell. What held me back so long from trading CL & ES was the larger stop loss I had to deal with. It was a mental block and nothing more. If you read my posts this year on CL Redux and ES Journal after I posted my trade blotter I think I've offered some of the most detailed reasons for my trades. That pretty much sums up in a nutshell what I look for in setups, why I place my stop where I do, what price I target and why. My journal "NoDoji's Day Trading Log" details my journey from dangerous counter-trend trading to consistent profitability. I'm currently putting together a PDF of all my rules and setups which I intend to post here when done, to give back to this trading community some of the priceless information many have given me. No, I don't even WANT to remember them, but I see the number reflected in my windshield and it sticks in my brain. My brain is the Venus fly trap of numbers :eek:
Nodoji, "painstaking detail" indeed you have given free to the rest of us! Your methodology you have made no secret of it -- it is simple and clear. The Higher Highs, Lower Lows and cheapskate stops are your trademarks. If anybody doesn't realize you are an incredible gift to ET he is a biggest fool and needs some good spanking Sorry Neke to chime off topic in your thread, but perhaps we all can learn from Nodoji's amazing disciplines. Good trading to you!
Though your methodology is "simple and clear", your excution of trades is mastery that it could be hard to learn for some (Ah, the dame elusive entries I always miss!). Also, I meant to say Higher Lows, and Lower Highs, LOL!
NoDoji, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your wonderful posts. I only "discovered" you a few weeks ago, and I have to say your journal and other posts have been a true inspiration to me and have helped me out tremendously. Thank you!
Neke, Stop trading cash, it's overly clear that something it's amiss. It's so obvious you should stop whatever you are doing immediately and make sure you secure whatever balance you have left, which should be plentiful to get back on your feet whenever you tight the loose ends. You need to collect your thoughts and do some serious studying because at the present time your risk management is horrible. Here's how a trader should think: Risk management above all. If you can lose X amount of dollars and you are not ok with that, no matter how much the reward is or how high the probability of obtaining such reward, the mere fact that the possibility exits and you are not ok with it, should be enough for you to say, "such trade should never be taken". I've been around, I got the scars, this is my wisdom to you, hope you take it.
No Heat, Personally I think that is very good advice - for example, I never do a credit spread where the max risk would be say $10,000 (unless I was willing to take that loss), but it would be very, very unlikely to ever happen - if there is any chance and I can't accept that loss - I won't do it (I would either reduce the # of spreads or increase protection, or whatever). If a trader buys 500 shares of XYZ @$40 with no protection, their risk is $20K - not $10K because it's a good stock or something, not $5K because they know how to handle it, not 19K because of dividends coming - but 20K. Neke has fallen from what I have seen from over $650K to not too much over $200K (yes, I think he withdrew some as well) - this is not a good sign - I understand Neke is going for the good gains, but like you said, it seems something is not working. What's funny is all the people who said what a good trader he was when he went from $100someK to $600K still seem to think he's a good trader?? I don't really know what else to say - I guess Neke will do whatever he does and whatever happens will happen, and if he is OK with that, then no big deal. JJacksET4
There are many good & caring traders here that're really concern/worry for neke. All of us want to see neke to the path of success in trading. However, my guess is same as JJacks - (neke will do what ever he does & whatever happens will happen , and if he is OK with that, then no big deal.) After all ... it's his money & his decision. i wish the very best for him...who knows, maybe he really able to hit his target of 4 million by year-end. bonne chance et tout le meilleur.
hey neke, so sorry about what has happened. Clearly you need to stop as others have suggested. Hope things work out and best of luck.