as shown in the log with the commentary, there are some analysis topics we can handle and some housekeeping topics to handle. Lets do the housekeeping since it is a routine thing for money making. The last A of MADA is involved. There are four columns: Action, Contracts, Bar and Price. Action is long or short, contracts are by the number the bars are numbered for convenience and the price is noted. The Action column is the reference column; always know the direction your position is going. For convenient I note price in points and ticks where ticks are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3. I keep a card with a matrix of hours across the top and five minute intervals down the left side. The cells contain the 81 bar numbers. In this way I can note the bar at a glance. On charts you have every four bar automatically annotated and you have a display of the bar # as well and the countdown time. I use two additional columns for debriefing. These give me the chip count after the game is over. Don't count chips during the playtime. Tne column is the point per trade profit and the rightmost column is the cummulative profits.
The remarks column was open and free the first week of boot camp. It will remain free and open but we will concern ourselves with 6 topics that are very important. What makes things important is the mind building. Mind building focusses on two factors: long term memory and differentiation. Reading is what we do. Vocabulary allows us to read at higher and higher levels. As we read more fluently we will have more columns of vocabularies and the charting annotations will be more and more nuanced as to meanings. For beginners the reading focuses on reading the sequences of the channels. These are logged in the remarks column using the vocabulary of the sequences. In the language of the markets, two languages dominate: ours which is horizontal and "theirs" which is the vertical CW language. Go to the PA threads to see the foreign language of the CW. Suppose you speak and write and read in three languages. say Latin, English and French. It is probably really English, Latin and French in order of successful differentiation. PA's route or stem vocabulary is used from the vantage point of the sidelines. It is actually the last step on the way out the exit. Our algorithm is from the vantage point of always in and NOT on the sidelines. We use the PV relationship which is binary vector and, as a consequence, certainty based. Start with remarks on the left that gives the two aspects of Sentiment. This is the subject in the sentence structure of reading. MODE is the capitalization that begins a sentence, figuratively speaking. Sentiment is about direction and who is in control (always the minority) as in Accumulation or Distribution; in SCT accumulation corresponds to trending being dominant and non dominant being distribution against the trend. When noise overides signal we have "internals" mommentarily. Monitoring is the listening in a conversation and we speak out the A and D in MADA. Thus our remarks in A of MADA are our replies that note we are engaged in thought and conversation. After the two matters of Sentiment, deal with the stage of the channel and then deal with the strength of the market (bar volatility and bar overlap). we will add non price and volume remarks when the time comes.
Here is a look at the rest of boot camp from the logging perspective. If you get through beginner logging, then you can move on to higher skill levels. We will always use the log to note the fractal we are trading on and the slower fractals of the lesser skilled trading levels. Then we will add in the monitoring columns for the leading indicators of the original P,V columns. Then we will add in the monitoring columns of the non PV leading indicators of all the columns already being logged. All of these skill level changes are designed to advance your reading skills. As you begin to become fluent, you are able to log more productively. At some wonderful point, the emphasis of trading moves from one part of the log to another. It is like the established skill sets get differentiated and it is time, because your mind demands it, to differentiate in the mind places that have sprouted in parallel with the basic trunks already strengthened in by structural shortcuts in synaptic interconnectedness. The rapidity and diversity of paths keep the "use it or lose it" phenomena very operational as more and more of the training wheels come off. Your original vocabulary gets to be a multi-use vocabulary and it becomes much more differentiated as well. It is still all there and in use AND the balance of connectedness make you able to withstand more and more G forces. This is how we ultimately come to the effectivnss and efficiency and optimization part of advanced intermediate and the expert levels. The market is always "offering" AND the offer becomes unbelievable and astonishing. I will do a run up on this for the bootcamp record by the end of the month. I felt that it was an essential experience to have last week part of the bootcamp. I will put up uncluttered charts of every day of boot camp for the record as well. As we all saw, the talking heads of the CW vertical orientation didn't have a clue during RTH.
The path that you can start to follow on this reference is a terrific one. Pay particular attention to the raging bull postings on the SNMM. there was a colleague I was posting for in raging bull. At that time raging bull was a terrific real time posting place for calling trades in advance. The capital on those trades started at low seven digits for the exits at 21 and 22. later the renetry that day was at 11 to 11 5/8's (lol pretty long ago) and the close of day ended at 16 plus. There are over 30 posts that were made 5 to 10 minutes ahead of the market and at least 5 other traders completed the exit, reentry and hold through close. There were many people on the forum who were interacting that day and the warm up day that was one day before. I'm putting the poster on ignore. Lots of short lived name changes lately. It is cool to see the "good old days" occasionally. Calling tops and bottoms was popular back then (ends of right to left traverses and ends of left to right traverses, respectively.....lol)
Thanks for being so patient. You're so right... your comments had repeatedly been falling on deaf eyes. I'd never realized how unyielding a student I could be. My version of logging was completely counterproductive... by focussing my conscious attention on the wrong things (i.e. obsessed with formations) I was paying less attention to the PV relationship, and much more importantly, obstructing the unconscious mind-building effort which was the main purpose of using the log in the first place. Furthermore, I was intertwining the M and A portions of MADA, rather than keeping them clear and distinct. I imagine this is the reason the chart suddenly looked so much clearer on Friday when I didn't log... I was no longer creating barriers for my mind, so was far more receptive to the signals. So even an incredibly productive tool, when used in the wrong way, can be a liability. When I was younger, I taught myself to play the piano. I delighted in playing difficult pieces, and revelled in the adulation of my peers. In my early adulthood, I decided to resume the pursuit in earnest, and auditioned with a well-known pedagogue, an Argentinian concert pianist in the twilight of his performing career. Looking ahead to my first lesson, I was brimming with excitement. I worked and worked at my most difficult pieces, eager to impress him. But the opportunity to showcase those skills never came. For two hours, we played a basic C-major scale, again and again. To my dismay, I couldn't play it the way he had instructed, again and again. Over the years, I'd unconsciously picked up a legion of bad habits, some minor, but others so deeply ingrained in my muscle memory that it took weeks of painstaking and deliberate effort to undo the damage, deconstruct the neural pathways, and start building afresh.
It's also taken me this long to realize why you stress a particular format, and insist on the use of pencil. Logging is a tiered process, which has no dramatic differences as one ascends to higher skill levels. Each one is simply an evolution and addition to the previous level. In keeping to a stable format, and merely adding layers as time passes, habit can be formed, and a process - initially hesitant and conscious, but later automatic - can be cultivated. What's more, we want to eliminate anything which will later prove a rate-limiting step; something that, while innocuous now, will compromise speed and efficiency in the higher levels. Sorry all of this has taken so long to sink in.
Here is the latest incarnation... <img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2124990>