Technical Strategy

Thoughts

Last night I was not tormented by a giddy stream of epiphanies. No leaping out of bed, fumbling with a light switch, and scribbling furiously in case the fleeting awareness squirmed out of my grasp. None of that mental restlessness, thoughts ricocheting inside my head. No, as a testament to wasting the day, I slept soundly. Talk about a skewed reward system!

Fortunately, and perhaps as a result of the subconscious being a little ‘backed up’, it was not a complete loss however. Again, in no particular order…

There’s a reason for the seven cases. Pennants are taped in a particular fashion, because they really do have RTLs and LTLs. A BO of the RTL indicates that a miniature FTT has occurred. Naturally, FTPs represent miniature long traverses, while FBPs represent the opposite.

Taping refreshes from OBs because of two possible scenarios: the first, that a miniature ND traverse has ended, price has BO’d the RTL and resumed in the dominant direction of the larger traverse, or – in the case of OB IBGS bars – that a less miniature ND traverse has ended and a new dominant has been established.

The ES can be traded by hierarchical proxy. Clearly, it can be traded by looking at ES volume alone. It can also be traded on a fine resolution by looking at YM alone. It follows, that the ES can be traded by looking at just YM volume. Jack’s quoted comments regarding S/S above – It is like putting masking tape over all the controls and just feeling the flight.. – clearly indicate the ES can be traded using just S/S. Presumably, it can also be trading using only the DOM. This is powerful stuff. We already have five levels of trading by proxy, and that’s before even the introduction of tick charts. If each is sufficient in its own right, imagine the subliminal 3D masterpiece that comes of merging the inputs.

I note all observations in red ballpoint pen. Questions written in red are often unconsciously answered by the end of the day. No cryptic clues here, just incisive answers that cut right into the heart of the matter, sometimes so forcefully that an eponymous blood-spatter analyst is required to assess the aftermath.

In the creation of my 1a and 1b classification system, I was inadvertently trading the ES based on the YM. A distinction is necessary between the narrow tapes, and those that are wide or significantly extended. As Squealer might say, ‘All tapes are equal, but some tapes are more equal than others’. However, it may also be detrimental to overcomplicate things, or to work in reverse order. After all, I’m sure the sweeps chart was designed for a reason.

Curiously, I find drills more effective when they’re performed quickly and automatically. For example, hand annotating that one chart nine times in quick succession. Or the fashion in which I annotated the YM charts for the previous drill… Blank chart – all red tapes – all black tapes – all laterals – all three-bar volume accelerations – all traverses (looking at the fully annotated ES chart here) – all Gaussians. I believe it was this rapid and automated action that not only accelerated the process, but locked things down, enabling, now, that almost instantaneous annotation of a blank chart in my mind’s eye. Which is why I consider re-annotating all those YM charts a very valuable exercise. Except this time, instead of one chart at a time, I intend to do all ten charts (twenty sheets) in one sequential lot (i.e. annotate 300-400 red tapes then 300-400 black tapes then 100 laterals etc). Then I will review the formerly annotated ES charts to see if I’ve missed any 1b traverses. I’ll then print off the ten days of S/S charts and will be good to go for the AI drills.

Hopefully, it will help me shake the gnawing and abiding feeling that I’m slacking.

 

Ancillary considerations

Mental training, physical training, nutrition, rest, technology and trading environment. These are the broad categories that will need to be addressed alongside the evolving theory and technique.

I’ll briefly outline next steps for each:

Mental Training

Resubscribed to Lumosity. Online brain-training. Since completing the trial in April, my Brain Performance Index (BPI) had dropped by almost 6%. Reaching and exceeding my prior best BPI should have a lot of carryover effects. While all of the exercises are useful, I believe the following two are the most relevant:

Birdwatching '...improves attention and the ability to process visual information. These abilities are important in many everyday activities including driving. The task gets progressively more challenging to accommodate your improvements in visual attention and processing speed.’

On the final level, a bird and numerous blue dots appear for a fraction of a second, then disappear. Simultaneously a letter blinks in the centre of the screen. You need to pinpoint the bird’s location (blue dot has to fall within the yellow crosshairs), then type in the letter, and guess the name of a bird as successive letters are discovered. Took a dozen attempts to catch it with a screenshot…

<img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2208850>

Top Chimp '...exercises your visual attention and working memory. You will compete against a series of highly trained chimps to see who has superior skills. In a laboratory task similar to this one, real chimpanzees actually outperformed the humans! Can you beat the Top Chimp?’

Here, up to nine numbers flash on the screen for a split-second. After they’re replaced with blank counters, you need to click them in the correct order.

Now, as a keen speed-reader, I’d worked up to well over 1000 words per minute. I opened Douglas Adams’ ‘Dirk Gently Omnibus’ on the tube last week, and in observing the extent to which my reading speed had slowed, I realized I hadn’t read anything for a while. Ramping my reading speed back up will also be an excellent drill in visual attention and processing speed.

Physical Training

The fittest I’ve ever been was when I was training for the London marathon a couple of years ago. Pulled out a few weeks before the competition due to a suspected tear in my tibialis posterior tendon. At the time, my resting heart rate was around 50. I’m really deconditioned at the moment, as evinced by my resting heart rate of 72. Naturally, this results in a significant reduction in oxygen efficiency, which affects trading. So I need to initiate a fitness regime. I’ll ease in with the water-rower, and target a provision RHR of 55.

Nutrition

In aiming to trade as a high-performance activity, nutrition will need to be optimized. For the time being, my focus will be on pre-session and intra-session. While I jury-rigged something quite simple with the shakes, there’s a lot of room for improvements, and I’m keen to inject some cutting-edge science into this, so will schedule an appointment with a sports nutritionist, the goal being prolonged and focused alertness.

Rest

The two insomniac nights really hit hard on Friday, when staring at the screen felt like a strain. While the exercise will help promote sleep, I’ll need to incorporate some incarnation of yoga, meditation or breathing exercises into a pre-sleep routine.

Environment

Unfortunately, I don’t get much daylight during RTH, so will need to improve the lighting in my room.

Technology

State of the art machine with two 30” monitors will be up and running before Xmas.

This weekend, I will optimize and streamline my current machine based on specific and detailed instructions from Ellis. Based on the specs and two 19” monitors, I’ve been told that it’s perfectly suited to filling a backup role. The two systems will sit side by side.

In order to maintain continuous S/S access, I’ll need to do whatever is necessary to prevent the TN datafeed interruptions. I can also now focus on getting all the new NT modifications (coded by Palinuro and others) to work.

Miscellany

While I’m not one for rituals, I find that listening to Furious Angels (Rob Dougan) immediately pre-open really helps me get into a zone (long way to go before it’s The Zone..)

 

Excellent synergistic approach! I too have been neglecting these for sometime and that little voice is saying "Step it up!"

 

Check out Lumosity. You'll love it. One caveat though, highly addictive so proceed with caution!

Also if you want a sexy and silent exercise machine, I'd strongly recommend a water-rower. Only sound it makes is swishing water. Close your eyes and you're on a lake. More recent models include a computer uplink so you can chart your performance metrics.

<img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2208861>

 

Boy's toys

Seamless Continuous Trading is clearly for real.

Now if only Father Xmas was too...

(p.s. images courtesy of Ellis)

<img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2208863>

 

Very cool and I used to love rowing (it feels like another life now... it was so long ago)

May have to ask Santa for an early X-Mas Gift...

 

...

<img src=http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2208869>

 

LOL! I have had my eye on this one...

 

You won't be disappointed.

IMHO, beats the Concept II hands down.

 

LOL.

Ok, if you think that's cool...

(p.s. Arch-enemy not included)

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