THANKS -- So Much -- For your very valuable Journal Pasts. This is a very generous gift of you time and efforts. Question please: How important is having studied and knowledge of Dr. Brooks courses and methods to understand your posts?
Here are some mistakes greed can cause me as a scalper. I am showing them in trading the NQ this morning. I have preached over and over that I as a scalper have to be ready and willing to "grab" what the market gives me and don't worry about or fume about what happens afterwards. I also show how I correct mistakes to end up getting back the loss and in the green. That 9:32 bar was a bull bar in a BO above the last several bars. Why do I try to recover my loss of 105 points by doubling down on previous size (6 contracts) with 12 contracts on a Stop entry order on bar 9:33? Because I am upping the size, and I want the market moving in my favor to increase my odds of the 12 contracts becoming a mechanism to get back my previous loss. Had that not worked out then some days it is simply better call it a day and go fishing or do something else. I have days where I am out of sync with the market and these are times to avoid getting whipped back and forth it is best to just stop trading. When a trader gets rattled psychologically, he usually cannot think clearly.
I do understand, as you have stated, The Importance of: "Context" and "Probbing" as well as Account Size and Realistic Profit Goals, You have also stated the importance of Pattern Recognitio with the understanding the the Markets Do have repeating patterns -- That are important -- to any trading Plan. Additionally -- What charts (As to Style --and if any indicators. Thanks Again Volpri !
Very well stated @MACD Very well stated @MACD I do too very well appreciate @volpri for his continuous efforts and time consumption for reinforcing my brain to stick to price, stick to price and price behavior.
I have learned a lot from Al Brooks. IMO he is the most thorough PA trader and teacher of PA of all I have ever seen or heard. No other educator or trader comes close to him in terms of detail and deep explanations IMO and I have over the years read and studied, and bought, a lot of books in my trading efforts. So, he obviously has influenced my thinking a lot to which I am very grateful for his influence. That said I have learned from many other traders too. However, the bottom line is that a trader has to develop their own methodology that is profitable and that fits their personality, or they will be miserable as a trader. Trading is about making money, but it is also about passion, challenge and it needs to be gratifying and fun. I was a scalper long before I ever heard of Al Brooks. It is what I like doing. I hear a lot of people put down Al Brooks and call him all kinds of names but when I hear them do so, I know they did not take the time to REALLY learn what he teaches and more importantly to PRACTICE it until they can make it work for themselves. I am not a shill for Al Brooks, but I will say traders despise him to their own detriment IMO. They might would do well to pay attention to what the man teaches and practice it. All his courses and books IMO are worth the money invested but ONLY if a trader is going to learn the stuff and PRACTICE it. If they are not going to invest the time, effort, and practice then don't buy them. You asked about other indicators. I don't use them. None except an EMA and sometimes will add a SMA. Sometimes I will overlay an EMA of a larger TF over a present chart that already has an EMA (for its presents TF) on it. That is just to see what price is doing in terms of a larger TFs EMA without swapping back and forth through chart TFs. I trade off a laptop so do not have a lot of real estate on my screen, nor do I want to look at a lot of TFs. It just obscures clarity and makes for confusion and indecision because of a loss of focus on the TF one is actually making and taking entries and exits. Just an occasional glance maybe is OK and it can be sometimes helpful to see where price is at in terms a larger TFs EMA. It has nothing to do with EMA or SMA cross overs in terms trading entries and exits. The EMAs are mostly there just to clarify bullish and bearish pressures inherent within present price movement and price movement on larger TFs (or smaller TFs) without looking at the chart of those different TFs. . Finally, I sometimes rarely but sometimes will look at volume. I am not against volume (look at my handle on ET Volpri..i.e. stands for volume and price) but I have just found it is not necessary for quick scalping. Looking at volume in quick scalping hinders quick decisions. For scalping I like binary decisions. Yes or No. Long or short. I don't have time to look at a myriad of indicators and analyze volume because much of the time by the time if I did so I would get done doing so and the scalp likely would be long over with.
Good Evening volpri, Thank you kindly for the video. You are correct about that. I am glad you made this video, because over the course of 2 weeks, something similar happen to me in the past when scalping price action and loss comes. I get a loss and keep on trading as normal hoping to recover the loss over a series X-XX trades, just letting the probability play out and the law of large numbers. However, what happen while in drawdown about 1 week later, I got another loss, and push me deeper in drawdown, now I am in drawdown for about 3 weeks. During them 3 weeks I do not think to increase contract size on high probability trades to get some of that loss back or like you doing, during the session, try to get out of DD, to get that out the way. My mind thinks more systematic trading, but there is something about being a discretionary trading and getting out of drawdown in certain amount of time that is very critical I am noticing in my trading.
1) Today's video show how I get back a loss quickly. It is one way. 2) Here is another way: Please watch this video from about (9:50 to 10:36). It shows an alternative way I get back losses when long without doubling down. I consider it as whitling away recovering by piece meal my losing long positions as the market keeps moving against me. It is a bet that the market probing. That I continue making a little here and there until it gets back up to make my original positions a winner. So instead of just holding and holding a larger and larger DD until it finally comes back (id it does) I stay occupied still making profits on smaller moves as the market probes back and forth on each bar. I can use this method if the larger context supports a probe going back up to my original losing positions. If not, then I am better off to just go with the third option below. Notice on the video I did not increase position size on the piece meal whittling trades. That too can be done to even end up with a bigger profit after it ends up probing back up to the original long losing positions. 3) Then of course there is another way: Exit the losing position before my stop loss gets hit and double or triple up in the opposite direction.
The problem with systematic trading IMO is that the markets are not systematic. They are dynamic. So, with systematic we are trying to box in something that is dynamic. A difficult thing to do. The brain does a better job of deciphering dynamics. Like I have said time and time again it is important "what" price does in terms of reaching or attempting to reach a particular price but it is a just as important "how" it does what it does. The brain can see that happening and come to conclusions.