I absolutely conccur. Today proved that, again. Actually I have a plan for exits, just not following it. My overall plan is to trade the trend. Figure out which way it is going and jump onboard the first retrace, ride it till it peters out, exit, wait for another retrace, and do it all over again. I am looking for anywhere from 2 - 5 points per trade. I want to keep my losses under 1 point. My first trade was a perfect example of setup and trigger, except I absolutly blew it on the exit. Had a 4 point gain, dropped to 3, then 2, then I got greedy and wanted at least 3.5 again, but it never happened, and then wasn't even satisfied with 1. Trade 3 was as good of an example as to how I want to trade. There are enough intraday trends to do what I want to do. The range chart proves that. What I don't want to do is end up scalping. Hard stops were previously mentioned, but I choose not to do that yet. My stops when I am wrong are getting better. I am "learning to be wrong fast, and small". My exits, however...
Huios, i just wanted to tell you that today at 10 am (during your first trade) there came some economic numbers that caused (as usually) a rather erratic market action - and high volume that may cause delayed quotes temporarily. i don't know your plan - but as far as i can say it is rather wise not being in the minis during such reports. if you would like to learn more about: http://biz.yahoo.com/c/e.html if you know about those reports and don't care about - feel free to ignore this post.
Hi, I really appreciate your time in this thread, it actually really helps me in my trading, thanks. It's always sooo nice to not be alone in in this wonderful business of learning to trade the minis May I ask what chart system your using ? Thanks, Andy
I look at Barron's Economic Calender every morning. http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/b-econoday.htm Thanks
Thanks for the kind words, but remember, I'm just a newbie. My journaling helps me more than you can know. I read what mac, vulture, and dotslash posted last night, and actually saw things in my trading today that needs to be improved on. What helps me the most is putting my trades on the charts. I see what I did right, and wrong. A good trade is not always a money maker. The worst thing is when a bad trade (one that is not in your plans, ie an outlier/flyer) turns out to be a winner. That instills bad habits. I use Advanced GET Real Time for charts.
This was posted by vulture in another thread. It was so good, I wanted it here, also. Thank you, oh carrion feeder!!! "I also trade two separate time frames, although I feel that this is a difficult endeavour...For the most part, I try to separate the days in which I am going to enter a different mindset...If I am planning on entering a swing trade for a minimum profit target of 7-10 handles, I really need to be careful with the manner in which I start scalping...From my experience, swing trading and scalping require two entirely opposite mindsets and if you confuse the two it wreaks havoc on even the most well developed trading plans... I will try to explain in more detail...To scalp, you basically have to partial out of trades extremely quickly and your reflexes have to be sharp...You do not have the luxury of time because a scalp is basically just trying to extract the minimal amount of profit with the minimal amount of risk exposure...To swing trade, you have to have patience, plain and simple...And not only that you have to increase your pain threshold since your profit/risk objectives are magnified...So, in essence, you are expanding your risk tolerance to allow yourself some wiggle room and to reduce or dampen the effect that the market noise will have on this aspect of the plan...The real problem occurs when your mind is somewhere in between...Like entering a swing trade with a minimum 7 or 10 pt profit objective and instantly finding yourself 3-4 handles ahead and covering...Or on the flipside, entering a scalp and finding yourself 3-4 pts in the hole and letting it run against you... I say all of this because I honestly believe that I have never found any of the conventional techniques work for trading the indicies...The internet is littered with self described guru's who teach techniques that are basically only accomodating to one aspect of price action...They will post charts with beautiful flowing moving averages and little lines that show where you should have bought or sold...but the majority of it is hogwash...The truth of the matter is that so much of this stuff is adaptive and internalized...I respect some of Lundy;s posts because I feel that what he writes is much closer to the truth...The conviction is what wins in certain time frames...The quickness and agility is what wins in other time frames...Each time frame has a specific skill set that needs to be learned, but not compromised...When one time frame is compromised with the other that is when the errors mount... So, essentially, what I am saying is that for me I have to know exactly which mindset I am going to be trading in for a specific period of time...When I break this rule I damage my plan...When I take profits too soon in my swing account, I leave big money on the table, money I will need to absorb the movement against when trading on a larger time frame...If and when I do not trade tight in the scalper time frame I am damaging my ability to come back from a series of what should be near scratch trades..."
Huios. I think your journal is a very good learning curve for traders. Going through the emotions is the best lesson anyone can have. Personally I think the exit is the hardest part because this is where the mind takes over. Will I hold for lots of profit, will I take a scalp for money in the bank or will I wait for a target. My trading involves taking scalps because I am a day trader. If the market gets away from me great but if not I am happy to take my 1.5 to 2pts on the SP emini. Everyone is diffferent. This is what makes a trader or ensures you become one of the 90% that don't make it. It's all in the exit. Good trading
"When I take profits too soon in my swing account, I leave big money on the table, money I will need to absorb the movement against when trading on a larger time frame" I have done the exact same thing several times. It is hard to leave a sudden quick favorable move on the table in the interest of the bigger picture. I have a book by Trader Vic in which he talks about that. He says for a swing trade you must setup your stops and your price targets so that there is 3:1 reward to risk and sticking to it. So, if you are willing to lose a handle or a point on a stock in order to get 3, and you find yourself up 1.5 after a few hours, you really should let it ride instead of making it a day trade. That is hard to do and I don't do it consistently.
Just catching up on the thread. Had a question on the charting software. What's the logic used to color the candles? Blue is up, Red is down, and Black is transition but what conditions flip the switch? Don't know if it's proprietary to AG. Have a good trade day!