Huios, I see that our friend Tony agrees that your stops are not wide enough. Let me put it another way, I believe that as long as your stops are in the noise level then more often than not your trade will be a loser (albeit a small one). Pychologically, this can't be too motivating. I hope this different perspective is helpful. Richard
The Collective had spoken - resistance is furtile - you must widen stop j/k here are some ideas http://www.stockcentral.com.au/forum/machine/Forum10/HTML/001667.html http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...TF-8&selm=38bea90d%40news.together.net&rnum=9 http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...47f31c96c%40news01.syd.optusnet.com.au&rnum=4
Huios.. just a couple notes on your trading.. first, id like to say that i enjoy your journal.. second, i think you are wasting your time.. i dont want to be offensive.. im just telling you what i learned by losing many thousands of dollars.. you have too many setups.. you dont need 5.. you need 1 at this point.. you are better off trading one setup that you know VERY well.. than trading 5 that you are trying to learn about.. look back at your trades, what setup has given you the best R/R and occurs at least once or twice a day? thats the one you should focus on.. the illusion of the game is that there is always something you "should" have seen or some different way that you "should" have interpreted market action.. having too many setups will cloud your judgement on all of them.. the only order in the market is your control over what you do.. and you wont gain control when you have so many ideas floating around in your head.. so narrow it down.. third.. remember always that this is a game of expectancy.. if you expect 60% of your trades to come out winners, then remember to expect 40% to come out losers.. just because a trade goes against you doesnt mean something is wrong.. if you manipulate your setup every time you get 3 stops in a row you are going to drive yourself nuts and go broke.. you will be under the illusion that whatever you changed made the difference in the next trade that goes in your favor, when you might have actually hurt your expectancy over the long term.. good trading.. oh, btw.. i noticed your signature line.. have you ever read Jack Winters book "The Home Coming"? -adam
Are you testing these patterns or trading them? If you're testing them...why not just use a sim and get rid of some of the ones w/ a low expectancy? Also, Linda Bradford Raschke has many setups that are already backtested and show an edge. She seems very trustworthy. Have you considered just using and learning a canned setup? That might speed up the process a lot. And if you have money, you can follow her in chatroom for a while. Also, here is another chatroom that supposedly has a fantastic track record and is willing to teach: www.tradingconcepts.net I was blown away by their track record and if you can get half their performance...it's all gravy baby
A lot of people dont realize how small of an edge you need to make big bucks. If you can average 1 point a day consistently you can get rich.
Qwiktrade, I agree with you. Take the good setups. Patience is what's required. If you can see a good setup you don't need a big stop. I have posted good low risk setups here before that work with with close stops. Face it, a good setup does not need 3pt wiggle room. Your setups are no good if they do. Huios I think your biggest problems are patience and discipline, personally I don't think you need to widen your stops. If you do you better widen your account. And one last thing for a beginner get rid of that 1min chart. You keep saying how the 5min looks good, well practice what your head is telling you. Good trades. They are there everyday.
Hi Huios, I've seen a few posts by others advising you to get rid of the 1min chart for trading. I agree...but only if your trade setups are via another interval. For example...if all your trade setups are based on the 5min charts and you actually have 5min charts on your computer screen... I can't imagine a reason why you need to follow the 1min chart or post charts of your trades here at ET via 1min charts. If your reply is that your just looking at the 1min chart for a possible improved entry/exit...then that means the 1min chart is part of your trade setup. With that said...if 1min charts are part of your trade setups...then keep using them and keep posting 1min charts for your annotated charts. My trading style requires the 1min, 3min, 15min and daily charts...with more importance on the 1min chart. Also, I can't remember if you said you are a scalper or not. If you are a scalper and your trade setups are actually based on scalping...then the 1min interval or an interval less than 1min (tick intervals) are appropriate. If you are not a scalper...any interval that's 1min or higher is appropriate. Simply...use an interval that's appropriate for your trade setups. And those trade setups? What exactly are they...the ones that your using. I mean...can you spell out the criterias for any particular trade setup...often called a trading plan. I do know your a big fan of support/resistance levels. How do you come to your actual support/resistance numbers... are you getting them from either intraday ALL Sessions settings, daily charts info, intraday Non-All Sessions, an outside source that doesn't reveal how they come up with their numbers or what? As for me...most (not all) of my s/r numbers are via exponential price moving averages...thus, they are constantly changing. I've always been uncomfortable with a set or constant number that remains the same for a particular day. Keep pounding that wall that stands between you and trading for a living...eventually you'll have a few trade setups (Long and Short)...a few is all you need...that will consistently make you money regardless if the Eminis are going up or down. Take care and see you on Monday. P.S. There are a few free Emini Futures realtime chat rooms that are compatible or better than most fee-based chat rooms. Find a few rooms with some good traders (obviously you'll have to hang out in the rooms awhile) and ask them what trade setups they are using. Thus, there's nothing wrong and its more efficient to copy success instead of losing a lot of money while trying to develop something of your own. Note: I had re-emphasized a few comments made by others in your journal thread just to make sure you it has a chance to sink in on you NihabaAshi
huios, just one tactical thing on entry. if you watch 1min, you can see, that the market is always ticking back and forth...if you want to go long, enter when market is ticking back with a market order (and vice versa). it is a good exercise, cause it feels "not right"... someone said, to concentrate on 1 setup. perhaps forget about "setups" anyway. try to see "opportunities" and risk-reward ratio on this opportunities. try to calculate, what average win you need, if your hitrate is only 40% (or 30%) and your average loser is 1 pt...keep in mind this average win, you have to achieve... this way you can free yourself a bit from the entry theme by concentrating more on the winners... trading
Well Huios are you getting confused yet by everybodies different ideas. Not really a good environment to be learning from I suppose. Too many ideas only confuse things and the best way to trade is by keeping it simple. I won't post my ideas anymore but I will post a few charts every so often so you or anyone else can see some good low risk valid setups. All the best for your future career.