Easyrider, I wish I could say that I have not had a long painful experience but I can't and haven't said that. Everyone pays there dues and I certainly paid mine.
Sorry Diz. I guess I misunderstood. I thought you said in a previous post that you had only been trading a couple of months.
Glad to see someone actually reads my posts. I have only actively been trading for a number of months. My dues have been paid this way. Courses, books, videos etc etc over a 2yr period. Runs in to many thousands of dollars. Hundreds of hours spent reading and watching charts. Then after finding all I could I then put together a trading plan that fits my personality . Over the last few months I have put it into action and I'm happy to see the hardwork has paid off.
Huios, I haven't been on or posted for a while, however , three things came to mind after looking at the chart that you posted today. First, you trade retracements. That is ok, however I notice that consistently most of your trades are occurring during the "chop" or sideways movement like near the trend changes, not during the trend. The way I spot this in your trading is just by a simple glance at the angle of the Moving Averages on your chart. A fair portion of your trades and a bulk of the losers come when you are trading retracements with the MA laying flat or near flat, rather than at a steep angle. Retracements seem to work best when the trend is very strong and then the pull back occurs with the MA still pointing in the direction of the trend, not having rolled over or laying flat. Second, This may be late, but I noticed that you are paper trading again and doing ok again. Remember, most of the time it is not you against the market, but you against you. I still get the impression that you don't really have a strict plan yet that details exactly when to get in and when to get you, hence your constant changing and looking for the "holly grail". Third, referring to my last statement, I see you have changed time periods again. This is ok, but I don't think that your plan is refined enough to say that one time frame is no longer working and you should jump to another time frame because for the most part, you haven't stuck with one time frame long enough to ride out the highs and lows that will come with consistent trading over the course of several months. It seems to me that you are trading one time frame for a few weeks, then finding out that you are not successful, then abandoning ship to some other form or entry based on a longer time frame. I also read a couple pages back about stops again and how wide you should be setting them. Remember that the longer the time frame, the longer the stop should theoretically be. I can imagine that it must be hard to overcome a stop as wide as 4 points if only trading intra-day. I know that it can be hard when everyone is giving you there two cents, but stick with it. This is a long term project. Sean
9 trades, 4 wins, 2 loses, 3 b/e for +3 pts. Some obvious mistakes that cost me dear on missed profits. Learned more today, and wrote it down. Sorry so late, but had class tonight, and will every Tues till semester is done. Tired and going to bed. Our church is having a Day of Remberence tomorrow morning, so don't know if I am trading tomorrow or not. H