Thank you for your posting Gringo. I must point out though, that the SLA Scribble Method has neither made any money, nor lost any money at the present time. I would agree it's on autopilot since the equity curve is straight and level. Any 2 lines can be drawn 5 points apart, 15 points apart 100 points apart and then trades taken off those lines. If the system uses prudent management as I do, the system will make money. It doesn't matter where the lines are. The Scribble method is dressed up to be more than it is. By the way, the educators have indicated that the system is wholly discretionary, so really if it was actually being used, it couldn't be on auto-pilot. It is doing well on the ground though.
Losing zero still beats losing more than zero. I must add though that compared to most other Scribbler haters I at least respect your posting the trades. Whatever the case may be, at least you're not running away.
Maybe you should invite one of the SLA students to call some realtime trades so that it get can get off the ground and readers can compare? Maybe gringo or KP
And now you are beginning to see the real essence of trading. I'm glad you came to this understanding. You were one of the students that I felt showed promise in the ability to see things for a little more than what they are and with an open mind. This idea of trade/risk management is the exact thing that I present here. In addition, it is perfectly fine to admit to losing trades. I believe you have a bright future. Remember, I do not portend that the RSI, MACD etc is the end all. I postulate that trade/money/risk management IS the end all.
I have posted real time trades in my journal but not here. There's only so much one can do with the posting. Maybe I'll try to add a link here next time I attempt something.
Truth be told, I wasn't really taking exact SLA trades. On the one hand, you sometimes see Db post hourly charts and show SLA, then you see him post 1 min chart, and use SLA. For the most part, I think SLA has been taught with 1 min chart, and using the entry as 1 point away from the trough or crest. This I have found to often be quite late into a move. Its works great when it works, but can also chop you up when it doesn't. In the past few months, especially ever since 40D started posting in January, the emphasis started to turn to only taking trades at the extreme, so you could take SLA trades once price bounce off an extreme. I think the AMT part though is the more critical part, and I think Db is absolutely right when he says it comes down to first finding the range. The tricky bit is when price leaves a range and re-enters... then what is one to do? He might get stopped out in the long, trying a breakout, and then get stopped out of a short, trying to take a reversal once price re-penetrates. But when you zoom out far enough, price reacting to ranges does seem to work quite well, albeit in hindsight. Just today, as in this chart below, you see price bounce off 4452 roughly after the open, a quadruple bounce if looking at the 1 min (which was an obvious trade), and then you see it penetrate that cyan line around 4464 and turn back down. This cyan line was clearly the support level of the previous range overnight, so traders didn't want to re-enter this range. Now of course this is perfect analysis in hindsight. Perhaps some took the trade, some didn't, and since I'm no longer working on my journal for now, I'm not saying what I did. But this is something that could be acted upon. But of course since Db hardly ever talks about entries, goes back and forth between 1 min and 1 hour charts, and wont commit to discussing any trades, only saying that his trades are 30 or 40 points in the green without making reference to where he first called it, we have no proof that he is able to trade any of this. But I can't argue with the fact that what he shows does have some elegance and repeatability to it. How does one profit from this in real time with money on the line? I'll be dammed if I know... but if I figure it out, you can bet I will start a journal once again and show my trades. The SLA part is the crutch of what Db shows in my opinion. Unless you have a perfect bounce from a level, a perfect RET you can see on a 1 min chart, and instant continuation, then things get messy. But a failure or bounce from a level happens at the tick level, so if you know what to look for and can take the trade sooner... perhaps this can work. But this isn't SLA in my opinion because these trades happen without lines being broken or any significant retracements appearing on a 1 min chart. Its more AMT in this respect.
Thank you for posting the chart. In review of the chart, lines could have been drawn at 4470, 4472 ,4478, 4464,4462,4454,4445,4444,4433,4432,4430,4428. There were trades at all of the these. Pick your poison.
The "grail" method is 100 NQ pts in the hole. If the SLA doesn't make a dime, it is far superior to the above.