I look at 5m and 15m charts for my retirement accounts. That's long term to me. The system works on any timeframe.
Can trade 1/2 a day today. 1m chart only. No scalps from the TICK charts cuz I'm still in the mountains and only have dial up. I will be papertrading a new methodology starting today. If it goes well I will add this to the current system. It is still from the 1m charts for entry, still uses divergence, still uses the 20ma cross for entry but does not require a prior strong trend in place. It uses a larger timeframe to gauge when their might be a pullback in that timeframe and then I go to the 1m for entry. A small pullback in this higher timeframe is a nice reversal in the 1m timeframe. It is experimental now and I will probably adjust the rules slightly as the papertrading is being carried out.
Here's the chart from 7/2. This was an above average move. 20 points. And it even moved further. See notes on chart. Had log in troubles with IB though and missed it. It was posted here real time as a papertrade so that I could still work on my discipline. Followed plan well. It is easy to follow the plan well when the target is hit so quickly.
Target hit. 10208. As the trade started going against me I started looking at ES and NQ to see if my trade was actually good. Maybe I should get out at even. I was looking to see if NQ or ES had the signal as well. If they did then this would help my YM trade. Then I told myself: Dude, these trades work over time. Was the signal there ? Yes. So frickin wait and the target or stop will be hit and then on to the next one. Of course, then I started thinking: but I'm only trading 1/2 a day. I won't be able to make up for this until who knows when if this is a loser. Then I asked myself: what am I trading for ? The answer was: stay in the trade till do or die. Do or die will be in EVERY TRADE. Chart later. Going whitewater rafting.
Couldn't trade today. Traveling back home. I took a look at 1m trades and scalp trades from todays action and today would not have been a good day. I almost wish that I did get to trade today because trading has been pretty good since I have started this journal to work on discipline. Today would have been good to test the 'not so good times'. Would I have stayed focused and taken only the trades with full signals ? It would have been really good to test my head to see if I can stay focused and stay on the track of my trading rules. I looked through the day one bar at a time so that it would be as close as possible to real trading. Even doing this, after some losing trades, I felt myself feeling kind of desperate. This desperate feeling is what I need to KILL. I feel this emotion is the one that can at times make me steer from my trading rules. In a way, even though I did not trade, I did learn what emotion to look for so that I can avoid its occasional affect. I need to remember that other good trades or good times will be around the corner. Perhaps this is just the amateur in me. I remember early in my other career there were times that were full of desperation or 'unknown' fear where now I look back at those times as just day to day events that were part of the job.
No I couldnt relate it to discipline, because I dont know what your issues are. ANyhow, I just like to see other traders' equity curves to compare with mine. Is that so bad ?