Well... just a bit of forward testing really. I know I don't yet have a plan to forward test, but as I draw my 5 min trend lines, watch for hinges, and watch what levels I think are important, doing this in real time is just better than on my old charts since I already know what happens so I for sure have a bit of a bias when I draw my lines or when I'm motivated to put a level somewhere. Other than it taking up time that could be used for backtesting (such as today where I don't have very much time unfortunately after the opening because of work), I hope there isn't a draw back here.
If you "already know what happens", you're doing it wrong. " . . . just a bit of forward testing really. I know I don't yet have a plan to forward test, but . . . " Do you not see the problem here?
LOL... yes.. the irony of the second quote doesn't escape me, you're right about that. I guess what I mean to say is that other than having firm stats in my head for what does work and what doesn't, I have a very loose trading plan (I bet I got the correct version of "loose"... do I get brownie points? ) So this loose plan is just essentially watching for the hinges, watching for when the 5 min lines break, and seeing if I am drawing my levels in properly. You see, in reference to the first point of doing it propely, its just hard to open up a chart and not know what happens. To find the day I'm looking for, I'm scrolling back so I already saw what happens. Now I am being extremely diligent with making sure that what I see on my opening bar, the way those trendlines would be drawn is with the proper swing highs and lows, so I am being very methodical in this way. The stats I collect will of course be based on this, its not like I will skip a certain trade when collecting stats just because I know it didn't work out so I leave it out to make the result seem better than what it would be.
This is of course how I'm doing it, but I'm scrolling with my eyes. You see, as I'm making up these charts for backtesting that I will then use to collect my stats, its not easy to scroll through all the afternoon and overnight session when my minute bars are spaced far enough apart. So then I have to compress my chart, slide over to the next day, mark in my opening, then mark in what my 5 min trendlines would be like, and then zoom back in again to take a screen capture of how the next few hours shaped up along with the couple of hours prior to the open. So logistically, just to get my lines drawn properly, I have to see past the opening. But I haven't collected any stats yet. I just wanted to start the process of taking my screen shots and showing a few of those so that you or ND could comment if it looks good. I still have some issues that I might need to work out before I finish all 100 charts, and its all to do with those trendlines. If the overnight session just trends up the whole time, there clearly won't be a SL from the overnight session to break. Also, using a swing point from 8 hours ago versus using one that is more recent and hence provides a tighter line is the other issue. I am plotting both currently, and always trying to be faithful to how I would do it if this was in fact the way I would go live into the day. When it comes to collecting my stats from these screen captures, I will of course make sure to go from left to right, looking at the first instance of when the trendline is pierced, and then seeing if price makes its way back below or.... etc. With refrence to hinges, I am trying hard to make sure to draw them only with the first two swings points... so the first instance of having a lower high and higher low, bam... there is my hinge (as long as this doesn't happen in a range). Its easy to draw a hinge properly once you can see the whole thing and what results, then you might be tempted to be a bit loose with how you draw it in, perhaps even cutting off a few bars, but I'm making sure that when I draw them for backtesting purposes that I would draw each one the same as it would look when its forming, and if it should happen to appear to break out when it really doesn't, this will have to be something to be dealt with when it comes to collecting the stats.
@k p here is a template you can use as an example to start off with. You can alter/add/remove the subheadings to fit your needs. http://trading-journal-spreadsheet.com/trading-plan-example-template-download/
Thanks AT. Its a bit vague, but very similar actually to what Db provides, so I like it when things match up well amongst different sources. When I clicked on the "example trading plan"... I thought it was gonna tell me when to buy and sell... complete with an entry strategy, profit target and stop loss! LOL
loose loÍžos/ adjective not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached or able to be detached. plan plan/ noun a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something Which is it for you?