I appreciate the tone of your post so I would like to address it. It refers to this post here: http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...via-price-action.281995/page-141#post-4064182 "QQQ because your journal is titled “NQ via PA”... lol. It’s not very difficult to understand. I’m not an investor, but my point is you are trying to be a trader, yet you’re not even able to beat an investor. It’s a simple set of probabilities, but apparently you can’t EVEN understand that." This post of samuel's, highlighting the important parts is incredibly destructive. He isn't offering anything useful and he is actually causing more damage. If trading wasn't difficult to understand, everybody would be making money. Continuing with how I'm not "even able to..." and then how I can't "even understand that" is highly demoralizing. Frankly I don't care because I have no idea who he is, but I just want to point out that given those lines, I see no value in any of his posts. Maybe I'm just sensitive, maybe I have a self esteem issue, maybe.... etc. But I would hope that some of the people out there reading could understand where I'm coming from based on how I presented this the way I interpreted it. I too am willing to get past this as my only goal is to become a successful trader, but what I am trying to do is be as open and honest as I can be and leave something for other to follow and learn from. And on that note, I would still appreciate knowing what you mean with your tease, but if you want to drop it, that is fine as well.
All of which takes you right back where you started. And while those who are providing advice have your best interests in mind and are being more than sincere in their efforts, they may not have read your journal and may not know that you know all that and have been through it before. Repeatedly. Therefore, I suggest, again, that you seek clarity. Get rid of all of it and begin with a blank chart. Find where price begins trending. You can do that without even defining "trend". Look at what price was doing before it began trending. It will have either been trending in the opposite direction or it will have been ranging. Review your charts with only this in mind. This is not "starting over" because you have by now viewed thousands of charts. But it will re-center you.
And none of this is any different than what Db has already said many times and been more specific with anyway. Doesn't anybody think that I realize I need to do more work to realize this? And doesn't anybody realize that when others keep saying the same thing over and over again that it becomes almost a taunt, especially when they claim how easy it is yet they haven't demonstrated it themselves yet?
Yes.. I very much like this. Therein lies the difficulty. Knowing that I have looked at so many charts, knowing that I know the rules, and yet also having absolutely terrible results. So a re-centering is obviously very much called for, yet its not like starting over again and having to think that nothing has actually stuck after 10 months.
I'm posting this here for those who have been following this discussion and want to play along. Where is price trending? Where is price ranging? How would one explain to a five-year-old the difference?
Thanks for your post JS and I certainly do admire the sincerity of your post. And yet, for me, I am going to do the exact opposite of what you say. Not because your advise is bad, but just because its bad for me. I feel as if I'm too close to take a rest now. Perhaps I'm still very far away, but if anything, the past 10 months has been spent not working very hard. Sure I've put lots of hours into it, but it hasn't been "working" smart. Some days I do feel as if I need a break, but then sometimes I find a moment of inspiration that completely reinvigorates me and I find all the energy I need in that very moment. Emini said something a few weeks back in Db's thread that provided some of this inspiration. I showed a chart with possible trades and he provided the reason why one trade was no good, to which Db replied with a simple thank-you to him. The necessary part of the explanation was that the buying and selling waves were equal, so at this point, neither side had the upper hand, and when neither side is showing being in control, its best to wait on the sidelines. So there is a certain amount of momentum that I have built up and if I do feel the need to rest I will, but that moment is without a doubt not now.
Never once said it was easy but you know kp I won't post ever again on your journal .You keep doing what you believe and I will do the same. By the way if every moment in the market is unique and every outcome is random and we have no way of knowing what is going to happen next why do you need 100 examples of every trade you want to make .
Samuel is not trying to persecute you. He's trying to inspire you. Buy and hold QQQ is a tangent that came out of his first post in which he says sim trading for the knowledge is preferable to not having the knowledge that can be gained from sim. If you believe something is true then it generally grows bigger and becomes true. Carefully pick the directions you want to nurture because you will have more of that category in the future. I recommend you invent the possibility u can and will find the solutions to all the detailed nuances required to implement the more general suggestions or concepts that need to be filled in with precise metrics. Such as how to define that trend you mentioned and the specific way you can enter in it's direction, while simultaneously maintaining the precise metrics needed to satisfy all the other requirements. A way to keep losses small, a way to re-enter .. Then you will have something worthwhile. This is a problem worthy of being solved. The other stuff doesn't matter. If you like, I can click the button that undo's my earlier like of Samuels posts but I assure you in his own way he has your journey in his heart as his own and is just offering his way of inspiring you so u don't have to suffer the lessons he and all of us have had to suffer.
Since this is my journal.... I get to go first! Outlined on my chart are actually two sets, with two different time frames. The red blocked areas show both a ranging environment first, and then two trending areas. Contained within, we have ranging environments on two lower time frames outlined in blue. In terms of words, it would be a case of HH's and HL's for an up trend, LH's and LL's for a down trend, and roughly equal highs and lows for a ranging market. And sadly, this looks to be be the NQ chart of the past few days with an ample amount of opportunity!