Spent some time in Woodies room awhile ago. Dont want to discuss Woody, CCI, etc. but one thing I found very interesting was that Woody was trading without price on his chart and I am curious if anybody else is doing this. At first this seems crazy but after some serious thought I can see some benefit to doing this. My big problem is hanging with a winning trade. Watching price alternate along with your p and l is quite distracting. I am now going to do some experimenting to see if ignoring price and p&l and simply pulling the trigger in and out according to the signals will work. I understand that my indicators will lag a bit but perhaps lagging on the exit is not such a bad thing. We will see. Would appreciate any input from anyone who is doing this or has tried it in the past.
I was recently a trader at one of the larger prop trading firms in Chicago - and many traders chose to obscure their P/L on the screen so it would not distract them. Personally I want it up at all times. __________________ Dan
This is more psychological than a technical analysis concern. I myself don't have my PnL screen up while trading because it is a a big distraction. However, you still need to maintain a level of awareness with your account to prevent letting things get out of control. I maintain that awareness via keeping a written realtime journal on my desk in which I make notes after each trade is completed as time permits. Simply, I'm aware of how good or bad my trading day is going while keeping a good psychological balance while trading without feeling the pressure that's involved with a PnL screen. I did try trading without the PnL screen and without maintaining a realtime journal...far too stressful. By the way, if you don't want to talk about that W guy...you shouldn't mention him in the first place because he's a hot controversial topic here at ET. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term
I use them very little now, along with charts; I peek at charts just to refresh me mind where stocks are standin'; I find them helpful as a good contrarian indicator tho.
having a "running" P&L up for any given trade is a bad idea, imo because one should be concentrating on managing the risk of the trade, not thinking about $$$. the instrument you are trading does not care (or know) where you bought it, where you plan to sell it, or how much money you have made (or lost). it doesn't want to hurt you, let you out at breakeven, or make you money. if u concentrate on your setups and effectively managing risk, the money takes care of itself. since you should already know your stopout exit BEFORE you enter the trade, you already know (absent slippage when u are stopped out) your downside risk. so, you shouldn't watch the P&L imo, because when u watch $$$ go up and down, you get emotional. and that's bad
I always block my P/L - but price - never. I look at levels, but trade off the tape, so that's not really an option I'd ever consider.
Yes I also trade from indicators without looking at a price chart and without looking at a Profit-and-Loss chart. In my case I'm trading >40 commodity futures markets out of the same account, and I just do what the indicators tell me to do, without price charts or P-and-L charts. I don't know if this approach is "best" but, for my own individual situation, it feels "correct". Many successes to all.
I block the PnL during trading, ignore indicators and just concentrate on price, patterns, support and resistance and key reversal times. KISS
I block everything except PNL screen. I neither see price action, nor indicator and nor anything else just only PNL screen. I also do not trade on realtime, 20 min delayed chart from yahoo is good enough for trading and living.