That's commendable. I think that would require a different skillset than scalping, unless you are using scalping to get INTO that move.
Awww, this ruined the story for me!!! I'll just imagine that the kangaroo learned his lesson and from now on always behaves nicely.
Thanks for sharing. Well, it sounds like you got to this point without keeping records, if I'm understanding you correctly. I guess what's important is that you made observations and found a way to trade them!
Not what I wanted to hear...I might not have suffered enough? What is concerning me at the moment is that I am wondering if you are right. I looked up Seykota, don't have time at the moment to read much, but it looks like he may have some useful insights. I'll look up more of his stuff later. Well, I will soon find out. I have already been operating with these rules with loose adherence, treating them more as guidelines. I think I am at the place and have found my niche where I can tighten up the rules and do better. Maybe not. I haven't got it all worked out yet, but it seems to be coming together better now that I've switched to mostly 6E trading. I am doing all of these things as I am working on my new binder of rules. Well, I have set my financial goals lower than the potential of my method because I have never yet experienced the market being more generous to me overall than I thought it would be, so I am keeping my goals to what seems obtainable. I suppose my focus is more on my method. For me right now, that is what is important because if I can't get the method to work, the goals are for sure never going to be met. That is worrisome. I don't want to go through more losses. I have something that is working in demo and I can see how it should work on a consistent basis, but even in demo I do not trade it as well as I should be. Switching to live is going to be hard....but having someone to talk over the day with at the end of the day might be a real game changer here, especially because it's someone that I think will be really helpful with helping me through the process. There's probably not very many people that could be a mentor in this way, but I think this person will be a good fit for my personality. I am a little anxious because things don't ever go as smoothly as planned and I don't want any relationship issues to come from this, but I think it will be fine. Basically, I was told that if I break my rules, especially the daily loss, that he is likely to be done helping me. If the rule is written out, then it's ok. So, I have to write up rules that give me flexibility yet are still good rules and then I have to follow them. Maybe this will end in disaster the first day, I don't know. I am not going to be live trading this week anyhow, hoping to start next week though, so it gives me time to work out all the tiny details. Two reason for why I haven't done well in live trading are that my rules haven't been precise enough and I haven't followed my rules closely. I was treating "getting the trade" more important than rules. Now I can't do that. I have to follow rules to get the trade and I have to be discerning of when the rules aren't likely to have a good trade. If the rules are written to give enough flexibility to allow for the variations that take place within price action yet give a set group of things required for entering a trade then I think it will go well. I basically have already been trading this way, and done ok with it in demo, but I do need to tighten a few things that aren't changing the method, but they are eliminating the "close enough but not really" type of trades. I don't think that is going to change the profitability of the system, because the "close enough but not really trades" now get into a different set of rules and can still be traded when those conditions are met. Anyhow, I really like the 6E even though I'm not trading it to it's full potential yet, and currently still on demo. Thanks for the suggestions! Edit: One more thing: the rules I have aren't just random rules, they are basically the tendencies of price behavior. I just use those tendencies as rules and triggers for trading. In that sense, it's not even my rules, just the market tendencies written out, that I trade. Hope that clarifies why my rules are working and necessary.
Busy day ahead but want to write this thought out before I forget it. Will it help me to follow my plan if I treat every trade that isn't following my plan as though it was a serious gambling addiction? After all, that is what is it. I've lost so much money breaking my rules when revenge trading that it really was gambling, and I've done it so often that it has become an addiction. So what I'm wondering is if I train myself to think of it as gambling and not trading, maybe I could learn to carefully trade my plan and resist all desire to trade when it's not following my plan.