It is my observation that people attract other people of the same kind. Traders who are not successful tend to attract more comments and bashing because it is easier to give advice to an unsuccessful trader than to someone who has a proven method and showing continued success. You will also see more bits and pieces of unqualified advice coming from individuals who believe to have discovered a new ubiquitous trading rule and cannot wait to share it in such threads. A successful trader on the other hand is intimidating and only attracts discussions of higher intellectual standard. Such threads are hard to discover just as is an outperforming stock on the last pages of a daily paper.
^ very true statements above. I'm doing everything I possibly can think of but remaining profitable has proven to be an elusive task. My rules clearly make money, but they lose just as much as they make. There's obviously something I'm missing. I'm using an edge, price action, 'logical' risk managment... @24.8k (+3%)
So, from here on, I will be attempting to trade pure price action. Most of the trades I took profit on a little while ago would have vanished had I waited till now. This proves how important price action is. Therefore, it will be my focus. I did a fair amount of testing on a pattern. It appears fairly reliably at tops and bottoms (or reversals). The only problem is, it appears more often than just those places. Of course, no pattern results in a winner every time. In order to stay in a trade, I will need to make sure that the 'trend' remains intact after entry. Again, this is very subjective, because these patterns vary in time and magnitude. However, after studying charts this weekend I found there is a noticable pattern to 'trends.' Hopefully the rewards will be greater than the risks. I think the one thing I have done well is hanging onto winners and cutting losers quickly. Looking back, I haven't been all that consistent in entry and exit and perhaps that's been my problem. I'm tossing the idea around of possibly having a set risk/reward. I looked down on this though, because if you have a set reward, then you could possibly cut the trade too early. This could also capture a profit before the trade goes sour. I know of a few full timers that trade like this. I'm starting to wish again that I could watch the market during the day, because I feel as if there are more opportunities. I could always be wrong. @ 26k (+8%)
Trading pure price action (subjectively) as stated above. Let's see how this goes. 1 time frame, no indicators, no 'edges' & risk management. All commodities/futures at the moment... maybe stocks/Forex one day.... @ 27k (+12.5%)
Anyone with a brain will know who tells the truth. I am one of many who have read your previous posts... I have nothing to prove to you or anyone else on here. This journal is for selfish reasons and no more. I can write faster online than I can in a notebook. Also, I'm sparing trees.
Trees or not, the windows you've posted for your P&L do not look like any windows I've seen from any broker. They appear to be performance windows out of a strategy analysis screen.
Believe it or not, these screenshots are of a customized layout of my broker's (OpenECry's) platform. @ $29k (+20%) this morning. 5 open positions - copper, corn, Euro, 30 yr bonds & lean hogs