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  #48775  
Old Nov 26, 2009 4:46pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Looks like I missed all the fun today...

It's been a while since we had someone come in to stir the pot. Never seems to happen over in the PF...

I sold GJ from 150.00 with a small stop above the highs like Raczek but I got out much earlier than him (similar to Mike). The I caught another position on a pullback and again got out earlier than I should. Was still an amazing trade but it could have been a lot more had I held the first position all the way down. 20R in fact.

It's just part of trading. I almost never catch the full move, or get it right every time. What matters is getting it right enough to be profitable. And then maximising that with time and experience. I'm getting there.
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  #48775  
Old Nov 26, 2009 4:46pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Looks like I missed all the fun today...

It's been a while since we had someone come in to stir the pot. Never seems to happen over in the PF...

I sold GJ from 150.00 with a small stop above the highs like Raczek but I got out much earlier than him (similar to Mike). The I caught another position on a pullback and again got out earlier than I should. Was still an amazing trade but it could have been a lot more had I held the first position all the way down. 20R in fact.

It's just part of trading. I almost never catch the full move, or get it right every time. What matters is getting it right enough to be profitable. And then maximising that with time and experience. I'm getting there.
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  #48810  
Old Nov 27, 2009 8:41am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bundyraider View Post
There's more to this longer time frames gig than meets the eye.

The great aspect about trading those longer time frames is instilling that ability to wait for the best trades and, once in one, to wait out a trades various "noise" phases . If you can do that (i.e not checking back every hour on a daily or weekly trade), you've developed a great skill that will work with ALL time frames later on. If you need to watch certain levels in between, then set alerts.

That ability to wait for the correct opportunities is a good one to have.
And those higher timeframe levels are lethal when planning lower timeframe trades. Just a single bar high that matches up with another single bar low on the weekly....and in a 4H pinbar.....it can be deadly.

We're so used to the big visual PPZs here with the tons of bar highs and bar lows. I'd encourage everyone to look at the tiny ones on the weekly. A weekly high point is an area everyone watches.

And yes bundy, it's a real skill to not babysit a trade and I think it only comes with painful experience. Painful experience that I am accruing at the moment. I shorted the GJ from 150.00 and again further down, and the NU from the 4H bar at the very top. I closed both for the best week I've ever had trading, but had I held on for my original targets then....well....it would have been a week that beat any month I've ever had.

A lot is just experience I think. And that just accrues over time.
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  #48810  
Old Nov 27, 2009 8:41am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by bundyraider View Post
There's more to this longer time frames gig than meets the eye.

The great aspect about trading those longer time frames is instilling that ability to wait for the best trades and, once in one, to wait out a trades various "noise" phases . If you can do that (i.e not checking back every hour on a daily or weekly trade), you've developed a great skill that will work with ALL time frames later on. If you need to watch certain levels in between, then set alerts.

That ability to wait for the correct opportunities is a good one to have.
And those higher timeframe levels are lethal when planning lower timeframe trades. Just a single bar high that matches up with another single bar low on the weekly....and in a 4H pinbar.....it can be deadly.

We're so used to the big visual PPZs here with the tons of bar highs and bar lows. I'd encourage everyone to look at the tiny ones on the weekly. A weekly high point is an area everyone watches.

And yes bundy, it's a real skill to not babysit a trade and I think it only comes with painful experience. Painful experience that I am accruing at the moment. I shorted the GJ from 150.00 and again further down, and the NU from the 4H bar at the very top. I closed both for the best week I've ever had trading, but had I held on for my original targets then....well....it would have been a week that beat any month I've ever had.

A lot is just experience I think. And that just accrues over time.
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  #48841  
Old Nov 28, 2009 7:07pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jarroo View Post
There are many "before the fact" setups on this thread all the time. You are either not paying attention or you haven't taken the time to read the thead.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...ostcount=48258

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...ostcount=25758


We look for PA setups at great locations taught and discussed by James16, Mike and many others. When a setup is presented, many different approaches (since we have many different personalities) can be applied in many different...
Those sorts of posts are usually a thinly disguised advert for a signal service. And given how popular the J16 thread is, people try and ride the traffic and promote themselves. Usually they come in here, scream at everyone, stir the point and then announce they are going to set up a paid service. It's usually utter lies and garbage and we get one every now and again.

Anyone who's new, trust me on this as someone who has been down this road. I know you are craving a shortcut like a man crawling through the desert craves water.. I did too. I gave people money to trade for me while I learnt this stuff. Makes sense I thought. I could even follow their trades while I learnt. Well I lost more than most people make in a year. One trader blew up spectacularly and margin called the account. I say this for one reason and one reason only. To let you know...


....there are no shortcuts.

There really aren't. The thing that helps, after understanding the material, is practice and chart time. A serious approach plus months of experience.....well there's no substitute. But those moments when things begin to click and you suddenly realise you know a little bit about this.....it's like climbing a mountain and stopping to look down and think "wow....base camp is a long way away...I really have come far". Those are sweet moments.

I really don't think it's skill that separates the winners from the losers. I think it's persistence. Most people bet too big too early and never give themselves the chance to stay in the game. Which is a real shame. Because just by giving yourself a little time and wiggle room, you accrue that invaluable experience which adds up to success.
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  #48843  
Old Nov 28, 2009 8:05pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jarroo View Post
Thanks Aaron for reading between the lines of his post. I'm sure that's what he was all about.

Absolutuely . . . Persistence and Perseverance overrides skill every time in this business. Funny thing is that it does get easier.

Great post as usual my friend.

Jim
Good to see you back Jim. I've missed you round here. Hope you caught some of the big moves last week.

There's been a lovely discussion in PF about the yen pinbars. What do you think? My hunch is we're not quite done with yen strength. I wouldn't take them as buy and holds, but played Jarroo style they are strong setups. 50 pip stop 100 pip target super tight leash type trades.

UCAD daily also seems to be winding up nicely perhaps in preparation for a break that allows that monthly pinbar to play out.

What have you been looking at? There was a dream 1H GU bearish pin off a clear daily resistance level which I thought you would be all over. I missed it but hope you made some pips there.
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  #48852  
Old Nov 29, 2009 11:40am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
Yes breakout and pullbacks are one of my bread and butter. It is simplistic yet encompasses everything we do here.




Mike
What I love is how, after a while, all this stuff seems to knit together as one.
Breakouts and pullbacks are a great case in point. You can have a breakout and pullback to a horizontal PPZ, what James calls previous resistance turning into support and vice versa. You can play that with price action or as a touch. Or you can use a dynamic S/R level like an EMA in the same way. Or a trendline like in the AUD cases that Dan just showed.

And then you can look for times when the S/R level holds. The second time we hit a big S/R level (ie: a double top, killer with divergence) and the same with the other SR types listed above.

There are so many nuances and ideas that can be brought out from this one simple concept. In PF there are a few systems developed from it.

And once you begin to see it all stitched together like this it really does become pretty cool.
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  #48866  
Old Nov 29, 2009 2:00pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by benji533 View Post


Hey Aron
What's up brother?

If you are planing to take the Yen pins, be careful not to stand in rac's way


Hope you had a great weekend!

Hey Benji and good to see you. Yes you're right and you have a good eye. I will probably not take the yen pins. They formed in an illiquid market and I am just not convinced enough with the overall yen direction to bet on it rising for a few days (which is how I view my daily plays). That said, using the daily for direction and watching the hourly and 4H is probably what I will do. I think anyone who took them would have to watch the 50 ret and the trendlines like a hawk. The yen pairs seem to love the 50 ret. I just don't like playing markets when such a huge move has happened because you can often just get trapped in consolidation again and agonise for days..

THere was a time that when i felt "unsure" I would just throw my money in anyway. These days I go the other way and so far it's working. I am also fully prepared for these yen pins to take off and never look back. I won't be upset if that happens. I simply cannot call the outcome of any individual trade. But I can work on my abilities so that over a hundred or a thousand trades I will be profitable. I think part of being a successful trader involved a lot of watching things that you pass on work really well. But as James says, we're not just waiting for the baby antelope to come by, we're waiting for the bay antelope with the broken leg.

Just thinking aloud on a Sunday. I've been talking on these forums much more than usual today...lol. Procrastinating over cleaning the house.

How are you my friend?
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  #48841  
Old Nov 28, 2009 7:07pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jarroo View Post
There are many "before the fact" setups on this thread all the time. You are either not paying attention or you haven't taken the time to read the thead.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...ostcount=48258

http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...ostcount=25758


We look for PA setups at great locations taught and discussed by James16, Mike and many others. When a setup is presented, many different approaches (since we have many different personalities) can be applied in many different...
Those sorts of posts are usually a thinly disguised advert for a signal service. And given how popular the J16 thread is, people try and ride the traffic and promote themselves. Usually they come in here, scream at everyone, stir the point and then announce they are going to set up a paid service. It's usually utter lies and garbage and we get one every now and again.

Anyone who's new, trust me on this as someone who has been down this road. I know you are craving a shortcut like a man crawling through the desert craves water.. I did too. I gave people money to trade for me while I learnt this stuff. Makes sense I thought. I could even follow their trades while I learnt. Well I lost more than most people make in a year. One trader blew up spectacularly and margin called the account. I say this for one reason and one reason only. To let you know...


....there are no shortcuts.

There really aren't. The thing that helps, after understanding the material, is practice and chart time. A serious approach plus months of experience.....well there's no substitute. But those moments when things begin to click and you suddenly realise you know a little bit about this.....it's like climbing a mountain and stopping to look down and think "wow....base camp is a long way away...I really have come far". Those are sweet moments.

I really don't think it's skill that separates the winners from the losers. I think it's persistence. Most people bet too big too early and never give themselves the chance to stay in the game. Which is a real shame. Because just by giving yourself a little time and wiggle room, you accrue that invaluable experience which adds up to success.
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  #48843  
Old Nov 28, 2009 8:05pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jarroo View Post
Thanks Aaron for reading between the lines of his post. I'm sure that's what he was all about.

Absolutuely . . . Persistence and Perseverance overrides skill every time in this business. Funny thing is that it does get easier.

Great post as usual my friend.

Jim
Good to see you back Jim. I've missed you round here. Hope you caught some of the big moves last week.

There's been a lovely discussion in PF about the yen pinbars. What do you think? My hunch is we're not quite done with yen strength. I wouldn't take them as buy and holds, but played Jarroo style they are strong setups. 50 pip stop 100 pip target super tight leash type trades.

UCAD daily also seems to be winding up nicely perhaps in preparation for a break that allows that monthly pinbar to play out.

What have you been looking at? There was a dream 1H GU bearish pin off a clear daily resistance level which I thought you would be all over. I missed it but hope you made some pips there.
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  #48852  
Old Nov 29, 2009 11:40am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
Yes breakout and pullbacks are one of my bread and butter. It is simplistic yet encompasses everything we do here.




Mike
What I love is how, after a while, all this stuff seems to knit together as one.
Breakouts and pullbacks are a great case in point. You can have a breakout and pullback to a horizontal PPZ, what James calls previous resistance turning into support and vice versa. You can play that with price action or as a touch. Or you can use a dynamic S/R level like an EMA in the same way. Or a trendline like in the AUD cases that Dan just showed.

And then you can look for times when the S/R level holds. The second time we hit a big S/R level (ie: a double top, killer with divergence) and the same with the other SR types listed above.

There are so many nuances and ideas that can be brought out from this one simple concept. In PF there are a few systems developed from it.

And once you begin to see it all stitched together like this it really does become pretty cool.
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  #48866  
Old Nov 29, 2009 2:00pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by benji533 View Post


Hey Aron
What's up brother?

If you are planing to take the Yen pins, be careful not to stand in rac's way


Hope you had a great weekend!

Hey Benji and good to see you. Yes you're right and you have a good eye. I will probably not take the yen pins. They formed in an illiquid market and I am just not convinced enough with the overall yen direction to bet on it rising for a few days (which is how I view my daily plays). That said, using the daily for direction and watching the hourly and 4H is probably what I will do. I think anyone who took them would have to watch the 50 ret and the trendlines like a hawk. The yen pairs seem to love the 50 ret. I just don't like playing markets when such a huge move has happened because you can often just get trapped in consolidation again and agonise for days..

THere was a time that when i felt "unsure" I would just throw my money in anyway. These days I go the other way and so far it's working. I am also fully prepared for these yen pins to take off and never look back. I won't be upset if that happens. I simply cannot call the outcome of any individual trade. But I can work on my abilities so that over a hundred or a thousand trades I will be profitable. I think part of being a successful trader involved a lot of watching things that you pass on work really well. But as James says, we're not just waiting for the baby antelope to come by, we're waiting for the bay antelope with the broken leg.

Just thinking aloud on a Sunday. I've been talking on these forums much more than usual today...lol. Procrastinating over cleaning the house.

How are you my friend?
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  #48903  
Old Nov 30, 2009 7:27am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by joelcf View Post
Its more just something to be aware of - if you load up yen on every JPY cross you can find, and then the BoJ comes out with some bad news, you are gonna have a bad day.

(and this is strictly IMO, many people dont agree, including Mike, who you should all listen to).

Just to clarify, Mike is in absolute agreement with you on this one (as am I).

Like Joel says, the yen pairs almost always move as one and taking all the yen pinbars you can eat is essentially on great big mammoth trade on the yen. If the signals are super A+ then I sometimes take 2. But then I only risk 1% per trade so I am never that exposed. If I went for 2% risk then there's no way I'd allow a 4% bet on the yen.

Do you use a dedicated futures broker Joel, or a one stop shop like IB? And do you find there is anything extra nuances you need to know in terms of margin requirements, position sizing, gaps etc when it comes to futures?(beyond obviously, the easily google-able info that I have already accumulated)

Edited to add:

Scanning back it seems I missed a post or two that makes my post completely superfluous. Never mind. Won't be the first time....

This thing about watching a ton of charts.....one of the thing that gets forgotten is that it all depends on how you trade. Mike watches for very specific things that are easily identifiable. He doesn't spend ages plotting out trendlines and fibs and the like on a chart. He likes to open it, see if there's a trade and then close it. For his style of trading it makes sense to follow the GBPAUD or the USDMXN or whatever because he's already controlled any chance of overtrading. So it suits him to watch a ton of charts. I would say if you are watching daily and weekly price action only then it also suits to watch a ton of charts because you are learning the material and looking at a chart once a day. Load up as many as you can I say.

But if you start to get into the way a pair moves like Rac and if, like him, you spend some time annotating a chart or watching the correlations and really getting in depth into a pair looking for how it moves....well then you really aren't going to be able to do that on many pairs. So then Joel's advice is more in line with what you should be doing.

The number of charts you should watch is dependent on how you like to trade.

Personally I do a mixture of both. I watch dailies and weeklies on a ton of pairs. I rarely see a trade I like, maybe one or two a month. That's it. So it takes me under 2 minutes to cycle through them at NY close.

Then intraday, whilst I still have all my charts tabbed, I am paying much more attention to the majors. And I do some work on those charts with trendline, fibs, and other stuff. Nothing too complex and magical but I want to know if I see an intraday pinbar directly off a level that has more than one weekly high/low off that level also.

A lot of this just comes with time and practice but unfortunately people try and jump in and do too much to quick (and even worse do it with real money) and boom....game over. The learning curve is like a snowbal rolling down a hill. It starts slowly but can really build up a head of steam if you take the recommendations and grow at your own pace. Heck, you'll even eventually be able to see what Rac is talking about.....

Last edited by TiaForex, Nov 30, 2009 7:39am
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  #48909  
Old Nov 30, 2009 9:26am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jspeakman View Post
Hi - still pondering this TF thing. As a newbie makes sense to trade dailies/weeklies but not seeing a really good trade more than once or twice a month across several pairs. Apparently this is to be expected. However, for demoing purposes doesn't give much opportunity to practice exits entries etc. So wondered if 4hr for practice is worth a try?

Thanks

JS
I know it seems counter intuitive. After all, the reasoning goes, if you don't trade then how can you learn. But I really do believe that what I learnt by not even looking at the 4H for a good few months, was patience. The most valuable skill you can learn IMO is passing on trades and waiting for the market to come to you. It's a really dangerous mindset to think that there is a trade 'out there' if you just look hard enough. And that is what i think jumping down too early can give you.

Why not try it this way: widen the instruments you watch. Get fxpro for demo and watch daily and weekly on currencies, futures, indices, stocks.....get a feel for how the markets work. You'll be watching as many as a hundred charts a day. That's plenty of opportunities and plenty of time to watch. OR maybe try getting a program like forextester and backtesting old market data.

There is nothing wrong per se with doing anything on demo. After all, it's demo, so you can trade the 5M if you like. But I think it can lead to the single biggest trap for new dedicated traders which is becoming overwhelmed. Build it up slowly and you get to the finish line quicker IMO.

And just to chip in on my 4H experience. I trade the 4H live. And last month I think I took 3 trades on that TF. Which is a lot of watching without trading. Watching without trading gets you to profitability quicker than anything else IMO.
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  #48903  
Old Nov 30, 2009 7:27am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by joelcf View Post
Its more just something to be aware of - if you load up yen on every JPY cross you can find, and then the BoJ comes out with some bad news, you are gonna have a bad day.

(and this is strictly IMO, many people dont agree, including Mike, who you should all listen to).

Just to clarify, Mike is in absolute agreement with you on this one (as am I).

Like Joel says, the yen pairs almost always move as one and taking all the yen pinbars you can eat is essentially on great big mammoth trade on the yen. If the signals are super A+ then I sometimes take 2. But then I only risk 1% per trade so I am never that exposed. If I went for 2% risk then there's no way I'd allow a 4% bet on the yen.

Do you use a dedicated futures broker Joel, or a one stop shop like IB? And do you find there is anything extra nuances you need to know in terms of margin requirements, position sizing, gaps etc when it comes to futures?(beyond obviously, the easily google-able info that I have already accumulated)

Edited to add:

Scanning back it seems I missed a post or two that makes my post completely superfluous. Never mind. Won't be the first time....

This thing about watching a ton of charts.....one of the thing that gets forgotten is that it all depends on how you trade. Mike watches for very specific things that are easily identifiable. He doesn't spend ages plotting out trendlines and fibs and the like on a chart. He likes to open it, see if there's a trade and then close it. For his style of trading it makes sense to follow the GBPAUD or the USDMXN or whatever because he's already controlled any chance of overtrading. So it suits him to watch a ton of charts. I would say if you are watching daily and weekly price action only then it also suits to watch a ton of charts because you are learning the material and looking at a chart once a day. Load up as many as you can I say.

But if you start to get into the way a pair moves like Rac and if, like him, you spend some time annotating a chart or watching the correlations and really getting in depth into a pair looking for how it moves....well then you really aren't going to be able to do that on many pairs. So then Joel's advice is more in line with what you should be doing.

The number of charts you should watch is dependent on how you like to trade.

Personally I do a mixture of both. I watch dailies and weeklies on a ton of pairs. I rarely see a trade I like, maybe one or two a month. That's it. So it takes me under 2 minutes to cycle through them at NY close.

Then intraday, whilst I still have all my charts tabbed, I am paying much more attention to the majors. And I do some work on those charts with trendline, fibs, and other stuff. Nothing too complex and magical but I want to know if I see an intraday pinbar directly off a level that has more than one weekly high/low off that level also.

A lot of this just comes with time and practice but unfortunately people try and jump in and do too much to quick (and even worse do it with real money) and boom....game over. The learning curve is like a snowbal rolling down a hill. It starts slowly but can really build up a head of steam if you take the recommendations and grow at your own pace. Heck, you'll even eventually be able to see what Rac is talking about.....

Last edited by TiaForex, Nov 30, 2009 7:39am
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  #48909  
Old Nov 30, 2009 9:26am
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jspeakman View Post
Hi - still pondering this TF thing. As a newbie makes sense to trade dailies/weeklies but not seeing a really good trade more than once or twice a month across several pairs. Apparently this is to be expected. However, for demoing purposes doesn't give much opportunity to practice exits entries etc. So wondered if 4hr for practice is worth a try?

Thanks

JS
I know it seems counter intuitive. After all, the reasoning goes, if you don't trade then how can you learn. But I really do believe that what I learnt by not even looking at the 4H for a good few months, was patience. The most valuable skill you can learn IMO is passing on trades and waiting for the market to come to you. It's a really dangerous mindset to think that there is a trade 'out there' if you just look hard enough. And that is what i think jumping down too early can give you.

Why not try it this way: widen the instruments you watch. Get fxpro for demo and watch daily and weekly on currencies, futures, indices, stocks.....get a feel for how the markets work. You'll be watching as many as a hundred charts a day. That's plenty of opportunities and plenty of time to watch. OR maybe try getting a program like forextester and backtesting old market data.

There is nothing wrong per se with doing anything on demo. After all, it's demo, so you can trade the 5M if you like. But I think it can lead to the single biggest trap for new dedicated traders which is becoming overwhelmed. Build it up slowly and you get to the finish line quicker IMO.

And just to chip in on my 4H experience. I trade the 4H live. And last month I think I took 3 trades on that TF. Which is a lot of watching without trading. Watching without trading gets you to profitability quicker than anything else IMO.
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  #48935  
Old Nov 30, 2009 1:42pm
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Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Good day on the thread and great to see so many success stories.

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  #48935  
Old Nov 30, 2009 1:42pm
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Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
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Good day on the thread and great to see so many success stories.

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  #48970  
Old Nov 30, 2009 6:49pm
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Joel my man, thank you. That's a nice succinct answer.

I have Schwager on futures and it's been a fun flick through. As have the Murphy books. Although if anyone is new both those books will get you bogged don in indicator garbage. The Murphy was my encyclopedia for questions like "What is divergence?" These days I use the Murphy and Joel....both equally good...

I'm probably going to get into futures next year. I am cautious with new markets just because I like to really get under the skin of what I am doing and forex still has a lot of challenges for me before I can feel consistent and comfortable. I also used to be like a dog chasing cars when it came to anything "new" in this business. Whenever I hit a brick wall, rather than waiting for everything to fall into place, I'd jump to something new. Then I read about system hopping. And then I felt like a fool...

When I get me my tradestation though I am definitely going to build in a nice weekend routine of scanning these markets on weekly at least.

Actually screw that, where's that orange juice futures one minute chart. Baby needs a new pair of shoes...
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  #48970  
Old Nov 30, 2009 6:49pm
Grateful to Merlin, Jim and Fudd :)
 
Member Since Jun 2008
More than 10 Vouchers  619 Posts
Default

Joel my man, thank you. That's a nice succinct answer.

I have Schwager on futures and it's been a fun flick through. As have the Murphy books. Although if anyone is new both those books will get you bogged don in indicator garbage. The Murphy was my encyclopedia for questions like "What is divergence?" These days I use the Murphy and Joel....both equally good...

I'm probably going to get into futures next year. I am cautious with new markets just because I like to really get under the skin of what I am doing and forex still has a lot of challenges for me before I can feel consistent and comfortable. I also used to be like a dog chasing cars when it came to anything "new" in this business. Whenever I hit a brick wall, rather than waiting for everything to fall into place, I'd jump to something new. Then I read about system hopping. And then I felt like a fool...

When I get me my tradestation though I am definitely going to build in a nice weekend routine of scanning these markets on weekly at least.

Actually screw that, where's that orange juice futures one minute chart. Baby needs a new pair of shoes...
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  #49496  
Old Dec 9, 2009 4:52pm
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Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
Hey Pip

This throws people initially. But here is my outlook. Firstly price is still price. That is every movement is still happening across the board. The only difference is how those price ticks are aggregated for us visually. This is why location as LVG said, trumps everything. I always like to see the price bars are the trigger points more then anything.


Best
Mike
The way I like to think of it in my head is to see us all as conservative touch traders, meaning we are constantly scouting out the best locations for a "touch trade" but then looking for price action as a trigger. Of course I don't actually trade touches if you see what I mean, but it helps me mentally prioritise location over the individual bar.

Whatever the timeframe I can usually see an area where I would want to see price action. It's either a double bottom, a trendline, a fib retrace or a 50% retrace, a PPZ or better still, some combination of all those. And then at that level I look for signs that price is going to respect it and not break through. That sign is expressed as a price action bar. Then I look to other similar areas for targets.

This always stops me from taking a great bar in the middle of nowhere. Location first, bar second IMO.
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  #49502  
Old Dec 9, 2009 7:17pm
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I personally have one 19 inch screen and a 5 year old PC. It's not the fastest but it runs MT4 plenty fast for trading. Eventually I will graduate to 5-6 screens and a faster PC but I have this weird superstition about wanting to have made a set amount before I reinvest profits in my trading business. For now this setup is fine and hasn't impeded my trading at all.
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  #49496  
Old Dec 9, 2009 4:52pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
Hey Pip

This throws people initially. But here is my outlook. Firstly price is still price. That is every movement is still happening across the board. The only difference is how those price ticks are aggregated for us visually. This is why location as LVG said, trumps everything. I always like to see the price bars are the trigger points more then anything.


Best
Mike
The way I like to think of it in my head is to see us all as conservative touch traders, meaning we are constantly scouting out the best locations for a "touch trade" but then looking for price action as a trigger. Of course I don't actually trade touches if you see what I mean, but it helps me mentally prioritise location over the individual bar.

Whatever the timeframe I can usually see an area where I would want to see price action. It's either a double bottom, a trendline, a fib retrace or a 50% retrace, a PPZ or better still, some combination of all those. And then at that level I look for signs that price is going to respect it and not break through. That sign is expressed as a price action bar. Then I look to other similar areas for targets.

This always stops me from taking a great bar in the middle of nowhere. Location first, bar second IMO.
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  #49502  
Old Dec 9, 2009 7:17pm
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I personally have one 19 inch screen and a 5 year old PC. It's not the fastest but it runs MT4 plenty fast for trading. Eventually I will graduate to 5-6 screens and a faster PC but I have this weird superstition about wanting to have made a set amount before I reinvest profits in my trading business. For now this setup is fine and hasn't impeded my trading at all.
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  #49630  
Old Dec 11, 2009 8:05pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
markets have been very choppy if you ask me(aside from a few pairs). This is still my only trade thus far this month and I am going to hold it and see how next week shapes up. I guess it was a good time to catch the flu since I don't need to be in front of the charts with these markets.
I agree, and although I didn't get the flu, it wasn't a bad time to be on vacation either...

I missed the gold trade because of vacation but there is a slightly choppy pre-Christmas feel out there. The good bets seem to have been on dollar strength and there were some opportunities while I was away with EU. But now I'll just wait. If this is the trend change, then there will be a ton of pullbacks along the way. No need to sell the top.

Rest well Mike...
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  #49631  
Old Dec 11, 2009 8:15pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluetrader View Post
Now that trading is closed, I have an off topic question for those of you that have Forex Tester.

Is it worth getting or do you find it hard to mentally take it seriously? I'm still debating it, but it looks like they're having a special (25% off) for the next 2 weeks.

Looks amazing.

Thanks.

-- Danny
I have really enjoyed using forextester. It's easy to use and has a stack of tools. In terms of taking it seriously, I thought about trading a live account for pennies for that reason. But a wise old trading psychology teacher said "If you can't beat your ego on demo/backtest then there's no way you can do it live"

So my view is that if I hard to take demo/backtesting seriously then that is a flaw that I need to work on otherwise a live account will expose that flaw.

The great thing about forextester is when I get an idea that might be the kernel of a profitable system, I can run through 500 trades in a weekend to see if it works. That is very very useful and saves a lot of time.

Hope that helps.

Aaron
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  #49630  
Old Dec 11, 2009 8:05pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
markets have been very choppy if you ask me(aside from a few pairs). This is still my only trade thus far this month and I am going to hold it and see how next week shapes up. I guess it was a good time to catch the flu since I don't need to be in front of the charts with these markets.
I agree, and although I didn't get the flu, it wasn't a bad time to be on vacation either...

I missed the gold trade because of vacation but there is a slightly choppy pre-Christmas feel out there. The good bets seem to have been on dollar strength and there were some opportunities while I was away with EU. But now I'll just wait. If this is the trend change, then there will be a ton of pullbacks along the way. No need to sell the top.

Rest well Mike...
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  #49631  
Old Dec 11, 2009 8:15pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bluetrader View Post
Now that trading is closed, I have an off topic question for those of you that have Forex Tester.

Is it worth getting or do you find it hard to mentally take it seriously? I'm still debating it, but it looks like they're having a special (25% off) for the next 2 weeks.

Looks amazing.

Thanks.

-- Danny
I have really enjoyed using forextester. It's easy to use and has a stack of tools. In terms of taking it seriously, I thought about trading a live account for pennies for that reason. But a wise old trading psychology teacher said "If you can't beat your ego on demo/backtest then there's no way you can do it live"

So my view is that if I hard to take demo/backtesting seriously then that is a flaw that I need to work on otherwise a live account will expose that flaw.

The great thing about forextester is when I get an idea that might be the kernel of a profitable system, I can run through 500 trades in a weekend to see if it works. That is very very useful and saves a lot of time.

Hope that helps.

Aaron
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  #49721  
Old Dec 14, 2009 6:56pm
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It'd be a shame if that UCAD breaks between Christmas and New Year....because it sure is purdy.

But this low liquidity choppiness is giving me a headache.... And making me distrust any price action that does appear.

Ah well, we get paid to wait.
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  #49774  
Old Dec 15, 2009 10:01pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by james16 View Post
CHARTS
Nice to see you posting Jim. Your charts always bring home the simplicity of this business to me, especially when a common sense approach is taken.

I am reminded of an interview with a guy who invested a small amount with Warren Buffet back when Buffet was a 20 something. The guy of course became filthy rich and went to thank Buffet. He said "You really made my life Warren". Buffet replied "I didn't do it. You did. You were the one who didn't sell"

Looking at that UCAD chart reminded me of that. A few trades a year and sitting tight and adding in....

A Jim chart always makes my day.
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  #49775  
Old Dec 15, 2009 10:15pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by atclarkson View Post
james- how come/ how would one would stay in the UC trade even during the 500 and 1000 pip pullbacks? It seems as if you would be giving back so much if it were not to return. (Esp since it retraced nearly half the move) Regardless, amazing catch

Don't mind my newbieness if this is an obvious answer lol


Also.. question on IBs. Where do you enter? Break of 1st bar, break of 2nd bar, or a retracement of some sort?

Thanks
I'm not Jim but in answer to the first question, I would say that everything in trading is a trade-off. If you decide you're a big trend trader, you know you're always going to give back a chunk at the end. You won't catch the very bottom. So you get used to giving a lot back and hoping for a big runner, hiding your stops behind SR as you move down. I think Jim himself wouldn't have ridden the whole move. He takes partial profit early and then is out fully sooner.

If you trade in the way that would capture the whole move, then you're going to have to resign yourself to a lot of trades that move big and then stop you at break even. But that's the trade off.

If you trade with reduced stops, maybe half the bar, then you're going to have to resign yourself to the ones that break your stop and then turn around and become winners. That's the trade off there.

Each strategy has an up and downside. Where people drive themselves mad, in my opinion, is chopping and changing between approaches. It's okay to have a discretionary approach after a little experience, but at the beginning it'll have you tearing your hair out. You simple can't tell which ones will run and which ones won't.

I also think the genius of Jim's approach to trade management, if you decide to go that route, is that he gets to break even super quick, thus rarely allowing a loss, but then with his management he allows them a little room to run by hiding his stops behind PPZs. That way he tries to squeeze more out of the ones that do run.

Ultimately management style comes down to individual comfort level and is the most painful part of the learning curve IMO, because it comes down to experience. You're only going to know what you're comfortable with over time.

Hope that helps.

Aaron
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  #49778  
Old Dec 15, 2009 10:35pm
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That last reply I wrote got me thinking about something that's been on my mind a bit lately but it was a little off the topic of what atclarkson wrote so I thought I'd just add a footnote here.

I read something once that the great Darkstar posted. It made no sense to me at the time. He said that the biggest mistake people make is thinking that trading is a science not an art. Jim then said something similar on a webinar of his. It haunted me and only now am I beginning to realise what it means.

What I wanted when I started was the reassurance of figures, statistics and probabilities. I wanted rules. I wanted "see a 4h pinbar at the 150EMA, pull the trigger". What I hated was when my trade failed and a senior said "well given the weekly trend I wouldn't have done that". Because I wanted a system with quantifiable rules that could be operated by a robot. I wanted it to be a science.

It's just not.

Trading to me now is more of an art. I look at the timeframes from the monthly down and try to get a sense of each pair. I want to take in all the information, nothing too fancy just the obvious stuff, but nonetheless get a full picture. And then look for oportunities based on that. But everything now is situational. I am not looking for the one visual setup where I will pull the trigger again and again.

I like pinbars off the 365 and the 150. I like big round numbers. I like price action at double tops with divergence. But ask me if I will pull the trigger on any of these setups and I will say "it depends". I used to get so frustrated in the early days. I'd say "wait a minute jim, you said look for good bars and then this chart shows a mediocre bar. how on earth did you know that'd work out?". And the truthful answer is, he took the whole picture into account. Sometimes the bar is less than perfect but the other factors align to make it a good trade. It seems to me to be about adding up the pieces and making an informed decision. Letting the price action tell me a story.

Now I am very new on this path and this is only just becoming clearer to me. So I don't speak as any kind of expert. But this is the single thing I am most grateful for in my trading education. And it only came with time and practice. Once the bigger picture starts to resonate more in your mind you'll find it's less about "see pinbar trade pinbar" and more about waiting for the price action appear where you want it to appear.

It really is neat how time and practice lift the veil gradually. Rac once said you get better at this over time if you keep doing this. Jim said you learn the game by playing the game. Where most people sadly fail is betting too big too soon and then blowing themselves out of the water before they have a chance to learn and grow. The learning curve is always longer than you think it's going to be. The seniors make it look easy and it is. But getting to that place where everything seems easy is hard. However long you think i's gig to take, allow for longer. But man, it is so worth allowing for that time. No matter where you are in the world, no matter how much money you have, learning this skill and getting good at it can change your life. As long as you don't put undue pressure on yourself too early by trying to live off your forex income before your skill level or account size justifies it. But a the simple ability to pull in a few percent a month of profit can transform your life in ways I guarantee you will be unable to comprehend right now.
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  #49779  
Old Dec 15, 2009 10:36pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tyler812 View Post
pun intended?
Alas no. I just noticed that. Bad writing on my part....lol
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  #49843  
Old Dec 16, 2009 12:40pm
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Originally Posted by benji533 View Post
This is the second thing you must not do....it's offered first hand in rac's posts..I'm just a junior (also seriously )..
I second this. Do what I did, paste all of Rac's posts into a word file, take it to the printers and have them print it out and bind it.

Then read and note, again and again.

I did it for James16 and for Rac. (I didn't do it for Mike because the first thing I did with this thread was read all his posts 5 or 6 times). It's great to have a physical copy to carry around with you (it runs to many volumes, trust me... )

FOMC ahoy! And anti-GBP bars printing too. It's going to be an interesting 24 hours.
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  #49845  
Old Dec 16, 2009 12:50pm
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Originally Posted by KissFan View Post
Thanks Mike. If this ends up a daily pin waddya think? Are we gonna be ridin' the same train?

K.I.S.S.
You and I are riding the same train already Roger. 1H BEOB at a big round, 4H pin and the daily 150 almost to the pip. Seems to be some anti pound action building up finally.

I shorted GU too early and paid for it today but now there's a beauty of a bearish outside bar off the 1H 150 that is playing out nicely.

And the GBPAUD 4H pinbar with hidden divergence at a double top that printed 45 minutes ago was another beauty.

Of course three trades is a huge exposure to one currency especially with FOMC coming so I hugely scaled back my position size accordingly. Don't like to get too exposed (all three trades add up to less than 1% risk). And I want to save a little firepower for EU setups in the wake of FOMC.

First day in a while that I've been able to be at my computer all day marking out charts and plotting PPZs. That's why I've been posting up a storm too....

Here's to that GBPCHF runner Rog!
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  #49850  
Old Dec 16, 2009 2:00pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by raczekfx View Post
you like jumping the gun, don't you...
Oh, you young bloods....
give you S&W, you ask for tavor, give you the tavor you ask for merkava..
.
I just googled tavor and merkava and laughed out loud.
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  #49899  
Old Dec 16, 2009 8:02pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by james16 View Post
another masterpiece by the "english" actor.
I just noticed this and it made me laugh. (Jim says that by the way I talk he swears I'm from Texas, he can't believe I am English....lol)

That's right Jim. I am Bill from down the road. I told ya that time that I'd get ya good didn't I? Who's laughing now?

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  #49948  
Old Dec 17, 2009 7:35am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KissFan View Post
Moved to BE.

K.I.S.S.
Unfortunately I got shaken out of that one (my stop was too tight on the nose of the bar). One of those days when I was glad my risk was reduced. It was also one of those days when most things I planned for didn't work, or stopped me out then went on to work. It's like Paul Tudor Jones says, and Bemac echoed yesterday.... I will be wrong. A lot. They key is a system that allows me to be wrong a lot and still be profitable. Which is, thanks to the J16 posse, what I have. I never like to be wrong, but learning to be okay with being wrong is a key part of being a trader IMO.
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  #49989  
Old Dec 17, 2009 10:40am
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Originally Posted by dobe_r_man View Post

Mike, how did you get so smart?
Time, practice and experience. And there are no shortcuts, as I have found painfully.

It's amazing what accrued chart time will do. Of course there are the exceptions, people who struggle in the wilderness for years too stubborn to see what they are doing wrong. But in finding this thread and James, we truly have found our way to something that is BS free. Now add to that a few years of chart time, and you are looking at being in the same place Mike is. Or Rac. Or Jim himself.
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  #49995  
Old Dec 17, 2009 10:58am
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Originally Posted by dobe_r_man View Post
I am curious if any other live traders go through these emotions. Psychology in my opinion is what pushed me into profitable trading in the first place from break-even.

It is a battle I face everyday, though the longer I do it the more it becomes natural and almost a habit. Despite all the pundits regarding TA and support/resistance, I believe charts simply show the emotions of the traders reflected in price action. It is not a science, never will be and simply takes time at the charts. Jim mentioned years of watching charts and then getting...
I've experienced all this and more. You describe it so well I can almost taste it. The feeling when you are actually successful and you think "why do I feel scared or tentative?" I think it's partly to do with what Nelson Mandela once said about "it is not our darkness that scares us but our light" or as Michaelangelo put it "the greater danger is not that our goals are set too high and we will not reach them, but that they are set too low and we will". Or to be much simpler about it, fear of success.

We've all dreamed, played with our compound interest calculators, gazed at pictures of the material things we want. And trading more than anything else I know can provide us with that. When we have mastered it and are consistently profitable then trading can also get very easy. Takes a while to get there, I'm not there yet, but I've studied enough traders to know it's true. So I think it's perfectly feasible that a little success can be scary.

Some people say that to be a trader you have to be ice cold, win or lose. I don't think this is the case. You'll always have emotions. Look for the video of Paul Tudor Jones the day he lost 6%. He doesn't say much but the camera catches him as the news comes in, and it's so revealing. He is utterly torn up. But I think being a good trader involves managing the emotions as they appear and trading in spite of them.

It's a simple mental shift but a powerful one. So when you lose and you feel bad, you don't think "darn I shouldn't be feeling bad. a good trader is unemotional" but rather "okay here is emotion. I know that when this happens I don't revenge trade and I also don't get tentative. I just continue with my plan and also take the steps I know I need to to alleviate this emotional state" In my case this would be meditation, taking a walk, sharing what happened with a friend etc.

That way you don't make yourself wrong for going through the ups and downs but you treat it like getting the flu. Rest up and take meds. You don't blame yourself for getting sick because you don't have the expectation that you will never get sick. But you do have a responsibility to manage it well. It isn't your fault to get the flu, but go swimming in a cold lake with the flu and you are almost certainly to blame for what happens next.

The only other point I want to make regarding emotion is that in the early days of trading everything seems magnified because the individual trade is such an important part of your overall trading. If you've taken twenty trades, one good or bad trade is 5% of your total trades taken. If you've taken 10,000 then it's only 0.01% of your trades taken. Which is another way of saying that with time and experience comes a wise old "I've seen it all" attitude.

And the great thing is, time and experience come to all of us who stick at this and utilize a common sense approach. We're all getting there if you just stick around long enough.
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  #49997  
Old Dec 17, 2009 11:03am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
as Jim always says, what is stopping most people is what is in between their ears.

It is the truth....
Man this is so true and put more succinctly than I did.

If we don't learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them. First we identify whether there was a mistake and if so what it was (easier said than done, there's a tendency in the early days to view every loser as a mistake. It's an important part of the curve to accept that losers will happen IMO). And then after that to have the self awareness to know what we were doing wrong, and then the courage to make the changes necessary to prevent it happening again.

It comes down to, as Reinhold Niebuhr put it, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
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  #50130  
Old Dec 20, 2009 9:38am
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Ghous, you are preaching it loud and clear brother! That fragile moment after a little success. So true.

I had my ass handed to me in the last week and a half of trading. I had had my best two weeks ever, through discipline and patience. And then I got confident, cocky and sloppy. I followed tips, I broke my rules. And I pretty much gave everything back.

Ouch.

Ghous you outlined the process so clearly. We all focus on learning the material because that's where the energy goes when we come in. And then after a while we get good, and we start to post charts that have people clapping their hands etc. We advance to the next stage by learning.

And this is where I have experience of hitting problems, Ghous too by the sound of things. Rather than sitting back and saying "okay, now rinse and repeat" we start learning the next thing, because after all learning got us here in the first place didn't it. So we all jump down timeframes, we're all over Rac's amazing work, we touch trade. And then we of course blow ourselves out of the water. Or worse, we succeed. And then we're juggling all these plates and we're a blowup waiting to happen.

It's a gear change really. Which is that after learning learning learning, when we know something works we just need to sit there and let it work for a few months before learning anything new. But then the voice comes in "well seeing as I am just sitting here waiting for the setups to appear, I could take the time to read and learn more". I've learned the hard the way that this is a dangerous route to take because then suddenly before I know it the focus goes to some glitzy new method. And I am off balance. This is Jim's genius in asking us to start on the dailies and weeklies first. He wants us to learn how to wait. He wants us to learn how to do nothing.

The most dangerous feeling I have known in my trading is the feeling that if I just look hard enough there is money in the market every day. I'm not saying seniors can't do that. But that feeling for me at my stage of learning is lethal. Makes me force trades rather than wait for the market to come to me.

Mike once said "If there is one thing I want to teach you guys it is to let the market come to you rather than be out there looking for trades" When the markets are trending strongly this is so tempting. "Hey I'll sell the Euro, why not it's tanking". But it can be lethal. I know, believe me.

Rustyjeff is one of my heroes. Hands up who glazed over, even slightly, when he posted recently about sticking to the dailies? It just isn't as exciting as seeing one of Rac's genius charts is it? But believe me it's where the money is. If you don't believe me, just compare your last month's results to Jeff's with those two daily trades alone. (I calculate them to be 8-10R in total).

We just don't want to hear the message. And I'm not lecturing, I just speak as someone who falls into this trap more often than I'd like. The dailies aren't just a kindergarten for traders who wait 1 month for an A+++ trade. There are ways of trading those dailies that can yield huge results. In fact I think it's fair to say that a lot of Rac's trading is daily/weekly based. Then he drills down for a trigger.

I feel like I am not quite expressing myself as clearly as I'd like so go back and read what Ghous said.... It is amazing how the learning curve seems to have the same stages for all of us. And I'm at the same place as you Ghous. Keep it simple, pull back and just sit patiently and let it play out.

Last edited by TiaForex, Dec 20, 2009 10:04am
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  #50174  
Old Dec 21, 2009 9:26am
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What a great post Cyrus. Truly. It's amazing how we all go through the same things. Almost word for word.

Mike has been saying the same things to me pretty much as I talked with him about my current stumble.

It's only trading.

Now that's so tough to hear but partly what brings me to this level of the curve is work. Practice and dedication. Time studying, time demoing, time listening to webinars, time reading....work work and more work. I was damn proud too.

Now I need to turn that whole ethic around, have fun, relax, kick back and concentrate on the fun. I have a friend who has the same issues with work and he asked me once for help. The solution I came up with was "Think of solutions that don't involve more work" because his solutions to his problems were often "Read more this, study more that" etc. All the noble stuff that had got him there in the first place.

We teach what we need to hear, right? I know that every time I put finger to keyboard on here what I am doing is sort of being my own coach, putting into words what is floating round in my head. It really helps me.

When I think of the wealthy people I really admire, they are the ones who make this whole enterprise fun. The ones who treat it like a huge game. I am an actor by trade, and the path to success there is a combination of responsibility and work combined with playing like a kid in a sandpit.

I like your point Cyrus about looking at the big picture, the long haul. It's similar to what Mike said to me. Trying to force things is what has made me stumble recently. I set myself goals and targets which were actually more of a hinderance than a help. Just allowing this to take as long as it takes, enjoy my life in the meantime and go "hey it's only trading" is where it's at as far as I am concerned.

I think that's easier if this is a sideline with a small account while you have a main job. But if it's a business with a business plan that you're dedicating yourself more or less full time to then it's harder. But no less necessary. I always used to think that if you opened a restaurant and threw yourself into making it a success it would be really hard to say "Hey if it fails, it fails" but then I noticed that my friends and family who were successful businessmen were the ones who said 'hey if it fails it fails'. I think the Bransons, Gates and Buffets of this world say the same thing too.

And I think you're spot on Cyrus, in trading it's essential. I've been doing pretty well. But what bugs me is that I haven't been consistent. Consistency is what I seek.

These psych slanted posts on the thread recently have been great. When I see RAc, rustyjeff, and Mike post one thing jumps out at me. They keep it very very simple. And they don't care about how anyone else trades.

Here's to that.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyrus View Post
Totally relate to tt Aaron. Went through a similar phase lately... thankfully I was cognizant enough to recognise I was off balance mentally and took out all that crap on demo. But it's annoying, cause it disturbed my psych...

Found the key to this though! (at least its working for me)

That aside, the other thing that's hindered me, is taking this too seriously and losing the enjoyment/satisfaction of playing the game.

A part of me still thinks its a tad silly, but psychologically, if u're taking it too seriously, man, it's difficult...
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  #50187  
Old Dec 21, 2009 12:42pm
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Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
very nice breakout pattern, just wish it wasn't dec 21 lol. Not going to open any new trades personally. Just letting the gold position play out


Mike
Agreed. I am going to sit on my hands until January 1st, then tread lightly until NFP on Jan 8th.

I am aching to short the Kiwi because of two monthly 'pins' but I will get my chance.

I WISH I was still in the 4H pinbar at the top. Sold that one but got out of it at the gap close. It was a beauty off the 7500 level with a gap to close. It would be running at 6R with potential to add on the way down.

That's my goal for next year. Look for more of these key swing point trades and hold them for longer. Don't get shaken out too soon and just let the trade work for me.

Last edited by TiaForex, Dec 21, 2009 2:48pm
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  #50200  
Old Dec 21, 2009 9:00pm
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Originally Posted by StoragePro View Post

One thing stands out starkly to me now is that there is no such thing as "Trading Psychology" as if it were something different from your day to day self.

Your *personal* Psychology is your Trading Psychology. There is no demarcation between who you are "normally" and who you are in front of a screen. Your personal blind spots and issues will show up in your trading - and kill you.
What a great post SP.

This, in a nutshell is what keeps me trading. The money helps of course, but I could do a lot of things for a paycheck. It's the fact that the market ruthlessly and relentlessly uncovers every character defect I have. In real life, I can bumble along in denial. In trading, well each one costs me money and pride, which is a painful price. So I better learn to conquer it if I want to improve.

So really.... I work on myself to work on my trading....and then I work on my trading to work on myself.

And I have long had exactly the same thought as you about "trading psychology" as a term. It's all just psych/personal development/self growth....whatever you want to call it. But that's it.

After a time in this business, and after learning the material (which doesn't take long), then the only thing that stands in my way is me.

Now go enjoy your vacation!
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  #50217  
Old Dec 22, 2009 6:07am
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Originally Posted by Cyrus View Post
Heya Tia,

Years back, (I'm making myself sound old. LOL) I listened to this interview with a pretty successful businessman, he said, "you can't want something too much. If not you end up paying 'wanting it' tax and that ends up screwing up your plan".

I think there's a portion where
(1) we have to work to understand the material.
(2) And then another portion where we customise the material to suit ourselves.
(3) Then the latter portion of internalising what we have customised.

(1) & (2) are similar in that "working" pays off....
Love this Cyrus. Thanks.
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  #50360  
Old Dec 24, 2009 7:19pm
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Merry Christmas to you all, and I wish you the very best for the year ahead in all areas of your life.

If you notice your hands trembling over Christmas dinner tomorrow, don't worry. That's just the shakes from withdrawing from the markets. They'll be open again soon enough....
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  #50556  
Old Dec 30, 2009 7:04pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbqb11 View Post
Here is what I look for. If this wasn't the last day before new years, I would sure be trading this one. Large BUOB engulfing a range of bars and a round number with a very strong close


Mike
Question regarding trade management for you Mike. As you say, it's all hypothetical because of time of year, but if this was a normal day and you took it, what would be your plan at that first trouble area in blue? Move to break even? or watch? Seems like an awfuly close first trouble area so I would be curious to know your thoughts.

And best wishes for the new year to everyone who reads and frequents this thread.
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  #51593  
Old Jan 14, 2010 8:40pm
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Originally Posted by jarroo View Post
Tell me you took this classic, A+, golden, GOLD Weekly PB, Mike.

This one was a rare Mike "yes" in my book.

Its good to be back brother.
You just identified Mike's only trade in December.....

Nice call.

It's great to have you back brother. Really great.

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