E3rc 

Thanks for the info @MiniP but could you point me in the direction of what trading definitions, you are referring to? I am not aware if that is just knowing up trends, down trends and sideways movements or what was provided from the Nine Transitions Glossary, where each move or structure is named. I agree whole heartily, with knowing these things before putting real money on the line. It is why I am here and am trying to get to an understanding and balance before I transition.

there are a million different terms that need to be known. basically anything that has to do with your instrument, tick/volume/regular trading hours/close/open/big/ask/spread/ margin/support/resistance/engulfing/bear/bull/doji/ the list goes on and on

the sites i used when i first started no longer have a list of all these terms, if i ever get my printer up and working I can scan in a few pages of the info i have

-P

Update on Learning
Did quite a bit of reading and watching over the weekend. I tried to read Nine Transitions, but it got confusing fast since it relies on short hand and not having the glossary open and having to check each short hand against it made it a much slower read. Once i got the short hand more memorized I will try again. My quest for more info did not end there. There was some YouTube stuff I thought was informational:
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC32oVb-nfyRBNlWzUw3dC5Q[/yt] [yt]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi9Cvyknuhl3HHYw7MBDVnA[/yt]

,
Yea a lot of info there to intake. Plus it seems like everyone has a training to buy. I am sure they are legit and I like the presentation of Wysetrade. It makes me think with the Market Replay function of Ninja Trader, I do wonder why I don't see someone show the market at work, then get to a trade area and then pause the action. Raise some questions and kind of show the viewer how it can unfold. Even with that, I know it still can be abused and only those perfect trades might be shown.

Then on this forum I read:

TEN-THOUSAND IN EDUCATION, FINALLY PAYING OFF After spending a small fortune and much sweat, it looks like my trading is turning around. Discarded most all conventional technical indicators and explored a new approach. Market Profile analysis. Which takes market data and places it inside a gaussian …

Beth's Journey to Make Her Millions Hi Thanks for visiting my thread! I sim-traded 2 amazing systems (created by The Wizard of the Holy Grail thread) in January. All trading mornings were green. I was quite aggressive trying to monitor 2 instruments (ES and YM) for the first 2 weeks. …

and started with

Big Mike's day trading method and advice Well this is a thread I've been meaning to create for a long time. It's not a journal of my trades. It's just a collection of thoughts. If you don't like them, then don't read them :) But the intention in posting to this thread …

What this means for me. I will stick with learning the ES with my current setup. Even with going back and forth, it seems like trying to find that perfect indicator is very subjective. Knowing what it is showing and what it means, seems to be the way to confirm an action before getting into a trade. To make my trades better, I will use price action as much as I know how.

Pre-Market
Market looks like it is already been in a downward trend. Seems to also be respecting the knowledge I have with slow MACD line. The Retacements are barb-wire fence (lots of test but no breaks, long wicks).
0912 observation, thrust below outer line possible sign of reversal.

How to read notes:

• Time
• Observations
• Action
• Result

Market Trading: Paper Trading /ES, using 1 contract size (2000 Tick Chart, Keltner(0, 2.25, 20), 3/10 Oscillator) with ThinkorSwim
Rule: Trades from channel lines or middle Keltner with trend, taking a position with 1 Tick Stop and 2 Tick Target

Trade test off movement - 1.75 (didn't work like I thought it would)

• 0942
• Possible opening reversal (OR). Trend is flattening and is tesing the middle line more, waiting for break of middle line and trendline. Respecting trendline, looking entry.
• Short @ 2635 - Filled
• Limit Filled +2 Points

• 0950
• Agressive downward movement, candles seem to shallow off. Going to another test of the middleline and trendline (slope of both match, odd). Broke Trend line but struggleing action wise, still down, LH and LL being made. Looking for trade on downward movement.
• Short @2630.00 - Filled
• Limit Filled +2 Points

• 0958
• Divergent peeks on MACD in relation to price movement. Movement above Middleline and trendline broke. Action to test trendline and possibly move back up. Looking for long.
• Long at @ 2629.00 - Filled
• Limit Filled + 2

• 1003
• Settle into consolodation. Testing low of 2626 set on Thursday, nice rejection and move uwards (Didn't see resitance level from chart I was viewing). 1009 Momentum shift and uptrend. Looking for trade off middle line test.
• Long @ 2631.25
• Limit Filled +1.75 (moved stop)

• 1030
• Consolodation area, testing trendline. Looking for long off trendline
• Long @ 2636.75 - Filled
• Stop Filled - 1

• 1038
• Test of middle line, looking for long.
• Long @ 2635.00 - Filled
• Trail Stop, price moved quick and placed stop 1 point below, eventually stopped out. + 3

Done for the Day $400 Profit, + 8 Points

Pre-Market
Looking very Bullish this morning, looks like it could continue as it looks very strong with test of the Middle Line being respected and shown in the Slow MACD line. Side note, not caring for how TOS trend lines snap to an area. I have that turned off, but it seems like I cannot adjust it. Need to start looking at NEWS a bit more so I don't get caught in a bad trade too.

How to read notes:

• Time
• Observations
• Action
• Result

Market Trading: Paper Trading /ES, using 1 contract size (2000 Tick Chart, Keltner(0, 2.25, 20), 3/10 Oscillator) with ThinkorSwim
Rule: Trades from channel lines or middle Keltner with trend, taking a position with 1 Tick Stop and 2 Tick Target

Testing buy limit, above current price (gets filled). Placing a Stop Order above price gets filled at that level. - 1

• 0932
• Testing support of high yesterday, looking for long.
• Buy @ 2543.75 - Filled
• Limit Filled +2

• 0935
• Loosing upward momentum, below middle line, broke support of trend line, moving below 0 on MACD. Retest trend line, looking for short.
• Short @2642.75 - Filled
• Limit Filled + 2

• 0948
• Losing upward movement, possible for price to come down, looking for short off bottom candle
• Stopped -1

• 0958
• Consolidating a quite a bit, looking at a new resistance level. Broke below and moving down, looking for long at middle line. Still shows upward movement.
• Closed Position -3

• 1010
• Strong Bear movement, looking for second entry for short. Action outside outer band (caution), thrust movements as well. Looking for Short off resistance.
• Stopped - 1

Dunno what I was thinking with my last few trades. Felt like I was just confusing myself with signals, thought it was up then goes down. Anyways -$250 loss for the day.

Okay, saw an entry that looked promising. 1218 In bull movement, creating an entry by touching the middle line, waiting for confirmation, placing stop limit above close of previous candle. Filled and close position at +3.25. -$75 for the day.

End of Day
I dabbled a bit more trying to use trades off support and resistance levels and managed to pull a nice +5 Point off the resistance side of the bull trend line, then trail stopped candle tops and re-entered at the EMA test and followed a +5.25. which allowed me after other failed attempts to at least end up green for trades, but a loss of about $22 in the account balance (too many trades, fees have to be paid). I saw the trade and entered before the movement, hence the stopped out price, but still saw potential then re-entered on the line. What gave me confidence was the Doji candle, seeing it fail to go higher, but also hit the other resistance line and return from that. Now, this is where it gets tricky for me, since I am watching going through Adam Grimes lessons. Was this an edge or randomness playing with my mind.

I have not forgotten, I do intend to on doing some trading. I am avoiding market replays and analysis till I can try today on replay. Which I believe I can do with Ninja Trader. So, hopefully it will be good and I can learn from today.

End of Day
I was not able to trade much in the afternoon hours, since I had other projects taking my attention. The time I did put in was enough to gain about +1.25 then a few minutes later lose -1.25, though all is not lost, I was able to read and watch some videos which got me thinking.

The one video kind of confirmed something I was thinking about with trading. You get used to seeing things and when you really understand the underlying fundamentals, that is basically where the magic happens. Things will click into place and trades will kind of reveal themselves. Another thing that got me thinking was the win ratio. It is something I see put out there and it seems that being good is about 60/40 and getting into 70/30 is tough. Then, I got to mental math some things, out of 10 trades, 7 will be good. So, if I keep with the good ratio and maintain a +2 Point win and -1 Point loss that means over all a 12 point win and a -4 point loss, over all a gain of 8 points. One thing I think I will add to my entries is that win/loss so I can have another data point. Guess it means I should really be using excel to track my trades. If that is the case, a test of copy/paste:

Header 1 Header 2 Header 3 Header 4
Data data data data
data data data data
data data data data
data data data data

Coder rant: Y 4 BB code tag [/table] no work...oui

//Ha! Even in code wrap it does not appear.
//Tags are BBcode, not HTML tags even though they use close to the same syntax.
//Code tag around the BBcode tag with the table still does not show, how odd. 

[table]
  [tr]
    [th]header 1[/th]
    [th]header 2[/th] 
    [th]header 3[/th]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]data[/td]
    [td]data[/td] 
    [td]data[/td]
  [/tr]
  [tr]
    [td]data[/td]
    [td]data[/td] 
    [td]data[/td]
  [/tr]
[/table]

Pre-Market
Scary looking trading this morning, watching the movement and a thrust to the upside happened, continues the trend. Possible correct to happen from the quick movement. High and low levels identified as well as other support areas. My guess is a sideways day. Gap down after open to, unsure if that affects this market or not.


How to read notes:

• Time
• Observations
• Action
• Result

Market Trading: Paper Trading /ES, using 1 contract size (2000 Tick Chart, Keltner(0, 2.25, 20), 3/10 Oscillator) with ThinkorSwim
Rule: Trades from channel lines or middle Keltner with trend, taking a position with 1 Tick Stop and 2 Tick Target

Testing buy limit, above current price (gets filled). Placing a Stop Order above price gets filled at that level. - 1

• 0935
• Looks like price action in up directions is slowing, looking for entry after Doji candle.
• Short Filled at 2705.00
• Limit Reached +2 points Win(1)

• 0942
• Upward Trend now, looking for first test of middle line.
• Long Filled at 2706.00
• Limit Reached +2 points Win(1)

• 0948
• Showing downward movement (over all looking like a range), (1000) thrust movements, USE STOP LOSS no exceptions. Tried to trade price action on 2nd red candle, reversed and hit stop loss.
• Stop -2 Win(0), Win (0)

• 1010
• Hitting High of overnight and looking for break through, movement slowed and reversed (not a rejection as no sudden change was noted. Looking for long at level.
• Long Filled @ 2710.75
• Limit Reached +2 Win (1)

• 1018
• Consolidating around the high, not moving much, indicators seem to put upwards (direction, MACD Slow), appears to be rolling over as well.
• Long at middle Line Filled and Stopped -1 Win(0),
• Looking for short for retest at middle line, indicating new direction. Filled and Stopped -1 Win(0)

• 1035 Showing some rebounds off resistance line, looking for long.
• Long Filled @ 2712.00 - Filled
• Limit Reached +2 Win (1)

• 1053
• Appear to be in a downward trend. Looking for trade off middle line.
• Short at 2706.50 - Filled
• Stopped -1 Win (0)
• Short at 2707.00 - Filled
• Stopped -1 - Win(0)

Done for the Day. +$87.50 - Win loss 40/60 - Pictures later.

I got a bit side tracked on Friday and didn't upload my chart. I did it again and took another trade after I said I was done, though I thought it looked like a good trade and was rewarded for that risk. It brought me out of my not so good for the day, to a better spot with a nice 3 Point win from a short entry.

Now onto more learning over the weekend. I get conflicted while trying to get better, while I load up a day on Ninja Trader to get more chart time, I wonder if I am trying to rush it or if I should just let it play out. My setup is picking a few days, set the time to 9:30 am EST and trade the opening bell. With the 2000 tick chart, I see movement but sometimes it just doesn't unfold fast enough and I will bump up the playback to about 3x or 5x playback and when I see the action do something I think I can trade with, I slow it down to normal speed and take the trade and sometimes I let everything unfold and let the ATM strategy work or I speed it up again. I know that is not how to market works, but the movement will do what I thought it would do, just not at the speed.

On a side note, when watching info about trading and such. The YouTube algorithm keeps offering up The Duomo Initiative, which I keep watching and get sucked in. The information speaks to me and there is sense there too. Though I am wary, another person on the web offering a course, though for the most part the psychological that is talked about gives me a lot of catharsis and not needing to buy a course to get an answer. I know it is there, and he does elude to it. The basics are given up freely and part of his technique is touched on. Oddly, watching this video reminded me a lot of Adam Grimes and his statistical analysis.

Pre-Market
Not really going anywhere this morning, ranged all night and looks like there is resistance at about the 2708 level. Keeping other observed levels from Friday at 2716 (high of Friday) and a low level at 2696.75 (respected level on Friday as well). Thinking it could be a choppy day.

How to read notes:

• Time
• Observations
• Action
• Result

Market Trading: Paper Trading /ES, using 1 contract size (2000 Tick Chart, Keltner(0, 2.25, 20), 3/10 Oscillator) with ThinkorSwim
Rule: Trades from channel lines or middle Keltner with trend, taking a position with 1 Tick Stop and 2 Tick Target
{info populates after a bit, and I update between saves}

• 0923
• 2026 Orders at 2702.75, think the markets knows something. Market taking profit or those waiting to enter? Joining the crowd, placed limit at price to see what happens. Chart is showing an area of resistance there too from earlier in the night.
• Long Filled
• Limit reached +2 Win(1)

• 0938
• Moving to the downside and into some consolidation, unable to make an moves. Looking more bearish. Looking for Short off EMA.
• Short @ 2701.75 - Filled
• Stopped -1 Win(0)

• 0948
• Very Messy opening reversal, should have taken the multiple attempts at trying to go below 2700.50 as a sign. Made a go to the upside. Looking at a possible long.
• Long @ 2704.00 - Filled
• Limit Reached +2 Win(1)

• 0952
• Looking at testing middle line, looking for long.
• Long @ 2703.75
• Closed Position -2.50 Win(0)

• 1002
• Ride the slide down, manually entry
• Short @ 2698.75
• Stopped -1 Win(0)
• (Follow up trade and Failed to log loss) Stopped -1 (0)

• 1014
• Movement reaching a possible top and could roll over, candles getting shorter. Going to try and catch it as it goes back up, looking at candles and momentum. Looking like my normal way of taking trades is not working. Not making HH or LL, new peaks are inside old range.

• 1056
• In upward trend, tested Middle line, looking to see if I can get a second entry off that test.
• Long Filled 2703.75
• Limit Reached + 2 Win(1)

• 1105
• Hit Resistance at 2708.50, going for a short off bottom candle.
• Short Filled @ 2707.25
• Stopped - 1 Win (0)

• 1118
• Broke resistance - looking for long off retest.
• Long @2708.25
• Limit Reached + 2 Win(1)

If the opportunity presents itself I will try and take a trade, nice long bull run though I am not sure how it will react to the resistance level I have marked as the high of Friday. Any who - +87.50 (win-loss 4/9, 44%)

End of Day
Looks like there was a nice long off that 2708 level. Other than that, a good bull day for sure. Think I am seeing things that aren't there when I enter some trades. Hopefully I will learn from these mistakes and that I can see better entries cause of them in the future.

Pre-Market
Looking bullish again today, marked the high of the overnight session and going to keep the level i have outlined at 2716, it also seemed to be an area of force for the previous day and is very close to the overnight low. Patience and discipline, are some things I will strive for today, letting the market tell me what is happening instead of anticipating it.

How to read notes:

• Time
• Observations
• Action
• Result

Market Trading: Paper Trading /ES, using 1 contract size (2000 Tick Chart, Keltner(0, 2.25, 20), 3/10 Oscillator) with ThinkorSwim
Rule: Trades from channel lines or middle Keltner with trend, taking a position with 1 Point Stop and 2 Point Target
{info populates after a bit, and I update between saves}

• 0932
• Broke high of the night, bars are testing the line, looking for long off level.
• Long @ 2729.00 - Filled
• Limit Reached +2 Win(1)

Doing side work while trading, mainly took trades that looked like they were going to bounce off middle Line and took a long off the Resistance Level. Here is the results

• Limit Reached +2 Win(1)
• Stopped -1 Win(0)
• Stopped -1 Win(0)
• Limit Reached +2 Win(1)
• Stopped -1 Win(0)

• 1038
• Moving in upward trend now and coming close to trend line created from the previous low. Looking for Long (2nd entry long?).
• Long @ 2732.25 - Filled
• Moved profit target to +1.75 (saw several bars top before my limit) - filled Win(1)

Done for the day +$237.50 profit (Win-loss of 4/7 57% accuracy)

Advice for taking notes - Opportunities taken from trades (Date Time, Asset, Entry and exit price, size of contract, account balance and P/L and more in video around 2:10 mark), Opportunities not executed (same as a taken entry except add it was not a real trade and explains why trade was not taken), and interesting scenarios (annotated screen shots that can be learned from)- credit from YouTube

End of Day
I think I need to spend more time really focusing on my trades, maybe get home and fire up Ninja Trader and seriously focus on the chart and looking for patterns and things that might stand out more. One thing that stood out to me was how price at times will test a line more than once, then just return the direction it was heading. I need to spend more time observing that to see if the chances of maintaining a direction being a better entry. The support levels that I was able to trade off gave me some confidence, but not sure how much trust I should really put in them. It was great it went my way and I scalped my profits. Also, it was odd to see I got all my trades in before a reversal. One of these days I will ride one down.

My risky behavior of trading and doing work and trading is what is making me think I should focus after my work. Though it kept my brain from really trying to hard to look for an entry. I saw spots that looked good and I took some that worked and some that did not, though trading against the trend is not a good idea.

Pre-Market
Looking like a possible range day, keeping the existing support/resistance levels I have, but adding one for overnight trading at 2725.25, the low of the night. The 2728 line seems to be still in play as possible support, but looks weak as a bear move just went right though it. but later in the night had the wicks touch it and later there was a close and open candle at that area. Another possible resistance level at 2738.50, though it could be weak as well since the high of yesterday was 2737.75.

Update:
Going to try something different and use some excel to track progress, borrowing some structure from the BMT sticky in this section of FIO. Each trade will be numbered and then a post later with the thinking behind each action will follow. Each log into my journal here is going to be updated throughout the day and should look something like this: Pre-market thoughts - Numbered trades - post excel at end of session - post of pictures between each trade. Gonna give this a whirl and see how it goes.

Trades:
1) (0931) Open bell, move continues to be bullish. Looking for second entry long now (wick hits the middle line twice). Performed an opening reversal, and looks like we are in a bearish movement. Now checking for a short and a restest off the middle line. Filled and stopped out.

2) Back above and in bullish territory, Test of Middle line, looking for second entry. Second Entry filled and stopped out.

3) Trying the Resistance line for trade, could be a respected area. Trade filled but not a strong rejection, looking for small profit 1 point.

4) Looking like a slight downward trend, price moved back to the middle line, looking for a retest with second bar to enter at. Limit at 2730.25, action touched but not filled, then 4th bar filled. Stop moved to resistance line. Going to trail stop bar tops.

5) 2725.25 Support slowed the bear move, broke out and continued. Prince seems to be having issues with the resistance level, taking trade. Filled and limit reached.

6) (1025 ) Movement now upward, kind of iffy looking now unsure if it will continue upwards. Looking more like a LH now with a return to he bearish movement. Touched support and moved off. Set long off top of high candle to take reversal? Trying and filled, momentum seems to want to move up, slow line crossing 0, EMA up and so is the middle line.

Daily Goal met - $350 Profit (win-loss 4/6, 66% win)



End of Day
In truth I am adding this on the next day, I started my photo editing and got called away then started goofing off. Though upon my initial reflection, I was looking at my first two trades and I realized I shouldn't have gone for them, it broke my concept of a good trade since they were entered off the EMA and not the Middle line. So I will do better tomorrow (today?!).