jayminho 

nice strategy. im into renko charts as well i keep one at 2 and other at 4 opened , the 4 renko helps me confirm some signals for the 2 renko, and vice versa.. sometimes when market is faster, i focus on renko 2 solely. i use linereg and hh/ll as entry points + the d3spotter indicator of the forum for divergences to confirm my entries. pretty much it. i will start a journal too, maybe some people have some insights..

Thanks, I love Renko charts also, simple once you get used to how they work. Please let me know where your thread is so I can follow

OK, here or the morning trades for Wednesday. Shortly after I posted yesterday my computer bit the dust and I spent last night and this morning getting things up and going again so I did not get any personal trades off today. By looking at price action I know how I would have done, I would have tried to take trades 1 and 2, and passed on trade 3 for the morning. I should have made my 2+ points, then at lunch I would be kicking myself for not getting 10 points. I always seem to feel that way on trend days, I know in the past I tried to make 4-7 point (and I could) in the mornings then I would give it and more back after lunch, so now I need to stop and walk away after I get some profit. But on days like today I cant help but feel, why couldn't I get more of the move.....

Tip This thread is part of our June iPad 2 contest! For all the details on the contest, visit this link: Big Mike Challenge 2 - Win a iPad 2 The previous Big Mike Challenge from March 2011 ( was a big success, so I am going to start a second one. The prize is an Apple iPad 2 (or equivalent cost if you want something else instead). Take note - this contest is about Teaching Trading Methods. … nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) members will vote for the winner at the end of June. Thanks for participating, @jwdixon!

Mike

Ok the Renko chart shows the two trades, then I posted two 350 tick charts for detail, I did miss several other trades while working and driving, but that's the way it goes, I did have orders waiting but they did not get filled. The nice thing about the ES is you don't have to watch it all night and day to get your trades, if you have 20-30 minuets you can usually get a trade off.....

As you can see I have added the IchiCloud indicator to both charts now, I have been following the 6E thread and I really like how this indicator works on the ES also, still testing it but visually I like it a lot!

Thanks cjbooth!!!!!

Here are the two fills I got today, I did have other orders placed but not filled. After missing so many in the morning I was a little more aggressive in the afternoon, which worked out because I only took 1 tick of heat which means I got filled! I will try and post some of my trading thoughts over the weekend, I want to go enjoy friday with the kids!

I didnt take the time to mark all the morning trades, my guess is by now if you are following you should be able to see the entries, KEEP IT SIMPLE, and then it is SIMPLE to know when to trade....

I did take a 1 contract trade pre-market for a win also, I dont do that much any more....also I only took 1 loss this week and that was only a 1 contract trade that was a mistake on my part, tapping the iPad wrong. and no trades on Monday or Wednesday due to "Tech" problems.....

any questions feel free to ask, have a great weekend!

Here are some of my thoughts on trading, this is from experience (some costly, “tuition” of learning to trade).


A little history on my trading, about 15 years ago I started with commodities trading off charts that came to me in the mail on Mondays, no online trading then. My best trade was a single coffee contract long ($750 margin) off a daily 1,2,3 bottom…..3 days later it was worth 19k, called the broker to sell it for me and the guy that took it to the other desk scalped me for 4K, needless to say I wasn’t happy. I was told, that was how it “worked”. This started me in the direction of day trading, I want to know right now where I am in the trade, I like getting in and out when and where I want! It took a few years for on line trading to make it possible for me to trade from home, but it is great, now I can do it from anywhere…..

Then came the education everyone talks about, I spent over 30K on everything you can think of to learn how to trade, some stuff OK, most you can get free if you know how to look or ASK. Also with the “training” came all the losses with me trying to follow someone else and all the ”fluff” on the charts. After a while I turned it all off, I mean all of it, people, rooms, indicators……and just watched the market.


If you get to the point where you are tired of losing and paying everyone else to learn to trade, that is when (I think) you become open to the thought that you CAN and WILL do it on your own, perhaps a few good ideas from others, a few tricks or things that WORK for you and your trading style. This took me a while to figure out on my own, that is the main reason I wanted to start this thread, perhaps I can give just one idea or trick or just save one person a few $$$$ in the process.

If I had to say the one thing that changed it for me it would be, KEEP IT SIMPLE. I know we have all heard it, but we don’t do it! We keep looking for the next indicator that will filter out that one loss a week….hehehe……I know because I did it for years, just look at your current chart, look at charts posted everywhere on the internet…..so much stuff you can’t see the price bars, not to mention you have to process 10-12 things before you make a trade, after you go down the 5 item check list and “rate” each indicator before you place that trade, but don’t forget you also have to know your exits and your profit targets..….by then…….YOU MISSED THE TRADE, if you are a “Day Trader”. I might be getting a little carried away but everyone knows what I mean, some of that is needed, but not most of it.



1 Screen time with the market you want to trade is most critical, you also need to figure out the time frame you like ( watching all day or make your money in 1-2 hours) and watch charts with that in mind so you get the feel for that market.


2 Next you need to find the time of day that works for you, I used to sit from pre market to well after the close watching 4 monitors, 3-4 markets, 50 indicators trying to "find" a trade when they were everywhere, I just could not see them, winning some, then giving it ALL and then some back by the end of the day, DON’T DO THAT, if you Win “call it” before you can give it back, if you LOOSE stop so you can trade the next day.

If you watch my trading for vary long you will find I tend to exit early way too often, that comes from losing too much money in the past and then when I get into a winning trade all I want is to get out because it is a profit. That is not really the best way to trade but that is my baggage and I am trying to work on it, you need to know your strengths and any baggage you have and work with them in your trading, if you try to change too much too fast you will lose, that is the biggest reason I like the ES, I can have 3-4 trades in 1-2 hours. I also trade the spot Forex and it kills me sometimes “watching” the bars build over what seems like hours to just get 5-10 pips sometimes. That is me, and I have had to learn to live with that, now I just fight the markets instead of the markets and ME…..sorry about some of the rambling and miss spellings,


That’s some of my story and I’m sticking to it…..

I want to give some credit to cjbooth for a great thread on trading the 6E, he started his awhile before the official start , I started following him and really liked how he uses the indicators on his charts. His thread prompted me to see if I could teach a little of what I have learned. He also uses 2 “time frames” to determine when to trade. I think you will find the people that make money trade that way, at least you are tipping the scale in your direction if you can make some rules and stick to it. He also has minimal indicators, they just SHOW him what he really already SEE’S, it also makes it easy to set exact rules for entering trades……his post on page5, #49 on the cloud indicator I think is great, as you know I have added it to my charts also for the time being. If you look at my charts with it added, you will see it shows you already what the 21 DC mean line has been already doing for me, it just gives a range for me to watch. If neither of these really work for you, find something that does but don’t keep adding and adding things to keep track of…..


I looked for a long time trying to find the right charts, for my trend chart I wanted it with as FEW bars as possible to do what I want….FIND A TREND….that way any indicator I do look at does not get skewed from extra noise (extra un-needed bars). I was also looking for charts that perhaps not every other trader was looking at, I want out with my profit when they are looking to get in…they can become my order flow….. ie: 5 min with the 21, 50, 100 EMA cross to find a trend. Last I needed to find a trend chart that fit MY trading style….fairly fast, scalping in nature, several opportunities for my trading hours…….


I tried them all, range tick, Renko, time, P&F and others, I think they all have something to offer, everyone just needs to find what fits them. The charts I use are not the end all, they just work for me now with current volatility…..I may have to scale them up or down in the future. This does not mean I will need to find the next SYSTEM to make money. When you know how a market moves, as things change a little ( which they always do), you can see/feel it, so you can just adjust your charts a little and you can VISUALLY SEE…. by looking back if they will work using YOUR trading rules that you ALREADY KNOW. I don’t think you need to pay a programmer good money to build your system and back test every input to the 10th degree to see if it will work, by that time the markets have changed just enough that now they don’t work. Remember the SCREEN TIME you put in can be the most important thing for SEEING if the slight changes will work for you and when you need to make slight adjustments. (Side note, I noticed another thread on setting up your different tick charts and I plan on seeing what he has to say to see if something can help me…)


That’s it for now, I will try to keep rambling to the weekend posts so you can skip them if you want. If something else comes to mind later I will post it….

Thanks

My goal with starting this thread is not to make 10-20 copy cat traders where we are all looking to get in and out at the same price point (I don’t want the competition). I want to just get across the point that you can take a few simple things, put them together in a way that you can make some money. I don’t care if it’s the DC channels, the cloud, or the red/green line with dots that plot when the whatever goes above/below whatever…..



I have been following about 5 of these contest threads, there seem to be some great traders with lots of good things to offer. I guess you just need to find something that works with you, save that $3-5 k you would have spent on some fancy system, take your family on vacation, come back with a clear mind and just do it for YOU. You won’t only have saved yourself some money in the long run, but your family will enjoy it more.


I like AZTrader’s thread on trading the CL, now I have not watched or traded the CL in real time in 4-5 years. Second I was curious if I could take my chart templates and put them on the CL….I did, it took 2 tries to find a trend chart and the first try I got OK/good results for my trading chart. REMEMBER those slight adjustments I was talking about earlier, the only thing I changed for this quick and dirty example was on the tick trading chart I increased the DC channels to 40 and 20 I think…….I did not need to go BUY some CL trading system, I did not need to learn 10 NEW RULES, I don’t need to add 3-5 additional indicators to weed out the bad trades……WHAT I need to do is watch in real time, perhaps another fine tune on the charts, find the Time of day to trade and trade the rules I ALREADY KNOW….If I was not careful I someone could switch up my charts, and on the iPad I might not even know the difference. I don’t want this to sound over simplified but don’t make trading harder than it needs to be, sorry if you are one of those people that make money selling and teaching, but I couldn’t “Sell” my system, It’s not complicated enough to keep you coming back for more training…lol….been there and done that, I KNOW!


Now don’t take these CL charts and start trading them on Monday, I have not taken the time to do the fine tuning that is needed for any market or time frame you want you to trade, this is just a fast example to show you what is possible, if a market is liquid, they should move with about the same “Herd” mentality. You want to get in before the herd does and be looking to get out when they are all trying to get in….. you should be able to take your rules (The ones you ALREADY KNOW) and apply them to anything and make money, it doesn’t matter if its Apple, goog, gold, silver, soy beans, ES, eur or the yen…..Does anyone need to trade that many markets? I would guess most could not do it vary well, but anyone can find 1-2 markets that “FIT” them and make a living, with a little work, not months or years and thousands of dollars…..


Don’t be afraid to ask the people that that you relate to method wise for advice or help but please fine tune and test to make your rules, that way you know them (the rules) and you are not trying to be like someone you are not.

Now this will be the last post this weekend, I want to read some others and I do need to get away from the screens a little…lol


I am no expert in this matter, I bet almost anyone is more qualified than me to try and teach this subject. I will just say this is where I carry my baggage….I have lost so much money in the past that now I am so risk adverse that sometimes I cant even get into my own trades…..always looking to get the best fill possible that I don’t get filled. I have learned for me that I need to exit a majority of my position with some profit when I get it so I can relax a little and enjoy the trade. I have traveled to a traders house and watched his as he was short over 100 ER contracts (back in the day) almost all day, he could add to his position exit some and get right back in with more and be calm as the lake at midnight…that was him, not me. I will probably never have as much money as him because of this, I am trying to work on it, I think this month long exercise will be good for me because I want to show you the trades and I should be able to at least follow the simple money management rules I do have.


What you see me trading is just what I have come to find fits in my comfort zone. I’m sure I could make more money changing things a little but then I find I cant take the trade. About the only real advice I can give on this LARGE subject is find someone that is good at it and learn from them, but at the same time you have to be comfortable with whatever you end up doing. I tried to follow some ones system, and because I paid for it I felt the need to do it, ended up with some losses that were way too big for my bank roll and only added to my current problem with letting the winners run…..


Hope my posts can help someone, if nothing else it is helping me….HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, post Monday afternoon….