That little pattern is a buildup of energy.

Not that it means anything, but that is the swing I was hoping to catch yesterday.





In hindsight, the better buy was the 2nd arrow, 6am this time.

caught 6 long TF. Just staying with my cat on a dead mouse approach today.

I would entertain shorting CL up here, but the momentum is a little ominous, and the push out of support has me undecided.

If ES reaches 1335 I would be more intersted in a short in CL. Right now it may still have shorts pinned against yesterday's high.

researcher247 

Your sim gold trade is good; deep 89% retrace off a cycle {weekly} bottom. If they keep it above the lows of this week--then target 1640.00 basis June GC. lol peace hedvig

GaryD 

Mumbo jumbo, I'm just gonna be rich!

greenr 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Yeah baby^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The gold trade was just being goofy. I was messing with gold in sim to see how it "felt" to be in a trade, and just picked long at the time for whatever reason. Then I guess I went to comething else, phone call, switched charts, who knows, and forgot about being in a sim long. I never would have known had I not tried to restart and Ninja said I had an open position I was not aware of. I got nervous, did I really do that? But turned out it was the meaningless sim I had.

So, instead of close it, and having taken a trade and then forgotten about it, I decided to trade like a moron and see what happened. Today it closed net profitable, but only after being down over $10k on a $2900 sim account. So the win was impossible.

The comment about "just gonna be rich" was just me goofing the part of the gold trader.

GaryD 

The gold trade was just being goofy. I was messing with gold in sim to see how it "felt" to be in a trade, and just picked long at the time for whatever reason. Then I guess I went to comething else, phone call, switched charts, who knows, and forgot about being in a sim long. I never would have known had I not tried to restart and Ninja said I had an open position I was not aware of. I got nervous, did I really do that? But turned out it was the meaningless sim I had. So, instead of close it, and having taken a trade and then forgotten about it, I decided to trade like a moron and see what happened. Today it closed net profitable, but only after being down over $10k on a $2900 sim account. So the win was impossible. The comment about "just gonna be rich" was just me goofing the part of the gold trader.

I know, i always read your thread in detail. I was messing about too. We have to have a laugh some times as trading on a serious level is not fun and games (I WISH IT WAS)

But on a serious note, taking trades like that is stupid gary as you know

It can develope bad habits and hope

But still "FUN" because we cannot lose....HA!

Have a great day and keep up the hard work, i love your style and i cannot wait to see the day you pull off a large scale trades on a daily basis

Focus on the ticks and not the money

Yes i know you know i know and every one knows

So easy to say but yet so hard to peform

Thats what splits the people who do this for a living and the people who fail to do this for a living

have a great day gary

greenr 

Have a great day and keep up the hard work, i love your style and i cannot wait to see the day you pull off a large scale trades on a daily basis Focus on the ticks and not the money Yes i know you know i know and every one knows So easy to say but yet so hard to peform Thats what splits the people who do this for a living and the people who fail to do this for a living

Yes, I thought about that nearly non-stop as I drove 2 hours back to Orlando tonight. I believe I see what I am doing wrong when I trade larger size. If I am trading one contract, I just kind of feel it out as it goes. I know roughly the probabilities, when it reaches it's prime expectencies, when I think it has a better chance, but the important thing is I feel the trade the whole time and do not really care if I drop it. Add contracts, and I don't always "not care".

Crude continues to set higher lows after coming up out of the major zone.

ES still aiming to blow the stops at yesterday's high.

My primary account in my business lost their account recently. We were their star players, and every project we have done has gone flawlessly. Just started a new job today and expect to get what may be the last one, in Boston, before the end of the month. It was a good run.

That news of a possible end to the lead income generator of my business is what has escalated my drive to go full time in trading. That also means I have pressured myself more than I should to make the transition.

I am a good trader. That is the irony. At one or two contracts, when I do not care, I trade very well for the most part. Certainly net profitable, but just not enough money to want to leave everything else behind to do it.

In my re-read of Market Wizards, I was reading about Tom Baldwin, at the time of the interview possibly the largest independent trader in the bond pit, ;

Jack Schwager - "At what point were you confident that you were going to be succesful at it?"

Tom Baldwin - "That is an interesting question. You are never really confident in this business, because you can always be wiped out pretty quickly."


That was from a trading legend, "never really confident"... That does not do much to build confidence.



I decided to trade larger I would go for larger targets and hold longer, but the problem is, that is not exactly how I trade when I am doing 1-2 contracts. I am quick to decide, quick to forget, hold when I feel like it and don't sweat the heat in those instances, smell a failed trade comeing when I am really in the groove. 4 ticks, 6 ticks, -4 ticks, just treading water and feeling things out, then hold one and done. Or two, and then done.

When I size up I start putting so much emphasis on the risk to reward, but in a textbook sense. Calculators even. When I trade 1 cntract, screw the calculators, there are no guarantees, and so I just keep my losses low. There are more than enough times when I feel really good about a trade to even consider keeping one that feels so-so. Or, so I operate at smaller size.

I have decided I do not believe in the variable size approach. I found a niche of how I trade, and there are no variables to "1". If I trade 4, it is 4, not 3, not 5. FOUR.

If I add in, FOUR.

Or 3, or 2, or whatever number I decide on.

Just bigger than 1.