bluemele 

1. Never have your cell phone on. 2. Change your workspace to remove volume unless you use it. You can figure out if there is life in the market by how many tick bars are created. 3. You don't need horizontal lines on your chart. 4. Your coloring is confusing to me. Too much emphasis on Keltner with contrast. It isn't easy to see price action to me on your chart screen. I would reevaluate your colors. 5. Simplify coloring on the MACDBB. 6. Don't use market. You can set up your DOM to have buy/bid, sell/ask. Options. 7. You spent more time chasing the DOM than watching price action. Chart trader is great to just watch the price action with your entry. 8. Take the KeltnerChannel(xx.x.x..x.xx) stuff out of the top left corner. Same on all your charts. Just more noise. Take scroll bars off the bottom too if possible. Something I didn't do on my main chart but just wasted space. 9. Your BB's are way too spread out in my opinion. Hard to read. I would not use such contrasting colors. 10. 987 was on the rail going up, didn't look short to me. Good job on trade management though considering your first trade. You can see though that jumping around with the DOM is just difficult. 11. Please take a look at Vovan's new setup. Very cool and groovy and highly advise using it. 12. Change the midpoint on the MACD's to just be one color. So, my advice is good job on the trade, you seemed a little nervous and I don't blame you trying to chase the DOM. I think the DOM is good to have open but not to look at unless that is what you are using to enter. Just my opinion. Your colors and things that you are looking at have a lot of 'noise'. I would clean that up. Simplify and build on that. Keep going! Just my thoughts, pick them apart if you like. Good video! You are a pro! I like your thinking. Very good descriptions!

Thanks, Bluemele, for the advice. I implemented some right away. Others I am cogitating on. Your help plus making videos are making a huge difference...like making points versus losing points!

HighRise1202 

Thanks, Bluemele, for the advice. I implemented some right away. Others I am cogitating on. Your help plus making videos are making a huge difference...like making points versus losing points!

I tried Vovan's new setup and found it too 'close' for me, so going back to what I had last week.

Barely got out breakeven today, but I blame that on the new setup that I was testing. Today was strictly sim sim sim for me. Wife did well, you should watch her vids to as she is a good trader but hasn't had time with the kid lately.

Keep us posted. My advice, post every day! No matter what. Be accountable and never ever hide your junk. Air it out to the world! All will be forgiven.

HighRise1202 

Price Action * Head and shoulders * 100 percents * Bar Setups - Two bar reversal. Bars reach same level. Second bar closes in opposite direction. Bars can be different lengths. (https://www.trending123.com/patterns/Two-Bar-Reversal.html) - Three-bar Reversal i.e. close, higher close, lower close - Double Tops/Bottoms - Rooftop - Three Peaks (or four) - Baby Bar - Three Bar Slide - Pivots from previous days - Use trend lines - The Overall Trend (Overbought/Oversold) - Wedge * MACDBB’s - Foot - From above/below - From the side - Bulge; decent bulges on the first 4 MACDs should go at least 2 and 1/2 points. - Separation - The “V.” Right side of V longer implies strong reversal. - Bear and Bull Flags - Grabbing the rail; one bb on the rail usually leads to 3 or 4. - Trailing / Following B. Band - Resistance area at center line - Overbought / Oversold * Fibs - Retracements (50, 76, and 89 percent); these are “home plates” - When retracement starts, mark 76 fib with orange target using last two pivots - When surpassing the day’s high/low, > reset pivots * look to pivots for the new high/low from previous days. * look to move opposite fib point to closer pivot, if there is one. * If new high, then move low fib placement to last low pivot. If price moves down below low pivot, the next pivot formed becomes the new low pivot. * check Fib extensions to 61 and 100. (The 100 is most common. For the market to reverse at 61, it must also be a 50 or deep retracement in a larger time frame.) *Note earlier levels of support and resistance. Mark these points near price action. > Watch for price to drop to 76 or 61 Fib, and then reverse to the deeps. Look for short. * Price action, MACD, Fib, and Keltner Integration - Divergence, when price trend does not match MACD trend - The turning point, bulge, and divergence only works from Fib areas. - Keltner “Mid Band Push,” and “Mid Band Breakthrough.” Here the price move versus the Keltner midline creates divergence. - Levels of past support and resistance for new highs and lows. - Look for patterns. They may appear today multiple times when they might appear only occasionally otherwise.

Boy - that's a hell of a lot to have in your head at any one time.

Do you actually have a reason for using each of those? By that I mean do you have any reason to think that each of those things you use gives you an edge?

Personally, I look to use the following:

1 - Something to give me a bias
On the ES, I use GOMI CD as my main bias tool. Unless it puts in a major reversal, I'll only play in the direction of the CD.
I also use 'relative volume'. If volume is low or average, I'll expect a day where there will be reversals at the extremes. If the volume is much higher than average I won't expect that.
Finally, I use the average tick, mostly to keep me out if there's serious action in the underlying that goes against the trade I want to place.

2 - Entry
Based on the price & Tape only. If the market is going up, I'll put a limit order below current price at a point where I think it's a good price and where I won't have to have a huge stop to be proven wrong. I use the Tape to fine tune this, if it appears that a lot of size is coming in against me, then I'll cancel the limit. I don't like to move my limit up when I can see the pullback runs out of steam because I lose my place in the queue.

I probably get entries on 1 out of 3 limit orders I place. 2 out of 3 times, the market doesn't come down enough to get me in. This provides plenty of trades on all but the slowest of days.

For each component, I could go into detail about:
- Why it helps on the chosen market(s)
- Why it would not help on other markets
- Why there is an edge inherent in certain parts
- Why I know when to trade and when to stand aside

I won't explain at this point because this is your thread and I don't want to make it about me.

With your list of entries, it looks like you've tried to collect a bunch of stuff out of trading books/web sites and glue them together in the hope it will get you a profit.

I'd cut the list down drastically - personally, I'd try to get one setup right before you add anything else. I'd also try to ensure that there was good rationale for everything you put on a chart. If you can't explain why it should work - dump it.

DT

bluemele 

I tried Vovan's new setup and found it too 'close' for me, so going back to what I had last week. Barely got out breakeven today, but I blame that on the new setup that I was testing. Today was strictly sim sim sim for me. Wife did well, you should watch her vids to as she is a good trader but hasn't had time with the kid lately. Keep us posted. My advice, post every day! No matter what. Be accountable and never ever hide your junk. Air it out to the world! All will be forgiven.

Today, I had 1 trade at 4:10 AM EST (ES) - I'm in Bangkok by the way, not nocturnal.

I sat down to the day session, saw the action, waited to see if the 10am news made any difference, saw that it didn't and went to bed.

Yesterday was a day for wide stops and gritting your teeth. I think you did well to break even.

Thanks to you guys for advice! Video making seems to help tremendously. This one is long. I'll work on how to shorten them.

DionysusToast 

Personally, I look to use the following: 1 - Something to give me a bias On the ES, I use GOMI CD as my main bias tool. Unless it puts in a major reversal, I'll only play in the direction of the CD.

Thanks for your advice!
Which platform do you run GOMI CD on?

HighRise1202 

Thanks to you guys for advice! Video making seems to help tremendously. This one is long. I'll work on how to shorten them.

The vids are for you more than us. I wouldn't shorten them as then you can go back and quickly rewatch. Just my 2 cents. Unless you are trying to find students or something... haha...

HighRise1202 

Thanks for your advice! Which platform do you run GOMI CD on?

NT is the only platform I believe it is set up for and a workaround because NT doesn't store tick data in database.

Advice:

Ok, firstly, I am not an expert, just expounding on what I think is 'right' or more 'right' than 'wrong'. There are no right's and wrong's and it is up to you to decide to take it. However, if you do not heed my advice, then comments get weaker and weaker over time. So, you can choose to heed, or not, no worries either way and you decide if you like them or not. My guess is that you will not like many of the comments but will come back later in time and adapt them. (IF YOU KEEP AT THE SAME SYSTEM!)

I will break your trading down into the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY:

Firstly, the Ugly:

1. Why do you need your DOM on your screen? Please explain as to me it adds absolutely NO VALUE except a bunch of numbers moving very quickly to distract you.

2. Why do you need a volume chart on your screen. These are tick charts, so to me, you have your volume up/down screaming at you with each bar. If volume is light then bars slow down, if volume is heavy, bars speed up. If there is a lot of down volume, bars go down, if there is a lot of buying, guess what.

3. Your dot should be on the active bar for the price. Whether it be an SMA 1 or whatever, the little dot should be NOT on bar close. Because it could be a very long bar and a lot of movement and you have to look at your price marker to the right to figure that out.

4. I would remove any price markers besides actual price on the right side of your screen. Just more noise. Keltner tends to have price settings etc..

5. I believe chart trader would help you out. You have heard that before.

6. Your 144 MACD takes up too much space. Go ahead and stretch it out by holding cntrl key and adjusting on right column if you want that space. To me you want more room for price action, fibs, trendlines etc..

7. Turn the centerline to black regardless of above or below. The centerline is the 26 moving average. The dots are the 12 moving average. When they come together that is the same as the 12 & 26 colliding on that timeframe. That is what the midpoint is. The value of this is that the MACD is a very common indicator and other traders use it.

8. Remove the 'text and markers' from your screen. Use the toogle trades indicator to get this from showing if you need to, but too much junk on the screen and once you make a trade, let go of it and this helps.

9. Put your commissions into NT. There are forum posts on how to do this. it is in options. This helps you convert the thinking that SIM = LIVE.

The BAD!

1. Sim = LIVE, do everything in your power to believe this. You didn't show anything that caused me to think otherwise, but a bad habit just to not reinforce.

2. Record your whole screen. Hard to see it when you are bouncing out and in. Shouldn't be doing that while trading or bother with it while you are not trading either in my opinion. You don't need to sell us a course right now. Focus on trading.

3. I didn't see your 100% ext. or real Fibs. Your fibs were all real small areas etc..

4. Know your keyboard shortcuts for a trendline, fib etc..

5. Have the larger target areas defined on your screen so it is like a plane landing or taking off. You are ready for it. This is for both entry and exit. Maybe you do this on longer term charts which is fine. I SAW NO TARGETS FOR YOUR ENTRIES!

6. What longer term charts are you looking at? Please explain. This isn't bad, just confusing to me.. Your targets should be coming off these areas and charts.

7. When you are coming from the top, the term is 'support' on the midband or 26MA MACDBB. When coming from below, RESISTANCE.

8. You were not focused on the MACD's at the beginning. You went that way later and you were much clearer. Slow down, focus on long terms and settle in to an area to get interested. At first when it was moving quickly you were just trying to hold on with one arm and ride the bronkin buck. Relax, move your eyes off the 144 chart and settle in until you know you want to trade around here. I need some of my own advice.

9. You kept saying the market is "quick, quick, quick..." No need. The market is just the market. If anything you are slow. Just relax, no need to define that and just take your eyes off the charts, slow down your heartrate.

10. You mentioned trading is exciting. To me, trading is boring. Losing money while trading can be exciting until you are done for the day. TRADING = BORING.

11. You are focused on fundamentals "I'd like to help out those stocks and bonds" "I don't believe the economy is as bad...." Who cares, and as Big Mike has taught me, TRADE WHAT YOU SEE ONLY.

12. You said that trading is not for the 'faint of heart'. Why? You could dissect this and figure out what it means to you. Clear it out of your system.

13. Your entry on the first trade that was recorded was truly awful. Profitable but awful. That is where you will lose money in my opinion. Let it go and get the next one. Your other entries were much better after that, but that is the trade you want to erase even though it was profitable.

14. I didn't see a significant amount of price action. Few trendlines, channels, wedges, etc.. Something to work towards in my opinion, but you could have been doing them on your longer term charts, so...

15. You said once or twice "Lose Money". Take the word Money out of your vocabulary when you trade. This helps on the Psychological. Always talk in Points if you can and not ticks. Something Horst taught me well.

16. You are scalping. Yes, you can make money scalping, but over the long term it will ware you down in my opinion and the goal is to grow larger trades if possible but do what you think is right.

Good:

1. Good Patience and explanations. You know what you are doing!

2. Good entries on the last 2 trades. I liked them, especially the last one.

3. You were exceptional to let the trend run out of steam and then look for a trade!!!

4. Good use of Fibs when you used them.

5. Very good attitude on the "More trades will come".



Again, please take this from my limited context. My comments will get much shorter from here. Aloha!

HighRise1202 

Thanks for your advice! Which platform do you run GOMI CD on?

I run it on Ninja. I find for daytrading, it is less reliable on thinner instruments. On thick instruments like the ES, it works really well to keep you onside.

In an uptrend, you generally see a small shift in delta to the downside on the pullbacks.

Basically, I see it as a zoomed out version of Tape Reading.