I've currently got all 3 of Perry's new templates up - 5 range, 3 minute, 1 minute. I made some good trades today, and they were off the 1 minute chart. Since the Perrydigm (has no one really coined that word yet?) has multi time frame indicators on it, I'm getting a bigger picture. I'm still studying how that all works, and when I internalize it, I'll share here.

I first learned on time charts, but when I saw range charts for the first time, I fell in love with them. Patterns were smoother, they did not stretch out forever when price action was slow, they seem to make a lot of sense. But Perry mentioned he trades time charts so I am reevaluating. Remember, my goal for this journal is to simplify, less distractions, follow one method, one chart, and emulate a master. And tame my inner psychology in the meantime.

The one thing I really like about a minute bar is you can see those long probing tails more easily, testing the waters, or exhaustion of a move. Maybe real price action is in the time bars, but patterns are purer in the range bars.

Even though I traded the 1 minute today, I still found the 5 range chart helpful to help "see" the market more wholly. I use to have a dozen charts up, Tick, ADV/DECL, 89 tick, 1,3,15,30,60,and Daily charts. Too distracting, if your goal is to grab 4 ticks here and there. I've looked at LineBreak, renko, and manufactured bars. Having just these three charts up may even be too distracting. But I've taken the first big step in simplifying.

I've also gotten rid of Tradestation and the methods and charts I had on there. Committing to Ninja and the Perrydigm.

Overtraded. 7 instead of 4 or 5. Impatient waiting for non-flat behavior. Followed MA rules, good %, but just barely profitable. Getting in late, need to trust system more. Need to wait for flats to resolve themselves. Was also tired, need to reinstitute personal checklist.

Sunday Homework. Watch Seminar again. Replay. Improve Analysis Spreadsheet. Write Morning Routine,

There are way too many options out there - with a lot of pluses and minuses and personal preferences. My problem was keeping multiple platforms running, with multiple methods and distracting my self to the point of not knowing why I was doing trades, when I was right and when I was wrong.

Given the fine work on this forum, and it's a pretty Ninja centric forum, I've decided to give up Tradestation. I went thru my workspaces on Tradestation and was able to replicate most everything on Ninja, in case I need to look at them again. I've paid for Ninja at least once, thru leasing costs, so I plan to purchase after one more quarter lease, which I will not even start until after I have made my sim goal. Sim for free with Ninja before committing money.

I've tried several brokers too. I can luckily say that I have not had customer service or accounting issues with any of them. And I have found them almost all of them negotiable in their pricing structure. Data problems are harder to measure, and when I knew I had them, it was usually around news events. And a slowing machine, because of two many platforms, and other programs running at once. I'm using AMP with the CQG feed and have found it to be trouble free. Some of the more technical people on the forum can offer tests and detail. I need to get my trading right before I sweat those details.

I have a laptop with an attached 21" second screen. Which makes a lot more sense as I pare down my number of charts. I'm really enjoying having fewer, bigger, charts. It has a dual core 2 GHz processor, 3 GB ram, and I have the turbo internet pipe from Time Warner. 3 years old, nothing that special. Windows 7 Home Premium OS. I was all set to buy a new machine for Christmas but noticed my McAfee was taking up more processor speed than even the platforms. I installed the free AVG anti-virus, the regular Windows firewall, and got rid of McAfee. I've double the speed on everything. And no longer experiencing lock-ups.

So I guess my takeaways for this rambling is:
1) Just stick with one platform and broker. Switching about did not solve my poor trading habits.
2) If you like Ninja, it's been said on the board alot, I wished I stopped leasing sooner, and had just bought it.
3) Negotiate your rates with your chosen broker. Price by your chosen instrument(s) as well.
4) Clean off (dedicate) your trading machine. It will run faster, not lock up, and offer fewer distractions.

I've identified my two worst behaviors in getting ready to trade in the morning.
1) I turn on the computer and I jump right in before completely waking up. (Don't want to miss anything)
2) I don't do a self assessment of how I feel, if I'm tired from not enuff sleep, and if I'm ready to face the world (even though I'm working in my office, alone, at home, I am literally competing and playing on the world stage the moment I decide to take a trade. Always remember that.)

I used to have a long checklist. It was so long, I ignored it. Here is my shorter one.

Morning Checklist
1) Boot up, make coffee, scan emails, wake up, start checklist.
2) Update h/l/o/c for daily pivots in Ninja Historical Data Manager - EUR / USD
3) Check news events for the day - 2012 Economic Calendar
4) Note first hour high and low of the day, and current high and low so far in the day
5) Ask self - am I ready to take on the world's best traders. If not, take a walk around the block, and ask again.
6) Note time, recent market action, and look for a setup. Say out loud what I am looking for. And wait for it.

6E - cuz everybody's doing it.

My goal is master, internalize, and profit with the PerryDigm. Most of his examples in the thread are 6E, so best to learn with it.

What I like about the 6E - it moves, it has a higher tick value than others I've tried, it's not crazy volatile, it has a good amount of activity and volume from 7 to 11 am CST, it seems to fit and getting more comfortable with it.

What I don't like about the 6E - just getting use to .0001 is a tick worth $12.50, that it opens when I'm asleep, that it has a higher commission than some, will try to negotiate when I go live again.

I'm early in the courtship with this instrument, getting to know how it behaves on a normal day, how it likes to open and close, how it reacts around news, and which news, it's average true range, it's slippage. Know your instrument well before trading live.

Other instruments I've tried - started with ES, doesn't everyone, so heavily traded that I got tired of it sitting on my price, and not taking it, even after 10,000 sales. Went to NQ - seemed too erratic for me. Spent alot of time with YM - good volume, but much thinner than the first two, it moves quite well, but slippage is bigger, it will jump 3 or 4 ticks sometimes in slippage, stopping you out of a good trade. CL - very volatile, traded a few times, suicide is not painless, this is an experienced trader's instrument.

Modified the one I've posted so far. To make it simple, I am using an excel export of the Account Performance Trades Tab, with a few added columns. I used to look at the Summary tab, but as I study it more, it's not giving me the granularity I need for my trade analysis.

I am tracking (and trading) in ticks. My hope is that tracking ticks instead of $, I'll remove some emotion and head games. I've added a few analysis columns I'll tack on at the end of the day, after the export. They include the Time in Trade, the $ p&l, the day, what % profitable, how often I followed the rules, the number of MA's in favor when I traded, and Comments. (Because I had some commission buried in the software, I've deleted for these first two days - commission, MAE, MFE, and ETD. They should be fine next week.) I'm tracking results without commission, to better track ticks.

In first analysis of these two days I realized the number of MA's was a recurring comment. So it has it's own column. I've noticed that my comments are kind of lame. I need to improve self-analysis if I am going to improve. I noticed that I am late to enter most all of the time. Which tells me I am not trusting the Perrydigm yet because I have not internalized it yet. So back to the seminars, the threads, and the charts.

As confusing as a PerryDigm chart can look at first glance, it' really just a layering of Moving Averages including

1) the current chart's timeframe, and
2) in a a larger time frame and
3) divergences of timeframes illustrated in candle coloring.
4) With slopes of those MA's tracked to quantify the visual.
5) And an MTF analyzer that produces arrows at the most probable time to trades.
6) And finally Rays generated off fractal pivot points offering support and resistance projections.

The 1 minute chart is best to trade from to get those 4 tick wins (imho)
the Moving Averages, in order are:
PPMA 1 SMA - Blue dotted, typical - Real time price action trend inside a trend
PPMA 3 SMA - Orange solid, typical - Real time price action trend inside a tend
MDA 13 EMA - Green/Red as spec'd - Lagging but showing the bigger trend
MDA 20, 50, 100, 200 SMA - Gray/Black, Pink/Magenta, Dodger/Blue, Red/Red

Try to get the first candle that meets the following criteria and whose base is touching the 13 ema or is within one tick:

If the 1, 3, 13, 20 are pointing the same way, the candle is colored in your direction, the Slope info supports, and the Triangles appear, you have a good trade. If the 50, 100, and 200 agree too - load the boat for longer runs.

The 5 Range Chart contains a similar cast of characters, but let's you visually see rangebound chop, and a longer part of the day.

Work in progress - going to bed.

Over traded but on purpose. Read up alot over the weekend and wanted to try some things. Used the 1 minute chart again primarily. Tried these things:

1) Using the triangle as the primary signal, not great, going to analyze the day on that , maybe play with the settings

2) Use to always add to losers. tried to add to winners. the ATM is kind of tricky, if you use the same ATM strategy, instead of putting a new trade in, it adds to the trade, shortening your expected targets and stops. Tried naming a new ATM with the same parameters, and it places a new tradeset. But I am breaking my primary rule of just trading 1 contract to understand this methodology. Will go back to one. But this is a good thing for the toolkit for when I am trading two. It seems to make more sense than going in with two with the second one as a runner. Or there is probably room for both strategies.

Seemed like I was following rules a high % but did not produce the ticks. One problem was the ATM experiment. Another was really nailing down my rules - am I really following them?

rpm123 

Off to a good start, success-wise, but did not follow rules completely.

Hi @rpm123,

Looks like a great thread. Is it possible to mark your entry/exit locations on your charts? Tought to follow with the spreadsheet, visual works better for me...

NJAMC 

Hi @ rpm123, Looks like a great thread. Is it possible to mark your entry/exit locations on your charts? Tough to follow with the spreadsheet, visual works better for me...

Yup, I realized I did not do that on the first post and have been since.