Hello, I'm a beginner learning to trade and want to start this thread to try and get some help from all the good people on this amazing forum thanks Big Mike for creating this place.

I've been learning for about 2 years now I'm trying to get as much screen time trading as practice. I'm using a short term trading style using the 15m, 3m and 1m charts. I live in the uk and can only trade the last 4 hours of the US session so I trade that every day after work getting as much screen time now I think is the most beneficial thing for me. I spreadbet so I only trade a very small amount of money I trade the YM because it is the only instrument that I can trade at that time that has a reasonable spread (2 points) not much different to the actual futures. Some spread bet companies offer 1 point on YM but the platform wont run on my work computer which is where I have to trade from.

Basically I use the 15m to get a bigger picture and plot S/R then use the 3m as the trading time frame and the 1m to catch the best entry and try and gauge any change in strength. I don't use any indicators apart from just added Stochastic on the 1m sometimes shows good divergence that I can't see in the price action. I've learnt a lot from @indextrader7 and religiously follow his thread which is amazing.

I basically try and trade against the weakness and with the strength within the larger time frame structure taking usual set ups, pullbacks, tests of levels, double tops/bottoms, retests etc.

At the moment I try and push the entry as close to the level as possible so I don't wait for price to trigger by pushing in the direction of the move I'll actually pretty much always be fading the move so I get a better entry and get out ASAP (although I'm not doing that very well) when it goes against me. I heard a while ago a saying 'get in where you know you are wrong the quickest' and I don't know if I've taken that too literally but that is what I try to do this is one of the areas I would love some help with.

At the moment I've had my best week this week in getting the right price analysis and context of the market but my trade management has been very bad. I think mainly because I still have no confidence in my trading because I'm still a net loser so I try and snatch at profits way to soon. This week nearly all my trades went on to hit my target but I closed them all too early.

Hopefully if anyone has time to spare they could give me some help and advice, I love trading and I hope for it to be my full time career one day.

Thanks everyone for all the posts I've learnt a huge amount from this place and peoples huge generosity to share their knowledge.

Charts to follow.


Mike

Here are my trading charts from this week, I tried to add the trades to them like Ninja trader so they are easy to see.

I've added explanations any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

Mike

Congrats on the journal.

Mike

cmmichaels 

At the moment I try and push the entry as close to the level as possible so I don't wait for price to trigger by pushing in the direction of the move I'll actually pretty much always be fading the move so I get a better entry and get out ASAP (although I'm not doing that very well) when it goes against me. I heard a while ago a saying 'get in where you know you are wrong the quickest' and I don't know if I've taken that too literally but that is what I try to do this is one of the areas I would love some help with.

It's a difficult to answer. IMHO it's a trade off (like most anything else). If you use limit entries on weakness to get a better fill that's closer to your stop, but you will get in on some trades that you wouldn't otherwise because it just goes straight against you. As far as stats go, you'll lower your win%, but increase your avg win:loss ratio.

If you wait for more confirmation, your stops have to be farther away, but you'll miss a few more bad trades.

Ultimately, you will learn when a limit entry is the right play, and when you want to see some more strength. This will come with experience. It will never be perfect.

Remember, you can do both. Have a stop order in to get you in at the LRP/LWP, and have an OCO limit order in to try and get a better fill.

First off, I'm offering opinions here. They may not be correct, so take them for what you want. It especially feels awkward to judge someone's discretionary trading. People could consistently rip me to shreds with a lot of my decisions.

10-9 -- The last trade. Looks like an emotional exit. You took a drawdown, and when it came back around breakeven (started going in your favor), you were relieved to be out from under water and just wanted to be done with the discomfort. In actuality, the trade was just then starting to look good.

10-10 -- Nice trades early on with the flow/ with the trend. Then you started trying to pick bottoms instead of sticking with it. It can be hard, but more times than not when a trend is in place, stay with it until a previous swing is broken and price accepts that level.

10-13 -- The third trade, you definitely didn't get in "too early", you got in on the wrong side of the trade. Strong bullish movement off the lows of the session, then an extremely weak pullback (which we would want to fade), instead you traded short (against the strength/with the weakness). Not only that, but as soon as price expanded up again, it was clear the premise was wrong. (Easy to say from my armchair trading here).

Also, the exit on the last trade of that session. Again, you suffered the drawdown and stayed in the trade. Then when price started to go in your direction, you exited. You should either exit the trade as price goes against you earlier, or stay in there when it starts going your way.

Hope this helps, and again, by no means am I right about everything. Just offering what I see.

-IT7

BTW, keep up the good work. I only pointed out the negative stuff. You're doing a good job overall.

indextrader7 

First off, I'm offering opinions here. They may not be correct, so take them for what you want. It especially feels awkward to judge someone's discretionary trading. People could consistently rip me to shreds with a lot of my decisions. 10-9 -- The last trade. Looks like an emotional exit. You took a drawdown, and when it came back around breakeven (started going in your favor), you were relieved to be out from under water and just wanted to be done with the discomfort. In actuality, the trade was just then starting to look good. 10-10 -- Nice trades early on with the flow/ with the trend. Then you started trying to pick bottoms instead of sticking with it. It can be hard, but more times than not when a trend is in place, stay with it until a previous swing is broken and price accepts that level. 10-13 -- The third trade, you definitely didn't get in "too early", you got in on the wrong side of the trade. Strong bullish movement off the lows of the session, then an extremely weak pullback (which we would want to fade), instead you traded short (against the strength/with the weakness). Not only that, but as soon as price expanded up again, it was clear the premise was wrong. (Easy to say from my armchair trading here). Also, the exit on the last trade of that session. Again, you suffered the drawdown and stayed in the trade. Then when price started to go in your direction, you exited. You should either exit the trade as price goes against you earlier, or stay in there when it starts going your way. Hope this helps, and again, by no means am I right about everything. Just offering what I see. -IT7 BTW, keep up the good work. I only pointed out the negative stuff. You're doing a good job overall.

Hey man, thanks so much for taking the time out to give such a detailed review this is exactly what I am looking for. The trades you pointed out are exactly the trades where now I look back and think why would I really ever take this trade.

When I was trying to catch the bottom instead of staying with the trend as I thought we were going to go into a rotational period, I think having a bias is important sometimes but you have to know when to disregard/change the bias, or I should have waited for more evidence of the rotational period such as break above swing high then price acceptance like you said.

The trade with the -20 you are right and the fact that I was trading against my original trade that had worked perfectly shows some poor judgement. I think basically it was a revenge trade as I was angry that I had got out right at the worst point of the previous trade which had then gone on to work perfectly.

I really enjoyed the comments about watching a trade go against me and then getting out when it stats to go my way, this is interesting and looking at some of those trades you are exactly right. I hold through the difficult drawdown and then get out when it starts to come my way. Need to look into this.

But thanks again really appreciate the time you put in.

Mike

Trades 15th - 18th

cmmichaels 

Trades 15th - 18th

Give us more than that if you want more from it. Let us know why you did what you did. Where you're happy, where you see area for improvement, etc.

Keep strong my man. Put in the work required to succeed.

indextrader7 

Give us more than that if you want more from it. Let us know why you did what you did. Where you're happy, where you see area for improvement, etc. Keep strong my man. Put in the work required to succeed.

Hi IT7 thanks for posting I'm really glad you did, I was going to post a video instead of writing about it because I think it is more beneficial when reviewing later as well as it is a lot easier to get all your thoughts down but just hadn't got round to doing it. Just did the videos and have uploaded so would love some feedback, I just really went into the price action details of the trade not sure if I explained it too well. I sometimes have a bit of a longer term idea as well but didn't really go into it here.

A few things I have been thinking about this week which I have found useful, I heard Jim Dalton say 'manage risk not returns' this really resonated with me and I was thinking about it more and put it into slightly different words but something that I can really relate to. Returns are the by product from managing risk, risk isn't the by product from managing returns. When I think of that it really helps me understand how I need to be trading and just looking at these trades last week it could have helped a lot so I am going to think of that as much as I can while trading.

I was thinking about emotional capital as well and wrote down something in my journal which I am going to focus on a lot... 'emotional capital takes months to build and seconds to lose' I think this is really valuable as your emotional capital is so important so I'm really going to focus on that as well.

I'm just trying to be confident about my intuition more so many times I think this would be a good area to trade but don't take it because it doesn't really fit in to what I have learned it is not a normal set up. But trying to wait for text book set ups wont work with this type of trading, I think a balance needs to be found between using your intuition and feel of the market and then getting the right sort of entry they rarely both match up perfectly so that is where risk management is crucial.

Anyway would love some feedback from anyone who has the time.

Thanks everyone.

The videos aren't embedding not sure what I did wrong but here are the links: