Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Finished with just +6 for the European session, puzzled by Dax structure earlier this morning so stuck with a few scalps again. I can't say I'm entirely happy with what has become of me as a trader but on the other hand a/c +27% so far this month with 75% win:loss over 45 fixed stop loss trades must mean something. (I know what it has always meant in the past.... so much work still to do to reduce the aggressive position size, etcetera.)
The surprise upside since I started this journal thing is that my attention to detail and 'feel' for the market has become much more intense, I can now watch hundreds of points go by and know that it doesn't matter a jot. I am stalking and walking far better - just not sitting yet - that will remain a frustration and a fear until it clears, but strangely I know that it will when I'm ready.
Anyway, cut myself some slack and wrote some tasty software today.
Tough day, got caught distracted playing with toys and watching webinars so took two full stop outs on the chin, down -20, had to graft sensibly to regain +26 and finish net +6 (again, ho, hum).
Lousy R/R still a factor obviously, irony is that my first trade of the day would have netted +115 if I had used a 20 point stop instead of my fixed 10 and just gone gardening, frustrating but we've all been there. Really need to sit on one or two of these a week or month sometime soon, its the major habit/deadlock for me to crack.
Anyway, Dax continued to lift against a very negative deta all afternoon, building what might be a bearish ending diagonal, but of course if it was short sellers getting trapped early and not just profit taking then they'll turn it into a running correction and all hell will break out with a squeeze to the upside instead. Tomorrow beckons.
Nice thread and certainly some good thoughts. 2 questions
a. how do you do your top down analysis ...and perhaps you can share your now "slimmed down" entire screen ...
b. you are trading an instrument that has an ADR of 120 points/240 ticks ... and you talk about ... +6 ...??
I mean .... +6 ....
Your mission should you choose to accept it ..... is to hang on to one or two of those cars and just SIT ON IT. Move the ABE up to +0 and JUST SIT ON IT MAN !!!!!!
No excuses ... send the results by reply !
very best regards
p
p.s. no more posts until you've sat on a couple ....you know it makes sense
Friday softy development day for me so no trades so far, will be half-size if I do. Cash Dax may have completed a 5 wave or zigzap up to 8175 and may want a larger correction - caution if it stalls around 8160 as it may still want at least its gapfill at 8107, clearer for continuation north if above that and ES also takes out 1635 but it also might want 18-19 first, so a wide range playpen atmo.
Wasted software playtime Friday, so I'm introducing a new rule that says no software development or watching webinars during trading hours and also deleting the no trading/half-size trading on Fridays/Mondays rule, they're now just trading days, to which all normal rules apply.
Still, wave and level analysis was bang on in the previous post, shame I didn't trade them. But I'll take another crummy +4 scalp and settle (happily) for the +37% from end May with the continued intent to reduce aggressive scalping and increase core trades (from near zero, lol). Have also resolved to only trade the European session as last week I was slipping back into the old 10-12 hour day habit and that's just stupid.
Had a great weekend at music festival and in the garden. Life, that's what the planet's for.
Firstly keeping an eye on Euro, Dax, Dow/ES monthly and weekly timeframes using basic s/r, wave patterns and fib levels. Also on these timeframes I really want to see engulfing bars before getting excited in either direction, and then always with pullbacks in mind of course.
For example these two decide if Benny and the Inkjets can destroy the dollar or not:
Here we have no engulfing bars to suggest a strong trend change yet:
And here we have Dax and ES still playing nicely in their sandpits:
Below these timeframes I focus on 30min, 3min, 1 min, 100 range and 12 second Dax/Fdax charts, making heavy use of gaps and opening ranges to tell me where the market has been, together with DH style Fibs on ES 15min, then delta, momentum, volume reactions and internals to tell me where it might go in the context of my current (always has to be hazy) RTH EW picture that might best fit my ETH Fib map and Daliesque screen action shots.
Poor execution day, set myself against the market early in both directions and of course it never looked back, giving me two -20's for the priviledge of turning up and trading like a donkey. Recovered to -11 at end of European session and had to faff around with cars and garages so I'm calling it a draw.
Concerned for the long side if ES loses 36 today after the gap up, as it may well lose 26 and head for 1576 sooner than expected. Just a definite maybe of course.
so much work still to do to reduce the aggressive position size, etcetera.)
