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Papa's Trading Journal

  #221 (permalink)
 Eric j 
NY
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Esignal, MBT navigator
Trading: Currencies
Posts: 2,507 since Jun 2009
Thanks Given: 1,396
Thanks Received: 2,576

Just pointing out to papa here that it dont pay to regret so much -

"What has cost me the most in trading?
-Trying to make the market conform to my bias.
-Trying to force trades at market openings.....GAPS mostly
-Not wanting to admit I am wrong about a trade. Not wanting to take the small loss, so I end up taking a larger one later (see above about stops)
-Having profit targets smaller than stop losses. (eating like a bird but dumping like an elephant)
-Trading one contract."

Stopping out happens and being stubborn happens but youll get over it with a lot of practice . Trading a 1 lotter is hard work but Ed does it and manages his trades so a stop > target is normal protocol to some .

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  #222 (permalink)
 
Tmanbone's Avatar
 Tmanbone 
Chattanooga, TN
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: MT4, MBT Navigator, TOS
Broker: MT4, MBT Navigator, TOS
Trading: YM, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD
Posts: 47 since Jan 2010
Thanks Given: 105
Thanks Received: 44

I know you like the inside bars and are using TOS. I noted you said it was one of your strengths. James in the Global FX Chat posted this for all today in the room. Feel free to put it in the TOS indicator section of futures.io (formerly BMT), I couldn't figure it out. The indi plots inside bars, user definable color, on all time frames.

def insideBar = if
(High[0] < High[1] && Low[0] > Low[1])
then
yes else no;



plot insideBarFlag = double.nan;
insideBarFlag.DefineColor("insidebarcolor", color.blue);
AssignPriceColor(if insideBar then insideBarFlag.color("insidebarcolor") else
color.current);
# // End of script

"The simplicity of the markets is it's greatest disguise"

T
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  #223 (permalink)
 
papa15's Avatar
 papa15 
Wake Forest, NC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248



Tmanbone View Post
I know you like the inside bars and are using TOS. I noted you said it was one of your strengths. James in the Global FX Chat posted this for all today in the room. Feel free to put it in the TOS indicator section of futures.io (formerly BMT), I couldn't figure it out. The indi plots inside bars, user definable color, on all time frames.

def insideBar = if
(High[0] < High[1] && Low[0] > Low[1])
then
yes else no;



plot insideBarFlag = double.nan;
insideBarFlag.DefineColor("insidebarcolor", color.blue);
AssignPriceColor(if insideBar then insideBarFlag.color("insidebarcolor") else
color.current);
# // End of script

I can't figure it out either....my indicator was written by my son and if is this:

def insidebar = high <= high[1] and low >= low[1];
AssignPriceColor(if insidebar then color.YELLOW else color.C
URRENT);

Now even I can understand that one
Papa15

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  #224 (permalink)
 
papa15's Avatar
 papa15 
Wake Forest, NC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248


Eric j View Post
Baruchs is right , if you are scalping at least . Dont give this guy any money but take a look at his track record -

Jaguar Traders

Notice something ? He trades 1 lot . Notice something else ? he takes tiny bites for profits . As far as trading is concerned in the big scheme of things he is profitable , according to what documentation is provided on his site . The biggest hurdle is taking profits and by resigning yourself to never regretting missing the big move makes or breaks a scalper .

I didn't have a lot of time this afternoon to check out the website completely, but I thought I saw where he likes to get to a free trade quickly and he starts his blog talking about using 2 contracts, so I kinda think he is doing something like I am doing....moving the stop after the first target is hit.

But not to be argumentative....I liked the site and will look at it in more depth. Seems like some good pointers there and I noticed some futures.io (formerly BMT) folks are listed on his blog's testimonials....some pretty prominent folks at that

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  #225 (permalink)
 
casey44's Avatar
 casey44 
Louisville KY
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NT8
Trading: micros
Frequency: Daily
Duration: Minutes
Posts: 247 since Jan 2010
Thanks Given: 4,040
Thanks Received: 311

Papa, since you're on TOS I thought perhaps this site might have something of value.
ThinkScripter | thinkScript Indicators for thinkorswim

Doing a search for 'inside bar' brought this: Trend | ThinkScripter

Thanks for your many heartfelt posts.

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  #226 (permalink)
 
papa15's Avatar
 papa15 
Wake Forest, NC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248

I have not posted in several days. Much has happened. Please bear with me as I lay it all out:

1. I have written about my concerns over ToS data in the past. I continued this week to see little glitches, nothing major but enough to give me pause. Big Mike last week end wrote about something he saw between MultiCharts and Sierra Charts and he posted a video of it. The way his Multicharts reacted is very similar to what I have seen on ToS. I previously had started the process to switch brokers but ran into a glitch. I operate as an LLC since the account was funded by myself and my 4 adult children. I was asked to provide an exemption from being a commodity pool operator. You obtain this from the National Futures Association. Being former military I figured this would be a bureaucratic nightmare. Nothing could be further from the truth. You apply online. My bad on this.

2. I opened the account at Optimus. Matt and Jennifer (the office manager) were as helpful as they could be and made the process painless. I am set up to use Sierra Charts and R-Trader. These platforms are new to me, so I will sim-trade for a while to improve the familiarity and comfort levels.

3. I have given up on trading CL for now. It is not the right instrument for my account size. The best instrument for me is 6B. I was looking to use one chart with multiple moving averages on it, along with support and resistance lines determined by previous price turning points from higher time frame charts. I had tried it a couple of days with good success, but then I stumbled upon Big Mikes thread on random lines. That hit me up side the head pretty hard. If you can put random lines on a chart before a session and then find price turns during the session at those lines, how much confidence can you put in a line that either you calculated from price action or lines plotted from previous turns? I mean just because price turned for some reason at a price level once, does that mean it will turn the next time it reaches that level? In fact, I put the lines on the chart to alert me to pay more attention in that area since previously price had reacted at that level, but in reality shouldn't I pay attention all the time? Price action is what is important...so the horizontal support and resistance lines are off.

4. AZTRADER has had good success with multiple time frames recently. Big Mike and many others on this forum use multiple time frame analysis. My effort at it was to use multiple moving averages. Then I ran across jinhar's "A guide to trend trading in its simplest form" thread. As I read the thread, the blinders just fell away. The charts are clean, the method straight forward, and it just captures all that I have done in the past. I use 3 charts, each with a 60 ema on it. The first is a 60 minute chart to capture the big trend. The next is a 12 range and the last is a 4 range chart. I can fit all of these on my laptop. The entries are mostly using the A and D from jinhar's thread, although I do add some C type pullbacks. I have done these trades for the last three days (in sim) and had very good success. The use of multiple contracts really helps. I take one off fairly quickly and bring the stop loss to break even shortly thereafter.

I know some may question why everything is changing, and in fact, some may just give up on the thread since I have kinda drifted about recently. If that is the case, I understand. The truth is, I could not keep doing what I was doing; I was not progressing. I have recognized for some time I have not been on the right track. I am not desperate; far from it. I am just doing what I honestly believe is the best thing to improve. In addition to what I laid out above, in November I purchased the Upside Breakout Biblical Principles of Trading Course. It took a while to work through it; the last thing I need to do from it is to finish writing a comprehensive business trading plan. My previous plans were all piecemeal efforts. The template from this course is much more thorough. I also purchased the YTC Price Action Course. This is a very long, well written ebook (around 600 pages). He also provides a trading plan template. I am trying to incorporate that into my final product. I really recommend the YTC product to everyone. Very reasonably priced at $197. The Upside Breakout course was $400 when I bought it in November. It is more now (around $800) but it now comes with 3 one on one sessions with the author. This course is strictly a psychology course while the YTC course is a comprehensive course.

Any way, the above is not meant to be a sales pitch, but rather to show that I have been concerned about the overall direction of my trading for a while and have been taking action to correct what I found to be wrong or not optimal. I have found a lot of material to help me here on various threads here on Big Mike's. This is probably the best trading resource on the internet. Thanks again Big Mike for putting it together and to all of you who take the time to write about your methods.

Papa15

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  #227 (permalink)
 
bluemele's Avatar
 bluemele 
Honolulu, Hawaii
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: ATC/TT, AMP/Zen-Fire, AMP/CQG
Trading: TF
Posts: 2,543 since Jun 2010
Thanks Given: 3,803
Thanks Received: 2,842

Papa,

I would love to see your thought process as you progress through this. I think the key is to put every thought, every drama played out in your journal. I believe that you will be more successful if you 'set yourself free' of judgement of your thread or how you feel or what you think?

You seem to save up all your thinking and BLAMO all at once which is good and maybe you don't want the distraction of others commenting which is fare to put in your post.

However, I think laying it on the lines, your emotions, your fears, your concerns DAILY, then a journal has its highest effect for you an the readers.

Just my opinion.

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  #228 (permalink)
 
papa15's Avatar
 papa15 
Wake Forest, NC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248


bluemele View Post
Papa,

I would love to see your thought process as you progress through this. I think the key is to put every thought, every drama played out in your journal. I believe that you will be more successful if you 'set yourself free' of judgement of your thread or how you feel or what you think?

You seem to save up all your thinking and BLAMO all at once which is good and maybe you don't want the distraction of others commenting which is fare to put in your post.

However, I think laying it on the lines, your emotions, your fears, your concerns DAILY, then a journal has its highest effect for you an the readers.

Just my opinion.

bluemele
I love feedback from others. I find they see things that I don't or have a different perspective on things that I do see. I love being challenged. If I can't defend what I believe, then my position must not be the strong enough and perhaps I need to reassess.

I have been struggling with the decision to switch from ToS for a long time. The main attractiveness of it to me is the fact that it is Java based, and thus will run on any operating system. This allowed me to run Ubuntu (a Linux variant). I have a long standing love-hate relationship with Windows. Yes it works, most of the time. But, you gotta run anti-virus, anti-spyware, and you gotta reboot, and....and...and....None of that applies to Ubuntu. Ubuntu starts and is on line in about a minute. Windows takes several minutes to get going and get the anti-virus and stuff running. Anyway, I have been noticing for months the data flow seemed to jump. I could tolerate it as long as all I did was use 15 minute charts doing the inside bar trades on CL. The more I did those, the more I came to realize how dangerous they could be. The stops were beyond my comfort level. I took excessive heat on several trades that eventually went my way. I never got comfortable with how to handle the inside bar that forms right at 0900. I started hoping there would not be an inside bar there. Then I would see an inside bar form while a clear trend was in progress. If the price went beyond the bar counter trend do you take it? I started seeing more inside bars having engulfing bars following them. I just lost my confidence in trading them.

I looked around. CL is very popular here on this forum. But Big Mike strongly recommends those with small accounts or not a lot of experience stay away from CL. I ignored that advice too long. Looking around for an instrument to trade where I can trade multiple contracts, I found the currency futures offer a lot of choices. I like the British pound for several reasons: it has a smaller tick value, thus the stops can be more ticks without exceeding my risk limit, its movement is sufficient to offer profit opportunity, and I lived in Scotland for 2 years. NQ almost meets my needs, and may be a second choice, but I dislike the fact that you can have an opening gap. I have lost more money on opening gap trades than any other trade and thus I want to remove that temptation from my life if at all possible.

I agree with you that I need to record my thought process more. I don't like recording how much money was made or lost. There are several reasons for that. One is it seems rather private. Two, I have found when I was in chat rooms I would fall into the comparison trap. I gotta make as much as the next guy, or I am doing better than they are, or not as well. My focus is going to be on process goals. Did I follow my rules? Did I honor my stops? Did I quit when I met my profit (or loss) target? Do I have the same feeling trading real money as when trading sim? My belief is that if I get the process right, the outcome will take care of itself.

One last point. I use this thread as an accountability tool. I write as honest as I can knowing that a lot of people that I don't really know will read it and offer feedback. All feedback, positive and negative, is appreciated and I use it to help me correct my course to further me on my journey.

Papa15

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  #229 (permalink)
 
bluemele's Avatar
 bluemele 
Honolulu, Hawaii
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: ATC/TT, AMP/Zen-Fire, AMP/CQG
Trading: TF
Posts: 2,543 since Jun 2010
Thanks Given: 3,803
Thanks Received: 2,842

My buddy uses Ubuntu and I used to run Redhat and many variations of Unix platforms 10-12 years ago and it all seems like too much work for me. I am constantly helping him out with his software which is a pain in the arse, but not saying that windows is any better etc..

I stick with what the 'sheep' use because it makes my life easier.

Good point on the posting and everything. The key for me as I journal is to throw out my emotions a bit and let it go and move on like you have been doing. Good stuff and thank you for sharing! I have enjoyed reading your posts and your journey.

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  #230 (permalink)
 
papa15's Avatar
 papa15 
Wake Forest, NC
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Sierra Charts, Investor RT, Ninja Trader
Broker: VanKar
Trading: NQ
Posts: 520 since Sep 2009
Thanks Given: 583
Thanks Received: 1,248


I have not had too many issues with Ubuntu lately. It has become a reasonable (and free) alternative to Windows. It is not perfect by any means. When I have had problems, I call my son who lives locally. I noticed he Googles exactly what the problem is, then goes in the terminal window and corrects it. I started doing that and even I have been able to fix the recent issues I have had.

But, the vast, vast majority of trading software and platforms is designed to run on Windows, so in order to trade, I must make the move. I need to lay aside some money to eventually upgrade to Windows 7; maybe they will have all the kinks out by the time I get the money

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