I've, now since a long time, stuck to a single timeframe - the 1 minute (or a 70 tick).

Earlier I used to examine longer term timeframes, correlate with some macro conditions, then 'drill down' to the lower frames for 'confluence'.

However, I found that all this din;t help be at all in my trading - in fact I allowed big money to get sucked out of my account due to some 'views' I was holding whereas the realtime situation was happening 'right' on the chart (pardon the pun!)

So while I come unprepared to my trading charts, I try to prepare myself for myself. I am my worst enemy and best friend.

For example, when I go up a timeframe I am usually trying to save face or trying to salvage a trade that has suddenly gone wrong - I attempt to determine if there is a turning point around where I can still lay my hope and get out with a lesser loss. Thus moving through timeframes is a sign of indisciplined approach for me.

I am selling the huge pinbar that has formed on the 6E. Stupid after eight consecutive losses? I don't think so....


Price should penetrate the double bottom of 1.12130 and then its all south from there I am hoping.


The stop is above the head of the pinbar at 1.12530.

Worked out nicely.

All the pent up energy of last two days is now driving the market downwards and this market seems headed way down.

Very happy today, but not leaving my humble roots anytime soon.

iqgod 

A drowning man will cling to any straw - found fidget spinners thanks to @Itchymoku: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2017/05/19/heres-the-science-behind-the-fidget-spinner-craze/ I used to struggle with two bad habits: 1. Exiting early, not holding my winners. 2. Moving my stop losses if the price threatened to take me out of a losing trade. My hand would be on the mouse button and click... click there would move the stop away from the threatening price action. Time and again I would fall prey to these two vicious habits. I needed to find a way to restrain myself. Then I tested a 'committment device' - basically a kitchen safe with a timer which would lock whatever contents you put in for a few minutes, hours or even days. Though intended for the cookies and candies I started dumping my mice in (these were the days of desktops, and there were no touch screens). Crippled without input devices I would HAVE to watch the market take out my stop or reach my target without fail! Research has shown that precommitment i.e. commitment to do something in a SPECIFIC TIME BOUND manner is the ultimate way to beat temptation. Precommitment means committing early, BEFORE that moment, when you know you will be tempted by bad choices later. Creating or changing a habit requires significant willpower. Unfortunately, willpower is finite. Every decision from choosing what to eat, what to wear, what to say, and so on, consumes our willpower. When we run out of willpower, we start making bad decisions; this is known as decision fatigue. Commitment devices help us conserve willpower and avoid decision fatigue by removing temptations we would normally fight throughout the day or week and leaves us freed up to expend our willpower against things that matter. This is especially true for traders (scalpers). The best strategy is not to rely on willpower in all situations and save it for emergencies. There are tricks, such as using commitment devices, that enable you to conserve willpower for those moments when it's indispensable. These techniques require relatively little willpower to implement, and therefore leave you sharper for your most challenging moments. One very important note if you using this is that THERE IS NO OVERRIDE. Once you put something inside the box, it will stay there until the timer counts down. These devices are kinda obsolete - you can RDC to your desktop, laptops have built in input devices, touch screens are abundant.... however this post serves to remind me of the depth of the problems and the funny lengths I went to to solve them!

Nice post Igood! I too struggled with the same bad habits as you (exiting early and tightening my stop) which like you said can be detrimental to a scalper. In my case it was because i began trading as a scalper that contributed to these bad habits! Kind of ironic lol. Although i didnt quite go to the extent you did by putting your mouse in the box, i did have to learn to walk away at times and let trades play out. Cutting your position size down to a level you are more comfortable with (i dont care size) also helps tremendously.

Anyways, really enjoy your thread. I can tell from your posts that trading is your path to enlightenment, much like mine!

Josh

Here is some nostalgia - my hand written paper journal, still precious, still love the notes to this very day:

Bob Volman's book is to be read and re-read.

Bob recommends using 70 tick charts with a single 20 EMA indicator on the candles, and using a 10 pip target and a 10 pip worst-case stop.

For those new, Bob emphatically states that there are no 'guaranteed sure thing trades' only probability of winning or losing.



Importantly, DO NOT front run a break, do not imagine a situation where the break is antcipated - thus be grounded in reality and do not trade expected outcomes!

Notes on The First Break Setup

Second Break: (final with-trend setup)

Block Break: