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Zen & the Art of The Small Account


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Zen & the Art of The Small Account

  #271 (permalink)
 Laserdan 
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I was thinking the exact same thing.

Laserdan
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  #272 (permalink)
 soumi71 
Toronto
 
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I don't agree with you guys , Aztrader has been experimenting lately and this is the way someone should find his style , I am underlining what he said about his multiple entries , and I don't see the harm in this .
Talking openly about entries and posting them takes a lot of courage and I really admire people who do that in the forum , keep going AZ , I am sure that 's the path to take to reach the zone
soumi


aztrader9 View Post
.......
Still fine tuning my entries a bit, I have the big picture now and have spent the last few days working on this aspect. I was not trusting my entries very much and so I knew I needed to work on this.

The work is paying off. I am very close to having my complete method worked out.

Today's trades are many and varied but I have just taken every entry signal I have gotten. The purpose being to really work on just where to get in.

So far, 62% win rate after 42 trades. I have one last trade on and when that is done, will be done for the day. I'll come back later and look at the chart with the benefit of hindsight but so far, I really like what I have found. I also tested a fade trade today that worked about 50% of the time but I did not really trust the signal so I entered late several times but had I taken the signal when they appeared, most would have worked.

Ok, I will post my messy chart later today but for now, I am done.


"Risk more than others think safe.
Dream more than others think practical.
Expect more than others think possible.
Care more than others think wise"
  #273 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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mahlonhersh View Post
Aztrader,

I've been racking my brain to come up with something to encourage you. Big Mike's post to Gordo is well stated and possibly could apply to you also.

Az, I don't intend to be condescending, because I am far from perfect myself. I make mistakes at times too. But this is unreal. You are out of control. You've got to get a hold of yourself. Do you really want to be a successful trader or are you just having fun clicking in entries?

A few things to think about -

1) Don't you think 42 trades is a lot for that amount of time? Does your system truly give you that many signals? If it does you may want to consider slowing things down a bit so that less signals are generated.

2) Last week you overtraded and you disciplined yourself by controlling the number of trades in a day - 2, then 3, then 4 etc. The demonstration of self-control is commendable, but what do you have to show for it?

3) You mentioned today that you were "fading". I don't know too much about that, but isn't it really countertrend trading? So, I presume your main system generates with trend signals and you were also looking for countertrend signals. I think it's counterproductive to trade both ways. You will end up chasing your tail and not knowing if you're coming or going.

Here's what I think you should do -

1) Decide if trading is really what you want to do or not. If it is then figure out what it takes to get in control and stay there.

2) Presuming a positive response to 1 - do whatever it takes to put together a system that generates a small number of high quality entry signals per session. The exact number is unimportant - I am thinking 3-10. Something much less than 42. The emphasis has to be high quality and not the exact number.

3) Trade only one direction - either with trend or countertrend - not both.

4) Practice executing your system until you execute it flawlessly every day.

5) Keep good records and use them to help you make improvements.

Az, please receive this in the spirit it is intended - only for your good. If you think it's too much and I overstepped my bounds, please tell me and I will gladly delete it.

Hang in there,

Mahlon


Why yes, 42 trades really is too many....I did 5 today. Yesterday was about fine tuning and really finding which entry I like. Actually yesterday was NOT about the signals, it was about finding the little nuances in the signal.

I trade fibs, so the signal is the fib + price action. The best entry around the fib is what I am looking for. Thats why all the trades yesterday, I was experimenting with entries around my signal...

And yes, I did do some counter trend trades as well as some break out trades, neither of which are part of my system or within my current comfort zone, but on an experiment day, everything is open for testing including these two. I did neither today and will not in normal trading.

So while I truly appreciate the concern about over trading and being out of control, don't be alarmed, it was just experiment day.

I will see about 3-8 good signals a day during my trading hours, more if I want to sit here all day which I don't but I had time yesterday so I traded the entire session. Which is another reason I had a ton of entries....if you recall, yesterday was a nice trend day and produced tons of entries......I passed on probably another 40 or so because I was tired....

Remember, those of us with small accounts really need to make each trade count as best we can, so taking a day to fine tune entries is ok in my book. Today it was back to the real world to use what I learned yesterday. Same tomorrow.

I will be posting my weekly results on Friday afternoon.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
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  #274 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
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A funny thing happened on the way to trading success. I've had a ton of self inflicted pressure to perform. Then I compounded it by having this thread. For some dumb reason, I've felt compelled to prove to all the readers of this thread that I can trade well. Never mind the real reason for the thread.

Then today, I lost money today, not a lot but a little. A friend of mine has a terrible cancer and we talked early and I had him on my mind so perhaps I was not with it today. Regardless of the reason, I lost a bit of money.

Later on, I am talking to another trader on the phone and the subject of today's results came up. I told I lost money today and he asked me how much. Honestly I could not remember. And today, I really did not care how much it was. What mattered was did I trade well and I did not. I traded in the chop.

After my conversation with my trader friend, I realized I no longer care what my readers think about my trading. I want helpful input for sure if they are so inclined, and I am pleased when they show concern about an issue or congratulate me on a success, but to please them or try to prove something to them is no longer part of my thinking. My trading is a business, my business in fact, and the only one that can make it successful or a failure is me.

I ran a very successful mortgage business for many years by being different from every one else and not caring one bit what my competition thought, (I live in a small town so I knew all of them personally, the fact I did not care what they thought pissed them off I think! Being the highest non bank producer in town may have had something to do with as well!) The only one that mattered was my customer and what they thought. This journal is a place for me to stay accountable to myself and document my journey, nothing more. If others find value in it, then I am pleased about that as well but that is not the ultimate goal.

I had one good trade today out of 5 and it was a loser. Why was it good? Because I took the entry I thought was valid and held it until it was not. At which I time I closed it out. The previous 4 trades were 50/50 on profitability. But I am unsatisfied with trades 2,3,4 because they were fear based trades and violated the first rule of trading which is protect your capital. They were in the chop and I knew it. Trade one was the only trade that was executed with precision and per my rules. But I did not hold it long enough.

Tomorrow is another day, the market is open and I will be there with my trading plan in hand and with strict adherence to that plan.

I recognize this post is a little testy and perhaps arrogant or as I used to say, "pissy" if I can say that here. If not, one of the mods can edit the post. I don't mean it that way, its just that its time for me to stand up on my own two feet and "man up" as it were and trade for me and not for anyone else.

Til tomorrow then,

Cheers.......

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #275 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
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soumi71 View Post
It's not messy , it's a real picasso painting lol
Thanks for posting
soumi

Uh....maybe not Picasso....more like a two year old!!!!!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #276 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
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aztrader9 View Post
This journal is a place for me to stay accountable to myself and document my journey, nothing more. If others find value in it, then I am pleased about that as well but that is not the ultimate goal.

Good job Az, keep it up

Mike

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  #277 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
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There is a saying, "Dance with the one that brought you". 18 months ago, I started trading by joining a trading room where the guy was a fib fanatic. His reasons were sound and he used multiple times frames along with three moving averages on a tick chart to time his entries.

I think I've mentioned this before but I never understood the multiple time frame thing, still don't for the most part and the tick chart was blazing fast. We were trading ES during the bounce off the lows of the crash and it was fast and furious. Basically, I could not trade it.

So as you know, I went on the holy grail search, and now almost 18 months later, I am back trading fibs and last week I put the three moving averages on a tick chart as a method of filtering the chop and timing entries on my 6 range trading chart. First of all, I was awestruck at how simple the method was. Wish I could have gotten 18 months ago. Secondly, I decided I wanted to find something to combine or replace two of the three averages to reduce the clutter on the chart. I am a fan of clean and simple. I pinged someone to see how they had gotten their average to work and did not hear back, and while I was waiting, I played around with some color combinations, only two of the averages, etc.....some of the 42 entries the other day were from these "tweakings". I did not like any of these tweaks.

Then someone mentioned an indie here on nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) and I already had it as part of my holy grail search , and so I left all three MA's on and super imposed this indie on top of them and looked at both range bound day and a trending day. I ended up dumping two of the three MA's and the result is a nice clean chart with three things on it. My fib lines, an SMA and an ADXVMA set really fast. I looked at that last night and was really satisfied it gave me great entries around my fib lines.

The next step was to test live which was today. I had a couple of small live trades and then I worked both TF and CL using what I think will be my final chart set up.

I had real good success on TF and got slaughtered on CL. But in all honesty, I was really paying attention to TF and playing around in CL. I decided I cannot watch two things at once and do either of them right. But the end result is I am more than satisfied with the arrangement. So I will be using this for at least a month now to really dial it in but every single part of the arrangement is something I am comfortable with and believe in.

Both the MA and the ADXVMA are set really fast and so I only really use them at S/R and fib levels. This combination does really well at these levels, in between, they tend to give false signals but I don't want or need them for that. I already know where I will be trading and these are just for timing the entries better. The other benefit is they provide a nice exit point as well when getting close to a S/R or fib based target. Another benefit is stop placement, most of the time, the stop is smaller than I've been using and I like that a lot.

So tomorrow will probably be another small ball day, just to work out a couple kinks in my mind about taking either the first or second entry opportunity and then next week, it will be full bore.

It feels good to be here again. Back where I started and with a new and better understanding of the dynamics of price action and the reasons for using Fibs and SMA's in the first place.

For those of you that would like a good chop filter WITHOUT the whole fib thing, I would urge you to look at @perryg s thread,

His use of the MA's accomplishes the same things for the most part. I read part of the thread last night and its pretty darn close.


Cheers........

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #278 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
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I got an email today introducing me to "The Rain Man of market crashes".....

Thought I'd throw this in for a bit of humor. This is the website.....not sure how I got on the list but I am unsubscribed!


Stock Crash Insurance Guide | Wealth Insider Alliance

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #279 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404

When someone invites you to a party, DON'T be late! Otherwise you are a wallflower and I hate that!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Started this thread
  #280 (permalink)
 
Hapster's Avatar
 Hapster 
San Diego, California
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader, Felton
Trading: CL, GC
Posts: 141 since Aug 2009
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aztrader9 View Post
A funny thing happened on the way to trading success. I've had a ton of self inflicted pressure to perform. Then I compounded it by having this thread. For some dumb reason, I've felt compelled to prove to all the readers of this thread that I can trade well. Never mind the real reason for the thread.

Then today, I lost money today, not a lot but a little. A friend of mine has a terrible cancer and we talked early and I had him on my mind so perhaps I was not with it today. Regardless of the reason, I lost a bit of money.

Later on, I am talking to another trader on the phone and the subject of today's results came up. I told I lost money today and he asked me how much. Honestly I could not remember. And today, I really did not care how much it was. What mattered was did I trade well and I did not. I traded in the chop.

After my conversation with my trader friend, I realized I no longer care what my readers think about my trading. I want helpful input for sure if they are so inclined, and I am pleased when they show concern about an issue or congratulate me on a success, but to please them or try to prove something to them is no longer part of my thinking. My trading is a business, my business in fact, and the only one that can make it successful or a failure is me.

I ran a very successful mortgage business for many years by being different from every one else and not caring one bit what my competition thought, (I live in a small town so I knew all of them personally, the fact I did not care what they thought pissed them off I think! Being the highest non bank producer in town may have had something to do with as well!) The only one that mattered was my customer and what they thought. This journal is a place for me to stay accountable to myself and document my journey, nothing more. If others find value in it, then I am pleased about that as well but that is not the ultimate goal.

I had one good trade today out of 5 and it was a loser. Why was it good? Because I took the entry I thought was valid and held it until it was not. At which I time I closed it out. The previous 4 trades were 50/50 on profitability. But I am unsatisfied with trades 2,3,4 because they were fear based trades and violated the first rule of trading which is protect your capital. They were in the chop and I knew it. Trade one was the only trade that was executed with precision and per my rules. But I did not hold it long enough.

Tomorrow is another day, the market is open and I will be there with my trading plan in hand and with strict adherence to that plan.

I recognize this post is a little testy and perhaps arrogant or as I used to say, "pissy" if I can say that here. If not, one of the mods can edit the post. I don't mean it that way, its just that its time for me to stand up on my own two feet and "man up" as it were and trade for me and not for anyone else.

Til tomorrow then,

Cheers.......

Well, if you're going to trade for you and not for anyone else, why make the comment up at the top of your post that you've felt compelled to prove to the readers of the thread that you can trade?

Just sayin'.....

Hence why I quietly trade my own account and don't post much -- if at all lately, actually...

Cheers... Hap

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