forgiven 

if you can not or will not prove it , how in the hell would we know it. i can not speck for the other members but i am going to play the percentages and assume you are in the 99% that can not trade until proven wrong .

And the other members will assume the same about you and the other guys on this thread.
I have never seen you or the others post trading statements, and clearly the fact you can't believe that a person could be successful trading suggests that you aren't yourself (unless you are in fact making money but consider yourself unique in that you don't believe that anybody else possibly could).

And you realise that the person you are replying to above is a different person to the one you refused to believe could be profitable from your post just before right? So despite knowing nothing about the second persons trading style it is almost inconceivable to you that they can be profitable because they haven't included a statement.

I remember reading Bob the moderator saying he had nobody on his ignore list (presumably a requirement for a moderator), so I deleted my ignore list. That was a mistake.

Moderator Notice This thread has repeatedly attracted moderator attention, and always for the same things. Enough. To repeat, members can discuss, criticize, disagree, express doubts and argue about anything that is on-topic and relevant to the discussion. They do have to be at least minimally respectful and live up to the standards of FIO. Suggesting someone has something to hide, or is not being honest, or requiring them to publish statements or anything else to prove they aren't lying is not permissible. You can be skeptical and you can have your doubts and express them, but suggesting, without evidence, that someone is faking is not OK, and no one has a right to demand a standard of proof to suit them personally. Turning issues of disagreement into personal issues is not permissible Turning this into a typical internet fight is not permissible. Using offensive language is not permissible. This is not just a matter of not being rude. It is a matter of how this forum is conducted, and it will be enforced. If the participants of this thread are unwilling to take repeated moderator warnings seriously, they can expect to see their posts deleted and to receive bans, at the discretion of the moderators, which may be temporary or permanent. Bob.

133usd 

Feels like he/she is dangling the goodies over our heads, except it doesn't bother me. It's more like Meh, cool story bro. What I'm guessing is that this person trades an indicator with some really, really, heavy context. When the uptrend is strong, and he sees the indicator showing a long and finds a pullback, the trade is taken. Very easy, period. This is how you trade with an indicator, with heavy context. Indicators are NOT to be traded solely. You will lose, and very badly. Nothing is to be taken in a vacuum, nothing. Not even orderflow! You don't trade every signal, and you definitely don't trade heavy on every signal. Shoot, these bigger traders will slowly enter by sweeping the book several times per day (orderflow), but they definitely time it out so their whole position isn't stuck at 1 single price. There is SO much more to trading than simply ONE INDICATOR! Do we hold winners? Do we add to winners and where do we add? How aggressive can we get with our specific system and results of our trading? Are there psychological traits of one's self that must be improved (impulsive, fearful, scared money)? All of this requires heavy discretion, heavy. When to know if you're crossing into revenge trading? What about all the other rules like loss limits? I mean the list goes on and on! I say to the OP, good for you, if it works. Don't feel the need to prove anything at all, I can understand that. That's a good thought pattern in this line of business as we shouldn't feel the need to gain approval (if you trade your own stack). You do this for yourself, that's all you need to do. And to be honest, you can't prove anything to some people, because there will always be people who criticize to some extent ok. My question to the OP is this... Could you please tell us how you manage your winning trades? I'm only asking so I can improve my own results, that's all. What other rules do you impliment? Whatever you are comfortable with sharing, would be amazing. I'm not in the position to pick anyone apart TOO much. Expanding my own mind is more important. How you manage a winner can actually make you or break you. I know because I've been there.

You do bring up some very important points and I’ll give you my perspective on these. You are 100 % correct that trading is certainly not about 1 indicator. If you’d written this post as your first post on this thread, with the explanations and questions you pose here, we could have engaged a lot sooner, but at least we can do it now. I will explain how I approach my day and set things up to trade. I will also briefly explain how I manage my trades.

Before trading for the day, I sit down and scan through the various markets I trade and assess what happened overnight. This gives me an idea as to possible overall direction for the day, as if the market is up or down strongly, they usually continue in that direction for a tradeable portion of the day. My system will always be in the direction of the major trend, with the power of the moves indicated by the lower indicator of my charts. If the markets were sideways overnight with very little NET movement, they will probably carry on that way until some new information comes in.

I then check to see if we will be getting any new information during the trading session by looking at what reports are coming out for the day and at what time. I usually go to forexfactory.com for this as they have it set up in a very easy to read format. I usually stay out of the market around the report time but If I’m in the market with some health profits I just tighten my stops and leave the trade running.

A very important issue for most trading systems, is volatility of the market. I have a live table on one of my screens that gives me the ATR of each time frame of each market. This is important for me and my system as it allows me to pick the most suitable time frame or price frame to trade. If the ATR for a certain time frame is much higher than is normal for that time frame, I will avoid trading that timeframe as it would be prone to whip saws. So I just trade a timeframe or price frame that is acting “normally”. During the trading session, things can change and I will change too. I never get set on trading 1 time frame just because I chose that at the beginning of the day - if conditions change, so do I.

Once I’m ready with all the info, I place my strat/GUI on the charts I’m going to trade and have the parameters set and waiting. I usually do not trade for 10 to 15 mins after the open as this is usually a “feeling out” phase of the market, where all the initial emotions and viewpoints of traders are battling for ascendancy.

When I decide it is time to trade, I switch on my strat and leave it to trade.My GUI ‘allows’ me to make changes to number of contracts to trade and profit target changes. I don’t change anything else related to the strategy - that is fixed. My job now is to determine when to take profits and how aggressive to be with number of contracts to enter with. I have 3 entry levels - midline, 1st ATR and 2nd ATR, with the stop at the 3rd ATR. I hope that I’m able to get at least 2 levels on each trade but in strong markets I sometimes can only get the midline trade on.

My system has an initial and a “spike” profit target. My initial profit target is always 1 or 2 ATR’s from average entry price, and when the profit target is hit, the stop automatically goes to break even on the rest of the position. I will have an initial “spike’ profit loaded on the GUI, but if the market is looking particularly strong I will move it further away. If the trade starts running out of speed, which is indicated by the bottom indicator on my charts, I bring my spike profit closer. As you can probably tell, I don’t use a trailing stop in my trading, I prefer to exit at targets or when my velocity indicator indicates the market is running out of steam. If I’m out too early, the system will get me in again on a retracement.

I wash, repeat, rinse this process throughout the trading session. If the market is strongly trending, I will adjust profit targets further out and if not, might have my spike profit at 3 ATR’s. These are the decisions that I make while trading which I find work for me personally. I do not want to decide whether this set up looks good, or is the volume ideal here or there or does order flow look good to enter etc etc. I want to be like the village idiot when I trade...the strategy decides where I enter and I decide where I exit.

How do I know if the market’s character is changing during the session or I’m totally wrong in the time/price chart I chose at the beginning of the session? - I get stopped out of a position or close to being stopped out without ever getting close to the first ATR exit. I then do a quick run through to see if anything has changed from my initial setup and will adjust accordingly. My adjustment will be to change the time/price chart that I’m trading. Markets are fractal so you have to chose which fractal is best at that point in time.

A few other points regarding my trading.
If I am able to make my trading goal within the first hour of trading, I will get up and leave for the day. I don’t become overzealous and let greed start poking its ugly head into my day.
I aim to only trade the morning session in general - especially these current markets. They are thin and do not have the institutional volume in the afternoon like previously. The 3pm trade seems to have disappeared in the indices these past 4 months or so.

That’s a brief run through of how I trade.
I know this thread seems to be controversial for some reason and it has attracted a lot of naysayers. It was never intended to be. I want to highlight, and I will capitalize it to get my point across..THIS IS HOW I TRADE, might not be how you trade or how you want to trade. That’s great - I’m not going to argue with how you do it.
This technique and way of trading is ideal for me and suits my personality like a glove.

Thanks for sharing your approach to trading. Really appreciate it. It is great to see how you evaluate volatility and adapt to it. Would you share your thoughts on how you handle number of trades (to prevent overtrading) and max loss parameters on a daily basis?

Thanks.

Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

patrader65 

Thanks for sharing your approach to trading. Really appreciate it. It is great to see how you evaluate volatility and adapt to it. Would you share your thoughts on how you handle number of trades (to prevent overtrading) and max loss parameters on a daily basis? Thanks. Sent using the NexusFi mobile app

I don’t determine the number of trades and don’t really pay attention to how many trades I do to reach my daily profit goal. This is automatically determined by the time/price/tick based chart I’m trading on. If for example I’m trading on a 200 tick chart compared to a 500 tick chart, there will usually be more trades on the 200 compared to the 500 tick chart. In general, the lower the time/price frame, the more trades you’ll have. My objective is to get to what ever my daily goal is, in the least amount of trades, so I usually use a larger time/price frame.

My maximum daily loss is always fixed at a percentage of my total account value. I never risk more than 1.5 to 2 percent per day on all markets combined.

Hope this answers your questions.

bobwest 

Moderator Notice This thread has repeatedly attracted moderator attention, and always for the same things. Enough. To repeat, members can discuss, criticize, disagree, express doubts and argue about anything that is on-topic and relevant to the discussion. They do have to be at least minimally respectful and live up to the standards of FIO. Suggesting someone has something to hide, or is not being honest, or requiring them to publish statements or anything else to prove they aren't lying is not permissible. You can be skeptical and you can have your doubts and express them, but suggesting, without evidence, that someone is faking is not OK, and no one has a right to demand a standard of proof to suit them personally. Turning issues of disagreement into personal issues is not permissible Turning this into a typical internet fight is not permissible. Using offensive language is not permissible. This is not just a matter of not being rude. It is a matter of how this forum is conducted, and it will be enforced. If the participants of this thread are unwilling to take repeated moderator warnings seriously, they can expect to see their posts deleted and to receive bans, at the discretion of the moderators, which may be temporary or permanent. Bob.

I think I am going to code the PERFECT Holy Grail indicator.......

It measures the level of volatility on Futures forums and plots buy and sell signals on a chart.

Works on any time frame and with any market.

refine 

I think I am going to code the PERFECT Holy Grail indicator....... It measures the level of volatility on Futures forums and plots buy and sell signals on a chart. Works on any time frame and with any market.

Actually, you're not far from the truth there...
There was a time when I traded with another person in a small prop setting at an office. Everytime the market would move, his chair would creak and shift, and I knew he was losing or missing out. That's usually when I made good trades, by just hearing the chair squeak. It meant he was getting antsy or nervous.
In the pits, from what I've heard, you could simply look around and read people.

If you can detect fear and greed, you've got the grail.
So the Holy Grail is actually inside of all of us.
Aren't we really trading behaviors and emotions of others, which is distilled into price action and patterns?