Been a little busy the last couple days. I've attached yesterday's chart. Yesterday morning was an absolute dream. Perfect downward drift with virtually no turning back until the full blown reversal. Here's the bad part about yesterday morning's price action, I was in the car during it.

Anyhow the setups are clear and obvious and yesterday morning anyone could've made a killing. In reality you should have been able to take that very first entry and run it all the way down to the lows.

Today I didn't trade the 6B. Well I take that back, I tested it a coupe times but shut it down breakeven fairly quickly. I recognized very early that all the news releases today were going to royally screw up the price action. If you wanted fractal reversals and 123's the Euro session was the place to get em today.

Hopefully be back tomorrow in the full swing of things though I am working on another price momentum based idea for trading the CL so I may be distracted.

Blz

Since today was a garbage day for trading my style on the 6B I thought I would chart it and see what could be done. As I've said before ideally I'll trade the Euro session thru the first few hours of NY session but for now I try to trade about 4:30 am PST time and keep at it until the movement really dies down.

I've attached a chart. Today without question would have been a losing day or perhaps a breakeven day but you can see from the chart how good trade management can keep you from getting slaughtered even on horrible days like today.

Blz

Just wanted to get a quick post in here. Sorry I have not been updating this journal much over the past week. I am still keeping my eyes on 6B and soon I will probably get a new monitor and will keep an eye for 123's and fractal reversals on all the 6's. That being said I have also wanted to put together a scalping strategy for the CL and I have been focusing on that over the past week. I will probably start a journal regarding it soon.

I should also begin trading and journaling the 6B again as well as I think I am happy with my CL strategy and won't need to focus so much on tweaking and refining it.

Blz

So it's been a long time since I updated this journal, reason being I haven't been trading fractals on the 6B as of late. There are two reasons for this (1) it's difficult as the best hours for 6B are midnight to 8 am Seattle time and (2) you have to use huge stops trading fractals.

The time issue isn't that big of a deal. I'll stay up all night and drink Diet Rockstars if it's profitable. The large stop is the bigger issue at hand. It's quite difficult to enter a trade with an enormous stop, let it get hit then jump right back in the saddle and enter another trade with another enormous stop. I'm still working on this concept and seeing if I can minimize the stop by combing the fractals with some price action strategies. Though as of late I have been doing a lot of work on a CL trading strategy.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll get back to updating this thing and working on some of these ideas. I like the transparency the journal section creates and the feedback I get.

Blz

Blz17 

So it's been a long time since I updated this journal, reason being I haven't been trading fractals on the 6B as of late. There are two reasons for this (1) it's difficult as the best hours for 6B are midnight to 8 am Seattle time and (2) you have to use huge stops trading fractals. Anyhow, hopefully I'll get back to updating this thing and working on some of these ideas. I like the transparency the journal section creates and the feedback I get. Blz

Blz, I do hope you will continue posting. If you are trading at all, I encourage you to post because it will only help

Mike

Looking to get this baby restarted. Having toyed with trading for some time now I find it fascinating the different stages you progress through. I've had my fair share of successes and failures (more failures then successes). However, I do believe I have learned more from my failures then successes.

Also, in reflection my most successful strategy I have ever taken was with 6B and trading fractal breakouts as this thread was about. I decided to look into other methodologies because I did not like the rather large stops. I was also using only a single contract which combined with large stops made each trade either a win big or lose big situation ("Go big or go home" is a fun line amongst the guys but pretty stupid when trading). I've been reading Trading the Ross Hook and enjoying it quite a bit. It's method is very similar to the fractal breakouts but with more refinement. In addition Joe Ross focuses very much on money management through out the book. One point he touches on is someone's emotional capacity and how it relates to stop placement. As many on this board I too am intrigued by CL. I truly believe I could successfully trade CL. When I watch it throughout the day I can frequently call out winning trades. However, I don't currently have the emotional capacity to trade CL. Perhaps I will some day in the future and for that reason I will still follow it and sim trade CL but for the time being I don't think it is appropriate for me.

So perhaps one day I'll get back on the CL bandwagon with real loot but for now (as much as I hate to shift focus again) I'm going to look back upon 6B. The differences between my approach right now and the fractal breakouts that I utilized before are (1) more refined entries to reduce risk, (2) multiple contracts to better manage trades after entry, and (3) a large amount of focus on money management.

I'm certain some refinement will be needed even after I believe I've found my "system" but I truly feel like I am finally on the right track.

More to come.............

Blz

So as I revisit 6B one of my primary objectives is to focus very much on proper money management. As I alluded to in my prior post I am quite a bit more comfortable with 6B then CL because of it's reduced tick value and reduced volatility.

Let me be clear about one thing with my money management; I fully expect to get stopped out regularly from trades with a scratch or small loss. Obviously, I also expect to take full stops as well but the main focus of my money management is to allow myself to "test" the market, pull a quick profit, tighten my stop and see if I snagged a runner. I call it a "test" because if I get stopped out quickly on my runners then my quick profit contract should offset most or all of the stop loss.

So, as of right now I am looking at utilizing 2 or 3 contracts depending upon the initial risk of the trade (I'll get into the initial risk of the trade in another post). If the initial risk is less then 10 ticks then I'll employ 3 contracts. One will be pulled at +5 ticks and the stop on the remaining two contracts will immediately go to -5 from entry. Once up 10 ticks the second contract will be pulled now leaving one contract with a stop still at -5 from entry. I'm still deciding exactly how I want to pull that final contract. I'll probably pattern fit an ATR trailing stop to it so I can try and let it run for as long as possible.

If the risk is between 10 and 14 ticks then I will utilize 2 contracts. The first contract will be pulled at +7 ticks and the stop on the second will then be moved to -5 ticks from entry. The second contract will be pulled at +20 ticks. Without a third contract I do not believe I have as much latitude in searching for a runner as there may be days where I only get 2 contract opportunities all day and it's important that I do capture some profits when possible.

So that's what I'm working with right now. These rules are by no means set in stone yet but I am quite pleased with them to this point.

More to come.......

Blz

I didn't trade today. Wasn't quite ready plus my wife was in a car accident so spent the whole day dealing with insurance companies (ugh). Anyhow, I did go back and review the 6B chart. Not a very great day. Couple trend moves in there but a lot of choppy crap. Either way though should've been a profitable day. Still hashing out some filters and approaches and such.

Blz

I hope your wife is ok. The weather has been crappy the last few days up here and we have had a lot of accidents. Might be good to sim trade for a couple days because stuff like that will shake you up. No reason to lose more cash from an off day after dealing with insurance.

Nice work Blz, looking forward to more. I also hope your wife is fine and that you get everything squared away soon.

Mike