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I am looking for help with my methology! I encourage all criticism
Hi guys Ive been trading for about a year now used to loose alot, I can sometimes gain consistency but I know my strategy has to have some flaws Im guessing in my money management because one bad trade completely makes the other few good ones irrelvant
So Im hoping to get feedback from seasoned traders who may trade similar to me!
Ok first of all I trade the ES, I never have been sucessful with indicators, Ive been through my beginner phase when I had my chart cluttered with indicators but Ive done away with most. Im currently only using volume and Pivot Points
My methodology is as follows
I trade 9:30-11:30 sometimes I come back for the afternoon sessions around 1:30-2
Every morning I check the fair futures value, Bloomberg economic news, and take note to where the market is trading in relation to the pivot
I trade pullbacks to pivot levels and heavy clonfluent levels, I wait for price to push through these levels with conviction(Atleast 4-5 ticks) I then attempt to enter the market at the retracement to pivot levels + 1 tick for longs or -1 tick for shorts
and at confliuent levels i eneter directly where I try the line where everything syncs up!
I enter with 2 contracts I enter a 2 point stop loss I dump the first contract @ 1.25 points the second is discretionary and i usually trail it once price hits 1.75 points if there is a close resitance I just dump the second contract at 1.75
I only aim for a total of 3 points per day so alot of times I can hit this with my 2 contracts in one trade, this works fairly well but if Im stopped out its a disaster this leads me to beleive my money mangement could use some work!
When I am stopped out id say about 55-60% of the time it ends up reversing and going in my favor after its taken me out this leads me to believe i may also have issues with my entry which in turn changes what my stop loss should be!
When trades are going against me im going through mental hell i can litteraly feel my butt cheeks clinching up until it comes back in the green!
Sometimes the trade just plane goes against me!
My rules are no trading before 9:30 or entering a new trade after 11:30 until atleast 1:30
if im in a trade I wil try to get out early if 11:50 is approaching
I ignore news and stay out the markets 5 min before and after releases
After noting the fair futures value and note if market is trading above or below pivot I especially look to take trades based on the markets bias
I have a small daily goal of 3-5 points daily, And am only allowed to take a MAX of 3 trades per day
If i hit 3 on the 1st trade i log off and im done for the day if I get 2.25 or less I go for a second and rarely a third trade
If I have 2 losers in a day im done for the day
I try to wait for setups that fit my criteria 100% I note my confidence level in the trade and write how im feelng down so I can look at it to remind myself of how confident I am in the trade as a reminder when it goes in the red
I keep the T&S window open and try to watch orders allthough im still not sure how it works, and I also keep the market analyzer open with the DX, ES, TF, NQ and YM with there net change in points and percentage!
I am trying to learn to read tape though im not sure if that will help me manage my trade
about 85% of the time the trade will go in my favor by atleast 2-3 ticks which pisses me off because I feel like i should have grabbed the profits but on the same note alot of time i grab profits just to see the market do exactly what I thought!
I was always taught that as a professional trader you should trade emotionless so I try not to move targets or stop losses but this may be impropper trade management
Ive ready many books one of my favorites was Mastering the trade by john carter!
I am hoping some of the consistenly profitable seasoned pros can help me to get on the right direction!
Im looking for ANY feedback from pros only please!
FYI i love talking with other traders so Im on skype @ youngceo615 feel free to ad me!
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
As you can see I was pretty successful until the last trade but the first trade went against me a bit before filling my order a little bit into the lunch period
I looked at your trades and the first trades look like you are sticking to trading off of S2 by your rules.... but the last trade seems to be a bit further away from S2.... your chart doesn't show S3, but it might be what stopped the move down for that trade.
Here are my 2 trades for ES. The first trade was off of the Low of Yesterday (close to what your S2 is) and is due to a small pullback (hesitation) up into LOY. Price tried to break below the LOY several times before that trade. The second trade was a double pullback down from the LOY. Price tried to break above the LOY several times before I entered on the double pullback. Actually, i had several stop market orders at some of the other potential breaks of the LOY, but they didn't trigger. The two trade entries were stop market orders below the LOY for the first trade and above the LOY for the second trade.
Ok... i give up for the night..... will figure this out later... I followed the instructions... ie attachment upload and then select attachment again. but it didn't seem to work.
I read your first post and then I checked over your chart entries.
1. Can you expound on confluent levels exactly? What are you looking at exactly that have to flow together? And how many do you have to have to take a trade at a confluent level.
2. So you enter at a level before any confirmation of Support or Resistance is given correct?
3. Define each trade on your chart and why you entered at the price and time you did.
4. The emotional stress you feel is caused from what? Do you expect to never have a trade that goes against you because this is not possible for mortal men. You have to make sure that you have entered a trade defined in you system and after that you know your exit methods and that is what will make you exit the trade and nothing else.
5. You are risking 2 contracts at 2 points for a total of 4 points risk. First Profit Target is 1 contract at 1.25 and second contract at 1.75 on each trade. For a total of 3 points profit. How often do you let the second one run over 1.75 honestly. Do you move your risk to Breakeven or Breakeven+?
1.) To me a confluent level is a level where there is a swing low or swing high I usually only need one recent one if market appears to be trending , however i prefer to see a level where a double top/bottom has formed broken by price the double top or double bottom to me represents support or resistance because price has tested the level twice, I also draw a line on swing highs then trace it back a couple days and see if price had any reactions at the level on previous days in the week the more the better. in a perfect world a key level may have been a resistance for the last few days!
2.) I enter levels ONLY after I have confirmed that priced tested a level atleast one in the past and reversed i place a limit order only after its broken a level thats been previously tested with conviction.
3. Trade 1 broke the s2 around 10:40 i had a sell limit order placed at the point at s2 minuse one which got triggreed around 11:30 first target got hit around 12:30 second around 12:45 the second trade was a limit order placed at the swing low prior to it that was succesful the 3rd trade was an attempt to be a limit sell order at swing low prior to that but price kept rising
4.) I expect to lose Im just trying to get my trading to a point where i can loose less! 2 weeks ago I only had 2 loosers, the and was profitable +9 points, Last week I only had one loser and was proftable 13 ticks, this week I had 4 loosers and in the red, i know trades can go against me so i think i may need better money management Ive talked to other traders who suggest my stop may be to wide but any one who trades the es knows that sometimes you need a a little space to let trades develop I was wondering if once i start going in the green should i move my stop a little tighter ive had trades where it goes in the red 4-5 times just to come back and hit my target sometimes coming as close as 1 tick to my target!
5. After 1st target is hit stop is brought up to break even sometimes im stopped out there, and I let the last contract run to a MAX of 2.5 points thats I created that rule to keep me from being to greedy but i only used a wider second target if I dont see any near buy resistance, i usually look for the closest most probable resistance and then place the second limit order 5 or 6 ticks in front of it
myownceo.... sorry about my misunderstanding your trades. I thought each of the blue arrows indicated an entry, but now i understand your 2 contract process. so my comment was about the third trade not being close enough to S2. I also understand now that you don't trade from trader pivots like S2 and tend more to trade swing highs/lows. I tend to trade more off of HOD/LOD, HOY/LOY and 24 hour floor trader pivots.
I already messaged big mike, but maybe you can tell me how you placed your chart inside your post. I tride to attach a file, but my chart only showed up on your reply to me.
to post pics theres a picture of a paperclip next to the smiley face on the screen where you right your replies click that and upload the pic.
and I DO trade off the pivots lke pp s1 r1 etch but I also trade off swing lows and swing highs if it looks strong and its definable enough i also look at chart patterns
