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Catching Big Waves - a trader's journal of surfing the the markets
I am considering changing my indicators. I know that is considered wrong. But I see something that I want to view differently.
It is not that I believe there is anything special about any indicator, and I certainly do not believe any of them are that important, but they do filter how I view things. And I am wanting to view certain things differently today than I did previously.
My main setup screen is a 6 range with indicatoirs set to catch 20-50 tick moves, and it works pretty well, and even when it doesn't, I understand it, I have seen it so many times it tells me all kinds of things. Today for example, I faded it, bought black, when 90% of the time that is against my rules, but today, I knew that was ok. I figured the equities would open with a sellof, since the day prior brought so much panic, people would sell into the open. It also had to do with the overall tone lately.
So, they did sell, and then the news was bad about confidence, and the market went up. GOLDEN. Bought black, as I had been expecting to do off the double bottom, and ran to the blowng of stops, then quit.
So, indicators do not always matter, as long as they speak to me.
But, I have seen a change in something lately that I have focused on for so long but never made happen, and I am seeing it has to do with mental programming, which came from an indicator setting preference.
Since I do not believe in one setting fits all, I am not sure how to approach it, but my focus on higher timeframes is starting to take greater hold on my views, and I am seeing that I do understand higher timeframes more and more, possibly better today than at any time prior. I am finding I prefer to take signals on higher and higher timeframes, that I read them with more precision than before, that I prefer to trade around them, and that my ultimate dream trading may eventually rely on them.
So as much as it feels like jumping out of an airplane to me, I am on an indicator tweak pursuit. I have no idea what that means.
What I use today came from something I saw that I wanted to pay attention to. And I fit the indicators to what I wanted then to tell me. I know, not the normal approach. But by that time I had experienced enough things and said, "no more". I learned what made sense to me. TO ME. And presto, I traded better.
Truthfully, I have never really backtested the setups I use. I don't care really. There is not one entry and one exit. It is about understanding. So changing the settings, range size, MA length, etc, is not really abandoning any holy grail "system".
When I was in college, certain things interested me that no longer do today. When I turned 30 I had things that I felt were immportant that no longer matter. As a trader, I am growing up. Five years old now, I can walk, talk, run, read, understand, and am looking for something to fit that new way of being.
Have no idea what it will be, but I doubt it will be that big of a change. I am considering leaving everything the same, but bumping the range size up from 6 to 8, or 10, or 12...something to step back a step. If I want larger moves, I need to focus on them.
Or maybe, I just need to expand my interpretation. I know the charts I use very well, so it me be best to not change them, but maybe redefine them?
I have felt that when I first got comfortable with low timeframe volume and small range, the idea was to spot the turn. The next level was to see what was an average expectancy of a "turn", and that worked for me, but also against me. It let me see the odds, and now that limits me.
I have no rules that would allow me to catch a large move of $1 or more. Last week saw a $7 move in CL, I have rules that would have allowed for some money, and I made "some". But I first saw the potential at night, and ketp myself out until the US open because of my rules, meanwhile I felt very strongly about what was happening.
Could you elaborate on that, I'm curious on, How or what made you focus on patience.
This is my goal for the week. Wait for price to show me the direction, then wait for price to give me the opportunity to enter in the direction with a reasonably stop loss
I found it very hard to change a bad behavior. I use to jump on all setup with the result that i replanish my broker account while reducing mine.
p.s. You might want to read the psychology section here on futures.io (formerly BMT); or read TT's posts 3X's (500 or more of them) in the next month. You could do worse.
Went to sleep around 8pm EST, exhausted from temperatures over 100 this week, and then was awakened by dehydration. Came over to see what was happening and then decided I was not awake enough to consider a trade. Decided to look through the indicator list instead. @Fat Tails "Super Trend U11" may just be what I was wanting. So much more tweakable than the last version, and with perfect timing to my thoughts of the past few weeks.
As a trader, I have this word in my vocabulary. I have understood it to be a crucial part of a trading mindset. I have written it across my screens, printed it on pieces of paper of sticky notes on my desk, made T-shirts that I wore with it printed in a tribal design I did, even at times when looking for that "final push", considered having it tattooed on my forearm...
Discipline, discipline, discipline...
I apply it it many areas; I spend hours on chart study, reading, developing and tracking support and resistance zones, having hard stops, using leverage, hours I can trade, rules of support and resistance where I can and cannot trade, rules for which markets I can trade, rules for how much volume is required... And that could all be a part of it.
I am about halfway through with The Disciplined Trader. I did not realize it, having passed so many times before, favoring something more technical. And there is a lot of technical out there to understand, not something to be underestimated... but now that I am reading The Disciplined Trader, I was so surprised to find he wrote that, about me.
Not for me, not considering me, probably not ever knowing that I exist. But about me, very much so. I see myself in ways I have not before, but it is me there is no doubt.
I could be the Discipline poster boy if I look at chart study. And I have seen recently that my issue is not on the charts, but inside me. But my efforts have been all within the limits of my own ability to self-diagnose. I gues I hit the edge of that and bought “Mind Games”, but that was not quite clicking with me. Not that it is not a good book, she is ridiculously intelligent, it's more just that the moment I opened The Disciplined Trader, I was "in".
I am in Boston, read 75% of the half on the plane here from DC, carrying a lot of disappointment with myself for not taking some trades this past week while in Virginia. Trades I had studied, called out at least a day in advance, all of them worked, but I did not take them. I took $780 one day, $5XX something another... They were long trades, and I was offered roughly $10 to choose from... I was out of town, afraid of too many things; poor connection, unfamiliar environment, busy schedule and lots of phone calls. And I realized that “discipline” is what I blame to some degree... Has “discipline” become a burden to me?
NO. And I mean, NO.
NO.
OK, but “DISCIPLINE” had me poking at it with a sharp stick for two days now, rolling it in the pages of that book (which just keeps getting a little further out there as I go)...and I saw something today.
I have mostly rules about what I can't do, some rules about what I can do, but my rules on what I MUST do are only related to limitations, not expectations.
Most important as it relates to trading, I have nothing to force me to stay in a winning trade. I do not accept that I have some well developed skills. I will not allow myself to make very much money.
To get to the place where I am in my trading, and then not trust in the future, carrying scars of the past... Overwhelmingly frustrating. To see myself do it over and over, near torturous to me. If I could try just restarting the computer I would.
The book I am reading defines “psychological damage” as “any mental condition that has the potential of generating fear.”
It caused me to see a lot of places where discipline does not live. It embarrassed me that I did not make the connection until now. It caused me to decide to explore those places further.
I trade with the feeling of so much pressure, so much intensity, stress, so many fears. I hold myself back with both hands.
I catch major turning points, with good frequency. I need to FEEL that from being IN the trade, not just out of it and catching tiny pieces. I need to be afraid until it melts into nothing.
That is the trader I want to be. That has been the drive behind my chart analysis and near constant study. That is what has brought me to the place that I am. I have wanted to catch, "big waves". They are an obsession to me, and I watch them with great curiosity, track them relentlessly... but play in and out of them with great fear of them, and refuse to hang onto them.
Until I do catch one, not 50-60 ticks but 100-300, I will always wonder. It will never allow me to rest. It will probably suck sometimes, but that is of course where the discipline comes in.
And so today I start the process of creating rules, applying DISCIPLINE, to staying in.
