I've got to hand it to my wife, without her support, I'd have bailed a long time ago. She's a rock...a nervous one to be sure but she's holding this "trade" a lot longer than I've held most of my trades. I tell her she's a brave women, she just looks at me like I just said the stupidest thing in the world..... but she is a brave women....She once told me her ideal husband would be a CPA or a garbage truck driver....two things that are never going away....income stability above all else....well she married me, a serial risk taker.....there have been some serious highs and some really bad lows as a result.....

Looking for some highs now though....I can see them from here.

Its relative, as you know, a bar thats 20 ticks could be pretty large if the range for the day is only 85-100 ticks. But if the day is wider than that, a 20 tick bar could be on the small size.

For me though, I would prefer to see my entry bars be less than 20 or even 10-12. On the five min chart, that seems to be pretty rare and I am coming to terms with that. Generally speaking, a good entry bar is a good entry bar, regardless of the size. As it turns out, the bar I made the mistake on, didn't really count as an entry bar in any way I would "normally" view an entry bar. It was driven primarily from fear I would miss out on a perceived impulse move that by then was mostly over. There was one a few bars later on but I couldn't take it as I was stopped out.

I've got to hand it to my wife, without her support, I'd have bailed a long time ago. She's a rock...a nervous one to be sure but she's holding this "trade" a lot longer than I've held most of my trades. I tell her she's a brave women, she just looks at me like I just said the stupidest thing in the world..... but she is a brave women....She once told me her ideal husband would be a CPA or a garbage truck driver....two things that are never going away....income stability above all else....well she married me, a serial risk taker.....there have been some serious highs and some really bad lows as a result.....

Looking for some highs now though....I can see them from here.

I hear what you are saying about the impulse move for fear you are coming late to the party, and that you will miss out on the choicest h'orderves. Instead of picking over the leftovers, hang near the kitchen door, and grab the next batch as they are coming out, hot and fresh. the resoning...there is always another move...2 to3 a day, going back a real long way. If you catch 1, even if its right at the opening, your day is done. A few weeks ago, i never would have believed that it was possible. Now i am a true believer.

5 minute charts on the CL can have a bar 50+ ticks. After staring at the ES for weeks, in terms of 4-6 tick moves, the CL for me was like standing near the concrete wall during the Daytona 500, trying to read the letters on the cars as they were going by. What helped me tremendously was to take a wide angle view. Coach from the sidelines, but strategize from the box above the playing field. I found my anxiety reduced a lot when I started thinking this way.

Your trades were almost Identical to the ones I took. Where you went short, tho, I was long and got stopped by 2 ticks. And i was on board on the same move you were. Love to hear that cash register ring as prices confirms my analysis. Even tho its pretty simple stuff.

Of course, in the world of derivative trading, i am still a rookie compared to many in this forum.

i felt the same way about CL the first time I put it on a chart, but I soon learned you can be WRONG and still make money. There was room for error most days to make some money even if you got the macro picture wrong...not so on other instruments....I moved from ES to 6E to CL....it was quite an adjustment. And it seemed like the daily ATR was around double what it is now....I remember 100 tick corrections in a trend.....that barely would pull back to the 23% level....crazy.

If I went back to ES now, I would have to take a prozac to keep me from going crazy. There are days even on CL I feel like price has just stopped moving.

As to your being a rookie, remember that rookie in this business is a designation for those not making money....I seem to remember you posting no losing days this week. Thats not rookie stuff. You've gone from indicator junkie to trading the five min chart with one EMA profitably in less time it takes most of us to figure out this game is not as easy as it looks and to begin our Holy Grail hunt. Time to start trading live if your not already.....

Yes, I have to admit I was a bit of an indicator junkie. I had 2 SMA, 2 EMA, regression channels, some other stuff. Trying to get it all lined up was ridiculous. I figured it out pretty quickly it was usless for me. Notice I dint say useless for everyone, just not for me.

Al Brooks is the man for me. His first book is a snore, I know, and he isnt a dynamic teacher, but, i get him. Thats really it. I get him. I like the simplicity of his approach.
Maybe its time to go live??? Maybe with a little more practice...
On the webinar Wednesday, Multicharts and Mirius Futures, I found out you can trade for a block of accounts, and average the trades over more than 1 account from a single account. Been thinking of how to do that for a couple of weeks. Of course, i never thought to ask my broker...

We have nothing like this in Canada.

Just watched FT71's webinar.....excellent presentation. I learned a great deal about the mental side of trading. I highly recommend it to everyone....

I especially liked the fighter pilot analogy about how a fighter pilot doesn't pull up his manuals during a dogfight to figure out what kind of weapon he should use or what maneuver he needs to make. He just makes them.....its like a trader constantly pulling up different charts trying to figure out which time frame or set of indicators to trade....Just be an expert in your time frame and make decisions based on experience and probabilities.

Secondly, even though you have a high over all winning percentage, the NEXT trade is 50/50. Accept it and move on. Control risk with size....and if you can only trade one lot and the risk is to big, don't trade. Its that easy.

Third, think about what has happened, what is happening and what MIGHT happen. Plan for it.

I think Ninja has the ability to do block trades as well. Very useful if you have multiple accounts or you are trading for friends and family as well. I also know TT has that, CQG and T4 if I remember right. I am sure other platforms do as well but I know TT does....its a little pricey but worth it if you are doing professional level trading.