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It's Christmas again, another year coming to a close. I was thinking back and realized I started this thread in December of last year. I wanted to thank everyone who has stopped by and especially those who either posted a comment or sent me a PM. I never expected to be posting on this thread a year later, again thank you all for more than 17,000 views in 365 days.
Merry Christmas to all of you.
Going To or Going Thru
If you've read a few posts in this thread you may have noticed I put importance on whole numbers (50s and evens (00s)) while trading the 6E. I've also mentioned a few times I like to take profits, " going to whole numbers not going thru whole numbers." In this post my intention is to offer evidence of why I've held this belief when price approaches a whole number.
This 1 minute chart shows price breaking out and rallying to the upside with nice (very nice) volume. Once price "took off" towards 1.3150 with this kind of volume it is My belief, most traders were feeling pretty confident the "Trading Gods" were going to push price to "50, whole numbers often seem like a logical target. The big volume up bar @ 11:06 cleared 1.3140 and "50 was certainly dead in the sights.
This chart is a close-up of the previous chart. There are two things I wanted to point out to make my case, price and time. Both charts (of course) show price did not trade on "50 during this first run. IF a trader was expecting price to trade on '50 and had an order sitting on '50 or a few ticks above to exit a long position he didn't get filled and was immediately forced to make a decision, (assuming a long position) sell or hold. The high of the 11:07 bar was '49 the close of the bar was '42. The next bar @ 11:08 opened at '42 and dropped another 4 ticks to '38 ,,,,, 11 ticks off the high of '49.
"Time waits for no man"
These are snips I took from the Time and Sales data posted on the CME website. The first one shows price trading @'40-'41 within the first 2 seconds after the 11:07 (a.m. est) bar opened. The second snip shows price trading on '49 (top row) during the 4th second after the 11:07 bar opened. My point is, seconds count in the market and making decisions on the fly can cost you (me) money. The opportunity to exit this trade at '47,8 or 9 lasted about 3 seconds, after that nearly one third of the move was retraced. To capture "snips" of the entire Time and Sales report of this one minute bar would have taken many, many attachments. Instead, I'm posting a 5 second chart in an attempt to show that taking profits "going to a whole number" is often more profitable than anticipating price "going thru a whole number."
What a great song; I like Norah Jones but had never heard this song. What a sexy and soothing voice this woman has... thanks for posting this, it's in my music library now!
IMO, Norha Jones is the whole package. A Jass R&B artist from Texas,, you know Willie wasn't going to let her get away. Anyone can identify that voice after hearing her sing only a few lyrics. My favorite music always consists of two things, "a sexy and soothing voice" (preferably a female) and a piano. As I said, IMO Norah is the whole package, not only her voice, but she can play an awesome keyboard.
Since this is My Thread and my wife is keeping me busy being a grandfather I'll post another song. When it comes to lists of sexy female voices, Anita Baker is probably near the top on most of them. And if anyone enjoys the sound of a piano as much as I, it's hard to get any better than Greg Phillinganes. He plays a solo in this song that I've enjoyed year after year.
A New Year's resolution is a commitment to a personal goal. I'm a firm believer in trading goals and wanted to throw out some ideas and methods I use to achieve my goals.
Balance
Trading can be very exciting and extremely rewarding on many levels but maintaining a healthy balance between family, friends, hobbies and other personal interests is IMO a must. I look at trading as a journey not a destination, trading is a part of my life, not my life. I may have financial goals I set for myself throughout the year but these are only goals, not an all encompassing single vision of my total life. I think it is important for me to step away from trading throughout the year and re-create, re-create and stay focused on the meaning of my total life. By setting achievable financial trading goals throughout the day, month or year, I can allow myself to feel a sense of completion on a journey that has no end. My long term goal in this journey that never ends is to get better at what I do, not continuously search for the finish line. In this endless journey of trading you may find, as I did, that you will never be better, or more of a trader, than you are a husband, father, son or daughter (human being).
Focus on the Process
Whether my goal is to increase my trading size, limit my risk or stop overtrading there are well defined actions I must follow to bring these goals into reality. Each goal I set consists of a plan of action, simply a list of do's and don'ts, this is the process. If my goal is to implement a daily loss limit the action necessary to achieve this goal is simple, stop trading before my daily loss limit is hit. The process to achieve this goal starts with a longer term personal belief of the importance of this goal, from there the process turns to action steps only I can execute. I am the only person responsible for the outcome of my trading. The pros and cons of a daily loss limit can be argued from both sides, but it is my individual belief of it's importance to my trading that concerns me, no one else's. By committing to a New Year's resolution to focus on the processes of my trading allows me to keep my finger on the pulse of my trading at a daily or even a trade by trade basis. These small goals based on the processes necessary to achieve much larger goals can pay big dividends over the long term and at the same time offer intelligent achievable positive feedback on a much smaller time frame. The challenge is mine, and mine alone, trading IMO is a lonely journey. Knowing I am capable of stopping my trading for the day before my daily loss limit is met can alleviate many more serious pitfalls of trading but the feeling of closing up shop when I'm down on the day isn't always a joyful experience in the short term. But if I remain committed to the longer term goal, knowing I achieved and honored my commitment to my smaller term process goal the positive feelings often out weigh the negative feelings in a very short period of time.
Inch by inch it's a cinch, yard by yard it's hard.
It doesn't sound as good when you say, Centimeter by centimeter it's easy, meter by meter it's hard.
