(copied from one of my previous posts--might as well start my journal with it)
Was only 2 weeks ago that I decided to make the transition from passive Investor to active trader.
The challenges are formidable.
I have to upgrade my net connection, upgrade my pc hardware, get a new desk, reorganize furniture, change brokers, etc.... Having said that I expect everything to be in place by the end of march. In the meantime I am learning how to read charts, different instruments, watching webinars, videos, etc.....
I really like Al Brooks methods. "Gimme a chart and I'll trade it" That is basically my long term goal.
I'm slowly getting a grip on the various factors that make up a successful trader--psychology, strategy,methods, RR, Money management, journals, etc..., and again PSYCHOLOGY---
I have a full time job, family, badminton 3 nights a week, softball most Sundays--so while I remain focused on the task--it is going to take time--lots of it.
here's a real newbie question for all of you --Are there any charts that plot volume in candlestick format? ie.. draw a candlestick for every 100 contracts traded.
My study regimen? I will watch again all of Al Brooks webinars-- I also find useful Patstrading daily u tube videos
nightly chart watching--
The following user says Thank You to asiaexpat for this post:
You are starting a journey that I too started over two years ago now....if I had it to do over again I would have started with James Dalton and Brett Steenbarger. Learn to read what the market is telling you.
Good luck!
XS
The following 2 users say Thank You to xiaosi for this post:
Do you know if there is any social collaboration among the community of daytraders living around thailand? Ive got a vacant hosting account just aching for a new website
So I finally figured out how to download free historical data and actually got a simulation session up and running.
5 minute Emini
I know there is some debate about simulation but I found it extremely useful.
My intention for this session was to get use the controls and mechanics of the ninja platform--Chart Trader/vs DOM etc.... but it quickly evolved into an all out trading session.
I was in way over my head.
I made all the rookie mistakes--poor entry selection, didn't follow my "rules", sold too soon, traded way too much, trying catch every swing. .... think I made like 27 trades in 3 hours. I got tired and impatient and lost $300 in the last 1/2 hour.
I was scalping--reached my target once and got stopped about 4 or 5 times. each of the stops cost me 100$.
Seems like every time I entered a trade within seconds I was already 1 or 2 ticks down --Then I went into " I was wrong and how to get out mode" So I would scalp for 2 or 3 ticks. etc.... etc... Just poor management. wanted to get my money back-- I'm competitive--even trading phoney cash.
On the positive side--I quickly identified a channel and made some good trades--even a couple trend lines I created were surprisingly useful.
I enjoyed it, Great experience-- Im starting again now.
I finally got everything up and running--bought a ninja license etc...----
Today is the first day I could actually trade for real.
I was nervous---watching the ESmini open and trying to wait patiently for an entry point.
Finally took the plunge and exited 24 minutes later with a 4 tick winner.
It was tough waiting-- the temptation was to take 2-3 ticks but I was confident I could get more. I still dont know the what the final outcome would be if I just let it ride out.---
I have'nt posted in a while and that's because I find that it much more convenient for me to write down notes on paper as I trade.
I went through an initial blow out period where I lost big for about 8 sessions. Have since focused on capitol preservation and am making good progress.
Bought Al Brooks price action course--well worth the money and I'm still no where near finishing it.
Started reading that Brett Steenbarger book "Enhancing Trader Performance"--excellant reading.
back to work
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Its been about 12 weeks now since I started this quest and I have a learned a lot. I've watched tons of videos and webinars, spent time in chat trade rooms, read books and tried to get all the best advice that I could. Have made hundreds of trades-both Live and Sim.
What have I learned??
All that stuff is good but there is no substitute for sitting there and watching charts -and trading--hour after hour, day after day, for as long as it takes.
Indicators are interesting. I still don't know how to use them properly. I install them and then promptly forget that they are there. But I believe that the right set of indicators set up over the right time frames, and undersood and used in the right context etc..can add to the traders edge. I havn't found that yet for me but I am slowly paying more attention to my indicators. They are useful.
Current status--I trade mostly in SIM these days-- -but when I see a setup that I am really comfortable with I take a live trade ( maybe 2 or 3 per day) --and I'm fairly successful with that to the point where I can just about breakeven( thats tough scalping 1 contract YM). actually before commissions I have had 2 profitable weeks,
SIM VS Live? I find SIM very useful to hone my risk management skills--For fear of the big stopout I am pulling in my stops too soon. For me SIM is srictly a practice, testing exercise- it is not a test--"like don't trade live until reaching profitability in SIM"----I get crushed in SIM, I dont take it seriously, but I think its great tool to hone skills... and kill time waiting for a good live trade setup. Impulse trading has hurt me--I can be as impulsive as I want in SIM but when I see a $ trade that I like I switch to live for that trade.
psychology? They say psychology is 70% of it- I agree completely. Sometimes I finish a bad session and say "WTF did I just do, I went back to all my bad habits--WHY??? I put so much into this and and then now in one session act like I have never traded before. " You gotta deal with your demons man or else there is no hope.
Many people say don't scalp.. My natural tendancy is to scalp but slowly I am expanding my trading range--Its a natural progression--not because people say don't scalp.
In fact I think tight trading ranges provide a good % of high probability scalp trades.
So for now I keep doing doing what I am doing--I'm making slow progress an all fronts-MM, RR, TM and physch.
I am also considering some formal training/education. Looking at Jaguar's stuff--not ready to take the plunge as I still work.
Been testing out indicators and have found that the MACD Indicator can provide some very nice signals. I am using 4 fast, 12 slow, 8 smooth settings on a 3 range chart. Results are promising. When the MACD line crosses the MACD avg line at a steep angle there is a nice probability of substantial follow through. A more aggressive trader would get in when the MACD line makes a sudden reversal at an overbought or oversold level.
You play badminton AND softball in the Bangkok heat? Where did you find enough people to play softball or better yet, where did you find a baseball field to play on? Soccer I can see but softball?
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
The bangkok softball league has been going on for about 20 years--each year we have 6-8 teams. We play at the polo club --soi polo or at one of the international schools--ISB or RISM. Ive been involved in bkk softball for years and did a 2 year stint as league commission a few years ago.. Its mostly americans and canadians but there are several thais who play... check out our website if interested---We do need sponsors
Got battered quite badly the last few weeks--- and was forced into a rethink. My methods of sort of blindly following indicators and chart patterns have failed-in a large part due to my psychology.
My rethink involves the study of order flow and I have been testing the Ninja/OFA software. So far I'm impressed.
After just a few days of study have been able to break even in live and sim trading the ES. Using the order flow have been scalping 2-5 ES ticks with good consistency .
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,360 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,045 given,
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received
While I am certainly an advocate of ditching indicators, don't replace one bad habit with another. I think learning order flow and using volume analysis is smart, but make sure you've really got a solid plan on how to be profitable.
Scalping 2-5 ticks on the ES has got to be the hardest way I can think of to make money trading. Just my opinion...
Lets say my plan is under development--as I suppose everyone's plan is. As long as I am trading 1 contract my focus is on good entries and getting those first few ticks.
and if you recall Mike, I have modest goals, $100 extra pocket money per day here in Thailand goes a long long way.
6 months into this journey and I have learned a lot--mostly about WHAT NOT TO DO. The WHAT TO DO is what should make up my plan and I am getting closer to having a solid one.
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,360 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,045 given,
96,615
received
Please make sure you focus on risk, more than focusing on how much you can make. So make sure your plan carefully considers what you need to risk in order to make that $100 a day.
Don't forget to include slippage (bid/ask premium) and commissions, very important factors for scalpers.
Also, you are at a bit of a disadvantage being so far from Chicago, the latency is going to be working against you. This will depend on your specific strategy, but in general it would apply to any scalper.
Good luck asiaexpat...if i were to start all over again with the knoweldeg of hindsight i would:
1.) Pick a market that suited my time available
2.) Put in the screen time with a basic chart set, a DOM, and the T&S
3.) put together a book of plays, ORB, GAPS etc...that i see repeat over and over
4.) Practice these until you double a SIM account and then
5.) Start over and triple a sim account
6.) Journal and work on an improvement plan to eliminate mistakes and errors, bad trades.
Apply real money to an account and start trading live, try to break even the first month.
Its a thin market, so it moves pretty fast at times. The best time to trade it is from the open of the cash market at 8:00 AM GMT through until their lunch three or four hours later, then sometimes after lunch it might have a change of heart for a while until the US opens...then its sort of led around by the US.
The FESX (Eurostoxx 50), the Z (Ftse 100), and the CAC40 are cheaper to trade margin wise, and per tick.
The DAX has some nice stop runs though...Watch them all for a little while to see which one suits you. There are a group of Australian traders that just love the FTSE. Personally i want to migrate to the CAC as its a little thicker than the DAX and less margin. The FESX is thicker again and more like the ES, in fact its right up there for liquidity.
The DAX and/or the FTSE can be the main drivers here, so you'll want them on your inter-market screen.
Cheers,
XS
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After close to a year messing with various lagging indicators I have been gravitating towards understanding and focusing on Market Profile concepts. My trading has improved tremendously because of it. I downloaded several of Dalton's videos.- converted them to mp3s and listen to them daily on my trip back and forth from work. Listening to them over and over again has helped to ingrain the concepts into my sub conscience and provided me with a insight into the market auction. End of the day its all about practice and sticking to one thing day after day.
Currently I am combining the Market Profile concepts with ultimate oscillator, gomi divergence, and ichimoku indicators to help give give me some great entry points. Trade off a 2 unirenko and using market profile and 30 minute charts as general long short bias guidance.
My biggest weakness remains to be getting out of trades too early and not getting out of the losers early enough.
My entries are good and win loss ratio is great but still losers bigger than winners.--overall way up in sim but still not satisfied and i wont go back to live till I have the experience of riding out those winners
The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.
The following user says Thank You to asiaexpat for this post:
Been live for a few months now--at this point its all about psychology,risk management and patience. Still have a very bad habit of letting the losers run out of control and wiping out days of profits. Dealing with the pain of taking a loss is whats its about and I am getting much better at taking those (more frequent) smaller losses and moving on to the next opportunity.
Confidence is strong as I know what I have to do its just a matter of doing it. How many times have I gotten out before reaching my target--in fear of seeing it going back and giving back profits---only to see it reach my target as predicted? Way to many times..... How many times have I my moved my stop with the hope that It will come back--it always does--well it does not always come back...
Having said that--I will stop working end of June--early retirement... and I have noticed that as the day approaches I am much less risk tolerant knowing that I will have to depend on trading to supplement my limited resources.
I won't bore u with my entry rational but can say that one of my tools is the GOMCD divergence indicator. Excellent indicator taking into context of course..
