I have done 3 personal 150K combines (myself only with the same restrictions TST has) my question to you is: lot size do they look down on averaging trades?
I would like to say too that the time factor was the number one disciplining factor for me. I wish to share the 20 days of my $150,000 combine to demonstrate how I held on to a loser for SIX HOURS (check day 2) in a bid to 'make it a winner' and finally had to cover well before DLL:
I am not ashamed to post it now because I have made huge improvements to my trading post such mistakes.
P.S.: I am not attempting at 'recovering' the stats for this combine anymore.
The following 5 users say Thank You to iqgod for this post:
Good job here! I think one can safely estimate a time limit for a trade when to kill it based on collected stats. So it's not only a limit in ticks but in time too. If you trade usually the same market state and session, stats can tell you a valuable story about your average win and loss duration and what can be expected and when it is usually good to put it to down.
I can tell you for sure they will fail you in LTP or JT is you add to a loser, there is a clear requirement not to do that. So even if you complete a Combine this way, they will ask you not to do that in next stage.
I think they are happy with you trading less contracts than maximum allowed but at some point if you trade well they might ask you to take more risk on if you see you are too risk averse. This is something I have heard from others.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I started to trade my practice account today, trialing my new strategy that takes advantage of failing order flow near the key levels. Please find it here:
Today I have traded my new practice account at TST. They encourage to use this account for testing and development but urge still to treat it like a live account to avoid any bad habits. I fully agree with it. Shooting trades from the hip in demo makes …
Generally a very low volume day, lack of participation, the strategies I tested require more normalized trading activity thus did not work. Still I could get a couple less losers in the beginning of session by applying filters. However losses will be ever present, so the question is not how to minimize them by any means and costs, but how to still take winners. Some of my break even trades could be winners. Since I target minimum 3:1 reward to risk, perhaps I should concentrate not to pass on a winner instead of protecting trade by any means. I will test a time based break even approach - only putting to break even about one minute after, if price action remains in the region of entry - move a limit there to get out. If price action moved away - do not put to break even until one test of the entry. If price action moved away to profit - look for potential scale-in entries, and prace original stop where I would place a stop for a scale-in entry. This won't work for 15 ticks profits, but I plan to capture much larger runs like 30-50 ticks too. For 15-tick profits only use break even as per rules above, because I will get stopped out of many profitable trades.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Hey, volume in gold switched to August something like 2 weeks ago, it has nothing to do with platform or firm. Your platform may switched you because June went into delivery, but you should move yourself long before that.
Traded a hell lot on practice today. Since volume was bad again and hardly any orderly trading was expected I was shooting different trade ideas from the hip. 35 trades or so. Some good, some bad and some evil. Obviously down a lot and long series of losing trades. Low volume day obviously exaggerated it a lot, but it is a good thing: too good day may get you into believing that inferior setups work better than their average expectation. Sure, setups did work today too, but generated sequences of losses that would be insane to trade live with even if a good winner would pay off a large chunk of it. Scalping gold with a small stop is not a viable option, something I have proven for myself today. So I can put a stop finally on streaks of trade ideas I am having all the time. For me gold is great to trade with momentum when present, but pretty much nothing else. When gold is not moving fast it is largely chaotic, and while it is still possible to trade it will require a larger stop loss to sustain chaotic ticking up and down. This makes bringing to break even very hard with gold - you get stopped by the weird tick and then it moves away. So the best to trade gold is when it is moving unidirectionally. Then it is most orderly and entries and stops make more sense. Avoid any areas when it stops and just hang in there. Better to bail at BE, it gives opportunities to bail often enough. It should move fast or bail.
So this is something I will practice starting tomorrow:
1. My main setup, look to improve entry and fill given the good order flow, or fade the level if order flow is weak on approaching
2. Mark the key levels, after they worked and price is through, look to fade price action it these points, assuming order flow is not strong on approach, and that level significance is reinforced with mean-reverting pressure, so the best entries are coming from price action spiking through the keltner channel (or BB or something similar, based on statistical distribution)
3. Fade price on VWAP like given that market has a bias and VWAP is skewed from the VPOC, so the volume area is skewed towards market direction, in this case VWAP fade can get me in for the huge ride, check if 10 ticks stop will be better. Risk reward can be 10:1 on a trade like this. Also run few weeks worth of charts checking possible historic VWAP setups and what stops were working. Consider using up to 20 ticks stop for initial entry. Adding to the position can be done at breaking through the key level.
This is 3 simple ideas, I need to work them out to perfection. Rinse and repeat.
So this time every month (around rollover) is really slow like this? It's amazing how some days CL can wave around like a rollercoaster and then perform like today. SO SLOW...
Although I'm certainly in no position to critique your trading as you are much more advanced than I, but just a thought on your comments:
I've learned (too much) to just not trade the market if it is (or I am) not ideal, but it definitely has turned into under trading - looking for balance now.
Why? I picked up too many bad habits trading too loose (SIM or live).
So far my tightness has improved my overall results but now need to add a little looseness slowly if that makes sense.
The following user says Thank You to TrendTraderBH for this post:
Well, I agree with you, it's a bad idea to trade loose and shoot from the hip for any prolonged period, but to filter out and know what not to do one has to try it first. It's all different when you look at charts backwards and trading it real time demo or live. Some setups that look great on chart are very difficult to catch real time, and you may start loosening it up to finally catch one and lose as a result. I look for high probability setups with high risk reward that don't appear that much to induce over trading or generate long series of losers.
I have those for decent volume days but they suck in dead market like we have now in gold. I would trade ES instead but I won't be allowed to trade it live until I build a cushion or at least convince them I can do something else too by having a decent profit. So I focus on immediate problem.
Knowing it's FOMC day and it likely to be rangy and quiet I practiced on range trading. I think I am for too much perfection, 3 ticks stops on gold did not work for me because entry was almost always off by 1-2 ticks
5 ticks would make nice winners for 10-15 tix or more each. 20 ticks stops on retest daily high low were working fine too.
I am slowly building a trading plan that includes separate trading profiles for low-volume low-volatility range days and high-volume days that can turn trendy. I assume every day as rangy until I see some volume and momentum moves to give it a potential to generate a trend.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
As a result of last 3 days of trading I can dismiss for now setup with fading the key level after it was invalidated. It gave some potential before but can generate too much losses in a row.
I also will adjust my stop to 5 ticks for a fading setup - both levels and VWAP.
I will look into getting historical confirmation for fading retest of daily high/low with larger stop, currently 20 ticks sounds max I would do, maybe can be done with less.
Mean-reverting setup - I will continue to test it with 5 tick stop for now, instead of 3 ticks.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Hi,
First thanks for the nice journal.
Can you please explain how you choose the area where you put your Entries?
Did you test this method for other market? Volatility is a key in your trading, how can determine if the volatility is good to execute a trade?
Thanks in advance and happy trading day
Adam ribica
The following user says Thank You to FKtrader for this post:
Thank you for sharing this journal. I respect it because it is qualified and vetted by a second party, Top Step Trader Combine. I wonder if Al Brooks could do this Combine as you have done it? I wonder if some of the other "BM webinar Guru's" will step up and earn respect as you have done? I am hopeful that your journal will bring a new insistency of complete performance transparency among us traders.
Question, this blog you have posted is a book in English, and very well written, as English is not your first language. You race motorcycles, as you mentioned in this journal. I think that speaking in several languages and putting yourself "out there" in a motorcycle race has given you an ability to speak the markets language and to trade instinctively? Please comment on your mental confidence when trading gold, racing bikes or speaking a foreign language?
Sorry if this sounds corny, but I believe that successful traders have to succeed at many other endeavors in life.
Warm regards to your new family, donzi
The following 2 users say Thank You to donzi for this post:
Hi Donzi
I agree with you and so what if it sounds corny? Like in trading, if it's true, it doesn't matter if it's corny. In English, this phenomenon you talk about is called 'mastery'. If you know how to master one thing, you know how to master anything.
There is a legend from Japan about a tea merchant who was challenged to a duel by a samurai.
Sorry I couldn't help but answer, however I will let xelaar answer his question now.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Have a look at my videos, they are pretty explanatory. I have spent this whole week trying to work out a sensible low-risk high-reward approach in gold to use limit orders, and wasn't successful at it, it's just not the best instrument for this sort of trading. So gold likes mostly stop orders. I suggest to try it on crude, it works very well and should slip less.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Thanks for your thanks! I enjoy writing it especially when I sense it can benefit others. It benefits me too for sure, disciplining and making accountable.
I am not a master trader, I am in a beginning of my trading career, being trading regularly only 3.5 years. So I am not a position to be compared to well respected gurus like Al Brooks. However I agree about many mentors having no track record publicly to prove what they are claiming, unfortunately this is so widespread in trading world, but I actually noticed it's the same in many other areas of life too, especially as we cross more and more from post-industrial to marketing era. It's more important to claim something and reap quick rewards instead of work tirelessly track record and then fail because people just don't believe it or find it dull comparing to fake stuff some guys put there.
I think comparing learning trading to learning other languages fluently is a good one. When you learn the language you not only learn alphabet, memorize words, but you actually learning a lot about the culture, traditions, mentality of the nation whose language you learn. It's quite a journey. I have left my home country 13 years ago and lived in several different countries, worked at multinational, so I speak 4 languages fluently, 1 bearable and 1 very limited.
Although talking language cannot be compared to trading, only learning both can be compared, IMO. However, it's very comparable to competitive sports. Both are hugely affected by state of mind, being in the zone (actually Douglas did not invent it, it's coming from professional sports psychology, athletes are trained to place themselves in the zone), fear and greed.
In both you need to be very sure in what you are doing, especially in risky sports, trust your skills and your edge, be calm and focused. You can't expect to win in both by throwing something up and see if it works. If you do this in trading, you can lose money. If you do that in racing, you can die. Practice makes perfect. You build up your skills and your positive state of mind. You need to work hard a lot, and then you need to work harder even more. But like in any process you can go a straight way or get strangled in loops. It happens a lot. This is where a good help can make wonders to see the way. But if you got no skills or understanding yet, any mentorship won't make you a champ.
There is no sacred truth here, just old same corny story, as you mentioned. But there are no secrets how to become a world champion or millionaire trader. You need to aim very high and work tirelessly towards it.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Finally I am putting an end on this frustrating week. I tried something very difficult, wasn't totally a failure but just doesn't fit the parameters I put in. I am talking about working out a system to fade moves in gold with limit orders and very small stops. I can do ok with it using stops like 10 ticks, but it's hard to expect moves of 20-30 ticks regularly from these setups to justify this risk, also several consecutive losses are very probably.
Instead I have decided today to focus on staying with the force of order flow, entering on failing pull backs with stop orders and small stops, using compressed price action and a trigger.
Here is few screenshots of my trials today. I plan to continue next week with this type of setups. I will write a formal plan here later on today.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
yes, very tight mini range that is happening not due to low volume but due to a lot of struggle on the ladder, one side has to give and can cause a fast move
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I found I had come as a pretender to the world of trading.
However once I exposed my ulterior motives (which were trying to masquerade as many things but definitely making money was not one of their objectives) I moved into the "Dreamer' state.
However I faced many blocks - all the blocks were inside me - I was the block. I had to mindfully train myself to what trading really was and not what I was trying to make of it (which resulted in complacence to do work and a ego stimulator as a substitute for the real pride of achievement).
I truly believe that now I am at the fag end of the 'Dreamer' state - actually there is nothing to 'truly believe' - I can humbly say that I can never comprehend everything I thought I could because the amount of work needed can span multiple lifetimes. However by putting faith where it belongs, by making myself available, and by doing all that hard stuff that needs to be done (rephrase this in present: I am doing all the hard work that is needed and I am succeeding in trading) that I will keep seeing success.
There is no substitute for the hard work - and I no longer add a'Sigh!' to these posts because that is how it should be!
P.S.: Ray's courses are highly recommended for anyone contemplating of developing their intuition.
The following user says Thank You to iqgod for this post:
Have you guys actually done his course? It sounds great from the description but it actually tells me not very much at all that I can use to judge whether the course content is something I would benefit from. I've been looking at the psychology of trading pretty intensely now for the last few months because that's where my problems all lie, so maybe this course will only tell me stuff I know already - and the only benefit would be the personal 'coaching' element.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
The following user says Thank You to Adamus for this post:
I've got the 101 lessons book by Dr. Steenbarger, looking forward to read it. Didn't do IDT yet, might consider. Too much at the table right now. I have signed for CTD.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I was considering doing both IDT and CTD for a while, planning to go through during the summer dolldrums, but I learned on Friday in TST squawk they are hiking the price on Monday. So I signed up on Saturdays starting today. Now as I checked CTD website, they indeed hiked the price from 1495 to 2995. So I locked in at the old price.
My reason to do this despite already been funded by TST, is I want to develop further. I was consistently profitable over time only with very short term momentum trading, I tried a lot of swing trading, position trading, but never was consistent or trusted any system or approach. I want to develop further, I want to trade size. Size always was a limiting factor to me.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I'm in week 1 of CTD right now. Also did IDT. IDT gives you a road map of the other variables you need to have down, entries and exits are only part of the equation.
I am still waiting on my login/information for CTD that supposedly starts today. How do you like it so far?
My main reason was to unlearn all the bad basic things I have been taught over the years by several mentors, all this indicator madness, ema spaghetti, etc. I have found a refuge in trading price action, supply/demand and order flow, but really want to expand it further onto swing trading level and beyond the day trading.
Not at home this week, so did not trade on Monday, did a bit of trading on practice yesterday. Still adjusting default stop size and filters, but starts to look much better. Taking these setups is same key level zones warrant better results as for my main setup and allow for nice rides. Also helps to reduce number of trades.
The first trade here got somehow quacked from the trade by non-exiting tick, despite having stop 4 ticks away. Had to increase as this ain't fun. Then planned a short but at some point decided to try to catch it ticking down from the range and potentially going up, it hit my stop to the tick, but the whole premise was wrong. I need to limit myself to trading with stop market orders unless fading a very key level. Then few good trades I should have held longer. Overall a slightly positive day, starts to look better. Now with the setup being fixed I need to formulate stop management strategy and finally come up with a trading plan.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Hi Xelaar,
I was following up on your recommendation to read "Order Flow Trading" and I can find it on Amazon apart from one copy for over £100 - is it so rare? It says it was published 2011. Is it an ebook?
I am currently looking at levels in the market and I can't find a description on your journal about what you use to establish your key levels. Do you mind sharing again?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Hi it was never sold on Amazon, I think 1000 copies were printed only. It costs 100 bucks new I believe or bit more.
It's not something you can't live without especially if you understand order flow already, but it can help a totally new trader to grasp how order flow works, stop liquidations. There are almost no ready made strategies in there, it's just a general overview. So bite no nails about it. You can get a sense of it at the author's site Trader Education
Levels.. it's must less about levels than about reading the order flow when price is traded at the level or nearby. But you can start with basic levels - just yesterday's high a low and see what you can digest from price action when it is closing on them.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Actually lately there have been quite interesting order flow related webinars here at futures.io (formerly BMT). Especially Peter Davis's, MarketDelta's and less so OFA presentations.
With the addition of the chat box on the blog I have had the pleasure of having some great conversations with my blog readers. I found that many of them are still having some trouble making money, so I wanted to take some time to write this blog post …
Actually I am aware of those seminars and they look good, but the reason why I was chasing up Daemon Goldsmith was because of an old announcement of a seminar by him on another well-known forum (not this one) that focuses on forex and part of the introductory blurb said:
So that got me interested because of the lack of volume data in forex and yet this talk about order flow. I'd love to take advantage of volume data-based order flow analysis with software like that from DionysusToast but obviously I'd have to go to 6E futures to do that and I'd lose the 1/2 ticks that I like in forex.
PS thanks for the pointer to his website - strangely I missed that one in google.
PPS Actually it seems that that quote above is actually a quote of Daemon Goldsmith - according to the user name on forexfactory.
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
What was the % long vs %Short trades you have taken in the combine and LTP lately ?
I'm looking for cracks in your armour (Was dich nicht umbringt .. usw). As Gold is in a sort of freefall I am wondering if more of your tripwire type trades have happened on the short or on the long side ?
Do you think that the trend has helped you or are your entry points just little knots in the woodwork ?
Well, the first huge crack happened before I started with the combine. I did benefit from the follow up big movement on the first days, but not so much in term of profit - I was trading with just 1 lot. You can check the stats I was publishing. As for % of long and short trades, I don't have my logbook here as I am not a home this week and on my travel laptop, but I remember that my best trades were all longs. Beside I was only capturing about 10 ticks on average. What helped not necessarily direcitonal movement to one side but rather significant volatility and large participation, at least in intial phase of combine. If people don't trade market no stops are placed, so no bursts of order flow are present. I selected gold for combine especially as it was providing nice opportunities. I tried similar style on Euro and Crude, and Gold was far more superior. If some other instrument would have been moving better I would chose it. I am not locked on gold and in fact I did not trade it much before. My best trades live during several previous years were on EURUSD, as it was swinging like mad printing 200-250 pips every day and gunning levels all the time. Then it died and I moved on. So if volatility in gold will die out I will move on. I can't care less what to trade as long it gives me what I want. It can be pigtails in marinade or railroad-car sized tofu blocks. Who cares.
My development continues, I trade it more like a real account. Yesterday I ended up with +5 but I did take some questionable trades, today was better even though I got slipped (on demo) on a trade to a full stop out. Can happen.
Yesterday
Today
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I think you all have noticed a great potential to fade the range border where price action aligns on a perfect line to the tick and makes pushes out of the range on the other side. The beauty of it you can really trade it with 1 tick stop. So you can safely take 3-5 ticks profits several times before getting stopped. Stop can be a stop-reverse to break out mode.
This is a perfect application for order flow reading. Looking forward to get to it with Jigsaw tools next week!
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Just wanted to update those who asked previously, my newest funded trader interview on TST Squawk will be next Tuesday, tune in if you want to hear my story.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I'll likely miss it Xelaar, do you have the same username as futures.io (formerly BMT)? I get emails from TST on the interviews so I'll watch for it...
Its a little late for me usually. Congrats again buddy, well done!
XS
The following user says Thank You to xiaosi for this post:
Tried working with limits again today, to enter on tight consolidation that is breaking on the non-even side, it's a sign of opposing order flow. I am not at home this week and have no Jigsaw tools available so trading blind. Not good, but again I did not wait for very good ones that came later in the day. So bad day with 20 stop outs in the row, but this is indicative how important quality and strength of setup is and its locaiton! I would be out after 3 of them when live and 10 ticks down. But because I take time to master my both reading of the market and enter technique, I was able to catch some good ones too in the end. CTS apparently has changed some parameters to its test system, so entry on limit is very hard, it has to swipe all limits to get filled or tick through. Its easier to get filled when live, as FIFO works there, here is I am always last. After missing a bunch of good setups I had to resort to entering at 1 tick worse price and increasing my stop by 1 tick.
In a nutshell this is my old setups from combine, just a bit better entry style potentially.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I have reviewed the first week of my Combine journal today. It's amazing how memory can be misleading when you smoothly drifting along the way and it seems that it was all the same always. Journal can help you to reveal what memory hides from you. I could see I traded differently during the first week, and later started to go onto loss minimization route, taking only stop run trades for lesser amount of ticks. It worked well of course because I had enough firepower to exploit it. But I doubt this is the best strategy for the real life trading. Fighting with slippage, for every tick, and by adding more contracts making the problem and struggle worse.
I like some conclusions I have drawn from last week trading with these mini-consolidations, but I also this I had a very good idea in the beginning that waned away after volatility in gold subdued, by trading with momentum bars. Now it seems we are having decent volatility again, so I will look to re-introduce momentum setups back, maybe I could combine they with breakouts, by treating a large momentum candle high/low as a key level and trading it as such, finding a mini-consolidation or a compressed pullback and trading its break in a direction of momentum. This week I will try to trade all setups with 10 ticks initial stop to avoid rogue tick stop outs, but will reduce it after initial movement and put to break even or around when one entry retest is done. In reality putting to break even is a bad thing, as rarely a level where your break even is bears any technical significance in the market, so you are trying to impose you view on the market and it never works. In reality you should apply some trailing technique right from the start, so at some point the stop will be past your breakeven and lock in some profit. I know that 10 ticks is a very small stop in gold to employ that tactic, so I will be looking for some healthy compromise and instead of technical points or swing high/low will use high/low of the 6s momentum candles in my direction.
I will start trading my practice account with this technique in my starting today as if it was a live account. I am tired of doing 50 trades a day just to see "what if" might work better or not. I think I stuck a bit in a search of perfection.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Thanks, Iqgod! Here is my trading plan for this week, I will try to adhere to it for the whole week no matter what. I will have any NFT interview tomorrow, but doubt any live account will be available this week, maybe by the end of it, so I better gain some confidence again by trading practice week this week and not touching live, either PTP or my own.
So the trading plan:
1. Trade only break out setups out of mini-consolidation or tight pullbacks, during large momentum candle run in a prevailing market direction, i.e. sentiment. Don't trade reversal early, until one rotation is done in a new direction and a pull back failed to continue in old direction. Basically my old setup #1, but not going with entry 2 ticks past candle high or low, but rather using break out technique inside the candle. Use 10 ticks stop. Use just 15 ticks profit target initially, subject to review. I expect the average stop to be around 7-8 ticks, so it should be more less fine. If market is really moving and we are approaching a key level that if broken can generate a lot of movement, I will manually change my take profit to 20-30 ticks, but I won't change my OCO setting in the DOM. Default will be 15-10.
2. For this week I will pass on fading any levels as it tends to generate too many little failures in the row. I will need to work with 3 consecutive failures in a row as max (same as live), so I need to focus on more probable setups even if they might have lesser R:R due to larger stops. I will still be watching VWAP fading setups and mark my trade ideas on chart real-time (anyone can find a good trade in a hindsight and reason it as a real pro) for later evaluation during the weekend.
This is a super simple plan, but everything genius is simple, but not too simple. (c)
Even if it looks like a mechanical system, it is not. I look for sentiment, traded volume, liquidity, spreads, compare sizes of rotation, promitity of key level that act like magnets and when broken can propel trade to profits fast.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
@kevinkdog, yeah, still waiting, my interview is tomorrow and Hoag just back from having a week off. So I guess it will be finalized this week, still expecting some paperwork to be done. It's fine though, as I need to get back to my winning confidence mode by doing a good week on demo. I will be off sailing for 2 weeks in second half of July, so I believe any real trading will start in August.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
So started trading in "live" mode I did. I like the feeling of orderly trading with thoughful setups. I dislike getting chickened out of first 3 winning trades taking some of the profit, while all three would produce 15 ticks (my target) without much further delay. I dislike that a losing trade I took slipped my exit 2 ticks, and dislike that I probably should have closed it with market order when it returned to range and settled there. That would limit my loss to 7-8 ticks max. Last trade was a piece of luck, my limit was at +15, but it moved so fast when server simulated activation process at exchange it took me out at +21 as price was already past my limit.
Lots of accumulation in gold today, I believe we will see more upside in gold in days to come. New quarter as well.
Here is the bonus
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Done for today. Just 3 trades. Again chickened out of great trade no 3. Shame on me. This is my major fault. Will work on it.
I will be journalling my trades with explanations, and record MAE and MFE for periods of 1,3 and 5 minutes past trade entry. It will help me to get a sense of statistical expectations for profit/loss as well as for duration of a trade.
Great interview. Lots of great information to be learned from what you said. I particularly liked your comments on keeping your trading plan succinct and not too lengthy. I think many of us have the tendency (at least initially), to create these massively detailed books we call a trading plan. But you need to keep it simple and to the point.
I was a Business Analyst in the corporate world for 8 years and it frustrated me no end when I would send specs out to business that had taken me weeks to compile, only to have them come back and ask me questions that showed me they clearly didn't bother to read the spec. I am finding the same to be true in trading. Keep it to the point so that you actually use it.
All the best.
Diversification is the only free lunch
The following user says Thank You to DarkPoolTrading for this post:
nice interview! is it the longest one also? I used to do a lot of sport as well, but nowadays I only have time to jog every day. you people in europe speak so many languages fluently and have so many activities. how envious! hope one day I could also have the opportunity to sail. (I'd always wanted to be a pirate :-).
The following user says Thank You to Sayounara for this post:
Thank you for sharing that great interview! I totally agree with a lot of what you said in the interview, and wish you the best of success in your trading. I too am learning to develop a trading plan before each day begins and journal my trades each day. This is very helpful in fine-tuning my system and allowing me to gain more confidence each day. I also agree that by having found Big Mike's has been an instrumental turn around in my trading success, by reading the posts like yours which has given me so much information and insight. I hope one day to be able to join you as a funded trader. Thanks again for posting the Top Step interview.
The following user says Thank You to jlwade123 for this post:
Today wasn't the best trading day. Gold wasn't too good, but gave some setups. Too bad I started on the wrong foot.
First trade gave me a headache - I put TP to entry but could not get filled on numerous attempts and 100 contracts or more traded there, my order was always the last. No FIFO in this Sim is very annoying, it's gold for Christ sake, it's not ES! I should have moved to -1 or flatten but could not believe I can't get filled.
Then I chickened out from next trade, this range was unbelievable, so much upward pressure but constant refresh of limit sell orders! It broker but my nerve broke earlier. Then I had another mashup, tried to move to BE+1 but misclicked or something, nothing happened. Reversed fast and hit my stop. Last trade was a pure loser.
No trading tomorrow and I don't expect anything decent on NFP Friday to happen. I never make well in Gold on NFP.
So I will try for next week to go for 6 ticks stop and 12 ticks profit instead of current 10 ticks stop and 15 ticks profit. The reason is I can't get to 15 ticks anyway (should work on it) mostly because I hate to risk 10 ticks after I got into some profit. And 10 ticks giving some space, true, but usually trade is invalidated before it moves 10 ticks against me anyway, so it's back into a range and the outcome is pure gamble then. So for next week I go for 6/12.
Anyway this week was a positive one, so nothing to be ashamed of, I traded like live, respected my plan, and only kept making mistakes with closing good trades too early. This is my fault number one.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Oh and I have forgotten to add - I will not trail or close any trades in profit manually next week, I will only put to BE or BE+1 after a retest and another push away. I opt to close or move TP to BE only if trade is stuck in a small loss. Idea is to let more trades work to their profit target.
Thinking about my trading plan for next weeks, I can see that sometimes I miss huge winners by going with small profit target. So I will try following next week:
1. Use two lots with 6 ticks stops
2. Use 12 ticks tp for 1 position and 100 ticks tp for another position - a runner
3. Don't trail first position, trail only second position using high/low on 2m chart, start after a first decent candle closed favorably on 2m.
4. Only opt to close manually if price did a false breakout and returned to range, look to minimize damage.
You are right about missing the huge winners with a small profit target. Before you implement this strategy across the board there are a few things you can do to make sure the odds are better for you.
1. Looking at the reason for the breakout. If it is a trend continuation or if the stops that cause it are caused at the end of the trend ( the screencast video that you shared recently about stop hunting was focused mostly on stops put by people going in the direction of a trend that get stopped out when a a reversal happens)
2. Something that I have huge issues with is just holding on to winners - especially as I do focus on the whole day range as a possible target. You should be sure that you keep your stop and profit taking in some sort of balance and make sure that you know what your target looks like. That might not be a solid number of ticks but it could be something like exhaustion signs.
If you have 5 tick stops but never take 10 tick profits then you can be stopped out 5, 6 , 7 times (meaning now you need 3 big trades to get out of the hole) and the weight of this will cause you issues. This can of course work because your instrument can have 100 ticks runs easily. It will only work if you don't get gun shy on the 7th or 8th trade !!!!!
Changing your strategy in terms of targets and stops is something you should look at .. but my suggestion would be to incorporate some sort of trend filter and only let them run in the direction of the trend.
p
The following user says Thank You to podski for this post:
Hey Podski, thanks for your post. I did not post my setup details here, only the entry technique for this practice account trading, but basically I did not use it for any stop hunting trading, this setup is clear and hardly need any improvement in terms of trading on demo, it's more about execution improvement and reading order flow.
The setup I trial now is generally a breakout of tight consolidation inside the wider range or in a trend direction for a clearly trending day. In any case it is in a direction of sentiment and prevailing order flow. Basically it is a finer version of my large candle trading setup, I just replaced large candle with strong sentiment/flow and use small range as a way to narrow my entry and use tight stop loss. I will keep looking on how to jump on those runaway moves, by entering on small pullbacks that break. Risk here is small but the plus side can be huge. Also slippage should not be an issue.
For stop liquidation setups, the best option is actually having a larger target but fast trailing stop to be out before it pulls back. Fixed targets have little value as it's very hard to know how far it can go. Important is to protect entry and tail some right away as many times it will go 10 ticks or less on those weak participation days, so important is not to lose there. So these setups I plan with 3 ticks stop even live, because if it goes back it means the premise is wrong and there is no liquidation.
There is an issue with T4 having very slow trail stop, it updates once per 10 seconds, I will have to practice to be a very fast mouse clicker instead
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Trade mini-breakout setups and stop hunt setups with following parameters:
1. Use 6 ticks stop for both mini-range breakout and stop-hunt
2. If breakout fails or order flow weakens before hitting the liquidation level - opt to flatten manually before the stop is hit, same applies if after fake-out price is stuck in negative territory
3. Use two contracts, both 6 ticks stop, and default 12 ticks target (default setting in T4 contract), however, once position is open or at least OCO submitted look to move target on one contract into a range achievable without experiencing a pullback, i.e. within one standard deviation on 1 minute chart and within Keltner channel deviation, usually it will be 6-8 ticks, and remove a target on second one and leave it to trailing on 2 minutes chart using highs or lows of candles.
This way I should avoid multiple stop outs or break evens when volatility and participation is simply too weak for my fixed targets like it was in case of 15 ticks (I had multiple 8-9 ticks winners that rapidly came back), and allow for good rides on strong movements with no artificially imposed target. This is not ideal setup, I am not a proponent of scaling out as it only reduces profitability, but having a max number of losses as 3 in a row per day and relatively tight weekly loss limit, one needs to compromise ultimate profit for the smoother equity curve. Also it is much better for the psyche to get profits more regularly.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
appreciate your narration and wish the best for your climbing higher.
pls do keep us posted, if you have time and desire to, each day you trade whatever, K?
also are you at liberty to tell us in some concrete details, regard the funding.
i have been curious to find out, particularly the limitations as to what limits have been set for you as to: 1--instruments you are allowed trade? 2--how much have you spent on this program before you are where you are now? 3--at which point would you be declared, undesirable or not meeting their requirements? specifically, how much money in terms of dollars and cents in comparison to what you already paid in, to kick start your funded program with them?
hope you'll be frank and straight forward in your response to us members of bmt.
i was not able to get straight forward answers for a long time regarding the funding et al.
@nakachalet
Hi, thanks. I believe if you would have been following TST related topics all your questions would be answered. I believe some of your questions shows you did not study their website that is quite clear with information you are seeking.
But here it is in a nutshell:
1. There is a list of permitted products on their website. You select those you want to trade in Combine. This is what you will trade in LivePrep and also live once you passed and while in Junior Trader phase. For me it is gold.
2. I paid 400 usd to enter the Combine and got it all back once finished the LiveTrader Prep. So for me monetary cost is 0. Only my time and efforts but since they improved my trading a lot, this is an asset, not a liability.
3. I don't understand this question. There are very precise rules, when they are broken by trader he goes back to Combine. You can see them on their website, in a sample trading plan for junior traders. And they do make sense to me.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
for your info, i did read their enticing ads many months ago and eagerly sought clarification and assurance. there were also many live calls placed to me seeking my participation but it was not 400 usd for sure. it was more like three times that amount just to buy their materials.... lol
your candid response would help several other traders around here and perhaps several more who visited bmt infrequently.
you did say that it only costs you 400 usd to participate from the beginning to the point where you are now, receiving funding and all?
you did not pay any more than the 400 usd all inclusively, correct?
if what you said is factual in terms of dollars and cents, then newbies should flock to them. 400 usd to learn how to trade profitably and consistently, is really a small sums to pay.
you wanna ascertain that again so everyone on board here would get the fact straight, especially myself and my perhaps faulty memory?
and all the best to you.
will follow your progress as you report it here, with intense interest and thx again for posting.
AND since their lead traders were not willing to show even once during my conversation with them as to where (not how--which might be a closely guarded secret) their entry and exit were on their live trading chart. would you be willing to show us a pix or two of your own trading screen, perhaps so as to quiet many critics abound. thx again.
I think you are mixing apples and oranges here. While Combine certainly has high educational value, it's not a product designed to tech how to trade. It is designed to verify how well you trade. 400 is what I paid to enter the test and TST refunded me at the end back that 400, so my cost is zero, not 400.
I believe if you receive some pitching from TST for educational stuff that was likely their College of Trader's Development. It was priced at 1495 usd, now it is 2995 due to high demand. This is no way mandatory to take before you can enter the Combine, it is just a totally separate product.
I subscribed for CTD AFTER I have been approved for going live, because I liked a lot Bob Iaccino's analysis and views on market and believe I wanted to rehash my own reading of charts and market with the help of professional traders to be able to trade larger moves successfully on constant basis.
I think if you are a MASTER trader as you "shyly" stated in your trading profile, you should not be concerned with neither CTD nor cost of the Combine, you should be able to crack it in no time. However, something tells me trolling is taking place. But I will let @Big Mike decided on it.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
for your info, i did read their enticing ads many months ago and eagerly sought clarification and assurance. there were also many live calls placed to me seeking my participation but it was not 400 usd for sure. it was more like three times that amount just to buy their materials.... lol
your candid response would help several other traders around here and perhaps several more who visited bmt infrequently.
you did say that it only costs you 400 usd to participate from the beginning to the point where you are now, receiving funding and all?
you did not pay any more than the 400 usd all inclusively, correct?
if what you said is factual in terms of dollars and cents, then newbies should flock to them. 400 usd to learn how to trade profitably and consistently, is really a small sums to pay.
you wanna ascertain that again so everyone on board here would get the fact straight, especially myself and my perhaps faulty memory?
and all the best to you.
will follow your progress as you report it here, with intense interest and thx again for posting.
AND since their lead traders were not willing to show during my conversation with them as to where (not how--which might be a closely guarded secret) their entry and exit were on their live trading charts;
would you be willing to show us a pix or two of your own trading screen, pls? much thx.
I have put this guy on ignore list, he doesn't seem to ever read any reply he's receiving and just keeps posting nonsense. I am not a spokesperson for TST and do not wish my journal to become a jungle of cultural and language barriers around topstep products.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 4 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Pardon my jumping in here, but I am puzzled by something in your question... for the Combine, TST doesn't charge you to "buy their materials" -- they don't sell any materials. They aren't selling a trading method, either.
They offer you a challenge: if you successfully trade in a simulated account (you trade your method, not anything of theirs), and meet their profit and loss control criteria, they will fund you. That's the Combine. You have to put up a deposit of a few hundred dollars so you have a stake in the game. The amount depends on the size of the simulated account. You get it back if you either (a) do well enough to get funded, or (b) meet all the loss control criteria, and have a profit of at least a dollar, but less than the funding target.
If you don't manage one of these outcomes, you lose the deposit; that's your risk.
I did a Combine that cost $200 at the time. I did not meet the profit target but I made a positive amount and didn't violate the loss limit criteria, and so I got the money back (and I took it as a "rollover", another Combine; but I could have taken cash, as @xelaar did). My cost: $0.00.
That's also xelaar's cost -- $0.00 -- because he got his deposit back.
So, no, they're not offering to charge you $400 usd to learn how to trade; they want you to prove that you already know how to trade. If you do, no charge, and they fund you (basically, they are hiring good traders.)
The Combine is a great experience because of the discipline it requires, but that's what it is. It's not some "here's how you can learn to trade for $400 usd" deal.
My journal record for today will follow, but here and now I would like to fine-tune my trading plan according to realities of its implementation.
1. I will use 6 ticks for mini-range break out and 3 ticks for stop hunt (twice contracts), and I will trial setting my stop to trailing for range breaks too. It worked well for stop runs and this is what I use, and I have a sense on average it should work better for breaks as well, as it will force to reduce risk even on smaller moves.
2. If breakout fails or order flow weakens before hitting the liquidation level - opt to flatten manually before the stop is hit, same applies if after fake-out price is stuck in negative territory
3. Having this scale out scheme on T4 with fast moving market is somewhat difficult to manage, so I will go back to my old all-in all-out tactics, and will use 12 ticks target as default for all trades, but will opt to reduce target for lower volatility market and increase for higher volatility market, however, the worst I will consider trading is 6 ticks target, i.e. 1:1 for range break and 2:1 for stop run.
4. Most importantly I will not close the trade with flatten out if it is slightly positive, when I have a desire to do so I will just move stop closer and target closer, so to give it a chance to make some ticks.
5. I will only trade each setup/swing once before price goes away and comes back, so I can avoid several losses per one setup as it happened today.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Is their a special reason you are not using sierra charts? I just ask since you appear to desire to have a trailing stop that works better for the TST, and since sierracharts connects directly to the T4 and has a decent trailing stop/atm options it would appear to be a good solution for you. just wondering.
I don't think tools are too important. Besides, T4 has a server-based trailing stop, something very rare, if Sieera is having a different trailing stop it can only be a client-based trailing, since it connects to the same T4 back end. In the end it does not make much difference.
Hi there, so I am fully committed to trading the 150K combine. This is my first "trial" of my system vs TST rules. I just finished trading this AM session and it's not reflected on the attached image (I was +1,810.00) today.
I would like your feedback on how my report looks, what things I need to clean up and how you think TST would approach my results.
So far I have noticed I either have a quick winning day or a long battle day recovering from losses but always ending up + for the day.
I will let other more experienced Combine takers comment, but I think you know it looks very good, you may only consider to make an effort to improve one of the red metrics you have during the next stage.
Market wasn't good for my trading method, yesterday was better but I barely had setups, I had one good and all others were mediocre, and it shows. I have my live account with Patak already but yet to make any trades in it, as I can't see good opportunities.
My trade log
I was giving much thought about how to better keep my trading journal, made an attempt to add setup screen shots into a spreadsheet but it's not convenient and useless when printed as it is not possible to see anything. So I will resume keeping my trading journal here in blog format. I will make an effort to comment on every trade with accompanying screenshot.
The only real good trade day before yesterday, good level proximity (magnetism) and quick buildup with lots of pressure on DOM. There was another potentially good trade when pushed HOD, but I bailed too quickly and then made an attempt to jump in again, only to lose twice. This is an important lesson to learn - you can enter the same river only once! I was stalking a good setup for the whole afternoon but it never came to play. Only after market reopened late into O/N session it did play for 100 ticks. It happens.
Trades overview from yesterday. Again, just one good trade, and multiple of break evens and few fails.
First trade went my way but reversed very quickly. The entry pattern was there but no strong level or favorable volume profile shape, I just relied on downward direction. I got hit by trailing 6 ticks stop , had I have manual trailing with my concept of moving stop after retests/moves, I would be likely safe. I reverted to manual trailing after that.
Second trade went very well, I did not anticipate such a big move so had my default target, it could yield much more that 12 ticks. There we had a combination of LVN, VWAP and previous swing high with s tiny consolidation and considerable pressure on DOM.
Here it was a decent attempt, no strong levels but very nice consolidation, it was just that market has died after triggering my entry. I moved to BE+1 but it slipped me back to BE.
I have missed this excellent setup by mere sub-second, I was waiting for a formation of mini-range with a mouse hovering over the price note and hit it only as price raced up so my entry was invalid. But there was no strong premise to enter earlier as formation only built up as it moved.
Here I was worried about next mini swing high in just 5 ticks from my entry and was right about it. Closed trade manually as it made few ticks into black and reversed quickly. In hindsight it gave a chance to close at BE later but that would be a pure gamble. Right call to close. Should not enter it at all.
This setup was ok, no strong level but there were good signs of reversal and it could make a good trade. Unfortunately market became very sketchy by this time so I had to do some damage limitation once it turned to be a fake out.
Overall conclusion - strategy is good, risk and targets are good, it just I have to be much more selective in this holiday market. No big damage this week, but I am not in a business of bleeding accounts slowly either. Will focus on taking only the best trades.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 6 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
I'm glad you guys find it helpful. It is helpful for myself too.
Today I wasn't expecting much and rightly so. LOL. Wait! Actually it was ok. I did only 2 trades and given the day and mostly ranging price action with lots of back and fill, this type of day is easy to get choppen for sticks.
I traded live on T4 today for the first time. I am glad that slippage wasn't dramatic despite a fast move, it is definitely tradeable. I only feel sorry I got in 12 ticks, I originally set a target for 20 but somehow I pulled all orders when got flat on my first trade that came at break even and when I resent order I did not change the default 12 ticks.
Still the risk-reward was very good.
Trades today (practice)
This is a day's overview. Lots of move on chart, but swings are not large and inside there is a lot of back and forward moves, barbwire price action.
I had my chart set up during the trade to 6 sec and it did look like a better setup. But it could work, I got slipped 3 ticks right to the bottom, the was hard to salvage, but I close the trade after I dealt with its live copy, which I closed at BE (it slipped 2 ticks), so I lost bit more. This trade was purely about damage limitation.
I waited for this trade since the beginning of the day. It lined up today's high and yesterday's high, all stars! I should have taken 20 ticks if I would edit a new order, but it is what it is.
This was a potential setup but market got very slow readying for FOMC. Would have worked though but likely to stop me out around BE.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 6 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Back into action today. Typical holiday markets, low volume, smaller range.
I have to say learning from CTD makes me reconsider some things and forms a stronger view of the market. However, I will stay the course with my method for now, and will only consider anything new on demo for a while.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following user says Thank You to xelaar for this post:
what is the time interval when you use to look for the traded volume(just the open,during all the day...)?
What is the average volume for gold in order to determine if it will be a good day to trade or not?
There is some website or tool which you use to get the exact traded volume?
Thanks in advance
The following user says Thank You to FKtrader for this post:
I look for volume traded between the Globex open and Comex open. If it is something like 40-60k then it's small and little participation, expect market either to range or make unsustainable moves. I would prefer to either fade or play stop hunt, not joining any break outs or looking for a sustained momentum moves.
If it is 90-100k or more - there is a lot going on, if market moved quite a bit already on that volume, I would expect a good breakout day and look for momentum rides.
Many days will be something in between, so you should look how Globex has traded and take it from there. There is no definite formula how to determine it. Also remember it can all change later, especially if market was just waiting for some news.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Some of the trades I have done yesterday on demo. Few of them were copied live too. I am learning from CTD and from Bob Iaccino directly (after being invited and accepted into Iaccino group) and it reflected in my trading.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 2 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post:
Wasn't an easy day today. I did just 2 trades live, -3 and +4 ticks. Movements were small and there was not much to work with after the slippage. Did few more on demo, they worked better. Did some discretionary trades on personal live account, went well.
No opportunities after FOMC release, gold was way too volatile to make any sense of it.
I am going to trial few additional strategies, so stay tuned, I will publish details here and you can see them developing. I plan to add two "swing" strategies and one scalping strategy to my portfolio.
Trade to live. Not live to trade.
The following 3 users say Thank You to xelaar for this post: