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Decided after much debate to start a journal... I have been SIM trading my latest version of this trade plan.
The purpose if this journal is several fold:
1. Document development of this trade plan
2. Demonstrate viability of a 1 point Target ES trade plan as a profitable strategy
3. Identify tools and methods needed to make this plan successful
4. Obtain feedback from the community on improvements needed for this plan.
I know many have debated the viability of scalping and I have been one of those people at times. I fully recognize that this is a difficult endeavor and a win rate of approximate 70% will be needed to be successful.
The basis of this trading plan will be PATS learnings from Mack with some additional twists provided by @welly192. Thanks to both of those guys for their fine work.
I look at this journal as a chance to get a better grip on my trade plan by having to explain it to others. I also look at it as an opportunity to improve this plan though input from others. Even if I end up abandoning this method, I will know more about trading as a whole when I come out the other end. I know I have picked up many things from the thread from @welly192 and I am grateful for that.
I will be sharing charts and putting together videos as time permits.
Thanks in advance for all of your contributions.
More details on method coming in future posts.
Wolf
PS.. I will not be trading this method with anything but SIM bucks until I have a firm method in hand.. so just keeping it real.
Good luck on your journey. I know you've been doing this awhile....hopefully this will help you really turn the corner. I'm not a fan of 4 tick scalping but if you have iron discipline, you can make it work.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci
Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Good luck and count me in, I'm looking forward to your new journal as well...
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
I will try to have a few posts up front with some summary thoughts for ease of reading. AS for me, I been at this gig for more years that I care to recall.. Never been consistently profitable but have stayed the course.. I have never looked at what I call micro scalping until 2014. I saw @welly192 doing very well at it and saw some other traders with other methods outside of BM doing very well trading ES, CL, and 6E 4 ticks at a time. So part of the purpose of this is to thoroughly evaluate this type of trading so as to see if it is fit for me.. Time will tell.
Method will rely on base teachings of Mack from PATS. It is fairly important to grasp some of those concepts to be able to do this. If you haven’t tackled his course or looked at a lot of his videos, it may help you to do so before proceeding. I will not cover all that is in his course.
Key Method Ideas
• Identify Key Reference Areas(KRA) before market opens
• Be able to Identify Context of Market as market moves during day(using TL’s and S/R)
• Based on Market Context, identify location and structure of trades
• Strong focus on setups will be on with trend trading, second entries and traps
• Trade 1 contract initially with 4 tick target on all trades
• Stops will vary based on structure at trade location and volatility, but goal is to have a stop of 4T
So a great question is why not have runners? Why not trade multiple contracts? For this method to stand a chance of being profitable, I will need a win rate of about 60-70% estimated. So the focus of the first part of this journey is to develop the methods needed to get a high win rate. If it is profitable with 1 contract and no runners, adding contracts and runners is only gravy. If 70% win rate cannot be achieved, then I will need to question viability of method or myself to manage the trade plan.
So for starters..
1 contract per trade
Goal is 5 points per day.
Do you have a max stop? IMHO, with a firm 4 tick target it doesn't make much sense to to have a bigger then 5T stop, otherwise you need even higher winning %. If the trade requires a bigger stop, it's better to pass on it.
Start with 6T..(I used to use 8T) Never ever want it to hit.. Max I want to take is 4T. Passing on trades where stops bigger is very good idea.. So yes that is an option.
We will be discussing some additional ideas like placing limit orders to reduce stop size(like Mack does very often) as well as very active trade management. It is my belief that a scratch or small loss is crucial to have this type of trading work . Taking 8T or 6T losses with 4T targets does not work and that is why so many are against this.. But there are some options will discuss together.. Stay tuned.
BTW.. my main chart is 1800T based on your thread. I looked at it and liked the way it behaved vs 2000T so stuck with it.. Thanks for sharing.