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Calming Trading: From Scratch to a Cake


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Calming Trading: From Scratch to a Cake

  #91 (permalink)
 Babool 
Detroit, MI
 
Experience: Master
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: NQ, CL, ES, GC
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Calming View Post
As I go over 90 days worth of charts, what would be good to post here? My thoughts/observations/lessons, like I do with real trades? Or just keep it to myself?

No, don't post that here. Were interested to see the trades you actually take. Going through 90 days worth of data is for you to determine if the the set-up you want to trade is profitable over that time period.

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  #92 (permalink)
Calming
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 131 since Jun 2018
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Glad you are joining our conversation, as you come highly recommended by @bobwest. It is great to have another expert on Al Brooks.

I have noticed that Brooks has become more interested in forex recently. The work I read was dedicated to S&P Emini futures. As I apply his methods, I would like to keep my experiment clean and introduce as fewer alterations as possible. From the little I know, each instrument is different, and there are some differences between forex and E-minis. To keep the matters simple, I'd rather stay with the latter. Nevertheless, I invite your input as much as possible.

With that being said, I would like to further proceed in two directions: 1) try&test a couple of setups (figures) on a 90-day graph and 2) keep trying to trade sim and post my current trades here for feedback. I hope to do both so that I may become closer to what you called "a successful trader", all in due time of course. If there is something that is missing or could be done differently, let me know. It would be truly appreciated!


Pa Dax View Post
So @Calming

I'd say, take some screen time. Serious screen time. And if you have money that you don't care about, take a trade but make sure it's very small. You want to be able to trade again tomorrow. I'm not sure if you have an account large enough, but otherwise look at Forex in which you can trade very very small, risking only 1-2%. It doesn't matter, the goal is to experience yourself to the emotions, fear, anger, disappointment, joy, adrenaline and all other emotions that come along with trading. And indeed, as @Babool mentions, post your results here to learn from yourself (maybe an elite membership to see more trading journals in the elite section will help) and get feedback from others. Never use money for this that you cannot afford to lose.

Really hope that helps, happy trading @Calming!


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  #93 (permalink)
 
johny1971's Avatar
 johny1971 
Omaha, NE/USA
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: S5 Trader; Jigsaw; TOS
Broker: Stage 5
Trading: ZN
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Calming View Post
As a beginner, I would rather read about something that you have been using because it has significantly helped you to grow as a trader.

There is quite a list of stuff that has help me grow as a trader. Please keep in mind I am a beginner still (maybe a dozen live trades under my belt so far) and my educational journey has been slow - almost two years of on and off due to work - and focused on process and progression, ie I am just starting to make sense of the actual idea of when to place orders. The best answer I have to this question is check out my thread I have used to journal me education thus far:






Calming View Post
Perhaps, you can even explain in details how your trades have changed because of what you had learnt.

After switching to order flow, the three biggest changes I have made is going all in, going for a few ticks, and thinking a lot about the context of the day. I like to keep things really simple and going all in has got me to avoid the trailing stop and scaling concerns. I may be mistaken, but it seems Brooks' method was just read the chart and trade the bars and some moving averages, now I think alot about news and time of day (which Brooks certainly accounts for, but on more general level, ie I am more sensitive to many time points like openings, news, and activity anticipation (eg if it has been a slow overnight and the action is slow at the opening and no news is coming, I am unlikely to trade since there could be little movement). Maybe I misunderstood Brooks, but that is how it affected me.

Also, I would check out the FT71 information about scaling if you are into that and I don't know what exactly he says about it, but you may find searching through his stuff helpful.

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  #94 (permalink)
Calming
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 131 since Jun 2018
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After a not-so-good day practing on 90 day chart (minus several points) got a couple of good trades on my sim account.

I do not know how to increase markers in NT8, so I changed colors. If they are too bright, let me know and I'll try something different. Also, if you know how to increase markers in NT8, let me know as well.


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  #95 (permalink)
Calming
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 131 since Jun 2018
Thanks Given: 111
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  #96 (permalink)
Calming
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 131 since Jun 2018
Thanks Given: 111
Thanks Received: 72

Eventually, I'd like to have all my trades on one screen, but I forget notes on the previous trades so it helps to jot them down right after each trade. Open to suggestions.


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  #97 (permalink)
 Babool 
Detroit, MI
 
Experience: Master
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: NQ, CL, ES, GC
Posts: 95 since Jul 2011
Thanks Given: 17
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Calming View Post
Eventually, I'd like to have all my trades on one screen, but I forget notes on the previous trades so it helps to jot them down right after each trade. Open to suggestions.


Where are you located geographically ? I ask because of the time displayed on your charts.

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  #98 (permalink)
Calming
Houston, TX
 
Posts: 131 since Jun 2018
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Babool View Post
Where are you located geographically ? I ask because of the time displayed on your charts.

Currently in GMT+5. Noticed that NT picked up the local time and set it as default.

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  #99 (permalink)
 Babool 
Detroit, MI
 
Experience: Master
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: NQ, CL, ES, GC
Posts: 95 since Jul 2011
Thanks Given: 17
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Calming View Post
Currently in GMT+5. Noticed that NT picked up the local time and set it as default.

Ok, It is helpful to know what time zone your in because it makes it easier for people to to pull up their own charts and see where your trades were.

Looking at your trades,

Trade #1, On an opening gap outside the previous days range you took the first buy after a new daily low. Unless that low is rejecting some kind of strong support I would not have done this trade. Your attempting to catch falling knives here....not something a new trader should do.

Trade# 2, I love this trade. A with the trend trade entered after a retrace to the moving average. Where is your initial stop. You initial target was to short as it should have been a couple ticks above the current swing low.

Trade #3. I would not have done this trade...you sold a breakout of the daily low. Question, where was your initial stop because often times your going to get some buying coming into the market once you hit that swing low. People that took your trade number 2 will be buying to take profits after a test of that swing low and other traders will be buying that swing low as a double bottom test of the current daily low. A low odds trade if your stop is to tight.

When describing your trades, please tell us the price you were filled at and indicate your initial stop loss and initial target price.

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  #100 (permalink)
 
bobwest's Avatar
 bobwest 
Western Florida
Site Moderator
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Sierra Chart
Trading: ES, YM
Frequency: Several times daily
Duration: Minutes
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Calming View Post
After a not-so-good day practing on 90 day chart (minus several points) got a couple of good trades on my sim account.

I do not know how to increase markers in NT8, so I changed colors. If they are too bright, let me know and I'll try something different. Also, if you know how to increase markers in NT8, let me know as well.


Good journaling.

You cannot change the marker size. I don't think I've seen these very small markers before, and don't know how you got them.... You may have used Zoom In to increase the bar size at some point (Right click on chart, scroll down on menu to Zoom In and Zoom out). If so, clicking Zoom Out will revert back to normal. Then, if you want to adjust the bar sizes, change them for real in Data Series. This is my best guess. If this doesn't fix it, I haven't a clue. Someone else may know, but I don't.

As to how you do your posting, any way that works well for you is how you should do it. Everyone has the problem of not remembering the trade details if they wait until after the close, so some people simply keep the posting window open throughout the day, without actually sending it to the website, and update it as they go. Then, at the end of the day, they post their reply window with one chart with the trades numbered or marked. Or, you could just use the text drawing tool in NT to keep a running commentary on the chart itself, and post that once a day. People have done it that way. It could make for a crowded chart, though, unless your comments are very short. Or, you may keep comments in Notepad or something during the day and copy them into the reply window to post them.

The way you're doing it is also OK, obviously, but you may find you're taking a lot of time with journaling instead of trading if you keep posting charts throughout the day.

You'll evolve something you like soon enough.

The comments you're making are very informative so far. Simple advice is to include as much info as you think you need to explain the trade, and more importantly, for you to review in your mind why you did the trade, and whether it was a good one by your criteria or not. (A "good trade" is not necessarily the same as a "profitable trade" -- it's a trade where you followed your rules correctly. Then you can decide if your rules are good or not.)

Bob.

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Last Updated on July 8, 2018


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