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AJ's Journal

  #561 (permalink)
 
VinceVirgil's Avatar
 VinceVirgil 
Toronto, Canada
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NT
Broker: TD Ameritrade, Dorman/Zenfire
Trading: CL,ES
Posts: 1,752 since Aug 2011
Thanks Given: 2,144
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tderrick View Post
Been spending a lot of time in the studio lately... Not such a bad life

Still studying PA at every spare juncture. I feel safe enough again, financially, to pull the trigger on
few live trades this coming week. We'll see how my psyche is then




... I'm the one working ...

What is it with cameras that make people pose in all sorts of odd postitions? With the wierdest expressions?

Whats wrong with natural?

They must be overcome with enthusiasm.

I would be no different, come to think of it.

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  #562 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532


VinceVirgil View Post
Hmmm, I guess its your stuff, but just looking at the cups near that mixer of yours gives me fits. Just an accidental brush of an arm and ... " How much to repair it???"

I had to avert my eyes...

... no cups on the desk but mine!! my rule .... years of practice to place them where they won't spill...

The Styrofoam cup on the desk is Vits....


Part of my job is watching for foreign liquids around the desk


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #563 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532


I have taken a solid step forward in my trading over the last week.


While catching up on the incredible store of knowledge in the archived webinar locker, I was
tipped by a friend to catch the FT71 bits.

My mind now has a whole new approach. I no longer feel anguish when my stop is hit!!

It's OK to lose, if the trade was Your trade and Executed properly.

Trading is a body of work. One trade means nothing in your weekly / monthly bottom line.
Let your RR work for you in the long run of averages.

FT71's analogy of breathing stuck with me most. You have to give a little oxygen back to live.
Breath in, breath out... just breath in more oxygen than you breath out, and you will survive.

Another great bit was the monkey. Although my monkey is more like a Silver Back.
Learn to live with your monkey. Have him pull up a seat next to you. Offer him some coffee....

If you are anything but a sociopath, you will feel emotion during trading. Just don't let it cloud your
thinking ... I now think of Russel Crowe in "A Beautiful Mind" His mind controlled him so much
he had actual imaginary "people" living in his reality . He found a way to let them be "observers"
instead of agents of influence.

Our monkey is this outside character talking to us. Make him pipe down and just pull up a seat.


My studies are now 50% mental / 50% technical.

I implore any newcomers to this game to, once you have found and edge that let's you win more
than you lose, live with your technique for a while and start focusing on getting your mind right for
trading.

You must be fearless, yet prudent.
...Assertive, yet calm.

Trust your instincts and do not over think a trade. Your initial reaction to PA
is usually the correct one.

Cut your winners short and let your winners run, and all will be well.

I also have realized why I am so drawn to trading.... It's the unknown.... something different
everyday. Just like working with music. You never know what's coming in... you know the music,
but every song is different....

beautiful


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #564 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532

This is where I am, technically.

...same charts, same entry and exit techniques. ... just refining.



Running the London open Market Replay in real time with no pausing or rewind.
This is the only way to condition the monkey to winning / losing or missing trades.

The plan is the same and simple. Fade the extremes in any context. Whether the extreme is in a channel
or PB context with trend, the premise is the same. Wait for exhaustion bars and place Limit Orders anywhere
from + 3 to - 3 ticks at the edge, depending on context,
and wait for a retest. If the trade is correct, the level will
be honored within that tight tick range. If the trade is wrong, it is usually very wrong and
continuation is in order. It is this reason I keep the stops very tight. I like 8 and 16 tick targets, depending
on context.

Note to others - I have only tested this phenomenon in TF but have observed it in other markets.

I have changed my fiscal approach, however.
Since account building is more important at this point than earning a living, I will split
the profits from this part time business with half going to bills and half to be reinvested in the company.

This morning's study

London target goal hit. ...



AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #565 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532

Good things are happening.

I've taken a break from documenting the technical aspects of my game in this journal to focus on my mind.

I have been reading the "Daily Trading Coach", working on my physical stamina by excercising more and,
the most important, Trading Live Money more than I study market replay.

Getting to live trading as soon as possible is so important. Just keep your risk down like Spot Forex with
Oanda where you can literally deposit $100 bucks and trade nano lots... I consider this almost a public
service. Or, A good step above that, is toss a couple grand in a futures account ( I think AMP is the best for
beginners) and trade the M6E for mid range targets (15-30). (Do Not Scalp either of these products - the
spreads / commissions will eat you alive)
The Euro / USD respects long range targets very
well and makes it very easy to condition yourself to staying in swing moves.

Why move to Live trading the second you discover an Edge?

The moment you learn to read Price Action and Volume as it relates to Support and Resistance levels, the
technical side of your trading education is over. You are now half way to being a profitable trader.

The rest of your career, and this is where the 90% failure rate crashes in, you will be stuggling with one thing.

Emotions.

The battle with your mind will define you as a trader.
This is where I am now.

Learning to take a stop without a flinch and knowing that it is a necessary part of the business is key.

You MUST control your risk.
You MUST aim for a Risk / Reward Ratio of at least 1 : 2.... (1 :3) is perfect.
The second the light comes on in your pysche that you can lose one half of your trades and still make money,
an errie calm comes over your job as a Trader.... at 1 : 3, and you can lose 60% of your trades and make even
more money. The power of math is amazing.

There is only one thing that will stop you.

Emotions.

The battles I still encounter are...

Moving a stop to "make more room"
Worse Yet, after breaking that very important rule, I will scale into a losing position, instead of simply taking
a very small loss, regrouping and studying WHY the trade failed.
All of the above is related to the account killer of "needing to be right" or conversely "Fear of losing" ... all Ego related.

I MUST learn to take the reasonably set, PA based stops with zero concern. I should simply be scratching my
head. NOT freaking out. NOT getting heated up with anger. I should calmly begin looking for the next entry.
I may have been correct in the trade and just a bit early (my other demon)
If you get shaken you WILL NOT re-enter the market because you are now gun shy and flustered.
And then, when you realize that you were, in fact correct in the market reversal or continuation and price flys
away from you for 100 ticks leaving no opportunity for a now, far too late, entry, you rise to a boil and
loose it completely.

The above has happened to me as it has to all of us. I was so angry, I literally ripped the T-shirt I was wearing
from my body like the incredible hulk. I returned later in the day to lose even more money in Revenge Trading.
Then depression set in and I had to lay down for an hour or so. lol .... sad, but true....

I haved improved greatly since then.... thank God..

Another big one and my current demon, is bailing too early on a trade, Sometimes I save my ass and toss the
5 ticks in the coffers but, most of the time, price moves to my target which is always set to the closest SR
area. Price WILL go there eventually or you were simply wrong or too early.

Bailing can be summed up in one emotion - Impatience.

Whether that means getting in before proof of absorption develops or closing your position the second a candle pauses,
it is all IMPATIENCE

So, what am I battling here?
Myself.
Ego - The need to be right


OK, that's enough of all the negative waves.

There IS a bright side.

I am no langer losing money.
However, I am not making any money.
This is a fantastic development because I KNOW it is correctable.
The problem is simply me . I am not letting the math work in my favour by working the RR ratio of love.

So, I now consider myself a PROFESSIONAL trader. In the purest definition, I am playing the sport for money.
I'm just not making any right now. But, there is zero doubt in my mind I will succeed.
Hearing the latest cat to make it through the TST combine speak, made me absolutly elated.
He is trading the exact way I am.

Pure PA as it relates to areas of SR.

That's it people.
That's all there is. This is no mystery of a magical sequence of 5 different indys all aligning to show you
where to pick up your weekly check. Price travels to levels it has gone before. It either reverses and
goes down a level or continues to the next.... or skips one. but it will always land at an old level.
Price never stops in "outer space"

If you can turn off your mind
If you can cut your losers short and let you winners run to at least the first, most conservative SR level,
you are unbeatable and will make a good living.



I have also rearranged the office and added a new monitor to keep track of the charting a bit easier.






I now sort of LOOK like a pro and better yet, FEEL like a pro.

I am on the path. I am pouring on the coal to move full steam ahead.
I am studying great people like Will Smith and Bruce Lee. Their minds are / were like steel. They take
lifes obsticles to a spiritual level. Their work ethic is / was obsessive and kinetic.
Never doubt. Never give up. Channel all the postive energies of this incredible universe to work for you.

I know this is a long winded entry in my journal, but I wanted to document all the places my mind
has been traveling lately. So, just because I haven't been posting in my journal, it doesn't mean
I have been inactive. In fact, I have never traded / studied more.

I am very excited.

The TST combine will be coming to NT soon and I will keep trying out until I succeed.
Until that happens, I will trade the TF on my futures account and the Spot Forex on my cash account.

I will be posting entries and being more accountable to myself soon.
It is too easy to overtrade, chase and bail if you aren't accountable to a public journal.
It, amazingly, does help keep the trade count down and make's you study each entry more if
you have to explain them to yourself later.

I am taking losing much better, yet still wrestling with all the emotional aspects listed above
that are familiar to so many.

There is lot's of road ahead of me, but now, when I look in the rearwiew, I see lot's of road
behing me, also.....

This is a very exciting time in my life and I couldn't have come this far without the help from the cats at nexusfi.com (formerly BMT)

Thanks for all the assistance and insight from my best buddies... you know who you are


___________________________________


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #566 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
Manta, Ecuador
Site Administrator
Developer
Swing Trader
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Broker: IBKR
Trading: Stocks & Futures
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Awesome AJ. Awesome!

Mike

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  #567 (permalink)
 
PandaWarrior's Avatar
 PandaWarrior 
In the heat
 
Experience: None
Posts: 3,165 since Mar 2010
Thanks Given: 6,329
Thanks Received: 13,404


tderrick View Post
Good things are happening.

I've taken a break from documenting the technical aspects of my game in this journal to focus on my mind.

I have been reading the "Daily Trading Coach", working on my physical stamina by excercising more and,
the most important, Trading Live Money more than I study market replay.

Getting to live trading as soon as possible is so important. Just keep your risk down like Spot Forex with
Oanda where you can literally deposit $100 bucks and trade nano lots... I consider this almost a public
service. Or, A good step above that, is toss a couple grand in a futures account ( I think AMP is the best for
beginners) and trade the M6E for mid range targets (15-30). (Do Not Scalp either of these products - the
spreads / commissions will eat you alive)
The Euro / USD respects long range targets very
well and makes it very easy to condition yourself to staying in swing moves.

Why move to Live trading the second you discover an Edge?

The moment you learn to read Price Action and Volume as it relates to Support and Resistance levels, the
technical side of your trading education is over. You are now half way to being a profitable trader.

The rest of your career, and this is where the 90% failure rate crashes in, you will be stuggling with one thing.

Emotions.

The battle with your mind will define you as a trader.
This is where I am now.

Learning to take a stop without a flinch and knowing that it is a necessary part of the business is key.

You MUST control your risk.
You MUST aim for a Risk / Reward Ratio of at least 1 : 2.... (1 :3) is perfect.
The second the light comes on in your pysche that you can lose one half of your trades and still make money,
an errie calm comes over your job as a Trader.... at 1 : 3, and you can lose 60% of your trades and make even
more money. The power of math is amazing.

There is only one thing that will stop you.

Emotions.

The battles I still encounter are...

Moving a stop to "make more room"
Worse Yet, after breaking that very important rule, I will scale into a losing position, instead of simply taking
a very small loss, regrouping and studying WHY the trade failed.
All of the above is related to the account killer of "needing to be right" or conversely "Fear of losing" ... all Ego related.

I MUST learn to take the reasonably set, PA based stops with zero concern. I should simply be scratching my
head. NOT freaking out. NOT getting heated up with anger. I should calmly begin looking for the next entry.
I may have been correct in the trade and just a bit early (my other demon)
If you get shaken you WILL NOT re-enter the market because you are now gun shy and flustered.
And then, when you realize that you were, in fact correct in the market reversal or continuation and price flys
away from you for 100 ticks leaving no opportunity for a now, far too late, entry, you rise to a boil and
loose it completely.

The above has happened to me as it has to all of us. I was so angry, I literally ripped the T-shirt I was wearing
from my body like the incredible hulk. I returned later in the day to lose even more money in Revenge Trading.
Then depression set in and I had to lay down for an hour or so. lol .... sad, but true....

I haved improved greatly since then.... thank God..

Another big one and my current demon, is bailing too early on a trade, Sometimes I save my ass and toss the
5 ticks in the coffers but, most of the time, price moves to my target which is always set to the closest SR
area. Price WILL go there eventually or you were simply wrong or too early.

Bailing can be summed up in one emotion - Impatience.

Whether that means getting in before proof of absorption develops or closing your position the second a candle pauses,
it is all IMPATIENCE

So, what am I battling here?
Myself.
Ego - The need to be right


OK, that's enough of all the negative waves.

There IS a bright side.

I am no langer losing money.
However, I am not making any money.
This is a fantastic development because I KNOW it is correctable.
The problem is simply me . I am not letting the math work in my favour by working the RR ratio of love.

So, I now consider myself a PROFESSIONAL trader. In the purest definition, I am playing the sport for money.
I'm just not making any right now. But, there is zero doubt in my mind I will succeed.
Hearing the latest cat to make it through the TST combine speak, made me absolutly elated.
He is trading the exact way I am.

Pure PA as it relates to areas of SR.

That's it people.
That's all there is. This is no mystery of a magical sequence of 5 different indys all aligning to show you
where to pick up your weekly check. Price travels to levels it has gone before. It either reverses and
goes down a level or continues to the next.... or skips one. but it will always land at an old level.
Price never stops in "outer space"

If you can turn off your mind
If you can cut your losers short and let you winners run to at least the first, most conservative SR level,
you are unbeatable and will make a good living.



I have also rearranged the office and added a new monitor to keep track of the charting a bit easier.






I now sort of LOOK like a pro and better yet, FEEL like a pro.

I am on the path. I am pouring on the coal to move full steam ahead.
I am studying great people like Will Smith and Bruce Lee. Their minds are / were like steel. They take
lifes obsticles to a spiritual level. Their work ethic is / was obsessive and kinetic.
Never doubt. Never give up. Channel all the postive energies of this incredible universe to work for you.

I know this is a long winded entry in my journal, but I wanted to document all the places my mind
has been traveling lately. So, just because I haven't been posting in my journal, it doesn't mean
I have been inactive. In fact, I have never traded / studied more.

I am very excited.

The TST combine will be coming to NT soon and I will keep trying out until I succeed.
Until that happens, I will trade the TF on my futures account and the Spot Forex on my cash account.

I will be posting entries and being more accountable to myself soon.
It is too easy to overtrade, chase and bail if you aren't accountable to a public journal.
It, amazingly, does help keep the trade count down and make's you study each entry more if
you have to explain them to yourself later.

I am taking losing much better, yet still wrestling with all the emotional aspects listed above
that are familiar to so many.

There is lot's of road ahead of me, but now, when I look in the rearwiew, I see lot's of road
behing me, also.....

This is a very exciting time in my life and I couldn't have come this far without the help from the cats at nexusfi.com (formerly BMT)

Thanks for all the assistance and insight from my best buddies... you know who you are


___________________________________

Ah, the butterfly emerges.....fly little one....

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Leonardo da Vinci


Most people chose unhappiness over uncertainty, Tim Ferris
Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #568 (permalink)
 
Xav1029's Avatar
 Xav1029 
Tampa, FL
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader, Sierra Chart
Broker: Mirus Futures/Zen-Fire
Trading: 6E, M6E, 6J
Posts: 1,375 since Dec 2011
Thanks Given: 1,452
Thanks Received: 3,377

Good stuff AJ. We gotta keep grinding London out, keep that early party going. I feel after just one week of watching PA, volume, and TS during the same hour of the day, they are starting to whisper to me. I want to get to the point where the whispers become loud voices, and I learn to listen to them without hesitation. We just need to get out of our own way.

+1 on trading real money as soon as you can, but risking little capital(M6E or spot FOREX)

Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Reply With Quote
Thanked by:
  #569 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532


Xav1029 View Post
Good stuff AJ. We gotta keep grinding London out, keep that early party going. I feel after just one week of watching PA, volume, and TS during the same hour of the day, they are starting to whisper to me. I want to get to the point where the whispers become loud voices, and I learn to listen to them without hesitation. We just need to get out of our own way.

+1 on trading real money as soon as you can, but risking little capital(M6E or spot FOREX)


yes... patterns develop at certain times of the day. I manually plotted volume spikes from
London to the close of US. There is certainly a pattern.

This is with my main dog the TF... I will plot the CL this weekend. The more hours you log, the more
is revealed.

Remember the 10,000 hour mastery rule


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote
  #570 (permalink)
 
tderrick's Avatar
 tderrick 
Nashville, Tennessee
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Ninja / Jigsaw / 9G
Broker: AMP / CQG
Trading: NQ, YM and ES
Posts: 1,588 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 4,260
Thanks Received: 2,532



PandaWarrior View Post
Ah, the butterfly emerges.....fly little one....


Brother, Brian..... Where would I be without you.


AJ
Nashville, Tennessee


"Life On The Edge of SR"
Follow me on Twitter Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal Started this thread Reply With Quote




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