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Trailer Park Capitol

  #131 (permalink)
 
michaelroth's Avatar
 michaelroth 
Gillette Wyoming
 
Experience: Beginner
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Opportunity is where you find it, when you find it.'

My dog must have ate something that disagreed with her. She keep waking me up like dad, I have to go outside. Good thing she did, because I saw this set up around five this morning. The reason that I took these four trade like this is because I saw the exhaustion of sellers at the top and felt the pending doom of today's news release on the horizon.



I think of this trade as "index hedging" because sometimes some trades fail, but the end result is a net profit. I don't know if this is a good idea yet, but it seems to work quite nicely- so far. Also, I got out today with with $56.92 net profit, which is my ideal day, but these trades are still running towards their profit targets. I left profits on the table, but I also hit my goal. Not sure what's the better path.

Anyway- I should be finished trading for the day, finished journaling, all within an hour, and if that holds true, then today's trading should be considered a success. Here's the trade performance for the day. Another day like today this week and I'll traded what I consider an ideal week. What is becoming totally apparent is that less is more when it comes to trading. I do so much better by focusing on taking fewer, better trades. The evidence is right here.


Day trading, so easy a caveman could do it.
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  #132 (permalink)
 
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 TheTradeSlinger 
Huntington WV
 
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michaelroth View Post



I enjoy seeing the progress you've made in your trading Michael.

You're at the point of understanding a bit more about price action and you're actively looking for set ups....

Let me try this:

See these trades you took (and also the trades from post #127 for example)?

You bought at resistance, sold at support versus buying support and selling resistance.

How does this happen?

You're looking for "confirmation"... "Oh yeah, HERE is the set up" then it goes the opposite direction against your position.. that is how you buy resistance and sell support.

Try this for a session -> Try to buy on moves down, try to sell on moves up. That rule alone will FORCE you to better align your trades with buying support and selling resistance.

Micheal, I know you can do this, you simply haven't been exposed to it yet. I promise you can make this happen.

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  #133 (permalink)
 
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 TheTradeSlinger 
Huntington WV
 
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TheTradeSlinger View Post
I enjoy seeing the progress you've made in your trading Michael.

You're at the point of understanding a bit more about price action and you're actively looking for set ups....

Let me try this:

See these trades you took (and also the trades from post #127 for example)?

You bought at resistance, sold at support versus buying support and selling resistance.

How does this happen?

You're looking for "confirmation"... "Oh yeah, HERE is the set up" then it goes the opposite direction against your position.. that is how you buy resistance and sell support.

Try this for a session -> Try to buy on moves down, try to sell on moves up. That rule alone will FORCE you to better align your trades with buying support and selling resistance.

Micheal, I know you can do this, you simply haven't been exposed to it yet. I promise you can make this happen.

Also,

These trades were taken on the 1 minute timeframe without referencing a higher timeframe. You were clearly trying to trade the 1 minute using ONLY the 1 minute information (price action). Try having reference points (S/R, levels, etc) from a higher timeframe that informs your decisions on the lower, trading timeframe or else it is too easy to get chopped up trading a lower timeframe like you did. Higher for signals, lower for entries/exits based on the higher.

Edit: Take off the distracting moving averages lines, they don't add anything price action isn't already showing you explicitly, and you aren't basing your decisions on them anyways so what is the point? You are trying to trade price action, make sure you can see the price action first!

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  #134 (permalink)
 
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 michaelroth 
Gillette Wyoming
 
Experience: Beginner
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Structure breaks

Its easy to see where I should have traded after the fact, but I'm adding this to my journal anyway because this is the kind of setup that I want to be trading in the future, and this is a such a great example.



I don't know if this is THE ONE setup, or one of the setup's I will use to trade, there's still plenty of questions like that that I have to answer for myself, but in the last couple of weeks I'm feeling that I'm starting to at least ask the right questions.

Again it comes down the the aggregation of marginal gains, and repetition- continually trying to get a little better everyday. That right now is my edge.

Day trading, so easy a caveman could do it.
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  #135 (permalink)
 
michaelroth's Avatar
 michaelroth 
Gillette Wyoming
 
Experience: Beginner
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Definitions. Trading Method. Trading System. Trading Plan.

Sometimes I use words and concepts that I really don't fully understand. When this happens I can course correct.

https://www.seeitmarket.com/trading-methods-systems-and-plans-whats-the-difference-13976/#:~:text=A%20trading%20method%20is%20the%20overall%20process%20and,term%20profitability%20and%20increased%20value%20of%20trading%20capital.

Day trading, so easy a caveman could do it.
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  #136 (permalink)
 
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 michaelroth 
Gillette Wyoming
 
Experience: Beginner
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Today, over all, I give myself a 'C+'

I spent quite a bit of time last night reading Big Mike's trading method post. There's some real good stuff in there. Really liked how he was grading himself on the day. Today I made 3 trades, 2 losers, 1 small winner. I ended up -$10.25ish for the day. None of these trades were taken with a method in mind, I was following no rules as to why I entered them. Until I have a method and and a consistent set of rules that I follow I will most likely not progress any father as a trader.

This is the kind of trade that I want to be making on a daily basis. The question becomes what is the method? What are the rules?



Its the same deal here on the MNQ. I think to start with- I have to divorce myself of the notion that I need to be mucking around in the lower time frames in order to get a good entry price with less risk. So to accomplish this. I will be sticking to the 5 minute chart for the time being.



A 'C+' isn't a bad grade, it's passing, but there's also lots of room for improvement. It always sucks to lose money, but keeping loses low is part of the game. There's plenty about my game that is strong, and getting stronger by the day. I'm starting to show that I can be disciplined and patient.

Day trading, so easy a caveman could do it.
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  #137 (permalink)
 
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 TheTradeSlinger 
Huntington WV
 
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michaelroth View Post

I think to start with- I have to divorce myself of the notion that I need to be mucking around in the lower time frames in order to get a good entry price with less risk. So to accomplish this. I will be sticking to the 5 minute chart for the time being.

Higher timeframe for analysis/targets/risk/reward/etc, lower for entries/exits. You must lean on higher timeframe levels/analysis and enter/exit on the lower or otherwise it is far too easy to get chopped up.


michaelroth View Post



"This is my trade"

Michael, you are going to try and trade breakouts on a 5 minute chart? Best of luck, the majority of the time you will simply lose as you will be buying resistance and selling support repeatedly. Seriously, look at your arrow here... this is resistance on THIS timeframe. Keep in mind this rule: Buy on moves down into support, sell on moves up into resistance.

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  #138 (permalink)
 
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 TheTradeSlinger 
Huntington WV
 
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michaelroth View Post

https://imgur.com/a/LDtqot6

See the attached image here, how did you know these weren't the breakout points? (Hint: you can't know)

Until you use a methodology that reflects or mirrors how the markets actually move, you will continually chase the next strategy or idea that "looks good".

Michael, I really think you can do this. Remember, buy support, sell resistance.

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  #139 (permalink)
 
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 TheTradeSlinger 
Huntington WV
 
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michaelroth View Post
None of these trades were taken with a method in mind, I was following no rules as to why I entered them. Until I have a method and and a consistent set of rules that I follow I will most likely not progress any father as a trader..

Michael, you know what you must do. Just do it.

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  #140 (permalink)
 
michaelroth's Avatar
 michaelroth 
Gillette Wyoming
 
Experience: Beginner
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Trading: futures
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Changing how I play the game

How about this- how about rather than judging my trading how much money I am winning or losing, how about I start judging my trading ONLY on how well I follow my rules? This is going to be a little tricky for me to start out with, because I don't really have rules that I am following to trade. So the first step I'm taking is defining some rules to follow.

1. The Holy rule. A daily loss limit. I will stop trading when I lose more than $100.00. (45 points) Looking back I have had this rule for some time now and have been pretty good about following it. I'm calling this the holy rule because I feel if I can't follow this one, I'm doomed to a hell of unprofitability. I'm still trying to find what exact amount I need for my daily loss limit, but just having this rule is a good start.

2. I will trade no lower time frame than 5 minutes. (10 points) This is new for me, but important because I in order to focus on parts of my trading like seeing structure I need to pick a time frame and chart style and stick with it.

3. I will trade with the trend. (10 points). So this ones a little tricky for me. It might be that way because I have a hard time following it or because I often see a lot of trading opportunities counter tend. Whatever the case may be, its now a rule, so I can now see and objectively measure both following and breaking it.

4. Every trade I make from now on will have a risk to reward ratio that is at least 2:1. (10 points) I have never tried following this rule even though EVERYBODY says its really important. Now I can know fir sure if the general consensus on this one is correct.

5. I will have a reason that I can easily describe for why I got into a trade, and why I got out. (10 points) I'm still not sure about what and how I like to trade, so in order to find out I have this rule.

6. I will not trade the open. (10 points) My current defined period for this rule is 7:20 AM until 7:40 AM.

That's about all the rules that I can think about for now. I would like to keep the list to no more than 10 rules, and I want these rules to make so much sense to me that they're actually hard to break- like a rule that states "don't hit myself in the face with a hammer." I want my rules to make good sense. The point value I have given my rules is so that I can now accurately grade myself on how well I follow my rules, and because some rules are more important than others, some have more points. For instance, if I break rule number 1. its an automatic 'F".

Moving forward I will now be focused only on how well I follow these rules and how well I am trading. Right now I don't care about how much I'm making or losing. For one, this is SIM, but more importantly its become apparent to me that a lot of traders that became successful said they did so ONLY because they developed rules for themselves and then followed them. So if my goal is to become a successful, profitable trader, it makes sense for me to do the same. It may be that this is the most important aspect of trading, and not even the specific rules themselves but the ability to set and follow them.

We will see and time will tell. Again, a lot of what I am doing is working. In order to objectively measure my progress I have this journal, which is a great tool for tracking progress. I'll now be tracking the next fifty trades to see not only how well I'm following my own rules, but also whether it was profitable. This is my trade plan now. I'm not expecting that its these exact rules or this cycle of 50 trades that pushes me over the top, but the process itself that will take me where I want to go with my trading.

Day trading, so easy a caveman could do it.
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