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Tried to focus on entries today. There were a lot of mismanaged exits, but I'll worry about that another day.
Trade #1
Price pushed up through the EMA, then pulled back. Entered on the pull back long at 82.23, but no follow through. Out BE+1.
Trade #2
Price did a reversal and dropped back down. Waited for confirmation, then went short 81.80 and price turned around for a brief pop up. Out BE +1.
Switched to sim because I wanted to try some stuff.
Trade #3
After skimming along under the EMA for awhile, I went short after the 06:40 bar. Out BE+1.
Trade #4
After the news, price hugged a trend line, weakening as it went up. Place a sell stop under the last green candle and was filled. Held my breathe waiting for the big retrace to stop me out, but it never happened. When price bounced off the EMA, I moved my stop. +15 ticks.
Trade #5
Took the signal short from a shorter time frame, and managed the trade from there as well. I think if I'm up on a trade, it's best to manage it from the higher time frame. This was a nice runner. +20 ticks.
I took 7 more trades in sim, all focused on the shorted time frame. Made 95 sim ticks and 2 real ticks. Yipee.
I have been programming NT from my laptop at home, and I had left it connected over night. Went to work on Last Thursday as normal, and goofed around with different time frames and strategies. Made 37 trades, most losers, all in sim (or so I thought).
At 07:32 on Thursday, I was booted off NT by the broker because a second login was detected. I didn't put 2 and 2 together at that point, but tried to log back in unsuccessfully twice. On the third attempt, it let me back in and I went on my merry way playing around.
On Friday I looked at my statement and it was down a little over $400 on a half dozen trades. The log file on my laptop at home showed a connection at 07:32. After pouring through the log files, I saw what happened and pieced together this story (that's what I did most of Friday). It showed all sim trades until 07:32, then a broker disconnect. After logging back in, it showed the account was live. I am absolutely 100% positive I was trading in sim from my office computer, but the second login somehow screwed things up. I'm sending the log and trace files to NT for analysis, but I don't think anyone besides me really cares (I know Mirus didn't).
I'm just happy it was only a few hundred dollars. It could have been a disaster.
Moral of the story, do NOT leave NT up and running on any computer you are not sitting in front of!!
I was out of town on Monday, and yesterday I had to deal with a plumbing problem.
Today has been spent doing sim on the days I missed. My plan for the holiday break is to get methodical with my trading plan. I'm seeing a lack of focus and follow through in some areas, maybe trying to trade too many setups because I'm impatient.
Right now I'm feeling what I'm sure a lot of people feel - so close yet so far. Plowing through this alone is difficult, but maybe that's the best way.
I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, tips, etc. from traders who have made it over the hump. Not looking for anyone to hold my hand, but a flashlight would be nice.
Wow! Glad I never did that. Oh, wait I have. haha... Cost me about the same!
I did that on MT4 a few weeks ago and made 1500.00!
As far as getting better, I believe like you said, you have to be methodical. Go through and really FOCUS on what is good/bad and just stay the course. At some point you will be profitable, but it just may take 3-4 years.
I have noticed out of all the people in my trading group, the only really successful ones are the people who have been doing it 2.5+ years. I mean doing it by the 'same system'.
I am now 14 months with my current system and I am trading worse than month 2. But, I also believe that we all go through waves of "improvement" and you get worse before you get better.
January will mark 1 year trading full time for me. Since then I've changed platforms, time frames, indicators, you name it. Because I wasn't consistent with anything, I'm not sure that my past experience counts for much. I've settled on this price action method and am determined to make it work.
Is there any other groups or people you can feed off of? Determination is good!
I know you can make a go of this, but for me it takes the confidence of other people having done it. I guess because I hear nothing but negativity all over the internet about scammers etc.. Maybe I should stop reading the boards.
Oh, read the market wizards book you recommended. Quite inspiring.
Got a little chopped up today. Overall I came out +4 ticks, but I didn't start making money until I switched to sim, so I lost where it counted.
My goal for the day was to pay attention to higher time frame S/R lines, and not get caught making trades within a range. The 30 min chart was in a trading range between approx 84.60 and 84.15 when I got to work.
The 06:40 bar broke support, then came back up. Support now became resistance. A short of the 06:50 bar close was the right trade, but I wanted to wait for more confirmation. Well, I waited too long.
Trade #1
Short 83.69 but too bars too late. Got out BE+1.
The market rose back up into that range, with the 07:35 bar hitting the top. The next bar had a failed breakout over the range.
Trade #2
Shorted the close of the 07:40 bar, figuring this was the top of the previous range. I was looking for a trend back to the bottom, around 84.15 and only looking for 15 ticks on the trade. Shorted 84.60 with a tight stop. -4 ticks.
Price made a triangle at the upper part of the range.
Trade #3
The 08:05 bar broke down through the triangle, and the next bar kept going. Put in a sell limit at 84.51, figuring price would test the bottom of the triangle which would now be resistance. Dead wrong. -11 ticks.
The 08:15 bar broke up through the range and I started watching the 1 min chart for an entry
Trade #4
I waited too long on this - until the second 1 min bar closed, then went long at 84.80 which was about the worst time. This long trade sure looks dumb on a solid red candle. Managed the stop aggressively, but still came up short. -7 ticks.
After 3 losses, I switched to sim.
Trade #5
When price failed to continue up and the 08:20 bar trended down, I waited for a trace back to the higher level where I went short at 84.72. Ended up with 1 tick of slip for a BE exit.
Trade #6
The 08:30 bar broke out of the range, switched to the 1 min chart and put a buy stop 1 tick above the 1st surge bar. Was filled and take up for a hard target. +25 ticks.
Trade #7
Entered at the close of the 08:35 bar and was stopped out on retrace. -11 ticks.
Trade #8
Entered a sell stop at the bottom of the 08:40 bar when it made LH and LL, thinking this might be a trend line break. Managed stop agressively. +6 ticks.
Trade #9
Entered sell stop under doji. Was filled but price help support at 08:30 swing high. +4 ticks.
Trade #10
After a few failures to break 85.38 I shorted 85.37 with a tight stop. After the 10:10 bar failed to do anything, I moved my stop to BE+1 and was taken out.
If there's a lesson here, it's S/R lines are fuzzy areas, and don't be too ready to jump in until price starts to move.
Today I brought in to work the strategies I had been working on at home for some further study and refinement. When I ran them on my work computer, I got RADICALLY different results, like not even the same planet. Also, when I tried running from 1/1/10 - 11/28/10, only the past 3 months were visible. If I ran it against the earlier contract, I not only got different months, but the overlapping months had different results.
After a few go-rounds with NT support, I decided to wipe the office computer and start fresh. My laptop was brand new with a single installation of NT, but my work computer had a couple of upgrades to both 6.5 and 7.0. Then when I was cleaning house, I decided to defrag the computer. I kicked that job off at 8am, and now at 6pm it's still running!
I have 2 ninja licenses, one start with @SIM and one start with @DOR. So I actually use diff license just to be sure.
Consistency performance with identical live trade environment so there is virtual no change when you switch to live is what you aim for.
This is not a critisisam but after having looked through your excellent detailing of your trades I really cant understand how your reading price action...please can you post a blank chart next to one you have marked up next time?
Also have you considered using 2 timeframes, there appears to be little context to your trading?
Whats your expected R:R on each trade? Do you have any idea what % hit rate you have?
Cost me about the same! 
