Steve here. I decided today that it might be a good idea to get on board with this concept of doing a journal. As you see from the title, this journal (at least at the outset) will be focused on expectancy. I am VERY new to all of this, but from the little That I've learned so far, it is my belief that expectancy plays, not only a critical role in one's chances for long term financial success in trading, but also that the lack of thoroughly tested strategy (proven positive expectancy) is a major contributing factor in creating psychological "issues" (such as trading scared, cutting your winners short, not following your rules, and managing your trade after entry) that either leads to a blown account, or at the very least a trader "spinning his wheels" and not progressing in a timely manner.
My "strategy" is is still very much a work in progress, being that I'm only two months from ground zero in my trading journey. I truly believe you can be highly successful (in time) by following most ANY of the trading phylosophies, (by phylosophies, I mean things such as Volume Profile, Price Action, Order Flow, Chart Patterns, and on and on and on), and for me at least, I've found different bits of all of these filtering into my evolving "strategy". They all seem to have validity (if they didn't I don't think they would have lasted so long), and for me it depends on the time frame I am working in, as well as the type of market (trend or balanced) that seems to bring out the advantage of one over the other.
I'll elaborate on my strategy in time (once it's a bit better formulated), but will say now that the foundation of my strategy will be built on Volume Profile. It is my sincere belief that Volume Profile "speaks to me" and fits extremely well with my personality and my view of the market.
I have been impressed by the knowledge and willingness of many very talented people here on futures.io (formerly BMT) ( big shout out to all the incredible coders who do their magic on developing amazing indicators and share them selflessly to all of use who could never hope to duplicate their skills ). Big shout out to Big Mike as well, who has developed a forum that is light years ahead of anything else out there.
But the biggest shout out goes to FuturesTrader71 (can you tell I am biased towards volume profile :-), who, along with Big Mike, have (in my opinion) done as much or more than most in helping aspiring traders attain the tools necessary to survive the treacherous waters that await us in our quest. And one more person I would like to thank is DionysusToast (Peter Davies). Order Flow is something else that I feel (for my success at least) will add to developing a real edge in trading. Pete's DOM (Jigsaw DOM), along with his T&S tools make getting the advantages of tape reading so much easier than with everything that has come before.
Well, that's enough rambling for now. Feel free to respond or ask questions, I don't mind humoring folks with my ignorance. :-)