Just another journal. Emerging from my "holy grail" phase and now concentrating on learning and developing good trading habits. I am currently in Phase 1 of my plan (see goals of Phase 1 below):
Phase 1 through 12/2011: Overall goal is to develop good trading habits. Specific goals include:
Journal all trades
Good pre/post market habits (check for and sticky news, verify systems working, etc.)
Regularly employ mental/visualization techniques
Develop and successfully employ trade management techniques: Daily loss limits, times between trades, self review end of day, etc.
Concentrate on entering GOOD TRADES
Refine trade management tools (photos vs. videos of trades etc.)
Develop entry rules and setups for instruments and begin identifying setups and recording them
My style is discretionary using delta and T&S and some fibs. I use the TICK as well on the ES. As Chris mentioned in his webinar the 6e does strange things with delta at times and that is why my entry rules are not yet complete as i need more screen time there.
Ive gone back to SIM (but was mildly profitable) because I dont believe my current path is sustainable (ie poor trading habits).
Pictured is a setup on the ES i did not take but it is the type of trade i am looking for. The squigly line on the price is just a TICK moving average overlayed. Sorry for being vague on entry/setup but my goal is not to get hung up on those but instead concentrate on other things.
Aside from sloppy trading habits my biggest trading problems are cutting off winners, revenge trading off full stopouts, and not forgiving myself for errors.
I am journaling my trades using Mircosoft One Note and will be posting here one good trade (good entry, follow rules ,etc) and one bad trade from each day as well as my overall results.
My indicators being used:
Cumulative Delta
High/Low of Day
Jigsaw's T&S
TICK (not sure about this one yet)
Indicators I am experimenting with (but not really using yet)
Value Area H/L
Price Action (HH/HL)
dots showing short term momo (GONE)
That is all i am using for now. I have had a hard time looking at charts with too many lines etc. I am not a "all i need to see is price" type...just found that lines and other stuff were hard for me to use (so far). One reason i cleared them is comments from Joel Parker (I highly recommend him for a webinar etc. - great presenter - clearly a pro - great teacher). He said that almost every pro educator he knows comments how students know far more about indicators than the pros....That struck me like a hammer and at that point i turned them all off and stopped looking at them in the threads. My thinking is that if i can get myself on track with good habits with a blank screen...then I can always add other stuff to help me improve.
Platform: Ninja for T&S, Sierra for charts, MC for backtesting stuff (will be doing more of that once they roll out 64 bit). Id like to go MC full but the lack of keyboard shortcuts is killing me. Its amazing how powerful Sierra is. It does everything natively that the folks here have bent over backwards to make Ninja do. Not as sexy....but really functional and inexpensive. Its far from perfect but
Setups:
Reversal - Delta divergence at prior HTF Resistance/support combined with a reversal pattern (double bottom/TOP or H&S). Primarily an ES trade but will take it on 6e if confirming same. Confirming evidence on T&S and increasing delta
Go With/Momentum - first or second pullback after reversal (if reversal is missed or to add to position) confirmed by delta and T&S