Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
1. Patience .. Patience .. Patience .. Waited for the completion of the first hour Initial Balance (IB) to confirm which Scenario/strategy to consider. Price opened above previous day's value area, ie Long only. 1st Long signal on Perry's set-up was very close to 11:00 am when an important news may move the market. I did a quick trade within 2 minutes LOL!
Note: I'm thinking there maybe other strategies that're based on the current session's Value Area. Will do some research and see if I may trip over some profitable set-ups .. haha ..
My Next Move:
1. More observation and practice on Market Profile - serves as S/R and indicates which side of the market I should be trading.
2. 6E - An instrument (other than ES and YM) that I am interested in finding more.
YM opened above the value area and was able to hold high for the first 2 30-minute brackets. Scenario 1 and Long only!!
Based on Perry's set-up, the first long was triggered around 10:41. One may choose to hold it until 12:20 or re-enter a second long close to 12:00 noon.
I need a 2nd pair of eyes to watch multiple instruments .. smile ..
I know you are very organized, so I wonder if you would allow me to ask you some questions...
Have you set specific goals for what you want to accomplish? Such as a goal that you can meet by the end of this week, and by the end of this month, end of next month, etc?
If so, do you mind sharing these goals and perhaps letting us know what you are doing to reach them and how you are measuring your success?
I appreciate your much your raised issues as they certainly help my performance review. Since starting the trading venture in Mar 2009, I went through quite a few trading options (such as directional options, spreads, stocks and futures) and programs claimed to help traders become successful. Substantial efforts (both physical and mental) have been spent. No good or bad as they all serve as building blocks for my trading career.
Ultimate Goal: It's the easiest question to answer. It's my every intention to develop a lifetime successful trading career! It's "our" key to financial freedom. I have "our" and not "my" because I love to share my success with my hubby and siblings. More than that, with people I don't know.
How to Measure Success: SMART goal for most of my former assignments. I certainly can apply the same to the Trading venture though I will include an element for the psyche side.
Specific Measurable Achievable Reasonable Time
When and How to Get There (incl Who and What): I used to set timelines. For example, I'd start trading live in 2 weeks (or by certain date) and $100/weekly goal etc etc. The $100 weekly goal has not been reached even once up to this point! It's a joke if I continue setting up a schedule to go live with a daily/weekly goal etc. Instead, I'm focussing on gathering the pieces which I believe are important for my trading career. As of this moment, I have the following list:
1. Trading Plan (Done and currently Inactive)
2. Daily Game Plan (Done and currently Inactive. Apprentice version for the current exploration stage.)
3. Trading Rules (Done and currently Active for Sim Trading)
4. Trading Discipline & Emotion State (Tempted to say Done though need to be tested while I'm live trading)
5. Trading System (Incomplete)
- Market Profile (need more trade set-ups as what I have are quite limited)
- Set-up for Entry (not sure if Perry's set-up is too complete while a lighter version maybe more appropriate)
6. Trading Instrument(s) & Method (80% Complete)
a. Instrument: Maximum 2 as a start (choices of ES, YM, 6E and CL). I will probably go with only 1 when starting live. Don't mind trying out more when I'm exploring.
b. Method: Discretionary or Automation or Both. I will be back to Discretionary while continue sim-trading a few auto strategies. I realize a big difference on my emotion this week, ie more calm and confident even it's sim-trading. Manual trading is not as intimating as before. Again, no way to tell until I'm doing live trades.
I am a very responsive and prompt person. I took up different challenges in my life and have been successful. Sometimes I thought I could make things happened .. anything if and when I set my heart on.
The trading one has been the most challenging and I felt very helpless/useless at certain points. It's challenging in a way that the "losing" idea has been quite irritating. It's a combo of pride and fear! Will diligence help. It helps though 24/7 does not and will not. Persistence will!
There're moments I simply wanted to get a low-pay job ($8-10/hour) and make enough for the grocery bills .. sigh.. I can't .. because I cannot fail my lovely hubby who has lots of faith on me (more than myself)!
Well, my baby goal is to cushion 1-2 real trades per week ($100 for both PT and SL) in the very near future! When? I'm an impromptu person (almost forgot to mention .. haha). When I FEEL I'm ready, it will happen .. could be very very soooon!
I hope the above may answer some of your raised issues. My warmest apologies if I don't .. I am not going to have a schedule mapping 1-2-3-... ... until I have evidence that I am going to accomplish them!
Thanks Big Mike for your encouragement and guidance all along. Also my BIG BIG Thank You to the members whom I am very fortunate to get to know here! I'm very happy to be a Big Mike family member and I treasure the family feel which I missed in my real life!
1. Identified and followed the MP 80% Rule strategy. Trade only with the major trend!!
2. No over-trade. SOH when CHOP was on the chart LOL! Thanks to Perry and Danny!
Room for Improvement:
1. Time for Confession: I am always an "efficient/effective" person (should I use "aggressive" and please pardon my choosing a nicer description .. haha ..) and try to multi-task most of the time. To manage multiple instruments/trades at the same time does cause unnecessary stress and trade mis-management. I got lucky just missing some CL profits and closed both trades in green!
You will see my subsequent post that there's a good ES short trade when I was working on both CL/YM. I was waiting for it to mature. Well, I only have 1 pair of eyes and hands LOL!
2. Choice .. Choice .. Choice: I need to work on it .. Guess I can have as many instruments/charts I want on my screens - I'm NOT recommending this practice. Yet I MUST prioritize on which 1 or max 2 to work on!!
For ES, it's Scenario 5 as it opened within the value area and was trading within it for the first 2 30-minute brackets. I was waiting for a rejection from the top (around 1204.75) before going short. This short opportunity was triggered (blue ellipse on Perry's 4-Range set-up) when I was busy managing the CL/YM trades. It's an over 2-point PT trade if one caught it!
Last night when I did more research on MP, I tripped over the enclosed pdf + the following presentation by Jim Dalton:
2 short trades (1 loser and 1 winner) per enclosed log and chart.
Since my focus is more on MP and discretionary trading, I will not be posting the subject starting tomorrow. Have included the indicator's parameters again.
And I appreciate all your hard work and contributions on the forum!
I agree with you, there is no good or bad there is only the experience that you make of it. You also have to experience something before you can reasonably decide it is something you don't like. For instance, I am an idiot when it comes to options trading. But I've never really spent more than 30 minutes trying to learn it. So I don't say that I don't want to trade options, because I have no idea if I do or don't, I've never done it and certainly don't know enough about it to make an educated decision.
I can appreciate your response and relate to it in many ways. And it's a fantastic goal. You should never give up on that goal, although you've also got to employ your 'SMART' analogy here and make sure that your goal is reasonable, or perhaps I should say that the way you are going about reaching your goal is reasonable
I only say this because too often people sit themselves up for failure. They are under-capitalized, have no day job or primary source of income, etc and yet decide that "now" is the best time and situation to start trading! Trading is a cut-throat business! It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. The difference in trading vs. my other careers has been that with other careers, I've always been able to use my "smarts (intelligence)" to become more successful than my peers, or I've always been able to just work harder, etc.
With trading, smarts and hard work alone are not nearly enough to be successful. In fact, that is why many trading book authors say that C-level executives (ie: CEO, CFO) (and I was) fail at trading. They approach it from a "I'm smarter, I've got more money, I'll win" manner and they end up losing their ass, hard. Trading is a very humbling experience, a very humbling career and occupation. Trading has changed who I am. And I absolutely believe it is for the better, no questions asked, even though I went through some very hard times like I believe most if not all successful traders do or will. It is the perseverance through those most difficult times that ends up defining success and failure, but some people are able to risk more than others. And by risk, I do not mean money, I literally mean life-changing things like divorce, poverty, etc. Each person and each family has its own situation and that situation dictates how much risk you can take.
I don't mean to get all negative here, but for instance a few people on the forum have mentioned their girlfriend left them, or possibly a divorce is looming, or other very bad things, and its a result of one partner believing the other partner is risking too much. On a more positive note, again sorry for being doom and gloom here, all a trader has to do is recognize that the "ultimate goal" (like your example) may take a long time to achieve, and that it is realistic to take it in very small incremental steps. So, it is realistic that you will need to sustain yourself and your family with something in the meantime as you progress through this journey.
I really like the SMART acronym It's spot-on, very very good!
I agree with you, all too often unrealistic goals are set then broken or failed at, and instead of setting a realistic goal the trader is in some sort of unending loop where they can't break the mold. You may have been on many of my posts where I strongly encourage traders to pick just one small thing and focus on that the next trading day, for example only taking 3 trades the entire day if they have an overtrading problem. Dr. Brett Steenbarger, an awesome author of three fantastic trading psychology books, literally hooks himself up to a biofeedback machine that monitors his heart rate and etc. I've actually considered buying one!! He says, and I completely agree with him, that his heart rate increases and he starts leaning more and more forward in his chair when he has put on a bad trade that he subconsciously KNOWS he shouldn't be in, yet his conscious mind keeps trying to rationalize as his losses continue to grow. By having the bio feedback machine, it literally is sitting there beeping at him letting him know "RED ALERT! ABANDON SHIP". He says it takes getting used to, but I can completely see the benefit. After all, when you have a good trade you rarely are freaking out. When you have a bad trade however, you have a tendency to freak out yet be frozen and unable to take action. This is the vicious circle we must break!
Sorry to digress!
Great job on identifying these and working on them!
I definitely advise just trading one in the beginning. This will help ensure you've conquered any boredom issues and discipline issues, which are requirements to be profitable! Trading one is far less exciting than trading two, but if trading is exciting you're probably doing it wrong! Trading is a very slow, tedious business. Don't get me wrong, it is very rewarding, but I don't think excitement is the right word and I would avoid introducing excitement into the mix
Everyone needs to find their own path. For me, automation is a hobby. But discretionary trading is what pays the bills.
Amen! This ties into what we were saying above in the Ultimate Goal section. And you are right on each count. By the way, a person that has failed at trading is just a person that has given up on succeeding.
I can understand. This is a common theme that I hear a lot. Money makes the world go 'round, and especially if you have a family to support, you sometimes have to make a hard decision. Really, the ultimate decision. Someone once said the right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same. Only you can decide what the hardest thing to do is, succeed at trading? Or put your ambitions and passion aside in order to support your family. Don't get me wrong! I'm not trying to say that you are in a situation today that requires this decision, but a lot of people are. It's very hard to give up on your ambitions and passion. It becomes an issue of pride, too. Just like it's hard to take that full stop on a trade, it's hard to accept a loss or being "wrong" about trading in general, too. But no one has to give up on their dreams, they simply need to be reasonable about them.
Beth, you've got a really great journal and I always appreciate your posts! I think you've got an excellent grasp of the challenges before you, and I think you've laid out some very reasonable (SMART) goals! I look forward to more