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Last night I traded a day on replay and today I traded live on the simulator. Both sessions were positive and I was able to recuperate some of yesterday's harrowing sim losses. I'm doing a little better with following the current trend, not trying to catch a reversal, and not counter trend trading. I'm trying to be more patient and wait for good setups, even though I missed several good trades today. Just taking it one day at a time, I guess.
8/5/2014 +$219.90, 5 wins
9/10/2015 +$282.40, 5 wins
-bbdsan
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Just wanted to ask if you think Mack's system is tradeable in real time for profit now that you have substantial experience with it?
I have been trying it out for 2 months and so far I am unconvinced by it and am not sure he hasn't just come up with arbitrary rules that he then cherry picks on the chart the next day for the review video.
I am no where near as good as he or others are at the method but do you think its worth persevering with it?
I've watched so many of his videos and I am completely convinced that he is the real deal. I also subscribe to the premium section of his web site (for the small sum of $99 per year). There is just too much evidence to support the fact that he is doing this for real and makes his living scalping 4 ticks at a time. Plus I am quite sure he catches some big runners as well.
Some of his videos from last year show a couple of his actual trades on the chart (after he turns on the "show historical orders" option). I honestly don't think he is sophisticated enough to fake that.
The final feather in his cap is that I myself have been able to do this. It's only when I break the rules or lose patience that I lose money. When I am disciplined and patient, I can catch the same type of trades that he highlights every day - in real time.
Sometimes I misread the PA due to lack of experience, too. But I can always go back and find my error - find a PA reason why I shouldn't have taken that trade.
My problems are almost 100% psychological, nothing to do with any weaknesses in Mack's system.
I broke the rules today and had to pay a $50 penalty into the "swear jar". Then I lost my internet connection and had no way to recuperate any of my losses. I really seem to be struggling a lot the last few weeks. I'm not sure what's going on, I'm just having a hard time with every aspect of this, from reading the PA to following my rules. Feeling pretty low.
I know exactly how you feel, bbdsan and it hurts even more because you broke the rules. I was there at one point in my journey too. You probably can't help but think how you may have performed had you not broken those rules and how you perhaps could have been more selective. Don't worry about it. You are persistent and trying hard. I bet you'll feel just fine tomorrow morning. Give it a rest, take a break, do something else
You have been struggling a lot for the past few weeks most likely due to a few factors
1) You broke your rules
2) You don't have a reliable system
3) Your risk/reward is unfavorable
The easiest thing to fix in the list above is risk/reward. I have seen you post that your average wins are usually 4 ticks and losses are 8 ticks. I highly urge you to change that. Hold on to your winners longer and get out of your losers quickly. Try a 1.5:1 reward:risk to start with or at least 1:1.
Now, on the point of a reliable system, you may need to change the way you are approaching the markets. Find another way of filtering your trades. One option may be as simple as not trading into support or resistance. Go to a 60 min chart every morning. Identify support, resistance and key levels where the market has pivoted off of and use them to your advantage. In my experience, trading less is much more effective than otherwise.
As far as point #1 is concerned, this is a phase almost every new trader goes through. You want in on the action, you don't want to miss out on any opportunity and, as a result, you feel compelled to take that next trade even if it means breaking your rules. The only thing I can suggest is if you are making mistakes, try to make them quickly. You don't want this to turn into a habit.
Although the volatility has been great, the market has been challenging with a lot of sideways, range bound action. Need to be very careful in these environments.
Yesterday I had to put another 50 bucks in the "swear jar" for breaking the rules. I really lost my shit near the end of the session. I doubled down on a counter trend trade that I had taken out of frustration after being stopped out of a really poor long entry. After that loss I had another poor long entry go against me and ultimately I ended up with a 4 contract short position that I held for 7.5 ticks average profit, bringing my losses back to about $150. So really, it was an exercise in fantasy land since I won't be able to trade 4 contracts in the real world until much further down the road.
I felt really discouraged after trading yesterday and felt like I was just ready to give up. I keep making mistakes. I keep losing my shit and revenge trading. I keep breaking the rules. I keep losing patience and taking poor entries. I keep counter trend trading.
Then I did some psych work last night. I won't go into it here but it did help me feel better and get some clarity. So, I'm not giving up yet. I'm going to keep working on myself and my issues in some new ways I haven't done before.
Anyway, enough of that. Here are my charts and comments for yesterday.
My trading today was much improved. I even avoided taking a counter trend trade that would have been stopped out. I mean I had the order in and everything. But I caught it in time to cancel the order and avoid making that same damned mistake.
One thing that was cool about today is that 4 of my 5 trades were ones that Mack identified in his video tonight. There was one that I thought was a legit failed 2nd entry short but he said he wouldn't have taken it because you had to go long at what was then the high of the day. It worked out in my favor but I understand what he's saying. It's almost never a good idea to go long at the HOD or short at the LOD. It only works if the trend is very strong and today's trend didn't really qualify.
Anyway, I got some back today and I'm still in the game. Just fighting my demons one day at a time.
Except for one trade where my stop was taken out just as the FOMC rate announcement came out, today's trading was excellent. I'm on a comeback trail and my now my demo account is only down $1025.
9/17/2015 +$212.86, 6 wins, 1 loss
I'm finished for the day. I hope everyone made money today!
I don't really want to discuss yesterday. Let's just say I had to feed $200 into my "swear jar" because I broke the rules so many times. It was one of those "by any means necessary" type of days. In the end I was able to break even (up $10.06) but by the time it was over I had moved my stop twice and doubled down twice, hence the 4x penalty going to my jar.
The $200 penalty was pretty damn painful, I must say. It definitely had me thinking twice a few times today.
I didn't trade the full day today. I traded a little in the early morning before going on my run. My girlfriend and I are up to 4 miles a day now. When we got back I made a few more trades, all of them wins (although at least 4 trades were just 1-tick wonders). I was up about $200 on the day and wasn't sure whether I should keep trading or call it a day.
I had some errands to run but I got back about 11:45 and started trading again. Of course I immediately took 2 losses and suddenly I was down $44. I scrambled right into the close and managed to get back to about the same place I was before going to do errands. I'm not too happy with how I was trading in that last part of the session. I completely misread the PA for the 1st loss then I jumped the gun for the 2nd loss. Ah well, live and learn. There's always tomorrow.
9/21/2015 +$10.06 (too many trades, don't want to bother with my charts)