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I've been going over tons of replay data over the Holiday break trying to figure out what type of trader
I am. Obviously, I can't pull the trigger on live money again until I figure out this most basic bit of psychological
weaponry.
I was leaning back to more of a scalping method for a while, because I liked getting to my targets quickly
and putting the cash in my pocket. Nice and safe, right? But then it was time for another entry. So I would
begin the fretting all over again. Sometimes two or three entries in the same price move just because I hit some arbitrary cash number. I would win more than I would lose, but it always seemed more like a
battle to me.
Trending came back into my life. Ichimoku, along with a wonderful indy called Price Action Swing are great
training wheels for reading pure Price Action. PAS keeps track of all the HH / HL , Double Top / Bottoms and
ABC buy / sell patterns. These new tools keep me focused on the task at hand - Trend Hunting.
I have always been torn between the two trader sayings - " You never go broke taking a profit " and " Cut your
losers short and let your winners run " .
I am at a point where " letting the winners run" is less stressful than the constant entry / exit with set targets.
I have returned to PA based targets. The old prior S / R levels gag. It works like a charm. If price is truly in
a trend, it is going somewhere. It almost always goes to this levels. Whether it grinds it out or gets
there quickly, is not my concern anymore. As long as price is making HHs / and HLs, I'm still in the trade.
Ichimoku follows allow with this beautifully and lets you keep and uncannily effective TS.
So in other words, although PA may dictate that some of my entries end up as scalps, it is my intention, with
every entry, to run to the next area of SR.
So here is a look of the main charts.
I have converted totally to time based charts. I have always use a one minute chart with the two MA trick
to help in entries for trends, so I took that as my entry chart. My old trusty 5 minute with the 20 EMA, is my second main chart. I have memorized many 5 min candle patterns that are very useful. I also reference 15 and 30
minute charts, also with the 20 EMA.
So that's it. The charts haven't really changed. I have just chosen to focus on couple I already had.
The Ichimoku 1 minute, with it's built in MAs, replaces the 1 minute with the two MAs I had previously.
I am in the process of hammering out some rules. I already like the fact that the Ichimoku keeps me out of all chop trades because it looks like hell in consolidation.
So, let's see if I can stick with trend based trades this time.
I'm happy to see you motivated and starting again, but would like to also remind you to not assign properties to indicators they don't posses.
If you watch the Chris Capre Ichimoku webinar on futures.io (formerly BMT), I think he does a good job pointing out Ichimoku is not a magic indicator, but is like any other in many regards when it comes to needing to have vast amounts of experience with trading in general to be able to be successful with it. This is true of any indicator.
I'm not a big fan of indicators and I'm not looking for a holy grail.
The reason I want to spend some time with Ichimoku is that it is
MA based, albeit cleverly calculated. I have been trading with MA's from the beginning. As you say,
I just need to log lots of screen time to see how price reacts around these MA's.
I consider both of these new indys training wheels on how to read raw PA. I like the way Ichimoku gives
me feedback on market strength. My entries will change very little... just the amount of them (fewer)
- just what I need!
Well, even though my visuals have changed, my trading behavior remains the same. I am still
taking the purely PA based trades that have nothing to do with all the squiggly entertainment lines
I have on my charts. These trades happen so quickly, no indicator in the world could tell you they
are there.
so here we go.
Trade 1
My new favorite trade. The Edge Trade. I wait for price to form an "Edge" at the end of a price swing
and then wait for a re-visit to that Hi / Lo. This allows me to keep my stops incredibly tight, because
if price breaks this area by more than 1 or two ticks, the swing is not over.
My new spiffy Ichimoku has nothing to do with these entries. Only Price as it approaches SR.
This trade was counter trend, so I looked to exit quickly after a good price is reached AND the spread
tightens up on my DOM.
+17
Trade 2
...an edge trade with trend. I will attempt to let this one run.
This trade took big heat, but price failed to make a HH, so I stayed in.
Target hit
+45
I think I have settled on a good Risk Management plan.
...just a few more hundred hours of screen time and I may have something.
I was able to use the Ichimoku a bit more today, as I caught a couple of trend runs.
I still like my 89sma / 21 ema trick, so instead of flipping between two 1 minute charts, I
put them all on one chart. My chart looks like hell, but I need both systems to do different
things, so I'll see if I can get use to it.
Trade 1
A failed Edge Trade on what I thought would be a double top.
-4
Trade 2
A great doji star signal that I hoped price would revisit for an edge trade. Filled to the tick.
Price came back and hit my trailing TenkenSen stop. It worked well as
price went on to make a HH on my one minute chart signaling weakness.
+ 23
Trade 3
A new trade for me. An ABC sell pattern entry. I never saw these signals until I loaded up
the Price Action Swing indy - love it.
Judged the PB correctly this time, although I placed my order in a different place
than usual. I typically wait for price to revisit my "edge" (Which it did). So I placed
the stop in the correct position at the bottom of the swing. I was supposed to place
my order 1 tick above the edge in price action the lingers like that.
Anyway, for some reason, I hit the "Close" button when price floundered.
I never do that!!! ...of course price moved on to my target.
-3
Trade 3
I had all this planned in my head - knowing TF so well.
Price retested the high swing as it usually does. My target would have been hit one tick below this
swing and I would have placed a sell order exactly at the swing high.
What happened was - I was filled, but for some crazy reason I moved my stop down 1 tick
from my usual 4 ticks on these Edge / DT trades. What!!!!!
Stopped out to the tick
price, of course moved on in the direction I knew it would.