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Most of the year I have been trading with 2 targets and moving the stop to BE after the 1st was hit. I know it works depending on the probability of the trades taken, but after analyzing all my entries and comparing the risk reward using both systems I am more profitable with going all in all out looking for swings.
Most of the money made over the last year came from swings on the other half of the position and most of the money lost came from an immediate loss of a full position. I will move my stop to protect profits or minimize a loss though.
I think I can use some help on the entries though. Forex moves differently from the ES and NQ which I am more used to. So far the losers I have been taking in forex should have been avoided. I need more chart time for that I guess. Maybe its the slow markets of recent that have contributed to the lack of quality trades.
So right now I am trying all in all out the rest of this month. I could go back to scaling out in the future though. I'm still not 100% sure what will work best in the future.
I love the tradestation platform. I have had no problems with it and am used to it. The spreads on the Euro and JPY are decent enough but the others are pricey.
hi saiga- appreciate your sharing of the day. i just joined today - having become converted to price action trading but the conversion is easier than doing it for sure...
i noted from the daily chart - the rising channel - a bear flag- which normally break to the downside - as it did, could have alerted you to the potential move. then a bit later on there was a double bottom (nearly triple) before a move up. will follow you on you tube too. good hunting
Good journal @saiga really enjoying it thanks for sharing. Interesting debate going on with regards to the position sizing, it seems that as a trader starts to get the fundamentals of their strategy/edge down then positions sizing and management becomes absolutely crucial to continued success. I've been reading this book by Van Tharp and the whole thing is basically about position sizing.
Great comments by @SteveH really interesting read especially from a very experienced trader. The thing with the all in all out strategy for me is the psychological side of it. Holding a full trade knowing that you could take absolutely nothing is quite mentally tough especially if you trying to swing it as much as possible, also I haven't found a consistently profitable day trader who doesn't use some kind of scaling/trading around positions. The most common seems to be closing a portion of the trade equal to the size of the risk that's what I've seen a lot. So if you traded 3 lot with a 15 tick stop close 2 at 15 then leave 1 on obviously you still have the problem of full stops. The only way round this seems to be scaling in but then the thing with scaling in is you are basically going to lose all the smaller winners because when trades don't turn into bigger winners scaling in you are going to end up with less winners overall I assume. I've followed a really experienced trader for a while who uses 4 scales per trade so he has a massive position on at first as he trades more than 4 contracts he has multiple contracts per scale. He gets to a free trade as soon as he can but he still takes full stop outs quite a bit on his full size and he makes it work.
It looks like the only way to do it is trial and error with your own method because I assume its going to depend a lot on how you trade. I've just started a journal and had a look through my trades this week I only traded 3 days and 1 day was some really bad trading where like you were saying trades went straight to the stop without going in my favour at all. But even with all these even if I did a 2 lot leave 1 runner I think I would have made a fair bit more than I have so I'm just going to have to keep monitoring it I think.
Good luck with it all, I'm interested to see what route you choose to go down but whatever it is I hope it works out.
I am not completely sold either way. I think that both would work as long as the entries as stop placement are decent, but I am not sure what works best for my style. For the last couple weeks I've been going all in all out looking for swings but I am not sure if that is the best. I will continue it for another 2 weeks and then reevaluate the strategy. I will have to look into that Van Tharp book though.
I find my trading very difficult to analyze because of the ever changing market conditions. The last couple weeks have been pretty bad, I'm not sure if its these slow market conditions or a severe problem with my strategy. I will go another 2 weeks to be sure which one it is.
I just found Van Tharps book on position sizing used on Amazon for 12.50. I can't wait to read it. I also ordered Bob Volmans forex price action book almost 2 weeks ago and for some reason they keep screwing up and not sending it. Should be here tomorrow.
Hey saiga, thanks for doing this thread, I really enjoy it. I am currently struggling with the EXACT same issues that you mention in some of your videos. It's amazing what happens sometimes after staring at these charts all day. (Or sometimes in the first 15 minutes of the session!)
It's like my brain's ability to objectively view the chart will just switch off for a couple minutes and that's all it takes. When I "come to" I'm frantically managing a ridiculous trade that was put on for wrong reasons, is clearly asinine, and did not follow any kind of semblance of rational thought.
We read about this and see it over and over again in books, forums, threads, chat rooms, videos, and on and on. But it's difficult to appreciate how bizarre a feeling it is until you make a few hundred of these incredibly ill-guided trades.
It feels as though we have to get them under our belts and understand how bad they hurt so as to ingrain the notion of not placing them again. As the trading days march forward, I feel less and less of those urges to take an awful trade like a child that feels the heat from the skillet and remembers the last time he had one of his "bright ideas" to reach out and touch it. But then there is the fine line between the fear that stops you from making bad trades and the same fear that will stop you from making a good one. Craziness.
Maybe a lobotomy will do the trick. I have an appointment for next week.