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The rules vary with different trading methods. You'll have to come up with your own trading method, determine the rules for yourself, and then test it thoroughly to prove you have an edge, all before trading with one real dollar. This can take anywhere from 6 months to several years.
In the elite section I have a thread "Market Cycles for Fun & Profit". There I give a simple trading method with some simple rules. It's not a complete trading method but it's a good start. One other person has duplicated my success so that shows that it's profitable. If you don't have anything else to start with you may want to consider at least reading that thread to get an idea of one way of trading. I also recommend BigMike's advice thread. His trading method seems simple and he's having good success with it. That will give you two different ideas. After that it's up to you. I'm considering offering some personal coaching in the future but that'd be in 3-6 months.
Simplify your life, change your point of view, it seems to have been very good for my own trading journey, very good. Just trading with a laptop and one secondary screen from a beach at the end of the world, my results have never been better. I know what my edge is, I know what needs to be done, and what not, keep it simple, get your scalps, and the market is a good life.
I thought I was profitable back then, but what I later found out is that profitability comes and goes. The market conditions change, etc. It's been very hard to be consistent over a long period of time.
So I went back to consulting full time in order to go for the guaranteed paycheck and I trade only the last 2-3 hours. And in this timeframe I look for one single setup: a pullback for continuation into the close. In the last 2-3 hours we have the most information about the market. We have a good idea about the day type, we know the intraday trend, etc. So focusing on this has helped to be more consistent. I set an audio alert where I expect a pullback and walk away. When the alert goes off I come look for an entry signal.
Here is an example from yesterday:
This one worked. Of course it doesn't always, like Thursday:
By focusing on one very specific thing it has simplified everything. And towards the end of last year I found I made more trading like this than I made when trading full time.
Specifically on the perfect trading journal, etc. I haven't been doing it since I stopped trading full time. I know exactly what I am looking for now, I use my order flow indicator to time my entries so they are mechanical, etc. So there are few mistakes. I do go over my trade (usually just 0 or 1 per day) and learn from it, but I don't need to journal it. Time is a premium for me. I work full time and we have a 3 month old baby. By taking 0-1 (and rarely 2) trades a day, everything is much easier.
Of course I can't recommend this for everyone, but sometimes less is more.
I write an algorithm that looks for shifts in the order flow from say selling to buying and when I see that at my level that's my trigger to get long. My indicator does not use DOM data at all, I never found the DOM useful. Time and Sales is useful but very hard to see it real time so that's why I wrote my indicator.
There are lots of ways to time entries but I found I was always rushing it and exposing myself to more risk. so now I use a mechanical entry and that keeps me from entering too soon. And sometimes price will go right through a level and my indicator keeps me out.