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I have sessions on Monday and Friday of next week which leaves me three days to update my system.
The HD in my MacBook has been at the edge for a while, so I will be putting in a new drive along with
More RAM and a fresh cooling fan.
I will be updating the Mac partition from Snow Leopard to Lion > Mountain Lion and updating the
BootCamp partition XP to Win 7 Pro.
After all is debugged, I will finally pull the trigger on a VPS from @sam028 and start trading a bit larger positions.
I don't trust my internet out in the country at the house and the studio Wi-Fi is finicky sometimes if there
are a lot of people in the studio.
Now for the trading Reflection.....
I have had some interesting adjustments in my trading approach.
I have carried a swing position in my cash spot account in Euro / USD for over a week now.
I cashed out 3 of 5 positions this Friday adding 10% to my account. If Euro Breaks down into
lower trading range next week, There is potential to do it again.
So... My trading mind is making a seminal shift towards Big Picture.
My swing trading is using daily and 3 hour charts mostly with hourly and 30 minute for entry.
I am using trend channels on the 3 hour to add positions.
It's a bit more like micro investing than trading, really.
For my Futures account, I have all but abandoned scalping for single digit profits. I still have one
game plan that works well - scalping for 10 ticks on large side by side bars and another for 8 ticks
in more of wave rolling PA within a sideways channel.
So... those tools are still in my box, and I actually saw a lot of those setups this week, but I just
couldn't pull the trigger, because my focus was on a level further out. I was looking for the trend.
If I was wary of the longer term direction, I wasn't going in...
So I'm a bit caught in between. I know I left money on the table that was available via smaller targets,
but since I was unsure of the bigger trend, that indecision spilled over into my scalping methods.
So I did a lot of waiting and watching. One day not taking any trades at all.
It is a very exciting time in my growth as a trader.
The accounts are growing and so am I
This week was a super busy in the studio... end of year rush to meet contract obligations before the holidays.
I was able to trade ongoing with the Euro spot account and was profitable for the week.
I was running a shake down test on the computer rebuild, Win 7 and the VPS at the same time and everything is
a go. On Monday I even placed a trade on the futures account,
got well into the green, moved the stop to BE, packed everthing up
and headed to the studio. It is a cool feeling knowing you have a super protected server running your trades
in Chicago while your moving your rig elsewhere. It's a brave new world.
The Family is coming to the farm from all reaches for Thanksgiving, so it will be a zoo for a while around here.
I probably won't be doing much futures trading but I always swing trade the EURO Spot. It's very easy just
to check the charts every once in a while. I can even check / trade from my iPhone!! love it..
I'll be popping in and out of the chat box during the maddness to check in.
I haven't entered in my journal for a while because my head has been buried in charts learning a new
instrument and tool.
I have shifted my day trading focus to YM.
I still focus my swing trading on the Euro / dollar and that technique is progressing famously. I'm steady
increasing risk as I learn to manage scaling in on a long term time cycle. I closed out my last car
on the Euro move down after being in for 2 and half weeks. This latest move up, I have been in for 1 week
now. I have cashed in 2 cars leaving one remaining and looking to scale in another if a suitable PB occurs.
It is a lovely way to trade.
As for the YM, today was my first live trading day after spending a few hundred hours observing and
getting used to the new order flow tools from @DionysusToast. ( I have to plug my man Pete )
I am still putting the final touches on my trading method. The entry style is the same, as are the charts
(just better DOM and T&S ) I'm learning what the optimum target size is for each market time I
trade - ETH and RTH
The entry is still basically what I call "Battle Scalping", which is PA based fades of wicky 5min bars.
The more sophisticated DOM and T&S are helping me to hone in on EXACTLY the price
I want my Limit Orders placed. I always knew that PB entries as a retest of a larger wick formation
almost always results in at least a few ticks move in my trade direction. Now I know WHY. The art is learning when to
take the quick profit and when to let it run.
Today's trading was a study in taking all fade profits quickly.
Half of the entries moved on for 20 - 40 tick gains.
This will be the technique I will be honing the rest of my career. I consider it scalping because I can
cash out anywhere from 4 to 40 ticks. After gathering hundreds of pips at a time with my swing trading,
that is certainly scalping.
The target strategy I have settled on for the time being is, for the ETH session the closest PA based
target to 20 ticks. The DOW has a lovely move that occurs from between 11pm through the London
open generally fading out by 4am (cst).
I am learning more about the RTH session. It moves much quicker, but 40 tick PA based targets are
an everyday deal and sometimes 100's of ticks.
So, the trading hours for me now are 11pm - 4am, get some rest and back at it for the RTH session -
830am - 11am
The key is, I have found a way to be profitable.
Let's hope I can keep it going
Big sessions the rest of the week, so perhaps no more live work (day trading futures) until next
week. The swing trading is always on. At least one order working around the clock.
This is a tough transition (live trading), but with each entry, my thinking becomes a little more
sharp and clear.
I have become a part time Professional Trader.
...oh, I also added one more monitor to the rig
Pray for me, cats... this crap is scary if let yourself lose any confidence at all!!