MightyMouse

ES is at a major crossroads: 1400. It is going to react very differently than you might have learned to expect over the last 100 ES points. So, you may like the plan you developed is no longer valid..

It might be a good idea for you to define what you think trading is. It will prove futile for anyone to focus or listen if he doesn't not know what he is seeking. In my opinion if one has to learn how to trade before he comes to the markets, he won't stand a chance. Other talented traders will fleece him while he tweeks his way to extinction. You can't find the opportunity in the long run if you do not know how to trade. Also, would you please dampen some of the sales tactics. It feels like you are offering a 90 day free trial to a secret weight loss or exercise program. "Let me back up and also say that I have produced materials on developing specific types of skills that have helped me. There are specific types of skills that one can develop, and that can take off years from the learning process. " "Let me back up and also say that I have produced materials on developing specific types of exercise skills that have helped me. There are specific types of exercise skills that one can develop, and that can take off inches from your waist line in a matter of days."

Not trading es, but the range seems excruciatingly, painfully small. They should change the tick size to pennies instead of quarters.

I commented based on your comments and not on how you were doing with your trades on the es thread. I have no idea how those trades worked out; all I know is that you commented about moving your stop. Second guessing your actions doesn't seem to me to be part of a "strong discretionary market read". But I suppose it's all a part of the enigmatic image you are developing.

Wow! Prospector, err, I mean Predictor, that is a great equity curve. It's too bad you can only do that by looking backwards. If one could do it presently, one wouldn't have to hustle novice traders to make some scratch. Presently, it seems your still struggle with stop placement and it will be tough to duplicate that curve if you are second guessing your actions.

Far more than 3 things can happen. If only 3 things could happen, then you should be ridding every trend that exists with certitude and not riding your motorcycle. You shouldn't have to ask how you know if an 80 year old man is old enough to buy liquor. You can bet that one without a stop and do it with certitude.

I see dead people reflected from my glass of diet soda and they give me trading signals

If your pullback will not work as obviously as your 80 year old man who should not get carded, then by all means don't take the trade nor should card the old man. However, nothing is as obvious as your old man in the market.

Some good trading principals are:Humility, Confidence, Patience, and Discipline. These parallel good principals that you may want to live your life by outside of trading. Other principals which are important to trading are Greed, Selfishness, Ruthlessness. Can you make a lot of money without practicing these principals? I don't think so.

You should take trades that you are supposed to take 1000 out of 1000 times if you have an edge regardless of what happened the last trade or last x trades. If you are not mentally up to following your rules, then you should not trade at all until you are up to it. As the Aussie expat/Man without a country stated, you use your principals to help you build or define your rules.

It is a gorgeous chart. I would also like to state that I love trading; especially when it loves me back.

Not trading when you are not trading well is a rule not a principal. Similar to the novice that doesn't trade in the first half hour, your rule is more dynamic in that it could be the first half hour or the next, etc. In my opinion, thinking that you should stop when you have losses is flawed thinking; instead, you should make sure you are properly executing your plan ( rules) no matter what the market throws at you. If the right trade presents itself, you have got to take it; otherwise, you are allowing fear to overrule your thinking. Your plan should already prevent you from losing too much throughout the day (rules about max loss per trade). Anyhow, whenever you do A because of B, it is a rule. You will not be able to trade without rules. That is really nonsense. I will say that the rules you trade with evolve as you become proficient at taking money. A novice typically designs rules that are backward looking and designed to avoid pain caused by fear; typically the fear of being wrong or the fear of losing a gain, or the fear of not surviving. A proficient trader designs rules to interpret order flow as it presents itself to maximize returns which means minimizing costs and maximizing profits.

Sort of like growing up during war time.

Slick, I am more interested in the dollar rising than the aussie dropping. I am short euro/usd and the dollar rising some more across all pairs would pep me up a bit. As far as when do I get in and out: I get in when I am able to get in with low risk. It doesn't matter to me if I catch the whole move or get in too early or too late. What is important is that I can get in within my risk parameters and price moves away from my entry. I look at general direction then hone down to HH HL if long or LL LH if short to find a cheap entry. Entry involves, sometimes, lots of small losers, and or throwing away lots of decent gains until price moves away from my entry. As price moves away, i expand my timeframe of view and ignore the minutia. Also as price moves away, I add to my position at various times. For this particular Euro trade, it took 3 attempts to get in and have added once and my stop is better than break even so I will make something if it snaps way back. Getting out is really the harder part since baked into the cake is the fact that i do not know what the market is going to do. As I add, I bring my average price closer to the current price which increases the possibility of my position being taken out break even or with a small gain if there is suddenly too much adverse volatility. I won't let a position that I have added to go negative. In the case of this trade, it is still in a monster range, bound at the bottom by 1.18. So, what feels like a down trend may really end up being just a range bound trade. My gut tells me that it will go through 1.18. My greed wants it to go through 1.18. But both have been wrong many, many times. Part of riding a nice move is focusing on the reasons to stay in the trade and ignoring the reasons to get out. This leads to being incredibly biased in the direction you are trading. If I am fortunate enough for the market to continue in the direction of my bias, then I will make a decent amount. If it decides to detour or reverse, I could get out with peanuts. On the other hand, I could make 30 to 60 cents for the penny I risked. There is no magic or secret. It is confidence, patience, discipline, and luck.

From your post to God's ears

Of course they wouldn't. But, those who would lose because of the new technology would attempt to block passage of safety features for the new technology or some other tactic to stall or cause anguish to the company with the new technology. Not everyone is excited about new technology. The horse and buggy association was a huge opponent of roadway projects in the early 20th century.

I will suggest that we will get a reaction at around 1.2170 which could stop an attempted target of 1.2115-ish for today. If there is no order flow in that direction, then it'll likely attempt to press to the 1.24 area, trapping the shorts that were placed over the last few hours.

i will agree when you are discussing currency vs currency. But, when you are investing in another country, you are also investing in that country's base currency and its currency stability is part of the decision to invest in that country. It doesn't seem to me to make sense to say that you are investing in that country and trading in their currency. So, if I purchased a chain of Aussie liquor stores, earnings will come to me in AUD. As the asset appreciates, it will appreciate in AUD and benefit plus or minus with the inherent exchange rate risk, So, there is a possibility that I do end up with more AUD from my investment when all is said and done. When the asset is sold, I can decide to leave it there or bring it back to the USA.

i suppose it is a question of semantics. When does a trade become an investment? Seems that your argument is that a short can not be an investment. There are US corporations who actively decide to invest in assets of other countries based on the stability of the country's currency relative to the US Dollar. These investments make the most sense when the money can be safely left in that country. Their investment in those assets are a short for the USD.These investments are in factories, buildings, etc. and not short term in nature. For the purposes of these threads, I do not believe that anyone here is a forex investor. At best they are long term traders.

Eros, Last I knew, carltonp met a very nice girl, had a child, and is now running a daycare center for toddlers with his new bride. I don't think he will respond to your inquiries.

If we found alternative power sources, I suspect that oil prices would soar. Even when alternative sources are found, our current infrastructure is still fossil fuel based and would take decades to convert. Oil has inelastic demand. An oil supplier would likely manipulate the price while demand remains inelastic. I know I would.

To me, everything and anything that we can put on a screen to make a trading decision is an indicator. I use price, time, and volume and derivatives of each,plus the DOM, and t&s to help me decide if the conditions are right to put money at risk. People continue to lose money because they do not know how to trade. That was the point of my post. If you are trading es, or oil, or corn, you should be making money if you are a trader and not losing money. I firmly believe that a prerequisite to trading the markets, is a knowledge of how to trade with others. To be clear, trading is not buying when line A crosses line B. That may look and feel like trading but it leads to losses over time.

Becoming a trader isn't really something you pick out of a career catalog and decide to pursue as you would an accounting or nursing degree. Trading is something you have a knack for doing. This means that in your life you have become good at buying things at one price and selling them at a higher price. It means that you know when price is too high and won't buy at that point because the market for that product has to come down. You know how to identify when someone is desperate to buy or desperate to sell and you have learned how to take advantage of that situation and are perfectly ok with taking advantage of people in that situation. Trading the financial markets require the use of software and indicators, but it is still trading as above. Price doesn't follow a pattern. You can convince yourself that it does, but, then, you can convince yourself of anything. You are trading traders who act strategically, so they do not act like you might expect protozoa to act in a petrie dish. You are supposed to take money from the markets when you trade and it is not ok when you are losing. When you are losing time after time, you are doing something wrong. There is a lot of good advice and bad advice here on these and other threads, but beware since you are no more likely to become a trader by spending time on these threads than you are likely to become a car by spending time in a garage.

if you are making money in the markets, you already have a way to beat bots.

Most successful people are not academic achievers and I do not think it is a prerequisite to successful trading either. If you don't make it as a trader then the academic education will come in handy, but there is nothing that you will learn from academia that will assist you in trading. Trading is not a science.