torero

I'm seeing a double-bottom forming here and to be confirmed with a pullback. Going to watch for this long entry.

Don't mind to dis you James, but you gotta have to learn how to post charts like Tex did .

Candlesticks or not, I mainly look at the high and low of each bar and determine if it's broken the last bar high/low or last pivot of groups of bars. I don't use candlesticks individually because I used trade with it without success. I found that price action and trends cannot be determined in a single candlestick or a few candlesticks. I use a group of bars (candlesticks or not), 5-10 MINIMUM. Reading price action can be used with and without candlesticks and using it can determine condition of the market and how these bars relate to each other based on higher highs/lows and lower highs/lows principle.

testa, patience is the biggest and hardest hurdle to learn as you will see down the road. It was for me and still is a problem for me from time to time. Letting it play itself out is the right mentality. When you're impatient, 2 things happen 1) You change your stops too quickly toward breakeven or to the price action, eager to lock in profits. This results in you getting stopped with a meager profit, but then you end up watching the move that could have been more if you left your stop alone. 2) You waited too long for a setup to appear for an hour, 2 hours, and you're finally bored to death and have to come up with an excuse to trade. This is where you'll bleed slowly (or maybe largely if you have no money management skills to keep it under control) with low probability trades. "Let profits run" will be the hardest thing to do, no matter how experienced and profitable you are in the market.

I think we all relapse to same old mistakes and then we rediscover the same big lesson LOL! This year is definitely forex. I'm very excited about next year but I also know Nov/Dec in forex has more wider swings and bigger trends than rest of the year, so I'll take it with a grain of salt. But learning the session hours and 240-min timeframe were a great big leap for me. Thanks, tex.

Hi James, when you say automated, you mean coded or bracketed order strategies? I know you use TS codes and strategies on Ninja. So I assume, yes, it's true. I think they use their own proprietary code you can implement yourself. This is part of their platform for a while now.

You just gave the biggest clue to finding the reversal. Reversal in one timeframe is not in another. For me, if the market has been making higher highs and higher lows, then start breaking the last low and make lower highs and lower higher, a reversal is taking place. But I always make sure this is seen in a higher timeframe as well or at least wait for it to prove itself before committing my money on it.

Actually today looked real good for ER2. The swing was 7 points, up and down. Any good scalper would have had a good day with it. But I'm sticking to my rules so no trades today. Tomorrow is Non-Farm Payroll, should be exciting for forex.

Here's how I stay focused and wait for my setup. Trading plan is fundamental in building a focusing point. In addition to reviewing the trading plan from time to time to keep my mind fresh of what I need to do, if I see a possible setup forming, I usually ask if it fits into my plan. Second, I also ask what the likelihood the setup will continue in the direction I have in mind for it (by seeing higher low/high for longs and lower low/high for shorts). If I think yes, then the next question where is the stop and where is the target, then I calculate the ratio to see if it's worth taking the trade, minimum at least 2:1 reward:risk, I prefer 3:1. Ask these questions every time I think you see a setup, most of the time by the time I ask the second question (reward/risk factor), it won't qualify for me to take the trade, that's a good start because good setups only happen 2-4 times a day and then there are none in some days. Beyond 4, I'm not being picky enough with my setups.

Remember, trade with Confucius, not with confusion HA HA HA!!!!

Looks like we're near or at 21.4% on 240min frame. Let's see if this will make a double-bottom to make sure this is good support. A bullish pennant is still at work and I'm still flat. It's also curious to note that the opposing pattern is the inverted cup-and-handle pattern at play as well. Hmmmm, ambiguous isn't it?

I think they can only this for so long. After a year, I got burned out and wasn't fun anymore. I had to find a way to work less and make more. Eminis was the answer. Took a while to get adjusted but work hard and persistence paid off.

I stay away from day before, same day and day after, thus no trade until Monday. Too much confusion going on, like this thread LOL!

I found 2 here: $ER2IUX and $RLIUX. These are premiums. Don't think they have TICKS for ER2, at least not that I'm aware of it.

Like you, I place my stops immediately too. With MBTrading, they allow multiple open orders on their servers, very slick. With Tradestation, they only recently allowed to have open orders parked on their servers (but only 1 open order allowed at any one time) so I still have to be careful. Yep, disasters in the past tells 2 things: 1) we were lucky to have not been affected 2) we need to prepare for the unexpected or the worst when it comes again.

I'll see if I can make it.

That's excellent observation and advice. I'm sitting tight today, not sure which way the market wants to go just yet now that 9650 is blown but I'm not convinced just yet.

When reaching 1000 and you still haven't blown out, you're doing pretty good! It's an indication you're either learning money/risk management or you've found your style that fits your personality.

I don't even hang around before noon strikes. I take my opps in the first 2 hours. If nothing happens, then there's tomorrow. After time after that, I'm already exhausted and it's a different market from my trading style so I stay away.

Well, one man's treasure is another's man trash. But don't diss the ER2 just cause it's volatile. Daytraders breathe and thrive on volatility and it suits me just fine. The slippage is never that bad from my experience, worse is 3 ticks when the market was just wild ie. a major surprise fed news, but most of the the time is 1 tick. But the cherry is you get the bang for the buck. But that's just me. Back to the topic at hand, I agree with the list completely in every way and I'll add a few more: 1) Bang for the buck. You make 1-3 trades a day and can make as much as the multiple stock juggling stocktraders do. 2) Less stressful, only need to follow 3 eminis max if you so desire instead keep up with 5-10 holdings everyday. 3) Don't have to follow the indices and sectors, eminis ARE the indices. Stocktraders constantly have to follow the cues from the indices to track their positions. That means more eyes to follow all these charts. 4) Less investment in hardware and software cost. I used to have 3 PCs with 3 monitors, now only 1. Used for have 4 charting services, now 1, another as backup and it's free. 5) NO gaps to deal with, market always open. Terrorists attacked London underground early hours of the morning, if you wanted to, could be out in minutes and not wait until open and dump the stocks along with panicking crowd. 6) NO market makers, no games. 7) NO routing decisions to make: "ECN? ARCA? REDBOOK????? Oh man, could have gotten a better fill with ARCA!" Geez, Louise. I'm sure there are more intangibles I haven't mentioned but it certainly has made my trading and personal life much easier to live.

We all know the rules of engagements, at least we think we do until something happens to us, like blackouts, no internet connection, broker server disconnect, broker software freeze, and many more mishaps. These are things that go with the business, so better plan for it. Here's my setup, nothing fancy but it's adequate for now until I upgrade later: 1) my desktop 2) my laptop 3) remote server at datacenter 4) DSL line 5) Dialup line 6) 3G line (wireless DSL/dialup, that's what they call I think). 7) Main broker 8) 2nd broker 9) brokers phone #, customer support phone #, telco customer support #, remote datacenter customer support #. Scenarios: 1) blackouts - if these happen, I go to my laptop and use dialup to reconnect and go flat in case I was in a trade. 2) broker software freeze or malfunction - I go to another broker and hedge my 1st broker's trade. Call them until i get resolution then go flat simultaneously. I also go to remote desktop to connect to my server at datacenter and go flat from there, if laptop doesn't work either. 3) DSL disconnect - I go to my dialup or 3G connection to get back in 4) Caught in position without being at trading station/desk - Take my laptop to coffee shop or golf lounge and connect via 3G I'm sure there are other situations, but these are ones that have happened to me. When they do, my first goal is to go flat, whatever it takes as quickly as possible. What about you guys? What's your contingency plan?

I think Ant created it and I'm sure he has some understanding of it. I knew of another trader, I watched him traded using Market Delta. Seemed quite useful. He read it so well, he pinpoint his entry very accurately when it was turning. I was pretty amazed. But like everything else, had to sit and stare to really learn how it works.

Here's the reaction when people ask me what I do. I tell I'm a trading system programmer and sometimes a trader. As soon as I say it, silence takes over, and then conversation moves on to some other topic. If they bother to ask, I think they'd be bored to death listening how prices moving up and down. Other times, I'd tell them I'm a programmer, another silence. I try to simplify things but still get blank stares. The only they know is a guy sitting in front of the computer all day. But surprisingly, they notice I have a lot of free time, never stick to a fixed schedule and always seem to show up picking up and drop off my kids, at many school events, most times with a 3-day stubble in jeans and t-shirt. Personally, I think they think I'm a bum or a liar. Suits me fine. This keeps the fakes and wannabes out of my path and sincere and honest people coming who bother to find out what I really do . That's one thing I try to instill in my kids is things are never what they seem.

Looks like that bounce right off the 9676 perfectly. It's amazing how fast it recovered from the support. Since I missed this boat, let's if the next boat comes around.

Good advice, tex, on the Fib level only valid in 240 or higher. I'll keep that in mind. Yes, been staying out after 2 false starts, so I'm staying flat now until 9650 nears.