JEHs

I'm wondering if there is a way to move stops together when chart trading with OEC charts. When I enter an order that uses a strategy with two brackets enabled, my order gets filled and I have automatically two stops in place. As price moves and before it hits my first profit, (taking one of the brackets off the table), I need to move these stops, sometimes just a tick at a time. It is a tedious process as the chart is moving and easy to drop the position on the wrong line... and then I have to do the other one. I can only imagine if I had three brackets in play. I would think there would be a way to move these orders simultaneously. If I remember right, Ninja has it so I just click on the new position and the order moves. The orders are together, so just one click. In OEC the orders are separate and I have to grab them one at a time, pick them up and drop them in the new place. Hopefully there is a simple solution and I am just missing something obvious, (as is often the case with me). Maybe a fan of a "less than stellar" football team can help me out here, (I am a Vikings fan, but only a fair weather fan, which we seem to be having this year so far). Thanks, JH

Here is a trade I happen to be in that fits, (sort of) with this type of thinking. That highest high candle and the one after that was a 2B signal. One could get short right there as price breaks the low of that HH candle, but I waited till the next failed HH candle, which ended up being a bearish reversal bar. I watched the market that following morning and when price started out above the low of the RB, I hit transmit on my orders and walked away. The tricky part is now where to go with the stop. I took first profits as it neared the last low and got stop to BE as quick as possible after that, but now, things are looking real good and I hate to give any back, but I want to be there if things develop into an extended run. If I had enough, I would buy some more back now, but I only traded 200 and the first 100 was first profit, and, apparently IB wont work with odd lots on SMH, so here I am. Now we have an RB on the bottom side, so, I should be thinking of just getting out, but we have taken out a few lows and a fairly significant one a couple days ago, so I will move my stop over that last 2 bar DT and hope for the best. That's just a hair more than 50% of my potential profits gone if I get hit, but ya gotta give it some chance, (at least that is what my plan tells me).:hmmmm: JH I came back and added a weekly chart for SMH. Everything works the same on the weeklys, a chart is a chart after all... And then a couple other charts I am watching.

I was kind of thinking along similar lines, (though I'll try to keep sarcasm out of my comments), These movements are well meaning and well intentioned, and it is always slightly encouraging to see these attempts at rallying folks to participate in something positive, but if everybody was interested in this idea as a common cause, then we wouldn't need it because the elections would take care of the problem. I don't think you can change the way the majority of people form their opinions, and they are the ones who are swinging the elections.:bang head: JH

Actually, most food banks have incredible buying power. A dollar donated to them buys 7 to 10 dollars worth of food, whereas if you buy the food, one dollar is one dollar. It would be better to just donate the entire amount to the food shelf and let them do the buying. I am only commenting on the subject of giving to food shelves. I am not trying to be insensitive to the original posters question. I'm not going to comment on that subject. JH

I was watching some BMX biking videos with my son the other day and they were talking about the development of the foam pit. A large pit filled with foam block that you can land in without hurting yourself. They were doing huge tricks off ramps and stuff. I said: Wimps! Go real or don't go at all. You will learn so much more about yourselves with that six months in the hospital recovery time between tries, than you will practicing with the foam pit. You will be a better biker in the end. Or you might be dead or just too crippled to try anymore... :bang head: JH

Another example from intraday data today. This is more the "channeling" perspective. I don't consider trendlines to be an "indicator". For me they are just other points of interest on the charts, giving me additional S/R areas where a trade might be considered if my set-up occurs. JH

Trendline example. This is more Trader Vic than Parsons...

The biggest problem with stocks is the daytrade rule. If you have less than 25k you will not be able to daytrade. This might be the problem with the 3 to 4 days for money to clear. The money should be there immediately. JH

Hmm...is it worth it... That's always a hard question to answer. I think I bought mine for 25 bucks a few years back when Mike first put it out and it's not one of the many trading books I have chosen to sell on e-bay, so, I guess, to me, it's worth having around. Pretty simple stuff, really, but it's nice to have it written out in book form on a shelf. The cover, itself, is so wonderfully entertaining... As is said many times here and other places, most of the technical stuff you need to know is available for free. I don't buy books much anymore and I would say most of the important things I have learned came from just looking at the charts and talking to other traders... JH

I find trend lines to be the most important lines on my charts no matter what time frame.

The book mentioned above by Trader Vic is here. That book just has small but very important mention of trendlines. Another that I have found to be good reading is here.

FWIW, I think you are wrong about the "road to hell"... JH

Ninja is it...Pretty realistic fills, replay, etc...

OEC is certainly having their problems this week, it seems. I am with AMP, using OEC charts and they have been messed up all week. Something to do with the upgrade over the weekend I suppose. Frustrating... JH

You have to be care full of the folks who want to help for free, too. There are many people who just like to spout hot air. Just because they chose to try to help you doesn't mean they are profitable. It is easy to talk knoledgably about this and make yourself appear as thought you are a real trader, and you may even be very knoledgable but still not profitable. A mentor may even be a very nice, well intentioned guy and still not actually help you. One of the most important things that you have to realize, in my opinion, is that you are on your own. Nobody can make this work for you. You have to take the bull by the horns and go at it. JH

snopes.com: Michelle Obama at Soup Kitchen

I have not seen a "system" where you can say for certain, "if price does this, then I will do that" every time and have it make money. I would venture to say that most traders who have a "system" or "plan", have, as a strong element in that plan, their own intuition. For example, you could look at Joe Ross's 123 and RH trading, and it looks good, but if you trade it every time, you will loose money. You have to have that little extra that says, "this is a good one" or, that one doesn't look so good, I will pass". I have seen many traders say, "Look, if price does X at such and such a level, then I will do Y and over time I will be a winner". I would look at the chart and say, why not when it did just that back here, why did you pass on that one? Sometimes there is a good answer, but often the answer is, "it just didn't feel right". This make the whole concept of a "plan" hard to grasp. A "plan" implies having a set of rules you follow every time, but I think intuition plays more of a role then even the successful traders realize. Trader Vic, in his first book, said he mentored 35 traders. Had them in his office, gave them access to everything he had including his watchful eye and detailed advice. In the end only 5 managed to be successful. I know there are some mechanized systems that do OK most of the time, but I think here we are talking about trading at a human level. John

This one tugs at my emotions a little bit. I'm thinking I would not wish the journey you are about to undertake on anyone. I have been at it for many years and only recently have begun to think I am seeing the light of day. The most important thing you need to do if you want to be a trader is figure out how you are going to make a living for your family while you learn this. Just like if you were going to go back to school. You need to figure out the personal and financial logistics of how you are going to get from there to where you want to be. And I don't mean looking for a method or system, (there isn't one). You need to figure out how you can get a job that will allow you the time and energy to devote to learning this craft. It is hard. If this is something you really need to do, then nothing anybody says will discourage you, but you might want to think long and hard and have many long conversations with your wife about this and talk to traders who are doing it and ask them how the learning process went for them. Dude. Seriously. And don't even think of trading one more dime of your savings until you have a good solid grasp of something. You will need that money to live. Sorry to take such a negative tone, but I just have to say...Dude...Seriously...there is no way you could possible have any idea what it is you are trying to do and what it will take to get it done. I am not just saying this, I have a pretty good idea what I am talking about. John

Great thread, That electric classical guitar piece in that video above is incredible. I haven't posted here much, but this kind of conversation gets me going. You guys probably all know about this, but there is a site called pandora.com where you can design your own "stations" based on certain types of music. They can get repetitous at times but you can keep changing it up. I keep my thing going with Tuck and Patti, Leo Kottke, Ben Harper, Blind boys of Alabama, Led Zep, Hendrix, etc, though that higher octane stuff can be distracting to me at crucial times, I need to reach over and turn it down, (I have it going on a machine next to me). Also a radio station I like is http://www.kumd.org. A good mix there. I also have my own guitar hanging here that I can grab when I need to step back for a minute. ...speaking of Hendrix, here's a version of Little Wing done by my favorite guitarist: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M56QwDjE6PQ]YouTube - Tuck & Patti - Castles Made Of Sand/Little Wing[/ame] Or how 'bout a Santana classic: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtljYur4_T8&feature=related]YouTube - Tuck Andress Europa[/ame] Doesn't get much better than that. I know this is all "off topic", but ya gotta have something to keep you going. Thanks, John H

Yes, the price is right that's for sure. I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining. I talked to the guys at AMP and they didn't seem to know anything about the new upgrades, but I downloaded the new demo version and I can see some changes. Being able to copy a drawn entity is convenient. John H

Thanks Brownsfan, I like using the OEC charts and trading and I am glad to see they are working to improve. John H

Yes, I have been playing with trendlines for many years and this is the conclusion I have come up with too. I just thought it would be worth discussion because it seemed to be worded in that book in a somewhat confusing, (at least to my simple brain), way. Trendlines, for me, are the most important things on my carts. More often than not, they keep me on the right side of the trade. And "more often than not" is all we can really hope for. Thanks, John H

Trendline trading....

A few things to wish for: The simple ability to copy and paste a drawn entity, trendline, text, etc. The ability to draw a circle or square. It would be nice if there were some way of having a workspace set up like you can do in ninja, having a set up of charts and save the screen configuration as a workspace and then be able to change workspaces. I like ninja's ability to have a "global" setting on the charts so that as you mover the curser on one timeframe, the other chart, (with a different timeframe) automatically moves to the same point in time. Just a few thoughts, John H

I use Brackettrader too. Very simple and easy to set up strategies for multiple targets and moving your stop automatically as targets are hit etc. Very simple. It is free, but you will want to register, ($100), to be able to change sounds, etc. Otherwise they have an annoying buzzer sound when trades a executed or stops/profits are hit. But at least you can try it for free. JH