TinGull

Thanks Abe. I appreciate the comments

And also, to ditto what walter said. no feelings here. My coach said to me "You can't see to the right of the chart, correct? Then why worry about it?" Soooo true. We can see the left of the chart and thats all we have to go on. Never try and out-think the market. I've tried more times than I can count to do that and it never works.

Abe, some simple yet powerful things to keep you on your toes as far as a short term bias...watch for market phases. The market always ebbs and flows and you want to be watching for the signs of those directional changes so you know where the best placement of trades *can* be. I've attached a chart for you to check out. I'll write about the points I've outlined in the chart. 1) Market is currently in a rising phase. We're seeing higher highs and higher lows, the 20sma is above the 200sma, all is well with the world. Note, however, that the arrow is pointing to some action occurring on nice volume BELOW the 20sma. This is a sign of weakness. Will the market follow through on that weakness? It possibly could, it possibly couldn't. But we now have a clue to watch for something next. 2) In this box is a topping phase. Its rangebound and directionless. This is a real difficult area for me to trade, so I tend to stay out UNLESS I see where the arrow is pointing. That is a breakout failure. Those failures can be and often are very powerful. Note the near 200 point drop from that breakout failure. 3) Again, we're seeing price on good volume trade below the 20sma with it being extended from the 200sma. That kind of price action mixed with seeing a possible topping phase would lead us think the market has a very high likelihood of going down. And down it went. 4) Price breaks out of a bottoming phase box on good volume and is now firmly above the 20sma. A rising phase should ensue. Note how when price tests the highs, we get another rangey box. The slow price action from before led it to stall out there. There was once business being conducted at those prices and it seems as though there was still more business to be conducted up there. Note how price begins to trade (with good volume) below the 20sma. Weakness is starting to enter the market with a topping phase that has formed. 5) The gap down confirmed the topping phase and we should've been looking at only short positions. Note the hard reversal in the blue circle. 6) Price just cruises higher, breaks the 15min pivot there around 13920 and then trades with volume above the 20sma. 7) Price gapped higher this morning, looking like it might've wanted to make a run to the highs again. Price was firmly above the 20sma, and the 20 is above the 200sma, so long positions should be initiated while acknowledging that we've got heavy resistance right above so price isn't likely to break through that too easily. Today, price traded in a sideways action topping out at the bottom of the previous topping phase boxes. Price is trading below the 20sma a little bit, but not on real nice volume....yet. So far we've got two clues of going lower...the topping phase box. We are also seeing lower highs and lower lows on this 15min chart. Taking a quick glance at the volume bars (with red being down bars and blue being up bars) you can see the red bars are usually bigger than the blue ones. So...tomorrow I'm going in looking for a possible gap down. If price does in fact gap down I want to see the follow through. This will show itself to me if price price breaks below the first pivot of 13990ish. Any rally up to that and I'll look to put a marker lot out. And break of 13965 on confirming volume will be a great reason to add to the position, or get into one if the first trade never sets up. So, going into today long positions only should've been watched for IMO.

The coach I'm currently with is Leroy Rushing, and he's a contributer on these boards. I wish I found him sooner in my career, though just being a little less than a year in it's soon enough. A coach has helped me out tremendously in that I've got a set of experienced eyes looking at what I'm doing and he tells me as it is. No sugar coating. If I'm off, I find out quick enough what I should be looking at to make things improve. I'd say overall, I wouldn't be close to where I am right now without him. There's also been another coach I've got my hooks into, and he likes to be kept kinda secret. If he chooses to let himself be known he will. He is on these boards. He's been a huge part of my progression thus far as well. Without those 2 people, I wouldn't be this far along, though I know I've got a long long ways to go yet.

Would 5 be a quammer?

What a nice quote...I really like that.

2 trades today, first was a breakeven trade and second was a +10. +11 on the day First trade reason was price formed a lower high, unable to break the highs of 2 days ago and as you can see by the arrow, volume got heavier on the bar I shorted on, showing some selling interest. I nabbed it real quick, was up +9 (target was +10) and then it ran back up to my entry and got out at +1. Figured I'd wait for another setup, but the day just was a real grind. Very tough to keep my eyes open. After the Fed minutes I looked for an entry. There was a great entry around 14055 that I missed...must've dozed off. So grabbed the next higher volume up bar and went long that. So far, I exited at the high tick, so that's fun.

Thanks again for the kind words, Shreem. I've come a long way in my learning, thats for sure...but have much much more to learn. I look forward to every day for the learning aspects alone. If I make money, I learn what I did right, if I lose, I learn what I did wrong. Thanks again!

Thanks Shreem! I definitely realize the problem with that trade you're talking about. I realized right after I got stopped on it. It was just my excitement of finally getting a breakout that did me in. never again, though!

Nice work I think I'm still new, too...still have a ways to go anyhow. We'll get there!

Nice work James. Great job on keeping the stop small.

Decent trade to cap off the day. Reason for the trade was a break of the 30min OR high with volume confirming. While this was at the top of the days range and also into new high territory, I waited for confirmation of price acceptance in this area. When I saw price was not being rejected, I opened a quick position. Was wanting to get 20 points out of it, but the market didn't wanna give that to me, so I graciously took 11. The 2 trades with black arrows were trades I saw, but didn't take. Reason being that they weren't part of my plan. Simple enough right? I'm focusing now on one setup thats simple, and then add on later. I have a real tendency to over-complicate things with obscene analysis. Having something that's literally as simple as ABC is cool with me.

I think an author named Chris Roberts wrote that kind of book....oh, nevermind, he didnt.

You know, I actually don't watch the cash index. Shortly after that trade I got the email from marketwatch saying Dow traded atop 14k for the first time, and I thought...damn, I bet that was why that trade didn't work! So, I'll be sure to keep that in mind next time. Thanks notouch

Looks very nice

Tough morning for me...took one trade but really shouldn't have as the volume didn't support the breakout, so it quickly reversed and stopped me out. Contract Symbol: YM Trade Position: Long Stop Price: 14075 Entry Price: 14085 Gross P&L in Points: -10 Setup : 30min OR Breakout I had an AWFUL fill on it, too. Wanted to be in around 81, but those darn market orders....anyways, at the close of the breakout candle I should have been aware that the volume wasn't supporting the break, but neglected to watch as I was just excited to see the break. Learned good with that one.

Everything seems to be A OK here now. Thanks James

Don't know how else to explain it. I get the following pop up message when I have a thread opened up on my browser and I move to another application or another tab and leave that thread open. I haven't typed anything into the box to reply or anything like that. Just clicked the thread to read it and left it.

I'll set hard stops based on prior market pivots on a 5min chart. For the amount of points you're taking, a 3min chart is good. But, for the stops you're using...20 points is too much imo. For instance...the trade you took long at 024, why have a 20 point stop there? If price goes below that yellow line you have drawn around 021, is it likely to continue going down? At that point, I'd want to be out, especially if I was scalping looking for small ticks. And, after you got your 10 ticks of profit, that point was broken and the YM dipped down to 14000. Tight stop, tight reward. My trade I took at 021 was a little later in the day now that I look at it. My stop was under the bar that broke out of the 30min opening range, giving me an 11 tick stop. The trade ended up going on for 30+ points, though I would've gotten out around 20 points. So, thats how I utilize stops more so than an arbitrary round number.

What time frames are you watching? I assume thats a 5min for the big chart in the middle, right? One thing Ive been working on with my coach is the bigger picture. I have a 15min chart as my main chart that I watch for direction and setups. When something starts setting up, I drill down to a 5min chart and watch for my entry. When I enter, I move back to the 15min and watch for exits. Im trying my butt off to not exit intra-bar and wait for the close. That's harder than I ever thought it would be...but worth the wait. It keeps me out of any noise that I'm not good at playing inside of.

Hey darthtrader, At the point in question for the first trade, price was at/near the developing value area low. Nice location for a long. As for the data mining, my stops are always placed at pivot areas based on recent trading.

I think 6 points is reasonable on that trade because its a short amidst a major uptrend. Nice scalp trade. Notice, too, that your original trade was a 20+ point trade. I was in the same trade, and my bracket order was set in as if I had 2+ cars to take off half at +10. So I dont know what you're going for as far as targets...I think you've said it at one point...but definitely try and let the winners go. Its a battle for sure, trust me, I know. Still battling with it, but gettin' there. Good work, tho, man. You're kickin ass.

Contract Symbol: YM Trade Position: Long Stop Price: 14012 Entry Price: 14023 Exit Price: 14023 Gross P&L in Points: 10 Setup : High Close Doji Stop was placed in accordance to a 5min chart, setup was shown on a 15min chart. Tight stop, tight target.

It's all good. I didn't take those because Ive found that a large % of my trades taken inside the first 30minutes have been losers, so I tend not to play much inside the first 30.

Here's a log of my trades. First trade today was a long on NQ. Higher volume on a break and close outside the 30min OR. Available ticks = 11 Took +6 ticks as was looking for a further advance. The rest of the markets were cruising higher, but NQ and ER weren't wanting any part of it. Took what I could.