TinGull

haha...I wish it was only 3 days for me. Had 2 full weeks without a winning trade. But, Im back on track now.

Excellent Great to hear. I've been doing OK...was doing amazingly well for a little while, then went into a slump the past couple weeks, but am getting out of that today. It happens....but things are lots better now.

Nice man, all in all out eh? How'd it feel? Was it more nerve-wracking that way? Or did you feel nice and confident?

Sure thing. Its a 21 period triangular moving average with 1.5 deviations for the bands.

Interesting stuff with the fork. The YM liked to ride the tines today....

Hi gedward3, If you use the search function, you can search for all posts that were made yesterday, a week ago, a month ago...just use the "yesterday" function and it should bring up the posts youre looking for. Chris

I vote a big helluva lotta nuthin

James, I'm interested as well as to why you'd want to do that. You said that taxes for yourself in Japan are next to nothing.

Thats very interesting, and something I never thought of. I might try that out. Thanks cooter!

Sure would have still been valid. Thats one thing I'm trying to work on...getting in with a market order and being able to see with the best of my abilities that I'm getting in at a great price. Something I'm sure I'll be working on for some time

That's pretty much what I'm talking about, cooter. Being able to see my setups about to occur and being poised to pull the trigger knowing it's a high odds trade. The biggest emotional battle I've been contending with lately is missing a move from having a limit order set in place and the market missing me by a tick or 2. That's the worst feeling!

Hey cooter, That moment for me was when I was recently taught to look at market cycles like waves of the ocean. The trough, rise, crest and decline. Seeing what phase the market is in and trading in accordance to that has made the world of difference for me. And...learning to not THINK has been the absolute biggest. When I think instead of react...I get into trouble. So now I just look at what the trend is and trade only in that direction. Sure, it keeps me out of short trades right now, but Im done with trying to call tops. That doesn't provide dinners for people, trading with the trend sure does.

Hey Bill, Thanks. Hoped that was helpful. As for getting the impulse trades out of the way, great job on that. Thats a tough thing for some traders to realize they are doing and do away with them. If you've got risk management in place, then you shouldn't need to think on the risk side so much as the profit side. You need to start identifying the highest odds trades, and for that, I'd definitely check in with Leroy. He's been the single thing that's really put me on track. And...no offense to the chatroom here...but you should try to stop going. I found that when I was alone with my trading and not being influenced by what others were doing, I have been doing huge amounts better. Try it out, and if you find yourself doing better, than you now have eliminated one of the issues.

That's why I trade the Tao...errr, Dow....

I think self sabotage is all about not having the confidence in yourself and/or your plan. I went through this for months and have been doing quite well overcoming most of it lately. How did I? I realized that my plan had 4 or so setups that weren't performing, and those were the ones that I was taking most often. Interesting, eh? So, I cut those out of my plan and I've got 2 setups that perform very well, and I take those 2 90% of the time. They are trending setups as I'm not a good rangebound trader at this point in time, but something I'm definitely working on. Also, I've learned to identify when the highest odds trades are happening (for the most part) and that has helped tremendously with my confidence in myself as well as my system. Self sabotage happens when there is a lack of trust. To get over that, you need to keep things very simple. Look at your trading plan, take the setups that underperform and cut them out. Concentrate on the setup(s) that have made you the most money and crank the hell out of 'em. Why not, right? For mental exercises...I wake up every morning and tell myself what a great day it is to be able to be fortunate enough to not have a stupid boss looming over my desk. To have the ability to take control of my own life and be completely responsible for whatever happens to it. Knowing I've got complete control of my life lets me have complete control of ALL aspects of my life, which 60% of that is trading. "another great day to be a trader!" is what I tell myself. That puts a smile on my face and I'm ready to take on whatever happens. If I get into a trade that doesnt work out...well, I just say "that's tradin'" ala Hubert. And I go downstairs, play with the dogs and come back up a few minutes later with a fresh head. Do I still get frustrated? Absolutely! When I dont get into a trade because either it misses my limit order by a tick or 2 or I was eating lunch or whatever the case may be....I get frustrated. It's my need for participating, which I'm trying to kick the habit of. Leroy (tradingeveryday) told me the other day in one of my coaching sessions that I, as well as ALL other traders) miss thousands of trades every single day. Millions of opportunities are happening any given moment across the spectrum of the financial markets. Do I get ripped up cause I miss all of those trades? "No, Leroy, I dont." Then why get upset missing 1 or 2? The market's gonna open up at 9:30am on the next trading day. It's always going to be there. That is what I call job security. Now...the self sabotage thing could put that security in jeopardy, but having some simple tools (your trading plan (and the confidence in that plan), the right mental attitude and the love of this game) will keep you from doing harm to your account. So..to put it simply, I guess...my day starts like this. •Wake up •Say to myself "What a fabulous day to be a trader!" •Eat breakfast •Take a look at the markets and read some stories to help get me in that frame of mind •Trade •Eat lunch •Maybe trade the afternoon •Shut down my computer at 4pm •Go on a walk, watch a movie, cook...most likely cook or bake something... •Sleep That's basically how I live every weekday. I used to spend 18 hours a day on the markets, now...I spend about an hour a day in a "study" mode and 7 hours finding a place to participate in the markets. After that, my head is cleared of the markets and I don't speak about them to anyone (except in here on occasion). Doing that GREATLY improved my clarity and balance to be prepared for the next day. It's weird...it's like the less I study now, the more I know. The more I used to study, the more I got confused. Hope my rambling helped a little...

Might I suggest looking into Strategies (one of our sponsors, and my trading coach). He has some very great strategies for gap plays and can get you on your way.

To each their own, notouch

Sorry about that. I banned the user just now.

Hi all, I was looking over some charts this morning, and noticed a couple interesting points. There seems to be a tad bit of froth in the market for me to want to buy up here, so where would I feel more comfortable buying? The daily pivot is smack in the middle of 2 single print areas from yesterday. These areas usually provide a good area for S/R, and double that with the daily pivot, and triple that with the 8ema on the 65min chart (also been great support in this move up) I want to be looking to buy around that 80-90 area. That also give about 60-70 points of downward pressure from where the market is right now, giving an excellent opportunity for those who want to take profit to do so and bring price right in line with where I want to buy. I've been super patient lately in waiting for the right opportunity to buy and it's resulted in some fabulous trades. This is my next hunt that I'm scoping out and figured I'd share.

It's not a massive culture like the Italian Americans or Irish Americans, that's for sure. There's a handful of areas in the US where you can find decent sized Albanian American populations. Boston is where my family immigrated to.

My family comes from Albania.

werd up

Youre right...those are the from the 24hr session. I don't usually use the 24hr session for my trading. I use a regular 930-5 session for my YM Market Profile. And yes, TPO, not volume.

Youre welcome!

Vah = 1869.50 Val = 1865.50 Poc = 1868.00