jonbig04

Have you tried looking at larger time frame charts, find your S/R levels there and then watching to see how price reacts to them during a smaller daily chart? You should be able to see some very obvious and fascinating S/R action if you do.

"Education will not (take the place of persistance); the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." Calvin Coolidge

+17 for week. Obviously very conservative as I didnt trade on the killer days of thursday and friday. Goal met, that's all that matters right now.

TL is the best site for us newbies, without a doubt. I would consider reading a lot of logs, a lot of beginner threads, here and all across the web. See if you can identify common mistakes made my newbies and even veteran traders and don't make them. I think the ability to learn from other peoples experiences can make this process a lot less painful. Maybe.

long in the morning, closed it out during lunch and went short. Got stopped by the lunch goonies just before the large drop. Bastards. +20 for the day

lol that cracked me up, i feel the same way...but with a dalmatian. Anyways I'm an INTJ. I've taken this test a few times in my life and I've gotten different results a few times. I was an ENTP first, than an INTP, now I guess im an INTJ. I think it has to do with what im involved in at the time, now of course is trading, hence the J which I think lends itself to the analytical, methodical part of my i have developed for trading.

bad luck today, Thats the only way I know how to put it. Took a long in the early morning that I thought was gonna be awesome...held it for hours. Damn lunch reversals. +15 -3 -3 All was well though, after all I can do just as well in a downtrend as an uptrend...right?!?! This downtrend seemed fierce. I wanted in badly and I thought I had missed it and was all upset but I waited it it did give me an entrance, but once again, patience proved its worth...well almost. I shorted the same area where I was stopped and thought I was good to go on the nice down trend ride. -3 -3 -3 Price then proceeded up quite a bit and I tried a long, but i t was not to be as it went 5 points past my stop before tearing upwards. Oh well. -3 -3 -3 Day total, -3

0 trades today For some reason this message has to be at least 20 characters.

I found this post on "Re: Candlesticks and Volume" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month November, 2008"

oops! missed a day, -9. annoying for such a good trend day. I missed fill by a few ticks on a long in the early morning. Blah. Oh well. +22.5 for the week. BTW since this is my journal I can say that IMHO: Accuracy is irrelevant and indicators are pointless and usually harmful

Hey I didn't say anything. Just thought it was funny that you said we don't need indicators, then you present yours. I would say the same thing if someone said "Price action is for losers!, Now check out this double bottom".

Agreed! Oh, but you said? Oh, in that case, I'M SOLD!

-3 for the day. Missed everything else. Stupid. Went long and immediately saw an 8 point again with 10 minutes to go in the day. It wasn't to be.

I trade NQ and deal in points. No scalping for me.

I suppose its worth mentioning that the average R/R on that last trade was 1:10.5

New rules FTW! Took one trade at around 10:00EST. Long of course. +15, +30, +50 +31.5AVG for the day.

Last week I had some trouble with conflicting signals within my rules. It really wasn't that big of a deal, but it was making it impossible for me to follow my rules like a robot, so I had to work on them. In doing so I discovered a fundamental problem which was also causing me to take some stupid ass trades. I worked on them all day from square 1 and the result was great. I backtested everything of course (not very hard to do, just time consuming...I was able to do it while watching/listening to football). Anyways things are simpler now and there is NO room for my potentially (especially while in cash) damaging interpretation of somewhat ambiguous rules. This makes discipline easier. On top of that, through backtesting I yielded a lot more points with these rules, that's of course a good thing. I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with. These rules are an overhaul, but the basic concept remains the same, I don't want to give the impression that I'm going to change everything, just changed and simplified my approach. Soon I'm going to begin work on a strategy for range/choppy days too. Not sure exactly how its going to work yet, but I'll be dealing with very small stops, as small as 3 or 4 NQ ticks.

It's pretty tough, he gets a hundred or so requests per week.

Lol. I just am having trouble seeing the need for a lot of this when its just you either follow your rules, or you dont. Follow them and make money, break them and lose money.

Hmmm. All that sounds well and good, I'm not one to knock anything as we are all different. But isn't it as simple as this: Follow your rules!

To be honest, I don't think its necessary to break down the mind of a trader in every aspect the way you would for some other kind of psychological disorder. I think this because the emotions that trouble us while trading are not disorders, but rather the natural function of our minds. Fear and greed and very basic and necessary emotions...just not in trading. Beyond that, Im not sure what purpose it would serve to go more deeply into it. I model what is important to me by emulating the successful traders I know. Make your rules, make them profitable, and follow them. What could be more simple? The title of this thread wasn't meant to imply that discipline is more important than edge, or vice versa, but to get to the bottom of things. I didnt know very many traders then, good or bad and I was trying to get to the bottom of why so many can't seem to succeed. It was mentioned that a lot of traders dont succeed because they don't develop a method...interestingly, is that not a disciplinary issue? But anyways the fact is, for any serious trader it doesn't take very long to realize that developing an edge is going to take some time and that there is no free lunch in this business...or any business. To say that realization is beyond 95% of traders (those that fail) I dont think would be fair. There had to be more to it, and I know now that there is. As far as im concerned wealth in trading can be achieved through a slight advantage and complete discipline. IMO it is the increase in size that makes the money, not necessarily an increase in edge. In my own trading I have a very specific goal and I'll even throw it out there. My first goal is to make a living from trading. That to me is defined by netting 15-25 NQ points while trading 5 contracts per week. Thats $1,500-$2,500 per week and that to me is a living. I've met my points goal for the past 4 weeks and want to do it for another 4 before I consider trading live. Notice I am more concerned with consistency than I am with making more than 25 points. I hope to achieve that goal within a few months. Now a lot of people would consider 20 points a week to be...small time. Sure, thats fine. But I've been very careful in my progression so that discipline was always number 1. I read somewhere here that it wasnt possible to maintain the correct mindset without a profitable system, to me that makes no sense at all. Following your rules is something you need to do while things are going good and bad. Following crappy rules will only enforce more discipline in the future. If you can't follow them while you have a bad system, to me taht says you will have trouble following them if you're in cash and have had a few losing trades in a row...and thats obviously defeats the purpose of having rules in the first place. I started trading a few months ago and it wasnt very long, and it was in this thread, when I realized that it was all pointless unless I was developing rules to follow. I developed my rules fairly quickly and they sucked, so I sucked. It didn't matter though. I followed my bogus rules anyways. My rules sucked, so I sucked. As my rules have improved I have improved. Eventually I overhauled them completely. I made a habit to follow my rules from day 1 and I think that was important. Why? Because I can honestly say my performance will by the same SIM, cash, a boat load of cash, good mood, or bad mood etc. It seems to me every trader makes points (edge) their only priority when in fact you only need a slight edge. Its the discipline to trade your edge with size that makes the money! Don't get me wrong I dont want to downplay the journey of becoming profitable, I'm on it now and I have a long road to travel, but if your not disciplined you have absolutely no reason to think that just because your edge is improved (through PA or whatever) that you will improve. I like knowing that when my rules improve, I will improve. Once again, I don;t think an in depth view of my mind is necessary. Because Im human, I can't trade without following rules. I make the rules, I follow them. Period. Simple, but obviously not easy. Anyways its late and I'm rambling.

True, I got unbelievably lucky, but Im just some random guy. If it could happen to me it could happen to anybody, but like I said it is a rare thing...but there are people out there who know how to trade and are willing to teach others. I hope to be one of them one day.

Been there. iPhone is all around superior to any phone out there.

I can say without a doubt high accuracy is not necessary. I know many beginners with very low accuracy (as low as 10%) that are doing well. I'm at 30% and it's fine with me and my points P&L. You could say that its tough on a traders mind when he is only getting 3 trades out of ten correct, that could be true. But you could also say it would be tough on a traders mind knowing that if he is not right 80% of the time, he wont be profitable. It's pretty subjective and there is no right or wrong. For me personally I like knowing I don't have it hit very many trades per week to meet my goal. It takes the pressure off when i get a few losers in a row. But thats just me and my $0.02.

Awesome, so from what I've gathered: You have the rules, they ARE profitable, but when money is on the line you can't bring yourself to abide by them? oh BTW I'm just a piker, feel free to take whatever I say with a large grain of salt