Soultrader

Here's my story: 1. I played poker hardcore during my student years, enough to make me a decent living. I ended up playing professionally for a few years until I started to become unsatisfied with my career. I then met a trader who introduced me to the world of finance. Saw him make $3,000 in one trade and convinced me to switch careers. I never looked back ever since. (I still play poker alot. It's in my blood) 2. The steps I had to overcome to become a consistent trader was a nightmare. I lost my initial trading stake which I had saved up from poker in 6 months. Then found myself in a trading debt which I managed to pay back in one year working close to minimum wage. During the whole time, I was so frustrated but was determined to do whatever it took to become a successful trader. I hit the books, charts, tape, etc... Took alot of hard work to get here. But in the end it was all worth it. 3. I see myself trading or at least investing until I die. I'll probably be stuck in a trade in my death bed.

Doing your homework and having a trading plan is soo important I also find premarket information crucial to understand the direction of the markets. I love your analysis Antonio. Possibly because I am a huge fan of market profile. I'll post one up for tomorrow later on.

Hey Trade Up, Yea... I learned my lesson big time from that stock. Last time I checked its back at $2.25. I focused more on shorter term trading that when it comes to longer term stock investment, I feel like a rookie. I find it hard to trade fundamentals. And prefer to stick to technicals and charts. You ever catch a 4-10 bagger?

We went from the lower range to the upper extreme today. I mentioned in my YM analysis that if the 11720 should hold, we would see a rotation back to the upper extreme by this week. Didnt expect to see it so soon That premarket hold was crucial information today. Gave me a long bias from the start. Good luck tomorrow!

Market profile is designed to be used for 30 minute settings so I would recommend it. I personally use 30 minute settings with a regular trading hour chart. For the YM, the opening would be at 930eastern and close at 5pm eastern. For the ES it would be 930 to 415.

Hope you caught some of the nice uptrend today Antonio. I caught that mid day gap up

I would like to create a thread for traders to share their experience with us. 1. Why did you decide to become a trader? 2. What steps or hurdles did you overcome to become a trader? 3. Do you see yourself trading in the next 10 years? Thanks! Looking forward to hearing from you all

Trading halted at 11748 today. When the markets resumed, prices opened at around 11775 and lifted rapidly to 11790 without pausing. I exited at 11788 due to uncertainty. Always good to be flat when you don't quite know what will happen. So anytime trading halts due to technical issues, look for futs to start at cash + premium.

Update: I asked around concerning this halt. A buddy notified me that futs will usually start at cash + premium. I couldn't find the dow premium on TS but did find it at Program Trading, Fair Value, Index Arbitrage Values - indexArb.com. You can find the fair value and the range there.

As of now I am stuck a quarter position in the YM due to trading halted on the CBOT. Entry at 11731 and trading halted at 11748. Anyone run into this problem today? Unbelievably this has never happened for me. Do markets gap when trading halts?

I find observing premarket action gives tremendous market information for the direction of the day. Usually globex lows and highs act as key support and resistance levels. For example, premarket action seems to be holding for both the ES and YM at critical levels. This gives me a short term long bias at the opening. Always good for one play.

Interesting market action for the past 4 sessions. We had overlapping value and a pure markte consolidation between 11800 (11808) to approx 11720. We are now trading at the lower extreme of the bracket. Could offer possible long opportunities for today. However, I would be cautious. By taking a look at the daily charts we see a pullback in play. The markets may have not yet completed this pullback. Price can drift lower towards the 11700. Any break below this level will hint out warnings for longs. If the markets can hold this 11720 area today, we should see a market rotation back towards the upper extreme of the bracket this week. Also take a look at the daily chart attached. We have higher volume on the rallies and lower volume on the pullback. This indicates a continuation of the trend.

Great analysis like always Antonio. The markets are consolidated indeed with overlapping value for the past few trading sessions. Any break out should be explosive. I am also approaching the market with an open mind for now. The markets can offer both short and long setups.

I had the CEO of Aspen Exploration call me back on my cellphone. Ticker symbol ASPN. I bought that stock at $2.20 a while back for a longer time investment. Stock did nothing for a few months so I sold it at $2.25. 4 weeks later is shot up to $10.50 because of the oil prices. ASPN is a natural gas exploration company. One of the worst regrets I had that year. It all depends on the company. I feel like smaller companies ith a lower float are hungry to obtain investors and are more likely to treat investors nice.

Hi zarif, I agree. Without beleiving in yourself, one will find it hard to even follow his trading plan. You will have days where your setups may not work. But by believing in your methodology you are able to take the next setup. You believe that the probabilities will work in your favor.

Hi FTT, How do you determine to stay out of trading? It would be nice to hear about other traders methods on identifying a day with no opportunities. Would you decide before the markets open or do you watch the first 30-60 minutes of trading and decide that today will be choppy? Thanks

Hi tab321, You are very welcome I personally found it to be a great book. I recommend it if you are interested in learning about tape reading. Soultrader

Hi Warren, I am also interested and would love to hear your methodologies or trading wisdom. From my understanding you are a fund manager? Although my forex knowledge is relatively new, my strength lies in the index futures. I plan on picking up Forex and looking forward to learning the markets from you.

My favorite traders are Jesse Livermore, Humphrey Neill, and Richard Wyckoff. They are my true teachers in this game. Of course there are many excellent modern day traders but these 3 have taught me more than anyone has ever taught me.

One of the best tape reading books available. For any trader new to tape reading, this is a must read. Covers the teachings of Wyckoff and Neill. The author shows various setups combining price and tape with the final section dedicated to charts. Alot of good information covered in this book from volume & price analysis, tape, trader pscyhology, etc... Tape reading and volume analysis are pure information. Master these techniques and you will always be one step ahead of the crowd. A must have for your trading library.

A mediocre book dealing with trading psychology. Ari Kiev advises traders to deal with emotions. Emotions are a part of human nature and it is impossible to eliminate emotions completely. Therefore, it is best to understand how emotions affect our trading behavior and do our best to control it. Overall, I found this book rather simple. I was not satisfied by the material covered in the book. Alot of the content is nothing new and redundant. Perhaps traders may find his first book better.

Attached are some screenshots:

This is a Tradestation release for custom pivot points. This indicator has been made to use the following formula: Soultrader's Pivot Points R3 = R1 + RANGE R2 = PP + RANGE R1 = (2 * PP) - LOW PP = (HIGH + LOW + CLOSE) / 3 S1 = (2 * PP) - HIGH S2 = PP - RANGE S3 = S1 - RANGE Following features: 1. Allows user to enable or disable midpoints. 2. Allows user to enable or disable weekly and monthly pivots. 3. User can change the color and style of horizontal lines. If you prefer dotted lines over solid, this can be changed. 4. Easy language code can be adjusted to fit your needs. If you prefer to use a different formula, this can be edited. All you need to do is plot the high, low, and close and the indicator will draw the lines automatically on your charts. All credits go out to Antonio (ant) for releasing this indicator. You may not redistribute this indicator without the permission of Antonio. Special thanks goes out to Antonio for making this for me. It has helped me save alot of time. Please click install if you download this indicator for notifications of upates. SOULTRADERPIVOTS.ELD

Thank you namstrader. I also plan to learn from various traders like yourself on any area I can improve. I believe we all have our strengths and weaknesses and is important we learn to improve our weaknesses. For example, I mainly watch a 233 TICK chart, 30 min Market Profile chart, and a daily chart. I want to improve my analysis using longer time frames like the 60 and 240. I'm sure I have alot I can learn from you too namstrader.

I rarely find the RSI useful. The only setup I use the RSI is when there is price and RSI divergence at a pivot. The way you expalin CCI reminds me of TICK's and TICk trendline/channel breaks. namstrader, is the 5min chart the shortest timeframe you use? Personally I found it to be too large of a timeframe to trade intraday. Probably because we have different styles.