thalestrader

MidK was a relentless seller, and I am out for -22 ticks. Best Wishes, Thales

Well, first of all, had I known you were looking at a short, I'd have kept my mouth shut. I try never to post opinions about a market if I know someone in the thread is already in a trade. I refrain from commenting on open positions, or even resting entry order, for precisely the reason for which you just gave a brilliant example. I do not want my opinon to influence anyone else's. That is rule #41: Secondly, I am trading for a different size swing than you are. I still may be wrong, and my trade, which is fading fast, may have to be cut loose. But the point is that you could have been short, and I could have been long, and we could both possibly be right based upon the swings degree and corresponding stops/targets. Thirdly, you violated rule #38: Best Wishes, Thales

Good eye, Cory. As with the 6E/EURUSD last night, this PA following the high seems to have the character of a pause more than a reversal. And, as price fell short of my BE threshold, I am holding for my targets - 1.5690/1.5782 basis the 6B. Price may have a chance if MidK would stop selling right here! We shall see ... Best Wishes, Thales

I use stops to enter 90%+ of my trades to enter, 9% straight market orders, and 1% the rare limit order (usually I missed my preferred entry and the market has moved too far for me to use a market) Best Wishes, Thales

This is the proper way to behave when visiting the Chop Zone: sit on your hands and take your cues from the last real high and last real low. Best Wishes, Thales

I think he is seeing the problem of playing the current game with last week's playbook. I see higher highs and higher lows all over the place, and yet Cory has yet to take a long trade. Fighting the trend is a tough way to make a living, but an easy way to go broke trying. He is certainly overtrading - if you have two or three consecutive losses in the same direction in markets that are often (though not always) highly correleated, it is time to take some time off. Best Wishes, Thales

A quick -9 ticks to start the week as I again need to relearn the lesson of why my mother always told me not to play in the chop zone. I told her it was all Cory's fault! Best Wishes, Thales

This would be an early entry as price is still in the chop zone, but a buy stop at 1.5611 appeals to me. Price tickled it just now by dancing as close as 1.5610 and pulling back to 1.5604 currently. We shall see... Best Wishes, Thales

6B/GBPUSD looking for direction out of the chop zone ... Best Wishes, Thales

Here is the EURUSD from last night showing the price action I referred to as lokng more corrective, i.e. consolidation as prelude to continuation) than a reversal: This is how it looks this morning (second chart showing the 6E): Last night's opening action looked more corrective than impulsive, and proved to be so as the day has unfolded. The second impulse leg fell a few ticks short of equality with the first, so caution o n the long side is warranted, as this make what would be a third wave that is shorter than the first. Though we might also be witnessing a subdivision into a series of 1-2's that could mean a much larger rally is getting underway. Best Wishes, Thales

I was about to post this look at the EURUSD ... though this action looks more corrective of the last hours rally than a reversal of it. Best Wishes, Thales

Good post Head2K ... Perhaps because crude still has a real pit (though seemingly much diminished from just a few years ago), with a real influence, the highs/lows of recent pit sessions are very relevant. Crude, as a market, seems to have a much better institutional memory than the indices currently have. I'm sure there ar emany who simply fade these levels all day long, and if the level breaks and holds, the trader will stop and reverse. Old fashioned floor trader S/R type trading. Best Wishes, Thales

"This is not a right or wrong game. Trading a technical methodology or a technical pattern is not about being right or wrong. It is an odds game. That is all it is." - Mark Douglas This is, without a doubt, the Achilles heal of many traders. Most traders focus too much on "not being wrong" ever to let their edge work for them. I do this myself every time I move my stop to break even before price has gone to the point at which I planned the break even move. Invariably, these are the trades where price comes back to stop me out, and then immediately and too quickly for me to gain a new entry it sprints off to my profit targets. Best Wishes, Thales

Excellent contribution, elitejets, thank you for the share! I have to admit that the antennae of my BS Detector were buzzing when I first heard this was sponsored by Wizetrade. Wizetrade is one of those fancy software systems I managed not to purchase (one of the few, apparently) while I was working through my search for the Holy Grail. That I avoided it is likely due to the fact that by the time I became aware of the product, I was already past the point of falling for the "buy green sell red" pitch. I did plunk down a fair amount on Ablesys software, which is basically the same thing, only worse. Of all the junk I bought, Ablesys is without a doubt the junkiest product and the worst managed, least customer oriented company of the bunch. I still feel my blood pressure rise whenever I see them mentioned or run across their ubiquitous advertising. I should have realized that any company that needed to spend on advertising what Ablesys needs to do to maintain sales has got to be a junk. But I digress, let me get the train of thought back on track ... Regarding the Douglas video: "A professional trader sees the entry and takes it. The professional does not worry about whether any particular trade will be a winner or a loser. The professional takes the entry, and has a plan to cut losses and a plan to take profits. The typical trader has no such plan." Isn't that the truth! I know that a few folks here for whom I have great respect disagree with my assertion that the aproach I use (short sequences/long sequences) is not itself an edge. I believe it is, though I am willing to concede that without proper money management, the edge would likely be greatly dulled. Poor money management can result from both poor stop selection as well as poor profit planning. I do not know why I avoided Douglas for so long. I would guess the reason is similar to the reason why I was saved from being sucked into buying Wizetrade - by the time I became aware of Douglas, I was beyond a certain point at which I was looking for something new. I had settled into an approach, and did not want to risk being led astray by new ideas. So for quite some time I avoided anything with which I wasn't already familiar. Upon finally reading Douglas, on Kiwi's recommendation, I am pleased to say I do not find his ideas so much new to me as I find that they both reinforce views I myself have come to hold, and also he has helped clarify for me the extent to which these ideas contributed to my learning to control my own emotions. Not that I do not have room for improvement in this regard. Like Van Tharp says, if you stop working on yourself, you are doomed to failure. Thank you, again, elitejets, for sharing this video with us. Had Douglas's work come to my attention in the beginning of my trading education I think I would have avoided a lot of pain that I experienced in ever widening attempts, ironically, to avoid pain, specifically, the pain of losing. Best Wishes, Thales

I agree. I was just curious as to whether or not you still would have considered the trade to have been a mistake if it had been profitable? My thinking concerning my own trading is this: I have many losing trades that I consider good trades. I have had a few trades that were profitable, though in hindsight I would say I had strayed from my discipline when I put the trade on. So for me, whether or not a trade is a mistake is not determined by whether I win or lose, but "how I played the game," so to speak. Best WIshes, Thales

Eagles! Or if not the Eagles, then the Jets! I cannot remember a Super Bowl in my lifetime that interested me less than tonight's game. It will be background noise if I have it on at all. I am actually hoping for some volatility in the currency markets to keep me entertained. Best Wishes, Thales

Its a fine thing to disagree with me, as I am frequently wrong (just ask my wife). There is a difference between risking 5% of account equity if that is all you have and risking 5% of equity/trade if you are sitting on 20x's that much in available risk capital sitting in a 30 day t-bills. I know this is a demo account, but your goal should be the inculcation of good habits, not reckless ones. While it is true that demo trading and live trading are vastly different, the truth remains that if you cannot demo trade profitably, you will not trade real money profitably. So trade this as though it were real; and furthermore, trade it as though this is the last 5K you can spare to lose before you quit the dream of being a trader and instead are forced to take a job as a telemarketer working in a cubicle somewhere in the center of a hundred other cubicles at your father-in-law's fertilizer factory cold calling farmers who can't afford to buy from you. Trading for infinite yield requires sound money management and a soild, consistently followed trading plan. Do not confuse trading for infinite yield with trading recklessly. Good Luck! Best Wishes, Thales

Hi Folks, I found a Chris Terry interview at the same website I found the Dick Diamond interview. Chris Terry, you may recall, was the author of an article I posted here entitled "The Trading Game." He is a Linda Raschke student as well, and is employed by Linda's trading group. Chris Terry Interview Best Wishes, Thales

Hi Folks, I have been wanting to share this interview with Dick Diamond here for some time, but the link I had had for it was dead, so for the longest time, I was unable to post it. I found a link to it today, so here it is (I am in no way responsible for the little 12 or so second forex advertisement you will hear before the interview proper begins): Dick Diamond Interview A few quick thoughts - Dick Diamond is a trader, and he does teach a seminar a few times each year. I have never taken his seminar. While I would like to meet him, I have no intention of paying him to do so. But, I have in the past spoken favorably of Mike Reed here at TL, and he is a former Dick Diamond student. I have shared a couple of essays by Rod Roth here in this thread in a weekend reading submission, and he is a former Dick Diamond student. I am acquainted with a couple of guys who likewise have taken his seminar. What is striking about his interview, and also about those who have taken his course, is the focus not on his set-ups, but on emotional discipline. I do not know what he teaches as far as set ups go. I do know that those who take his seminar come away with a solid and strict attachment to developing and maintaining a disciplined approach to trading. Best Wishes, Thales

I can see how it could help someone starting out immensely if one was willing to believe what Douglas has to say. Best Wishes, Thales

Would you still consider it to have been a mistake if instead of losing $504 you had won $504 on the trade? Best Wishes, Thales

If RA were thinking clearly, he'd have used the opportunity to post some real time examples here in this thread. I can tell you from my experience in the Reading Charts thread that if he were to post just a couple of winning trades and answered a few questions politely, he'd have had plenty of PM's from folks ready, willing, and able to pony up for his seminar course. Instead, he goes right for the close. There is a right way and a wrong way to market yourself. In the context of TL, he did it the wrong way. That does not mean that it was too late to do the right thing (a "win win" as Blowfish calls it), but he certainly did himself no favors by his reaction. I would have liked for him to contribute here. I just did not like the upfront "Tell them what they get for just $995" approach. I certainly do not feel I "jumped down the guy's throat." I simply said that you have to wonder about a guy who uses his initial post to ask for a grand. I and I still think you have to wonder. For what it is worth, I am not opposed to all seminar teachers. I would gladly pay to attend any Linda Raschke event. William O'Neil? You betcha'. Regrettably it is too late to revisit George Lane, but certainly it was money well spent. Trading can be taught. But show us something, then ask for the money. RA had, and perhaps can still salvage, an opportunity to provide us with some kind of body of evidence that indicates that there is something of value and worth hearing there. Best Wishes, Thales

Over the years, some of my best trades have been those witht he most slippage on entry. I know traders who get very worried if they get a "good" fill on a stop or market order when they trade break outs. Best Wishes, Thales

This is a point at which you and I would disagree, and that's fine. To my way of thinking, if I am risking 1-2% and a period of draw down becomes large enough to become an issue, then I can reasonably conclude I am not trading well enough. But if I am risking 5% and the draw down becomes an issue, I can only reasonably conclude that my problem is too great of a risk of ruin, and I cannot reasonably conclude anything with respect to my trading other than my position size is too large relative to my equity. Of course, George Lane used to trade a 5K account and routinely risk $500/trade day trading the SP's, so who am I to say anything? Of course, George Lane did not start out trading that size. And George could blow 5K (not that he ever did) and could pull another 5K out of his sock drawer to re-fund his account (He taught that you should never give more than 5K to your broker and that you should bring your profits home monthly). I'm not trying to change your mind. Just wanted to share a differnet way of looking at the same situation that yields somewhat different conclusions from your own. Best Wishes, Thales

Sorry, I meant to post this in Cory's thread. Best Wishes, Thales