TheNegotiator

The meaning I would take is that you can lose twice as many trades for the same amount of capital in the E-mini Nasdaq as you can in the E-mini S&P 500

What are you talking about Alex? Are you talking about in trading? If so then I am sure we can discuss this, if not I am not really sure that this forum is the place for your question.

Well it definitely sounds like you are at the very least moving in the right direction. If a trader can execute their plan efficiently and effectively, then the outcome of no one trade should matter too much. By the way, thanks for being so open about your experiences. Very refreshing and I'm sure very helpful to others!!

If you are trading currencies it is similar to an order book I believe if your broker offers that. DOM is just Depth Of Market. It is a brilliant thing but a real problem for many futures traders as it is a little bit like a flashing fruit machine unless you know how to use it!! The reason I mentioned the other candle types was just because you won't see every tick on them and get an itchy trigger finger. A question I have for you on the early exits, have you got much data of past trades? It might be a useful exercise for you to look at specific early exit triggers. At the moment, it sounds like you enter based on well structured planning but exit based on feeling. Am I right? I don't know but it's an easy thing to do for sure even if it's not what you do. I do think that if you allow a number of set conditions for early exit which you have studied the efficacy of, in general you will feel more confident.

The reason I ask about this is because imo planning HOW to stick to your plan is almost as important as WHAT is in it.

It's definitely not something for everyone all the time in all markets. It is compelling though. The question when you get towards your target though has to be "Has anything changed in the market fundamentally since I entered my position?". Maybe a better way to look at it would be to analyse the possibility of a runner before you place the initial trade. So if you think the market may want to go 100 ticks, but your plan will only keep you in for 50, then run a small position with a defined tolerance level. One thing that really jumps out at me though in your last post and I hope you don't mind me commenting on it, is that you are exhausted by the time a target is reached. I suspect this a big problem for many people. It can turn your plan from a well thought out and profitable plan into a heap of garbage. I only say this because I have definitely been there. Please correct me though if I'm wrong. Do you watch a DOM or anything out of interest? If not, have you considered an alternative chart type such as renko or heikin ashi?

Ingot, Some food for thought. I agree with you in that holding runners isn't for everyone. I don't tend to do it. I only do it when I know I should take profit based on my plan but also I know there is a good chance of the market breaking but also breaking hard in my favour. I also think that any runners should be part of a trading plan. and can almost be considered as trades in their own right. Here is a 'crude' example (excuse the pun)... If you look at the image you will see a recent chart with some static levels and what I like to call 'ghost' trends - trend lines which the market has not confirmed yet but is likely to do so if it is still within that trend. Btw I don't trade oil but the reason for using it in this example is that I would say a runner strategy in a more volatile contract such as oil is more likely to be successful. So the market pushed up about $1.5 and put in a pullback low. It clearly held above the $93 figure for technical reasons, attempted higher and then balanced. You may have felt a retest of this pullback low was a good buying opportunity and bought around say $93. Knowing crude and what was going on at the time you planned for at least $1 gain, so 100 ticks - $1000 per contract I believe. Pretty sweet (again excuse the pun). After testing the high but failing to retrace to any significant degree, it then took off towards the target. You easily got filled. The market however pushed higher. On the retrace, it failed to develop below the $94 figure. Pushed higher again, then failed to take the pullback and the proximity of the ghost trendline. Market then took off. So in this case, my contention is that it would be worth planning for a runner considering the small potential 'give-back' on a small % of the position. What do you reckon?

I would add a caveat to #1. This that most traders when they get a plan, because they then have a plan believe that they will make money. It may seem obvious, but have a great plan and not just a plan.

Davisjjr, This depends on many different aspects. How much capital you have, how much time you have, where you are in the world etc.. So I think before your question can be answered, I would say say need to share some details.

Absolutely. I try to keep my charts as clear as reasonably possible and this is important for me. However, there are two caveats. Firstly I have analysed the market already so I have context. Secondly I watch the market and order flow realtime.

I think there is an important point here. I WANT to align myself with the majority but not necessarily trade as they do. Knowing what most people are thinking and doing is the absolute key to making money. As far as the idea about fibonacci tools being meant to be applied to swings, well I do understand what you are saying and where that has come from. However, people innovate all the time and things change. I see the 'golden ratio' within trading every single day. A great rule in trading is that if something works, it doesn't matter what you are meant to do. Learn it, trade it, profit from it.

Hmm. It's an interesting suggestion for sure. Not sure about what would be involved in respect to the legalities of sorting something like it out. Definitely something worth considering for some point.

Personally, this is how my pre-trade goes(at the moment anyway). 1- Get up and get a cup of tea. I need the rehydration in the morning probably more than the caffeine so perhaps I need to consider changing this one. 2- Check the website and the stats and my emails. See if I need to do some moderating or can reply intelligently to anyone(don't laugh!!). 3- I check the overnight markets, check the technicals and check the news/events/releases for the day. I do the last two this way round as I don't want to have the later bias my market analysis. 4- I do 10-15 mins of fairly strenuous exercise. I want to really push but not so much so that I am tired afterwards. 5- The exercise prepares me for my next step. I sit quietly for 20-30 mins and meditate on my thoughts about the markets and myself and my prior thoughts about the market. The exercise puts me in the best state to be able to contemplate these ideas. 6- I eat something basic and filling but also not too heavy. I really don't get on very well with having a big stodgy lunch prior to trading. 7- I calmly monitor the market pre-open. Of course it doesn't always happen like this but I am generally quite good in maintaining the routine.

How do you mentally prepare yourself for the day? Do you exercise? Go for a run maybe or beat the c*&% out a punchbag to release aggression? Do you try to relax and calm yourself? Meditate or listen to some chilled out mp3? Or do you believe that the routine of preparation for the day such as checking overnight and re-evaluating levels etc. is enough to set your mid on the right track? Of course everyone is different in what works for them. Some won't have ever considered this as necessary. But sharing some of your ideas would be great!

Lol. I think we could definitely say there is at least one organisation in the world economy who seem to have this strategy! But we won't get into that here.

Hi, Please feel free to post your reviews in threads here and discuss them. However, it would be beneficial for us if you also created the review in our review section here:- http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/book-reviews/

Good points MM. Nevertheless I stand by what I say. In my experience, the best traders talk in ticks. They tot up their earning each day/week/month etc., but their goal is to trade well. Also they talk in market ticks not in terms of size specific ticks. So if they took a 10 tick winner on a 1 lot or 100 lot, they would say they made 10 ticks. Understanding money is important of course, but imo that needs to be at the back of your mind when trading. Think about the wife asking how you did again. Maybe if you did well you might say to her "yeah honey, I made a gazillion dollars this month". If you lost money but traded well and minimised the losses, do you say "I lost a gazillion dollars honey, sorry" or "I traded really well but the market has been tough"?

Personally, I don't like the idea of trading rooms too much. If I trade, I want to see it and know why. I am not a puppet of someone else. The way I see the leaving money on the table is like this(and I know we're straying a little off topic here):- You take a trade based on a certain principle and strategy, you then have targets which are hit or not. If you leave money on the table so to speak it's only if it were missed WITHIN your trading plan. Outside of that you could try using small runners, but honestly imo if you run small % you'll only ever likely increase the profit by a smallish % compared to any massive move which might ensue. It can be good for your gambling side though If say you can trade a certain way in for example an e-mini contract and take 2/3 points 3 or more times a day, but you can never run a 20-30 point winner 1- how many days does it really take to get to a 20-30 point total with your strategy if you're consistent 2- how often do those big moves happen 3- in trying for those big moves, are you taking hits in the meantime anyway??? Just a few thoughts which I guess we can call mental preparation. (which actually probably should be a thread in itself).

Ingot, I think trading plans and preparation are so important. I don't want anyone to take the thread topic away from what it currently is as we have some great threads now on these topics. However, I think it illustrates my point. I attended a webinar held by an eminent name in trading last week. He told a brief story about a psychologist buddy of his. The guy said to him that all these traders were coming to him paying for sessions. The psychologist then asked this guy how long he should wait before he should tell the traders that the reason they are not doing well is because they don't want to do the prep work!

One way people use it in derivatives is to take another position in another product which is correlated. For example, you might believe stocks are trending higher but that techs may outpace overall. So, you could decide to take a long(buy) postion in say the Nasdaq future and a short(sell) position in say the Dow mini future. This way, as they go up, you will probably get a smaller profit overall, but any move against you will also be controlled by the short position in the, what you presume to be, weaker Dow. Options are very much about hedging strategies. I am no expert on this so either let an options member weigh in or you could pop over to our options section of the forums and ask there.

Were actually hoping to do something like this here at TL, so watch this space.

My ideas on fibs are: 1- large moves especially after a big nfp move etc for targets and possible reaction as levels. 2- a method to develop a daily framework which is not set unless other levels and indicators align. I don't personally have a specific method for trading fibs though. They are a geometric gauge for me.

Hi everyone, Thanks for all your input. I just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know that all of these issues and suggestions are being noted and will be looked at. If these are selected to be implemented, some things will take longer than others. I'm not a techie so I don't know how long these could take exactly. Any specific problems or suggestions should be noted in the suggestions thread, but maybe keep this thread for some bigger ideas and overall user experience type ideas. I will consider doing an update thread as well if people like that idea.

As for the thread rating, if you hover your mouse over the stars, it will show you the number of votes.

Tradewinds, that is an excellent idea. I was thinking of a user awards type event sometime just to recognise the contributions of our members, but haven't really tested the water too much on that yet. I do think that a compilation type book or something is a good idea although not sure how easily it could be implemented.