Robert Joyce

Ok, so I traded 10 times today on the YM, 5 of them were 2 contracts the rest just singles. Short version is I dug myself two holes then had to dig myself out. Ended the day with a $10.00 gross profit less $75. cost of trades which is bad relative to the day but usually cost of trade is in the 10 to 20% of profit so I am actually happy with the end result. Whew..... I just did not expect the bounce off the bottom to go as far as it did, just kept smashing thru my longer term ema's and bouncing higher off the pivots. Out of 10 trades there were 5 winners and 5 losers. Anyways, I did accomplish trading 2 contracts which was one of my short term goals. I will stay at the one/two level until I have substantial consistency. The big reason for two is that it allows you to scale out of a position, adjust your stop to get risk free and still have your stop below your entry ala Mark Douglas. So all in all not a bad day. Actually I just had a good look at today's chart and I am lucky to be alive, in my excitment I missed one of my prime signal which would have put me on the right side of the afternoon move up. Although it was two shorts that saved my ass both were my largest trades of the day one for 20 and 30 pts. with 2 contracts. Just ______g lucky, well not really, the other thing I did right was to take at least those two high percentage trades and not just through my hands up in disgust and walk away. So again all in all not a bad day and looking forward to tomorrow. Oh one more thing... there is a fine line in the mind that measures the difference between 'reading' the market and 'predicting' the market. Predictions may or may not come true whereas the market always tells the truth if you can read.

Ok, so 1 trade for 1 YM contract with a 2 pt gain for a whole $10.00 I couldn't start until late in the day and I got in a little early so when I got back to even I just sold it, eventually it did go to my limit @15 pts but then promptly sold off again. Choppy, range bound day, tough to read so I closed my real account and took 2 sim trades for 4 pts on the ES but they don't really count. Should be a good day tomorrow. And I will soon discover how to take a screen shot for yous guys... But I must say I like reporting here daily, not really sure why..... lol lol lol

Ok, 1 trade, 1 contract, 4 pts. $20.00 But that is 4 days in a row. I just wanted to walk away a winner for the week. Next week I'll get serious but I'm happy with my week.

Ok, so this is 3 days in a row for trading real. Didn't get started until afternoon, 3 trades of 1 contract on the YM all small winners for 31 pts., a profit of $150.00 First 2 I got out early, last one hit my 15 pt. limit order as I was trying to get out with a market.... lol lol lol 2 were pivot trades and one was an ema over extended bounce just above a pivot. Anyways all three were big winners if I had stayed in maybe 100 pts total, not that I would get them all or want to try for that matter. In my sim trading 100pts is my long term daily average. That is why my short term goal is to get to 50 pts on the YM consistently, everyday for at least 2 or 3 weeks then start to ramp up my contracts. I'm sure most of you will think 50 is easy and your right it is, but everyday is not easy. I want to learn the discipline to trade until I make a certain point level then shut it down otherwise I will often trade until I start losing. But first I have to get over the emotional impact of trading for real. Real happy with the day

Ok, traded for real again today. 5 trades, 2 out at even and 3 (very small) winners for a gain of $75.00, So woo hoo. I had a slow start today, didn't really trust the opening gap play but it did retrace 100%. Actually a good day for my kind of trading what with the Dow reacting to all the pivots. I am still so new at pushing a real button I jump out too early, just so excited to see real money.... 'this too shall pass', I'll get over the novelty of it and start concentrating on predetermining my exit points and then develope the judgment to decide whether to hold for the 'fruition of the trade' or just take some profit. So all in all I'm real happy again today. But speaking to the 'fruition of the trade'... Brownsfan... I appreciate what you had to say about not needing to be more right but simply consistent, then ramping up the number of contracts to make more money. This is exactly why I trade the mini's. Total focus on the index, same charts, same indicators.... simple, simple, simple. I don't believe you have to be a genius or have a magic indicator to make serious money. You simply have to be consistent and know yourself. However my point is I have found in the past that I kept trading until I started losing and often end up at the end of the day with just the results of the last few trades for profit or loss. As opposed to setting a dollar or point amount that once reached I close the account for the day. To me I guess this is more of a money management thing. Responding to this thread actually works similiar psychologically, I find I want to participate by having something to report, so it has helped me to start trading for real. Not that I want to be able to tell what a great trade I did today, not a show and tell kind of thing but the consistency of participating in the market just like the consistency I need to duplicate in the market. Again I can make all kinds of money on my sim... consistent, disciplined, over a long period of time (months and months and months) what I have not been able to do yet is get over the electrifying emotional charges that come with real trading. I know it is all in my head, the sim account is indistinguishable from the real account, yet the voices that go off in your head when your deciding on an entry or exit are all out of wack to what goes on in the sim trading. I assume this will dampen with time.... as my Mother used to say 'God give me strength'.... lol lol lol. So anyways as usual I ramble on.... 'somebody stop me' lol lol

sorry I didn't post last Thurs or Fri. Just got smashed on my sim on Thurs and Fri wasn't much better. But Monday I did better on my sim $450. But today I traded for real, 5 trades for a grand total of $37.50 minus 22.50 cost of trade net $15.00 Woo Hoo lol lol Very choppy day, my ema's were all tied up... when I did get a decent signal they just wouldn't run for me and I either got stopped out at even or just a quarter point. No but seriously just to have put on real trades is huge for me. I'm actually really happy and looking forward to tomorrow. Outstanding Brownsfan..... so is your longer term plan to simply buy more contracts on the same signals and thereby make more money on the same performance. It seems to me that your plan is working just fine. Let me ask you do you want to be right more often or simply make more money...... we are doing this to make money... right... lol Anyways 100% in sixty days is outstanding in anybody's book.

Traded the Emini on sim again today but with my regular signals and readings. $825. on 14 trades. On 2- I got out at even, 3- I got stopped out, that leaves 9 winners. Can't post a P/L stmt here cause the sim don't do it. I missed the first hr big move up but I got a good piece of the move at 1:30, and a nice long after the FOMC report came out. Anyways all in all not a bad day. Just wish I could remember where I left my you know what's, there around here somewhere, I'm sure they'll turn up soon. lol robert

Well, I spent the day trying to make sense of the time and sales on the Emini. Made some sim trades and ended up with a $125. loss. I will keep my eye on time and sales but I am much more comfortable with my other indicators. Today I will endeavor to trade for real.

Ok.... so I had a good look at 3 relative time and sales windows; 1<, 50<, and 200< . I saw these three used by some guru so thought I would try to see what they are all about. I tried to google for an explanation of how to interpret them but the best I got was 'screen time', other than the obvious meaning larger players 200< usually are the volume surges that will push the price in their direction. That part is simple but these also have to be juxtaposed with S/R and I assume technical pivots would be good to keep an eye on. So I guess I'm asking for someone who uses 'price action' as represented by time and sales could give me a detailed description of how they traded the ES today for example. How they read it or what.... What really got me interested is when one of you mentioned all the stages one goes thru, from the Guru, thru indicators, and finally to 'pure' price and volume. Who knew I was only in a 'stage'.... lol lol. Well, again I would be very interested to get some more insight into this 'tape reading'..... thanks again.

I didn't trade real money today and only up $165. on my practice acct. I placed my first trade on my practice acct. and caught that first hr. pop for 50 pt move on the YM using my EMA cross-over signal and then another smaller long for 20 pt. I was just about to open my real account and tried one more practice and bang.. stopped out, then another and another. It just kept going down right thru all my longer ema's and right thru at least 2 pivots. So needless to say I spent the rest of the day recovering my losses on my practice account and ended up $165. So all in all not bad. I will endeavor to find my you know what's tomorrow and start trading for real. Let me know if this is too long a post. But I must say I can see where this kind of a daily venting could be very theraputic... lol lol. Thanks Robert

I couldn't agree more. I too will try to post a p/l here daily. I suppose you only want real money trades not practice accounts. I have a spotty record for trading real money, so I still practice alot. However I now have my account refunded and I will post any real trading days I have here. I trade the YM mostly, as a relative noob I like the smaller increments for entry and exits but I watch both ym and es. But I guess this is not really the thread to be pratelling on in. lol Well good luck to both of you.

some of you guys are pretty funny.... lol lol lol lol.....

I am new to this 'chatting' thing, but I have been studying and watching the es and ym mini's for several years and trading both practice and real accounts. The thing about any indicator or value of any kind is they are only relative to another value. Any value by itself is useless, it has to be compared. For example the Macd is a comparison of ema's usually the 9, 12, and 26. The signals are generated with cross over's. The same with Stochastics. But these also have to be compared with the same signals generated in different time frames. For intraday I use the standard Macd and slow Stochastic on a number of time frames say the 1 min and the 5 min charts. Now for example the oscillation of the stochastics from overbought to oversold on a one minute chart will happen 2 or 3 times while the five min. moves only once from overbought to oversold. I use the longer term chart for index direction and the short term for entry points. This is a simple system and to be sure I look at many more indicators at the same time, like trin, tick, and most importantly 'technical pivots'. I know this is getting long winded but the real point I want to make is that you have to learn to read these indicators yourself and this can only be done through observation over a long time..... usually years.... or you could just sign onto one of the guru's and trade his interpretation of data; but at the end of the day you will be no further ahead. You have to learn to 'read' the data yourself... period... or you will never have the confidence to trade profitably for yourself. Remember though you don't have to know everything to be able to 'read' the markets and it is 'trade management' that will make you money not reading the markets. The fact that you can stop yourself out of bad trades and let your winners run combined with a 'coin toss' for entry.... you should be able to make money. But if you have a simple signal generating system like the one I described above combined with good trade management skills you will do just fine. Hope this helps. Robert