Bear Mtn.

Sorry Tams, if I've got this wrong, but I think you were meaning that yes there was high volume on the up bar... but then low volume on the down bar. Therefore, although the move up faltered, there aren't many keen sellers.... hence the drift up. Thats how I'd interpret that situation (albeit with hindsight) so be interesting to see what others think...

Good posts Tams. I particularly recommend checking the Processes tab as there will often be memory-hogs in there which are slowing stuff up and you don't really need (when you are supposed to be concentrating on trading, right?). Just be careful not to shut any System or other important processes when you're weeding and with a bit of care you'll hopefully make a difference to how smoothly the important things are running... :pc guru:

'The Gimp' editing software is known as 'Photoshop Lite' (and free) for image editing, but pretty handy for this sort of stuff too... GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program ...oh, and it is a true multi-platform beast too, for you Mac lovers.

...cheerful stuff Unfortunately I think you about summed it up..

Great post Bootstrap, something that should be required reading for members of the forum Just curious how that's working out for you now bsl? If you still come on the forum and see this?

Hi Scalper, welcome to the site... I am also pretty new here but already finding these guys v.helpful! (I trade index futures and forex intraday) BM

Thanks for posting LS. Well firstly I have to agree with ckait - it is really important to just get one system hashed out and working well for you and then try to develop other tools for you to use when strategy 1 is inactive. Now, the more structured and prescriptive that first system is the better IMO. When you're trying to get started the 'death by 1000 cuts' can be very damaging in a number of ways so something you can have confidence in is vital. If you can develop a very non-discretionary system that is rolling along nicely then you'll have plenty of time to try and take things to the next level and develop more advanced and secondary setups with good success rates Your own comment about concentration levels etc is also relevant... the constant pressure of trying to identify setups, wondering if they're good, bad or other, finding an entry, looking for an exit, reversing, re-reversing...very draining! This is where a strict plan and very definite setup (even better if it only happens once or twice a day) can help you to perform better by giving you the power to 'relax' in between. Hope that helps...

Thanks for starting the thread Bathrobe as breakouts are, I think, of interest to most people at some level - whether something you experimented with in your early days or still work with as a trade setup currently. Personally I have experimented with a lot of strategies to try and catch the elusive breakout (indices and currencies) but find consistency to be difficult. I have however found that I am much better suited to trading false ones and fading breakouts. Getting a good signal on a failing breakout (and hence good reversal setup) is twice as reliable as a signal for a potential runner IMO, anyone else got thoughts on this?

100% Swans - that general rule is a huge realization I think and when, as a trader, you realize that minimizing each loss is 10x more important than maximizing each gain then I think you can really turn a corner in this game!

This has been my problem of late but, as of yesterday, I'm starting to get better at taking the lessons from it and moving forward. Keep it up Swan, it's really good to see your progress documented and I hope you're still finding it helpful to post here. BM