estrader21

I also would suggest skipping out on QM. While the bid/offer may be "the standard", it is a larger chunk of your profit / contract. That spread is far more volatile than CL and furthermore, it does not track CL tick for tick IMO, meaning even if CL price hits your level, QM may not. If you have confidence in your strategy, sim trade CL for at least a month or until you feel comfortable and then trade that. CL is dangerous, but far easier for me to trade than ES.

I would add yoga. A good yoga school helps with stress a lot, and assuming you're a hetero male, there are plenty of women There's a big difference between a good school and a mediocre one, so do some research. It should help a ton.

I will offer my .02 cents/rupis/ZAR/(your fx of choice ) 1) Yes, it is all relative and subjective. Just be consistent and if doesn't work, choose differently. Partly to answer (4), some people take the high/low on both sides of an MA. I use the most recent action for that timeframe that is reasonable. 2) Yes, in most cases there must be a retracement. However, in almost everything you trade exlcuding newly issued IPOs, there would have been a retracement and probably multiple retracements. You can also use the Fib Projection / Extensions as well. 3) Yes, that is right. However, you should know on which timeframe you are entering your trade. I assume he is trading off the 4 hour chart. Even comparing 4 hr vs 1 hr, a pinbar on the 4 hr would show as price rejection on a 1 hr. As far as different brokers showing different prices, I would say try more brokers and see which are most in-line with each other and drop the outliers. Between the 2 brokers I use, differences are typically around 1.5 pips max on majors. I have seen as much as 8 pips IIRC, but on a 4 hr pinbar, 8 pips is moderately negligible depending on the fx. 4) Is any single indicator enough? I would say no In my experience one should use at least 2 indicators that measure different things. There is a school of thinking that uses MAs to reinforce the validity of Fib levels. Another is to use Fib confluences on multiple timeframes.

Pat, what you said about ES being slow is exactly why I stopped trading it. ES also does not trend with enough profit for me. 10 ticks on a normal day seems to be a decent trade for ES. This does not excite me in the least Don Miller has a great scalping strategy but it requires more than 1 contract, is very active (read: a lot of work) and maybe his average is around 3 ticks of profit / ct, including losing trades (or expenses as he calls it). For a 1 lot trader (for now, at least), I think this style is very difficult. Trading short timeframes for a few ticks over the long run doesn't work me. What I trade now mostly are NQ, TF and CL with some ZN thrown in. EC and GC are also movers but they do not suit me personally, nor may trading style. Many people I know like to actively trade EC so you just have to watch, put on a few trades and see what suits you. Note that ZN is not really a mover usually but there are times when it trends for several hours and is safer for overnight holds. I have it on the screen as the bond market is important for me to watch so I may as well trade it Anyways, it's up to the trader to decide what types of markets suit his/her psychology as well as what stats are suitable (risk reward ratio, % winners, average $win vs $stop size). I think the longer a 1 lot trader trades, the longer he can ride the winner and cut out at better levels. Once again, this takes time to learn and may not be the goal of that trader in the first place.

Regarding the earlier posts about changing markets, I would have to agree. However, yes, you do need to have some strategies in place. For example, ES moves very differently from EC, CL, and ZN/TY. Pick something that moves in a way you can relate to. This takes screen time and $, in most cases. Yeah, this is very much like being a professional athlete. You can be a top trader and still have losing days. I do know a couple of people who trade ES well, but it takes several years at a minimum to make that happen. Once again, I would say pick the market that suits you. I no longer trade ES :o

just my .02 but I think right now is maybe the worst time to quit. Can you wait until early March? There's some seasonality and summers are the toughest to trade. Best of luck either way.