SpearPointTrader

I have the 2nd edition. I found it to be a very good read and I learned some patterns I had never previously knew about before. Is there a big difference between that, and the first edition?

whats there to be sucked in about over an e-book that costs less than a dollar? really, do you even have a copy of this book? Can you comment of the actual contents of it?

We are the 1%!! (And ur not Hahahahhhahahaaaa!) :rofl:

I use the convergence, and divergence of the moving averages, and the bollinger bands to time my entries and exits all the time. It has proven to be a fairly reliable signal for me.

Yes. Never trade real money, untill you can prove your skills in simulation. If you can't win in practice, you can't win for real.

I got mine for .99. I still see it listed for that.

Don't trade real money, untill you can win consistently in simulation. Anyone who tells you different does not know what they are doing, and does not know how to teach.

That is a very interesting tip. Obviously it is for sideways markets, because a strongly trending market will not cover the same ground twice. I am going to have to play with this, and see how it works. Right now, I Spear Point trade, which allows me to win 70-80% of the time (Sometimes more if I am focused) on trends. I generally just trade for the day, and am often in, and then out quick.

What? :shrug: .................

I stumbled on to this one while randomly browzing Amazon recently. I have to say, it's a really good little trading book. One of the methods (to me) looks like a super simplified version of the Turtle trading method. It's very reliable, and it worth it's weight in Gold all by itself. The methods work for anything, Stocks, Futures, Forex. If you can make a Bar Chart, these work. I have been back testing several of the methods, and if someone can't make money with these, there is a real problem. The Kicker, the booklet is like 99 cents in E-book form. You can download the Mobi reader, and read it on any PC. The pages even turn as if it was real. http://www.amazon.com/FOUR-SIMPLE-FUTURES-TRADES-ebook/dp/B006BJ5YO6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322985878&sr=1-1

It's been my experience that Mentors just mess you up more. Your timing, can only be developed by practice. No amount of mentoring can do that for you. Also, you can't win every trade. The markets are random most of the time, so a large amount of signals are actually false in the first place. The only thing you can do is robotically take every single one, so you don't miss the real ones. Just learn to keep your losses small, and let your profits run. High percentage systems tend to have many smaller winners, but also smaller losers (my experience) However, there are systems that lose more than they win, but the wins are so huge that they more than make up for the losses. You have to decide which game you want to play. I trade 2 systems. I do something called Spear Point trading that is a Trend/Swing Trading method, and then I do another that is newer to me and focused on day trading. I have found success with both. I have bigger wins with the Spear Point Trading, and more wins, less losses with the other one. Both win 60% or more of the time.

Kinesiology and sports psychology, have nothing to do with learning to trade. If anything, the only physical discipline that may relate to trading would be Tai Chi, because of it's Taoist core fundamentals (Taoists are lazy, they go with the flow IE follow the trend) What you recommend above is a recipe for sheer disaster. It's the same mentality that has people jumping off the roofs of buildings.

I can agree with your list, however, not all methods work on fundamental reasons for price movement. Many methods just follow strong direction, regardless of any underlying reason.

So, I have read through this whole thread. I have to say, the poster who recommends live trading right away, is hoping to be on the other side of the transaction. It's a sure way to get wiped out fast. It's a set up for failure. I am currently investigating the course from Facts Trading. It's a pretty hokey layout, but has some incredible advice for the beginner. For starters, it recommends a minimum of 9 months of paper trading. It goes on to say one should learn to hand chart first, before ever trying to paper trade with the computer. The author feels hand charting is a learning tool that better etches the material into your brain. Next it teaches how to search for potentially profitable setups using only the price itself, before even beginning to teach the most basic indicators. It's not restricted to any one market. The set up is the key. It does not matter what market that set up appears in. They all get traded the same way. Lastly it recommends NOT trading for real, until you can win at least 80% of the time. It's a high percentage day trading system designed for people with small accounts who cannot afford to lose much. It seeks to keep wins greater than losses, and to also win more often than lose. It's been my experience that trading is very tough, and has a whole bunch of psychological issues tied to it. One really needs to master the mechanics of their system inside and out, in real time simulated trading, before trading for real. Otherwise you have to deal with the learning curve AND all the psychological stuff that comes with trading real money as well. Although the above course is well worth it's pricey cost, and I have really learned a lot from it, I have also found a small e-book that has a couple of spectacular, simple trades that a beginner can use to start the learning and paper trading process. The third trade strategy especially is worth millions in the right hands alone. It looks like a super simplified Turtle trade to me. Amazon.com: FOUR SIMPLE FUTURES TRADES THAT WORK! eBook: Nick Monticello: Kindle Store Speaking of Turtle trading, I highly recommend the book by Russel Sands on Turtle Trading. In the late 1970s, the founder of that method took $1300.00 and turned it into 200 million over the course of his career. The book tells most of how he did it. An examination of WD Gann's basic stuff is also recommended. There is a Yahoo Groups page set up for the study of his various methods. Search for it. John Bollinger, on Bollinger Bands is also a must read. Start by learning the basics, like how to form trend lines, support and resistance lines, figure replacement levels, and spot the major charting formations. Again, that .99 e-book is worth it's weight in gold. If you already know how to read a chart, and place your orders and Stop-Loss orders and stuff, that is a winning system all to itself. Even if you don't have a Kindle reader, you can just download the reader software for free and read the book on any windows machine (That is what I did). Last, and again, don't listen to anyone who tells you to try and learn by actually putting money in the markets. Losing 100 straight trades is not going to teach you anything, but how to be a loser. Learn to win first, THEN risk real money.

I have not found that at all. In fact, I have found the use of shorter time frames to be a good filter to weed out false signals often seen in the larger time frames. It's just a matter of knowing how to read your charts and understanding what they are telling you. Even *If* I wanted to trade longer term, I would still be entering off my 3 minute chart.

Profitability is just a matter of winning more than you loose, and keeping your losses smaller than your wins; which is the same no matter what the time frame. Also, Day traders often cover the same price range multiple times, where as trenders only get it once.

I don't know about other markets, but in the Futures markets, day trading is alive and well. In fact, I feel your are much safer, and much more likely to keep your account from being wiped out by some unexpected price movement while you sleep. All I do is day trade. For the life of me, I cannot understand why people would even try to hold for more than a few hours. It's insane as far as i am concerned. In the end, I still feel day traders make more money, for no other reason then they are out and on the sidelines when the markets move against them more often than not.

it's been my observation that the markets generally make one strong move across thier range for the day, and then meander around aimlessly. I like to catch that move, which often only lasts a few minutes, and call it a day myself. The very act of calling it a day, alone, prevents losses. It seems many of my losses are infact a result of not doing that.

Well, isn't this what everybody does? So you are advocating a strategy that seeks small wins, and losses in kind of a break even strategy? That is sort of what the Facts Trading stuff does. The idea is to assume most of your trades will go bad right away, and to try to get out with a little win more often than not. That way you are positioned and in the market to try and catch the larger moves when they take off. Does anyone have any specific strategies? As an example, I was talking to one gentileman on another forum, and he insisted that the only time you should take a break out trade was on very low volume. his reasoning is that in those cases the big boys have not yet entered the markets, but will be forced to because they chase the patterns. So when the volume is low, they will jump in shortly and the price will really move in your direction. There is far, far less chance it will correct right away. When it does, it only corrects to about the area outside of the breakout, so you don't see drawdowns, just break evens. I paper traded his idea for some time, and came to the conclusion he was on to "Something", however I am not sure things were really happening because of the reasons he cited.

I seem to get fairly good fills, so there is no problem there. The system I am using uses the Bollinger Bands, and the 3 main moving averages, or more correctly the relationship between the two, to determine entries, and exits. When the set up is there, it's pretty easy to make fast profitable trades. However, it's not the only method. I used to trade break outs of major congestion and violations of major support, resistance and trend lines using the Williams%R as a guide for my exits. Although I have seen good gains from the wins, half of them were losses. I had stop issues when I did that. It seems of I pt my stops far enough back to allow enough recovery room to catch the winners, then then loser were too big and I would be doing little more than breaking even. If i put them closer, many would be wins became losers, and I lost money. So, I am thinking to myself, that there has to be a way to limit the number of losers, and keep the ones I do have small, yet still keep the winners.

I would not even think about trading for real, if I could not consistently grow a paper trading account. It's hard enough dealing with the psychological pressures of live trading, but to do so when you don't even have a functional system as well? That's nuts. Most trading software has a simulator that is virtually the same as real trading. Master that first. THEN use real money. The psychological crap is so much easier to deal with if you have a proven system to begin with.

Hello all! I have been trying a new system recently. One of it's prime tenants is to only trade when you have the picture perfect set up in order to minimize the number of losing trades that you have. The idea is to trade to always win (or at least 80% of the time) by waiting for massive momentum and taking small fast jumps in and out of the market when the power and direction are just too strong to lose on. The method has a lot of small wins, of less than $100.00, with an occasional medium to large win. All trades are for the day only. It does not hold over night. This seems to be in opposition to other methods i have seen where the idea is to expect lots of losses and draw downs, but to keep them smaller than your wins. Draw downs and losses are something I have never been comfortable with. I seem to like the smaller wins, but more wins philosophy. So, in my quest to further this concept, I was wondering what everyone does to minimize the number of losing trades?

My biggest problem is lack of fear. When I am a bit nervous, I do fairly well, and follow my system. However, at some point I begin to feel like I can't lose. I get very calm, and develop an almost dream like detachment. When that happens, I can't win to save my life. Once I realize i have entered this stat of mind, getting out is easy. I just walk away and pursue an activity that is physically challenging. Things like hiking, sailing and martial arts practice are at the top of the list. The real problem I need help with is identifying that I have slipped into this state before i rack up lots of losses.I can always tell once I get back out, but never while I am in it, Any advice?

It's better to miss a winning trade, than be stuck in a loser.

I don't trail stops myself. I enter, and exit manually every time. My stops are set for emergencies such as a power failure, or I have a stroke or something. I like to enter on my set up, then use Bollinger bands to determine when it's over bought/sold, and exit near the peak of that leg's run. The market is usually still going my way when I exit.