Steve66

I have read books by these authors and feel they made a positive impact on my trading Listed in no particular order: James F. Dalton -Mind over Markets -Markets in Profile If your into learning about Market Profile, Mr Dalton is the Market Profile Master John F Carter -Mastering the Trade Mr Carter approach to the markets I feel is incredible. MTT is a great book. Mr Carter has a 2nd Edition out which I haven't read yet. If its anything like his first book, I am sure I am not going to be disappointed Al Brooks -Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar. Mr Brooks is a Pure price action trader. He recently expanded on this book and wrote a few others by specifically focusing on concepts in more detail. Carolyn Boroden -Fibonacci Trading, How to Master the Time and Price Advantage Miss Boroden is the Fibonacci Queen. Great book Dr Thomas Carr -Trend Trading for a Living -Micro- Trend Trading for Daily Income Mr Carr explains profitable concepts in a simple form. Easy to use and understand

You can build a swing trading strategy that works for your situation. There are lots of traders that have full time jobs. With today's mobile apps and alerts you can make it happen. Find a platform that has what you need and go for it.

I would say, trade only one market and become profitable before you explore new markets.

To the original poster. Try trading longer term where entry and exit are not that crucial.

If I had developed the next big thing, trust me, no one in the world would be able to afford it. Why would I need to sell it?

To understand these concepts, one must first ask themselves, In what direction is the market attempting to go, & , Is it doing a good job getting there? Before we can answer these questions, we have to do some prior homework to get an idea of who and what is controlling the market before we can anticipate its next steps. We must identify key market levels, tempo, volume, conviction, inventory and important levels to place trades. We must manage risk and monitor change or continuation. Identifying the opening is easy after it has begun, but chances are that once you identified the open, you missed the meat of the move. One must know the behavior/ feel of the market they are trading and have a sense of becoming one with the market, otherwise, it will be difficult to identify anomalies, opportunities, and enter with good trade location. Without getting to caught up in trying to identify each of the 4 openings in real time as its playing out, I have committed the opening types to memory. What has worked for me is, before I put a trade on, I've already did my homework and I also identified current market conditions. I place buy and sell limit orders in the DOM at important go/no-go levels and manage the opening by cancelling or adding orders to the trade. As the trade is playing out, it is easier for me to determine what kind of open is developing so I can anticipate change or continuation.

Without getting into politics and staying on post topic, Based on what we have seen the last few years, No.. Its not working for the majority of the people and Its become very complicated.

The market IMO is not random. People change markets, markets change people. I believe that there are correlations & divergences based on what people believe, not true economics. Information has no power unless people react to it. This is why markets are so efficient. My job as a trader is to simply access who is in control, quickly identify pending change, place trades at these points and monitor for continuation. Plain and simple, most information received is just noise. perceived to go against your thought process, and shake out the weaker hands. Follow the big picture to find opportunity, but be ready to counter without emotion.

Since I trade a 24 hr market, I try to determine if the market is short, long or neutral based on the settled price of yesterdays market with today's developing overnight distribution high and low. Depending on where the market opens, I have a few scenarios that I have prepared before hand that I have areas to place trades.

Sorry Bob, I'm keeping the name :-)

Adding Mind over Markets - James Dalton Markets in Profile - James Dalton

Hi Dave, I don't post much, but I can tell you every new trader is going or went through what you are experiencing. I went through it as well. I suggest that you set aside a small amount of money that you can afford to give to charity, for example, $100.00 and paper trade it. Set aside .43 cents per contract round trip for commissions and $5.00 for every point lost per contract. Trade until you double your 100.00 investment covering commissions. Then, start trading real money. If you lose the hundred, donate it to whatever charity you support, and start over. You can use any $ denomination you want depending on your trading strategy (single, multiple contracts, etc). I used 10% of what the /ES and commissions cost to trade. A little skin in the game keeps you honest and helps psychologically. If you double your money, you get to trade your account funds. If you lose the money, you money is going to a good place instead of another traders pocket. You gain confidence and that gives you an edge

I love everything about the game, and learned to respect the market. It is the hardest game you will ever play. I learned that losses are part of the game and sticking to rules and money management keeps you in the game. I love being tested and judged by the emotions of other traders. The beautiful part about trading is there are many ways to trade the market. If trading was not meeting my expectations, I would take some time to re-evaluate my trading and business plan.

I stayed out of trading the market today as part of my trading plan. I never trade on options/ futures expiration day. Instead I just sat on hands and back tested some strats I have been working on. One of the traders I trade with made 18 pts today. He averages 20 pts a day. It was business as usual for him. I guess its personal choice. If you played mid to upper range of initial balance today you made money. Looking back at the price action, my set-ups would have taken 8 points with no heat today. I may change my rule and devote some capital for the next expiration.

Steve, enjoyed your post. Problem is most traders cannot read price action or time and sales. they rely on patterns. By the time they act, we are out, they get stuck

my favorites and go to material, no specific order Mastering the Trade - John F. Carter Reading Price Action Bar by Bar - Al Brooks Fibonacci Trading - Carolyn Boroden Candlestick Charting Explained - Gregory L. Morris

I use a 20 day (trading month) 30 minute profile chart. I track value area low / high/POC and VPOC data. I use them in my trading range strategies with fibonacci.

I designed my strategies for a fast moving market. Last year was very good. I have taken vacation the last 2 weeks of 2011 and first month of 2012 from trading . I have found that 2012 ES has slowed down a bit. I am having to wait longer for set-ups to form. I have adjusted by adding more contracts. It looks like since the new contract (ESM2), we are seeing a bit more overall trading vol. I am hoping for a bit more volatility. Only time will tell.

Hi roztom, What do you mean by profile?

Ill try to explain without going into much detail. I have criteria I look at for trade set-ups. Basically, each 15 minute candle is a potential trade. I read the price action, vol and market levels (and a few other things) to determine if there is a potential for lets say, at least 6 ticks of action. My decision to take the trade comes in at about 7 minutes into the candle. My stop and target orders are set for 6 ticks. Once it is determined that the market has shown me that my target can be made, or the levels are in reach, I enter the trade on limit orders (momentum) based on my trading rules for the set-up. If I am wrong, I get stopped out, If I am right, I hit my target lock it in. If the market continues on, I manage the target and trail a stop to get the most out of the trade. The stronger set-ups, the more contracts I am comfortable entering with. I may scale out or go all out when managing the trade. I don't add to the trade and I never move a stop to increase risk. I prefer to trade during the first and last 1:30 minutes of the cash session.

Hi roztom. I trade emini futures. I am not a buy and hold trader. I trade with momentum and specific criteria. I look for 1 point in each 15 minute candle. my risk reward is 1:1. I use simple bracket orders and manage the stop and target when filled. I look for 1-3 trades a day. My trades last 1-7 minutes avg. If I were a buy and hold futures trader, I would use multi- bracket orders and set my buy/ sell orders based on fibonacci retracement and market profile analysis. If my criteria for taking a trade is met, I would take the trade, set it and forget it. If the market allows my trade to go the distance, the orders would be booking profit and continuing to play out. If not, I would be stopped out with a small loss or small profit. I would set an alert in my platform to tell me that last bracket has been filled so I can manage the rest of the trade manually. To me the simple approach is the best approach. I have a pretty detailed trading plan that is built around my style of trading and personality. Money management gets me out of trades that go against my risk reward parameters, I always use a stop order. Trade management keeps me in the trade until one of my exit criteria is met. Most traders don't trade with a plan or risk reward parameters. These traders end up losing trades to traders that do.

In order for a trade to be profitable, the trader must have already booked gains. A profitable trade could turn into a loss quickly if gains aren’t booked. No one knows where the market is going next, or if the move is sustainable. You make money by booking gains. Traders that monitor the market internals realize that the instruments they trade have a good chance of following the internals. This information is used to assist the trader in defining risk reward parameters. There are many ways to trade the markets. Traders have defined their set-ups and defined probabilities of success. But, once in a trade, all bets are off and they must manage the trade. A trader must think, react quickly or have patience, adjust when necessary and realize that there are no expectations.

Trading is the hardest game you will ever learn. Think about what you want out of trading, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and, build a system around it. Keep it as simple as possible and implement only what is important to your success. Test your system in Demo account with the risk/ reward parameters you normally trade with. You have to give your system time to work. When the system works, and you are comfortable placing real orders, start small. If the market does not let your system work that day, stay out of the market to preserve capital. Consistently work on your money management, trading psychology and trading plan. The markets are always changing and rewards traders that practice Patience and Discipline. Trade only the best setups and reward yourself for following your plan. Good Luck !

This is how I see it: A bull or bear trap is created on an opening gap when price action completely negates prior days move. Example: Monday closes very bullish and trader is carrying trade over night. The trader is expecting price continuation at open, but when Tuesday opens, the gap in price negates Monday’s price action and forces a now shocked trader to cover position and/ or exit the trade.

Some traders use a max loss limit set up with their broker instead of a stop order. This way they limit their risk to a percentage or a portion of their capital and not worry about having to maintain a stop during a trade and to prevent being wiped out during a unforeseen failure (data feed, computer, power failure, internet).