T2CTrading

Wow thanks for posting this and bringing it to everyone's attention. I guess we will wait to see how this plays out. November 19th is now marked in my calendar.

It sounds like you want to find some key set ups that you can personalize to be efficient in your trades. Each set up will need to be specific to the market you trade and your trading parameters. My advice is to keep trying different setups until you find one that makes the most sense for you. I have found it most helpful to back test or use a simulator to apply the set ups before trading them live. Personally, I post some of my trades via twitter @futurescoach

I do think you have made some good points here. While it is important to understand that some markets react differently than others, trading is not a personality quiz. It is too expensive to waste time in poor quality trades trying to figure out if it suites your personality. If you are new to a market, or trying to expand your trading, my advice is to spend some time watching the DOM. It doesn't cost anything to watch. Successful trading comes from a solid trading plan. A traders emotions should have no influence over the trading plan.

There is some great research out there that most candlestick patterns only work around 30% of the time. As SIUYA mentioned we can find the patterns in hindsight, but have you ever tried to trade based on the patterns? I would argue that the patterns do not work consistently enough to generate overall profitable trades. Just remember that you can find a chart to prove any theory once, but can it be traded in foresight not only in hindsight. Just remember that when these "Guru's" write their books and publish their articles they only need one chart that looks good to prove their point, what about the other 500 times that it does not work? Just some food for thought.

Throup up both contracts on your platform, trade the one that is taking more volume. Roll with the volume. Still March for now.

I guess the question is do you have "max loss limits" in your trading plan for the day, week, and month? I have a weekly max loss limit where I stop trading, for the week and I will reduce my size at two thirds of that number. It allows me to manage the trades with a little less risk on while I get back in the groove. T2C Trading

Stress does make you "stupid" in a sense as it impairs your brain function. This is why we need a trading plan and to follow it. When we are in a trade our stress levels go up and we are able to make progressively worse decisions. Our brains suffer an amygdala hijack and we are not able to process new information, the same happens when we are angry and have a difficult time thinking of words. Amygdala hijack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Daniel Goleman is an expert on this subject, a good read. This is very applicable to trader's and their decision making abilities.

When you excercise you release your brain's happy chemicals, with continual activity we can maintain a more positive outlook and keep our minds sharper. I am a cyclist, runner and triathlete, I am running, cycling or swimming almost every day. I think people approach trading the same way the approach exercise..... they shoot for the moon and are constantly dissappointed when they do not achieve their desired result. For example I hear this all the time, I'm going to start running 1hr everyday. Now how realistic is this for a non runner? What happens is that this is a daunting goal, and not enjoyable, so the person dreads the run, maybe they do it 2-3 times then quit. Would it not have been better to run 20 minutes 2-3 times a week? It would have been achievable and built confidence and maybe a love for running, instead beating up our self esteem. I think a link can also be drawn to profit goals of new traders. Generally they are too high, and work against the trader's confidence and profitability in the long run. On of my past coaches always said that 15min is better than nothing, this has always worked for me when I am tired and do not want to do a long run, for example, and you know what happens some times, after 15min I don't feel so bad and keep going. When starting an excercise program keep it managable and fun and you will probably stick with it. Get active, there is lots of great crosstraining for our bodies and minds that can help us with our trading.

In my opinion volume is important but it is more about who is providing the volume and when in the move the volume is being applied. I subscribe to the theory that the "market moves with the least number of participants as possible". I use volume/lack of volume to signal the end of a trend not the start of a trend. I think most new traders look at the market differently than what is actually happening, and as a result creates the "why am I always buying top's and selling bottoms?" Most new traders see a pop in the S&P and say "look at the market going up I need to buy", but do not realize that the pop is a result of early entrants, the early entrants (read institutionals) push up the price with their demand, new traders enter at the end of the flury, and buy what the institutionals are selling, when the new trader money has dried up then the market pulls back, new traders feel pain and unload to the waiting instutions, and the market goes back up. Same on the way down just reversed. Markets go down on volume and up on absence of volume. Look at the size of the "snap backs" in the S&P there is no coincidence that they are usually the average stop size of a new trader (retail trader). We are all human and feel greed and pain the same way, there is no conspiracy to see our stops and pick them off, human nature does that for us!

The ADX is also useful with equity index futures (ES, YM, TF etc....) it is a great help in indicating when the markets are becoming "quiet", quiet markets are more dificult to trade and it may be a good time to step aside and wait for some energy to return to the markets before any trades are initiated. Tristan Jeanneault

Seems like common sense but it is one of the hardest lessons for a new trader to learn. We see the market move fast and furious to new highs or lows and are upset that we missed the move.... then there is usually a secondary push when we attempt to get in and make back the money we missed in the first push up or down... More often than not, the last flury of price action is caused by the "strong handed traders" offloading to the "weaker hands", usually institutionals unloading to the retail traders, when that supply is exhausted the market will retrace... stop the retail traders out, who are now forced to unload back to the institutionals at a loss and the cycle repeats. Learn how to break the cycle. Remember that the market will always have another tradeable move, you have never missed the "last trade ever". Why buy the high or sell the low, makes no sense to me.

A Trading Plan is a key piece of the trading puzzle, if you have rules surrounding volatility then they should be in your trading plan, be easy to follow and systematic. For example when 5 min ATR is below "X" in the ES I will change my contract size by "Y". Some traders will reduce their stops and targets and trade more contracts, but this can also create "death by a thousand cuts" as you constantly get wiggled out of the market.... so be careful. Another option is to trade an index like the Russell2000 (TF), it moves more than the ES and is fairly correlated with the ES. I guess my parting thought is that volatility is two sided, you can make more in a volatile market, but your losses can also be much larger....sometimes when starting out trading a slow market is nice because it allows you better define your risk. -------------------------------- Tristan Jeanneault T2C Trading

I think the key issue with paper vs. real trading is the psychological aspect. We are all human and when we have real money in a trade our emotions and reactions will be different than when we have "fake" money in a trade. We know the difference and for most traders just starting out, this difference will mean that they handle the trades very differently even if they do not intend to. We need to learn under the real conditions of trading with real money on the line. That is why as traders we need to start off small, know how to control our risk, and only trade with money we can afford to lose. I believe that paper trading "sim" accounts have a lot of value in learning the platform, watching the price action of the contract being traded and fine tuning our reaction times when entering orders etc., but have limited value in teaching the new trader how to psychologically handle a trade when "real" money is on the line. Tristan Jeanneault ------------------------------------------------ T2C Trading