james_gsx

I think a p&l thread could be useful if the community holds eachother accountable. I think the problem most of us are running into is the inability to hold ourselves accountable. So if discuss things with our peers, it can help us a lot. Maybe not to mentor, but to keep us in check. I believe that if you create achievable and measurable goals and you have a true passion for achieving those goals, that you will find a way to accomplish them. Having someone to help give you that extra push can be extremely beneficial. But this could also depend on the personality type, but for someone like myself or Brownsfan I think it would be beneficial. I could post that I will trade Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. If I don't post on one of those days with my results then I would expect someone to ask me why I didn't trade or didn't post. Eventually if you are motivated enough, you won't want to be asked why you aren't hitting your goals or trading or whatever is blocking you. Darthtrader - I started using a notebook for my trading. Every night I would write down the numbers I would use as support and resistance before the market established them intraday. Then I would make a to-do list with my critical goals for the week at the top, and my enabler goals at the bottom. This simple method really improved my ability to execute especially with my trading biz. I hold myself to high standards, and if I see a goal sitting there without being accomplished it takes me down a lot. But also having a goal with no path to get there hinders my ability to achieve the goal, which is why I break things down in my notebook. At the bottom of the page, I leave room for notes that I can go through at the end of the day.

TS has great charts, but they will lag on you during high volume moments. For example don't expect to get any work done during a FOMC announcement. The charts will go nuts, freeze, then go nuts again. Customer service - no comment. I didn't hear a word from anyone there until several days after we left. Then all of a sudden we got an e-mail with some great offer to keep our business. IMO if the broker really gave a shit, he'd pick up the phone and make the phone call. Email is the easy way out when trying to save business IMO. Execution - it really depends on your style of trading. If you do longer term stuff (more than 10 minutes) then it's fine. If you want take a quick scalp for a few ticks you're better off throwing the money down the toilet. I've heard horror stories of the market going 8 ticks before TS was finally able to execute. I have a few horror stories myself of similar situations, not fun. But if you are longer term, then I don't see it being a huge problem. If you're just trading equities and don't need real time quotes then I wouldn't waste my time. But it depends on your style of trading, may or may not be worth it. I would suggest looking around at a few other brokerages first, and a few other charting platforms. Edit: My experience with TS has been just with futures, specifically the YM and ES. I watched stocks and used their charts for equities but I never made an equity trade with TS.

Blowfish, I completely agree that a simple thread saying how many trades we took and points we get is a waste of time. That's why I'm leaning more towards the template idea that we can fill out. This way we can visually see trends in our trading, and what gaps need to be filled. I also believe that setting goals will help, and then by using a template that grades our trades we can see our inefficiencies and possibly what aspect of our trading is helping is get our goal or push us away. Here is currently what I have laid out, it's still a work in progress but input is appreciated. What I have here is the ability to grade each trade, then track the P&L and grade on a daily basis. From there you can use graphs, or whatever works best to track your progress. There is also a section for emotional trades, and those receive an automatic 0. If it's a trade you take on a repeated basis but is not in your plan, add it then it won't be an emotional trade. p.s - all that input I added was random. Not my trading or P&L

Nice job just coming out Sparrow! haha Tomorrow afternoon I will take a few screenshots and share my template I use for excel. I won't lie though, I don't use it as often as I should.

So maybe something we could easily implement in the forums would be a template like I mentioned. It doesn't need to be in the actual forum, but in say the profile section. It could be public or private - private meaning only specific people we select have access to it. That way those who have similar trading styles and goals can help hold us accountable, instead of people who trade completely different or have different goals. You could also do this easily in Excel, and then you can get creative and come up with graphs and other things. Then you can simply print it off and throw it into a binder to keep and review on a weekly or monthly basis. You could look for trends, and other patterns in your work. This could be especially useful for full time traders that view their trading as a true business. The only hard part would be coming up with the questions and style of template. Also this would go completely on the honor system. It would also require discipline to be honest with yourself and post it up for others you trust to ask you serious questions. But in the long run, that can be very helpful.

I think something that would help is if we defined what we believe accountability to be.

I continually find myself using PA and basic S/R for my trading. I have an oscillator and $tick to kind of help eliminate otherwise bad trades. After the close I plot the open, low, and close for the next day and scalp around those areas using basic candlestick analysis. So far it's been profitable, and the more screen time I get the better I do. But it should be noted, I have no problems finding support and resistance areas in real time, I guess that just comes with the screen time. It works very well during range bound movements, but during big trends it's easy to miss the major trend. I will try to take screen shots and possibly a video this week to show everyone how I do it and maybe others could see what I could improve on.

I like this idea, but I think the ideas can range greatly depending on skill and various other things. For example a newbie probably shouldn't be held accountable on p&l, but instead he should be held accountable on his trading plan. I have a meeting every Friday with the guy who funds me and I make him hold me accountable. We sit down and discuss what trades were taken and why, and if they were apart of my trading plan. You can grade each trade, and then sum up the total of the day. An example of this would be. 4 - Trade that was in your plan, and the target was hit. 3 - Trade that was in your plan - got out before target was hit but was profitable 2 - broke even 1 - stop was hit 0 - Trade taken not in the plan, profitable or not. You can also grade each set of trades specifically in excel. This may help to find inefficient trades, and other possible patterns. With a more experienced trader, there could be other ways to hold accountability that might include P&L. But sharing that sort of thing with others is sort of taboo, and some might not feel comfortable telling others. Blogs work, but take up a ton of time. Same with making videos. This could be a good thread, and it would be nice to have a part of the forum specifically for accountability. Maybe not an actual forum, but something separate like our blogs and videos.

That's a good goal, but it's not so smart to own a declining asset like that :haha:

I think increasing the size would be too easy for you, and wouldn't really accomplish anything for you. I say this because I understand what you mean, you want a challenge and simply adding size isn't much of a challenge. Maybe instead you can try to find correlations with the ES. For example in the book Pit Bull, he found a correlations with the ES and traded that. He still stuck to his system but had that other correlation to look at as well during the day. I forget exactly what he used, but it was pretty cool and I doubt it works anymore since this is 20 years later, but the idea is still there. You're smart enough to find it, and it could be a challenge for you. Once you find something like that, and you are still looking at the ES. You could make bigger financial goals to work for. You may also want to find goals that aren't even related to money. Such as going through and finding inefficiencies in your trading and setting goals to improve that. Most people can only be motivated by money for so long, I know after a year of trading money doesn't motivate me anymore. But being consistent does motivate me, and the money just comes after that. You could try looking through some old Fortune magazines of companies that use various approaches to motivate their employees and see if any of that can be related to your trading. I know a lot of big banks and consulting firms do this since at the end of the day they all pay the same and it's the same work. But they have to find alternative ways to motivate their employees to do well and stay with their firm. If that sounds too tedious, you could find something materialistic that you want. For example you could find a car that's completely pointless to everyday life but fun as hell to drive (or even a new home theater in your house). Then work at making extra profit on top of what you already make, to buy something cool. These are all just thoughts, but at the end of the day I think you should find a challenge for yourself that still relates to your core business of day trading the ES.

I would definitely agree on looking outside your basic trading that you do everyday. Possibly look into longer term/swing trading in other commodities. There are so many markets, and with your skill why limit yourself to just two or three? I like what Walter said, explore other opportunities and decide on some sort of project and work towards that. Plus, I think a lot of money is left on the table when you simply day trade the ES. A few ideas: - currencies - crude oil - gold - corn, wheat, etc. you could even trade options around these - or a completely different style of trading aside from directional like James said earlier. I think you should explore other opportunities to let your money work for you. You could still do the "grunt work" trading the ES everyday, yet have some "longer" term positions work for you on the side. Then eventually you could start a fund, and hire me haha just kidding :o Good luck.

haha really? I watched his videos for a while last year and that's what got me into gold. I stopped about two months ago since I didn't want to pay for his videos anymore. Thanks for the link.

Looks like a good time to go against the trend for a nice short I think Gold will start to show price action similar to oil before it broke $100. I wouldn't be surprised to see price bounce around a somewhat wide range then rally straight through $1,000. As of right now, the weekly chart looks bearish to me and that is confirmed by the daily. The weekly shows a doji after a strong rally, which is typically a stronger sign compared to a doji after a sell-off. The daily looks like it ran out of buyers near $1,000. There seems to be somewhat of a graveyard doji, but that's not the reason I would enter. I would enter due to the lack of buying and if price crosses below the 8 EMA. Thoughts?

Hockey was the only sport I never played as a kid, but I really wish I did play. There is a ton of teamwork that I don't think people give enough credit too. I hate the Detroit Red Wings but I simply cannot deny their skill or ability to handle the puck. Their passing is precise and they always know where everyone is and what's going on. Aside from Soccer I believe hockey is one of the best sports for anyone to learn solid team work and leadership skills. The sport is rough, but it has toned down a lot. Do a quick youtube search of Avs vs Red Wings and nothing but nasty fights will come up. Theres a reason those were called the glory days, because it doesn't happen anymore. A lot of fans (including myself) used to enjoy watching for the fights. But since the NHL has toned down a lot I now find myself watching because I do think it's a great sport. Personally I like the hitting, and I would give and take hits if I played. There are ways to give and take hits as well so you can prevent injury, and that's something most people don't know about. The NHL is doing a lot to tone down on unnecessary hits, like a player that isn't playing the puck and just goes for the hit will most likely get a penalty. A lot of young players typically come in looking for a fight or big hits. But if you watch enough games you'll see them be put in their place and they tone down a lot. There is a lot of skill and teamwork in the sport, and I really enjoy it for that. Hopefully the next generation of hockey will be even better. There will be less fights and better teamwork, more purity I guess is the word. But it is starting now with the NHL, and they have to be role models to the kids playing today. If the NHL allows for unnecessary brawls and foul play then the kids will do it. But if the NHL continues to take steps to prevent that then it won't be such an issue. There will always be fights though, and I'm okay with that.

Brownsfan, I did see that. It's one of those freak accidents you would expect to see in a movie and not in real life. Sparrow - Smyth has been out for a while with Stastny and Sakic. I think everyone is conditioned for injuries haha But I can't repeat the words that came out of my mouth when it happened.

Smyth is known for not putting it on tight enough. I just read on one of the hockey forums that he has a slight separated shoulder and a concussion. So... we'll see what happens.

This is probably the worst hit I've seen in the 13 years that I have been watching hockey. I have seen some nasty ones, but just the angle and speed at which this one happened tops the cake. I was watching this game live, and everything around me stopped when I saw this happen.

I just signed up for an account, and I did a search and couldn't find any previous dedicated Skype threads. So if you have it, feel free to add me. james.lengyel

Thanks everyone. Brownsfan, you have helped a lot more than you know. So have a lot of the people in the chat like HLM and various others. What I really want to point out though more than anything is the power of execution. I know that becoming a full time trader can be a daunting task and can sometimes paralyze you. But if you break it down and take the first step to execute then you will become successful if you don't give up. I'd rather fail and try, then never try at all.

Today I was trading (granted only 2 ES trades and the rest were options) and following my plan like usual. I don't want to say I was in the zone, but I was definitely aware of the market and the opportunities. As the day came to a close I remembered a few of my trades and how I went about them. Then it hit me, I felt absolutely no emotion during the trades. I saw them, took them, and looked for the next one. After the trade was over, I thought nothing of it and moved on. I was quite proud of myself and my trading plan, and it felt good. So this is pointless without any explanation how I got here. As some of you know, the emotional side of things has been my weakest link. I believe that weakness was due to my lack of execution. I finally told myself to stop coming up with excuses and just execute. Execution has been my theme for 08 and it has done amazing things for my entire life. I simply sat down this morning and looked at my trading plan. I took my notes through the day, and when I saw my trades come up whether it was an ES trade or various options trades I took them and didn't think twice about them. My week was profitable, granted I'm not a millionare and I didn't make a ton of money. But I improved the bottom line, and this is my business and it was a profitable week and that's what matters. I now view my trading as my business, and the key to any successful business is execution. I have seen and heard of many executives failing because they talk talk talk and never do anything. So my advice to any newbies who are struggling is simple: Sit your ass down and just get it done. Write that plan, and execute the plan. There will be emotion at first, but the more you execute and just get it done the faster your learning curve will become. You'll realize that you aren't lacking any intelligence or some holy grail, but simply screen time. And the only way you can improve your screen time is by actually trading and getting it done. It might seem silly, but you'd be amazed at what happens when you finally start doing things and following through with yourself. You'll become more motivated, and your trading will improve. I'm not a professional trader yet, and I know this is just the start of my unemotional road. I understand there will still be trades where I will feel emotion. But I know this is the start, and I am very excited with what's to come. Good trading everyone.

Hopefully this helps. There are several trades like the ambush which sometimes work, sometimes don't. I like to plot fibs and use them to find future support/resistance levels. Obviously I use the 127 as an extension to the current trend. So if the market is moving down like in my examples, I make sure the 127 is lower than the current price. If I used something like CL, then I would want it to be higher. I don't trade based off Fib lines, but I do like to know where they are especially on a daily basis. This was from today, and I used the Fib lines during a range to plot where price would go if it broke the low. Notice how the 127 worked out very well for support. I went ahead and plotted where the ambush zones would be. Heres a closeup of the 61.8 and 127 Here are some daily charts of the YM and ES. I didn't really include the whole chart because it's rather irrelevant. price is what matters in these examples. Now if you are a longer term trader, one could argue this would be the proper fib placement. It really just goes by what your trading plan and style. There isn't really a right or wrong way to do it. Heres a shorter term view. I pointed out how the 127 line almost matches up with the open and close of the two candles back in January. I see this come up a lot with Fib lines, and I always find it interesting and it tends to be more powerful. This is a weekly ES chart. I threw this one in here for fun, because I could see the market hitting those levels and I find it ironic (or not?) that the 127 nearly matches with the old support levels from 2004! Hope it helps!

Yes it does, although with eSignal I have been having a hard time setting up the MP chart to work correctly with the sessions for various commodities. But that's for another topic. I use MP for CL and GC as well as the basic futures like ES and YM.

I know this is after the fact, but look at that spinning top we got the other day! First a hammer on support, then a text book doji/spinning top to signal our exit. Right now we have our confirmation candle and the next support area is the 21 EMA or 1,350. I suspect this latest push up was a fake out before testing some of those January lows. But we will see what happens.

No, but I wish I did have a recording. It was nice because it had nothing to do with Nordstrom or sales, but all about your personal passion and pursuing it regardless of where it goes. He did talk about the story of the original John W Nordstrom. It's a pretty amazing tale of the American dream. He left home in Finland (I think) with less than $200, landed in the US with $5 and worked a few jobs. Over a hundred years later his shoe business that did something like $12 in sales the first day is now a multi-billion dollar company. It was nice to hear the story because it didn't make me want to go out and sell, but it motivated me to keep pushing myself with my trading and various other businesses that I want to start up. I will see if I can e-mail him and ask him to record a speech of his. I think it would be beneficial to everyone, but I'm not sure he'll let me post it for the world to hear :o

Footer and Foppa are back to the Avs!! :cheers: