james_gsx

I'm sick today, so I'm not so sure I should really be trying to trade. Seems like everything has slowed down.

Wow, this is crazy lol

Not a thing but run up and down stairs all day long. But I would really like to get into running again. Theres something about those early morning cool air runs that gets me going for the day. My brother in law used to run several miles a morning then do an hour of pushups/situps (he was a Ranger). He would usually wake up around 3 am to start as I was going to sleep.

I am starting this thread off at 1:30 am ET with the YM down over 133 pts and the ES down 16pts. Looks like we could be in for a rough day, but I'm excited. I hope all of you have a well drawn out trading plan for today. Abe, use today as a day to learn. You would be amazed at how many people have never seen a true bear market (not saying we are or are not in one) and are trading today. There will be more in your career of trading, and IMO there is no better way to learn from one than by starting out in a time like this. I hope tomorrow brings a lot of volatility and brings you all lots of profits. I am going to wear my Gecko shirt (you know Gecko from Wall Street). Good trading everyone!

I thought this trade is worth sharing, especially when it comes to the whole idea of look for reasons as to why you are wrong with every trade. I entered this trade looking for a small breakout of 5 pts from the wedge. At first it looked like I was going to get the break out, entered the trade at 13469. Immediately the tape slowed and I saw a tick hook appear, nothing had quite yet happened so I quickly got out of the trade for break even. A few seconds later the YM fell 20pts blowing right through my stop highlighted in the green.

Stopped out on a breakout play, a loss of 2 YM lol Should have seen that volume was light and the typical breakout probably would not have occurred. Just had another breakout to the short side, this one confirmed with volume. Entry - 13479 and target +6, target was hit.

Two trades this morning, both breakouts that I set up in advance. First one was to the short side at 13,744 and covered quickly at 13,466 for +8. The second trade was to the long side a few minutes later at 13490 and out at 13496 for +6.

I will definitely post in here tomorrow. We'll see if you guys can keep up with me

You know it's funny, several months ago I tried day trading stocks and I would keep a log of where the stock had to go to make x amount of dollars. I was so focused on making a few bucks that I actually lost most of my trades. Why? I got greedy, I would see a good trade and enter, the trade would go the way I wanted but I was dissapointed at much money I made. I figured for all that work I should make more, so I'd hold and that gain would quickly turn into a loss and I would get pissed off. Now, I focus much more on what trades could be setting up and how I plan on entering them. I have started to set things up well ahead of time, so I am prepared and I know exactly how much I can make ore lose on the trade. I'm doing a much better job controlling my emotions and surprisingly making more money. I think it's very positive to set goals for yourself, do you have any daily goals or weekly goals you can trade for? Maybe not even goals about money, but maybe a certain win percentage? Maybe.. avoiding a certain amount of trades you see that have hurt you in the past?

Oops - here you go • H&S Pattern breakout to the short side o Entry – 13423 o Exit – 13414 o P&L – 9 YM

I am rather happy of this trade, I saw a h&s setup on the 1 minute chart and set a short after the neckline broke. Once I saw the candle slow down I covered the position and let the rest of it ride out. Don't worry about the other lines, I was just setting up a breakout trade and wanted to know what my entry and target should be.

I watch Formula One racing during the day if it's on, or LeMans I wish there was a dedicated channel to that stuff, I don't really like Speed since all they show is Nascar. Sorry for going off topic.

I just do points per contract. For example, a 3 contract play and the first one was +10, the next +20, and the third stopped out I would label them all separately. Then at the end of the day I would tally it all up for (example) +10 on the whole trade. Lets say I buy 3 YM at 13,200 and it moves to 13,210, the first contract is scaled out and I move my stop up to break even. Then it goes up to 13,220 and I scale out of the second trade, and then it retraced back to 13,210 and my third contract is stopped out. 1st contract - +10 2nd contract - +20 3rd contract - +10 Thats exactly how I would record it in my notes. If it hit 13,210 then retraced to 13,200 then it would show 1st contract - +10 2nd contract - 0 3rd contract - 0 Then I would rank the trade accordingly.

This is pretty cool, I have wanted to learn about candlestick trading for a while now but never really got around to it. I am a visual learner, and I sometimes find myself watching the candle for my entry/exit more than the tape. For some reason it just makes more sense to me, and it seems to be working out. I don't know if brownsfan is like that, or maybe I'm just crazy.

I remember going through the stage looking for every indicator. Plus side? I learned a lot about TA. Then I realized the problem was me, now I just price and my market internals. I have volume on the chart but I never look at it, not really sure why I even have it there. I remember signing up for some momentum trading chatroom, they had roughly 5 indicators that all had to be in confirmation at the same time in order to make a trade. I could never figure out how they made any money since I never once saw them all agree at the same time. Usually by the time most of them were in sync, it was the end of the run and the guys who used price and tape were selling them their shares. It's amazing how trading starts off as some whole new world, then becomes so complex and you stay up all night trying to dominate. Then all of a sudden, it's so simple yet so complex - that's when you get respect for the market.

I like the idea of an ongoing thread. I'm actually surprised we don't have one.

I called the company, talked to the manager for about an hour. He invited me to the office, now I'm studying to get my series 7 and work for them Anybody could have done it, I just like to think I'm special.

We have a laptop with Vista, we brought it into Best Buy today and asked them to put XP back on. I have office 2007, it sucks. I can't find half the things I want and the help feature blows. My next trading PC will have windows XP no doubt, my biggest pet peeve is slow computers. My next laptop will be a mac, and all I will do with it is mess around online, nothing big.

We closed at the .382 for the YM, the ES is within .50 and .618 for a retracement. I was just waiting for the YM to hit .382 and look for a possible bounce Monday. Abe, I would strongly suggest to turn off the TV. I can't tell you how much that helped me, I got to see the market the way I saw it without anyone else bothering me. It's okay to have the TV on I guess, just turn down the volume. You have market internals to tell you what the market is doing, I would suggest you take the weekend to learn how to read those internals and apply them to your trading. It's okay you didn't take any trades today because you didn't see any setups, that's following your plan and practicing sound capital management. But don't prevent yourself from trading out of emotion, that will just lead to emotion while trading and you'll wipe out your account. I have noticed some progress, just realize all traders go through what you are and at least you have the balls to tell the world. I respect you for that.

Yesterday I finished with 107 YM and 3.50 NQ Today I only traded YM and finished with 85 YM - mostly testing a new setup that seemed to work pretty well with the volatility. Basically I found a way to scalp breakout tests. I'll post up charts later (maybe). I took the last 2 hours of the day off today because I had done so well - I didn't want to get greedy and over trade. These last two days have been extremely successful and one of the few days that I'll be able to get those kind of returns. If I find time tonight I'll post up some charts and some of my notes. I had a few bad trades today with the new setup, but for the most part I did well. Yesterday I started making emotional trades and was able to identify them and quickly exit - and make note of it.

Walter this is a little off topic, but do you use a tick chart for scalping or a 1 minute, 3 minute, etc chart?

Do I get a cookie for doing the killing?

Okay, I see what you're saying. My setups kept coming up today, and I kept taking them like I would any normal day. I go for 20 YM everyday and usually hit everyday, no big deal and it works out well for me. Thats my target. I stopped trading today because of fear of over trading. I'm up nearly 100 YM points and I think that is more than enough, I made two emotional trades then immediately quit. I guess it takes an enormous amount of discipline to stand back on a day like today if you have already hit your target. That is something I don't yet have, and something that could end up wiping out my account one day.

Oh well, you made the trade and it was profitable. Had the market gone up, you would have been happy for getting out when you did

I realized I'm a scalper, and changed my trading plan to adapt and I'm doing much better. Now I do have a question, what about days like today? Normally I would take 20 YM pts and be done, but today I'm up nearly 40 YM. Setups keep coming up and I keep taking them, I felt a bit of greed when I noticed I wanted more so I left the desk for 30 minutes. But if the market is willing to give me 40, why not take it? I understand that that gives me the opportunity to lose more, but I still think there are only a few days a month where you can make good money and you should take full advantage of those days. I'm just curious as to what your feedback on that is.