james_gsx

Finally back to trading, I will post some charts later today but heres a quick look at what is going on today. 4 YM scalps, 4 winners for 32 YM 2 NQ scalps 2 winners for 3.50 NQ I'm trying a few different time frames today (1min, 3min, etc). The 1 minute seems to be working out very well for scalp and I can handle my emotion. But I still like the 3 minute for some reason, the 1 minute moves around so much it's hard to tell what's really going on - but i have caught a few good breakouts.

No, I don't but thats a good idea. I won't start taking the long term trade but I'll start taking notes and see if maybe I can incorporate it into my plan. And if any of you have been wondering where I've been.. We just started our biggest sale of the year, it's been unbelievably busy and I haven't had any time at all. Today is my first day off since last Wednesday. I'm not trading since I don't have a plan, but I am watching and learning.

135i is suppose to be in the low 30s. There will also be a deisal (I think) 120 (i think) that should be pretty sweet too and have around 200hp. The new M3 is badass, but I think there is a pretty long waiting list. I would love to own one, by far my fav BMW aside from some of the CSL's.

Bump I have a Mercedes, it's just a Mercedes nothing special at all - it's gold, kinda sparkles in the sun, slow, thats about it. Oh and it has a million airbags. But I do LOVE BMW's. I really have no idea why I got the Mercedes except that I thought the salesman was a cool guy, and I got a good deal. Have any of you seen the new 1 series? It will use the same engine as the 335i in a smaller coupe that is designed for driving enthusiasts. I can't wait, I'm going to trade in the Benz for one. Link to 135i Brochure

Today was the busiest day of the year for Nordstrom, and being in womens shoes that meant we got a TON of business. During the busy 12 hour shift I noticed something interesting, the reason why I strive to beat everyone else. I believe it comes down to knowing the guy next to me, and knowing that I am beating them. Call it a big ego, but this is one major drive behind my success and ambition - knowing I beat the guy next to me. In trading, there isn't a guy next to me. Therefore, there is no one for me to compare myself with, we could post returns and all of that online, but it's just not the same. I have to find a way to be competitive with myself, to set goals for myself and to accomplish them - not go for them so I could beat the man next to me.

WOW! I can not tell you how true this is. This is something I haven't really shared with anyone, and it's kind of a big thing in my life. But my parents (my dad especially) always pressured me about doing good in school and going to college. Well my senior year I got fed up with high school and dropped out and got my GED. Since then he has been on my ass about going to college, saying things like, "You know all this stuff, why not go to college?". Sounds good, but I always hated it. It's that expectation of going that has always held me back. My dad and his side of the family always believed in going to school and getting a good job. For a few months I really just fit the profile of an average drop out. I didn't do anything, I made 8 bucks an hour at Best Buy working part time. I really wasn't going anywhere. Then I ran across my old business teacher (he has helped with a lot, I was one of the first to win 1st place at State for DECA). The first thing he asked me was, "how is your trading going and how are your businesses going?". Thats when it really hit me, I left so I could pursue my own passion and do what I wanted to do, I would have to make my own path and it would take a lot of hard work but that's what I'm all about, that is the kind of person I am. Ever since then I have been pushing myself harder and harder to do better in trading. I have my setbacks (like when I posted this) but overall I am a much better person. I work at Nordstrom and it's not the best job for me, but if I'm going to be there then I want to be the best. But my focus is on trading, I left school to pursue it and thats what I'm going after. I know so many people who go to college and study business because thats what everyone else is doing and thats what their parents say. They take no time to figure out what they want to do, and who they really are. The hardest part about going on your own path is listening to all the people who doubt you. If I got a dollar for every time someone told me I couldn't do what I'm doing now, I'd be one of the most wealthy guys on this forum. One kid seemed to make it his personal goal everyday to tell me how I couldn't do something. He would say I couldn't get a job at a trading firm, couldn't become a professional, because I dropped out. He said it wasn't possible and that my life is just a big f*** up. Well guess what, I make a lot more money than he does and he was forced to join the military because all he did was sit around all day and play on the computer. I will go to college some day, I want to. But I won't study anything related to business or economics. I want to study history since thats what I most enjoy, maybe math. But I will go because it's what I want, not because my parents say thats what I have to do to become anything.

Well here are my 3 scalps from yesterday. They were all profitable for a total of 20 ym points. I went into the day knowing I was a scalper and that seemed to help a lot. I kept my stop losses tight, as well as my targets and I looked for scalper setups. • Quick scalp after fast fall • Entry 912 • Target 920 • Stop 904 • Target hit • Another quick scalp after fast rise • Entry 13938 • Target 13933 • Stop 13942 • Target hit • Scalper trade • Entry 13925 • Target 13932 • Stop 13921 • Target hit

Umm... where did my trades from today go?

Okay heres a quick trade I did on the NQ. You'll see the the test to the S1 pivot the blue candle, I went short there for a quick scalp. I wanted to take advantage of the test, theoretically price would have resisted going to the pivot and fell back, and I wanted to take advantage of that. I entered on the blue tick, and got out on the red. o Entry short 2055.00 o Stop 2056.00 o Target 2054.00 o Target hit + 1.00 NQ As you can see I kept my stop tighter this time as I knew it was a scalp. I also knew if it moved into 2056 that we would most likely be going higher, no point in risking more capital that that if that makes sense. I'm finding more and more that my "pivot plays" are more or less quick scalps to test the first reaction. I need to tailer my plan to fit this move since I think it may end up working out pretty well for me. Thats all I can enter in for today. Thanks for any and all input.

Wow, I didn't know he had a book on futures markets. I read his book The Visual Investor or something like that, great book for TA. I learned a lot, I'll have to check that one out. The problem I find with most books is they aren't advanced enough. Most books I read just skim the surface, it's hard to find a book that really goes into it and teaches me something I haven't yet learned. Has anyone else experienced that?

Okay, I see what you're saying. It was a scalp trade, not a pivot trade so I should have set the stop tight. I was setting the stop as if it were a pivot play and was worried about getting shaken out. I should have just looked at where the next pivot was, and realized where the price would be going. I seem to be doing a lot of counter trend trades, which is okay for scalping and having a small account. But eventually I want to trade with more contracts and look for bigger moves, so definitely looking at the big picture is something I need to learn how to do. I'm surprised I did as well as I did today - I definitely screwed up. I went to bed too late and wasn't fully prepared. I slept through my alarm and still traded, a big no-no since I wasn't 100%. Trading is a profession, and I need to treat it as such.

They are all 3 minute charts. What do you about your stops if you can't exit until the bar closes? Do you just exit at the close?

The reason I went long on that first trade was because it was a retracement and we had been moving higher earlier in the day before going sideways. What I should have seen though was the rejection when we moved back into the mid point, that should have been my signal to exit the long and go short. My biggest problem is looking at the big picture. It's easy to focus on one or two things, then completely miss something else. But if I continue to try looking at the big picture with every trade, then I will be successful. I took a third trade that I'm not going to post here. It was a quick scalp at the S1 midpoint breakout for 5 points - so I dug myself out of that 20 pt loss.

Just took another trade. This one was an ambush play, and worked out fairly well for me. Entry 14036 Stop - close above .618 Target - 14030 I'm still trying to fine tune this trade, but I need to keep practicing the setup and taking my gains. I think 6 points is reasonable for this trade, if anyone has any feedback on what to look for as far as targets and stops please chime in.

There are several good reccomendations in the book review section. But I really enjoyed John Carters Mastering the Trade. John Carters style works very well with my personality, so thats just a heads up. He thinks the same way I do (for the most part) so I'm pretty lucky finding a book like that.

I'm not seeing my attachment show up, and I can't seem to edit the post so here it is.

Here are two of my trades from this morning. I accidentally slept in this morning and missed most of the big move and good setups Please note the reason my stops are 20 and my target is 10, I found if I kept a tighter stop I would get shaken out. This is probably due to bad timing, but with a 20 point stop I have only been stopped out a few times - it keeps me patient and my target is usually hit. I want to work on this though. Both traders are color coded, light blue was first and dark blue was second. The middle line represents my entry point, top line is target, and bottom is stop. Trade 1 - -1000 tick long at 47 could also be a good pivot play Entry 14047 Target 14057 Stop 14027 Stopped out Should have seen ticks going below 500 and exited trade while price as 37 Should have seen kiss to S1 pivot act as support and gone short Loss 20 pts Looking back on it, I made a few mistakes. I don't think I properly read the tape, and if I did I most likely missed a few key things. The biggest mistake I see is when the price came back up to the midpoint, but couldn't break through. Also I should have looked at the ticks and saw they were still negative, and exited my position. I believe I should have turned my long position into a short once I saw the retracement to the midpoint. I was too focused on how my trade was doing, not where price was going. Trade 2: The first candle gets very close to the S1 pivot and rallies higher, I missed the trade and waited for it the price to come back down before going long. It came back down and I bought, same criteria as before. Took S1 pivot play since I saw reasonable support Entry 14024 Target 14034 Stop 14010 Target hit + 10pts That trade worked and fit my plan. But again, I don't like how my stop is so much bigger than my target. I realize if I several stops in a row are hit it could take a big toll on my account. On the positive side, I never felt emotional when my stop was hit. I just looked for the next trade which was the S1 pivot and moved on.

I watched a poker tournament on TV over the weekend with my mom. The girl was up big, then you could see emotion take over her. Sure enough, the professoinal took advantage and she lost. When they asked her questions later, she never referred to emotion, but it was clear as day thats what it was. It made me think of how similar it was to trading. The amateur starts off well, while the professional sits back and waits for the planned setup. The amateur makes a mistake, gets emotional, and the professional goes in for the kill and takes their money. I also noticed very quickly how well the professional kept to a good capital management plan. If he had a band hand he took no time to fold and move onto the next one. Just like a professional trader, exiting the trade before it hurts his account.

I start off the day listening to What you know - TI It gets me ready to go, for some reason. That song makes me think of NYC, and that in turn makes me think of being a successful trader. Weird, I know. My goal is to live in NYC and be a successful trader.

can we include equity swing trades?

I would be willing to post charts and all that other stuff, but it would take up a lot of time. But I am definitely up to using your template, I think it would help me a lot - mainly because it's easy to hide mistakes from yourself, but when you lay them out to the world you start to realize very quickly where you went wrong and how to avoid it again. One thing I do is take my gains too quickly, I just want them locked in. Then price rallies again and it hits my initial target. It's easy to tell myself at least I made money, but if I had to show that to everyone that I was jumping too early then I really think it could fix the problem... if that makes any sense.

I like the idea and I think it could work here. At ET they would crab at you for every trade and tell you how terrible it was, even if you made money. But here I think you could really get a lot of good constructive criticism to help eachother out. I think it would work, and being as there are a few newbies here to futures it would probably be very beneficial.

You should add one more question. What do you love most about trading? For me, it would have to be doing the nightly research, going over the charts and seeing things unfold. Especially when you've been waiting patiently for your trades to setup, then they come along and you have the opportunity to go after it. The other thing I really love is the investing side, when I find a company that fits my style and I buy the stock then watch it grow - kinda like my own kid.

I really enjoy your articles. I typically print them off and show them to my mom and she enjoys them quite a bit, they are a great read... hope to see more.

1. Why did you decide to become a trader? - I wanted to know why they rung the damn bell every morning and what the the thing going across the bottom of the screen was. That was in 5th grade, since then I've been hooked. I ditched school to watch my stocks. 2. What steps or hurdles did you overcome to become a trader? - Not as many as some here, but definitely some hard lessons. Biggest one being that I had no one to blame but myself. Biggest two mistakes - BW falling after a bad earnings call and getting emotional. I held onto it, read the message boards, talked to some people, and was emotional that it had dropped so much so fast. The second one being I took too many earnings plays based off what other people said. They were experienced traders, but their plan was different from mine and I didn't do the research I should have done. I lost a lot of money doing that, and most of all I was embarrassed by myself. I told my ex girlfriend that I would never lose money, it just wasn't me. Then I found out the market doesn't care who I am, and gave me a nice smack in the face. 3. Do you see yourself trading in the next 10 years? - Absolutely. I want to run a $100mil + hedge fund sometime in my career.