james_gsx

E-signal Here is a more recent pic - I moved everything upstairs where its a lot brighter and I have a tv. I usually ignore the tv, but for some reason I like having a voice in the background it kinda keeps me awake. And it got too cold downstairs.

You know it really is amazing how well plans work. When I started back in February with real money I printed out a plan every single morning and shared it with my family. Then for some reason, I stopped. I felt like it was a waste of time and I couldn't focus on finding stocks. One thing led to another, I was looking for the holy grail. Then it hit me, I didn't have a plan. Now every day I have that plan sitting infront of me next to my weekly plan. I also have a trading plan for the year, and I never put down dollar goals but objectives - such as focus on capital management, focus on proper trade execution, do not get emotional, stops happen follow the plan, etc. After I started using my plan again (the same time I stopped using indicators and started only looking at internals, price, and tape) I started doing a much better job trading. It all makes much more sense again. As I said in my intro that short period of time cost me a lot of money, but it was well worth the harsh reality when it finally hit. I'll make more mistakes in long path, but I'm ready for them. If anything, I love to be knocked over just to fight and get back on top. I look forward to the coming bear market - it will be a challenge for me and I want to prove to myself I can come out on top. I was born October 15th 1987, we all know what happened a few days later

haha I only missed out on the rally with futures. I bought QQQQ yesterday on the dip to the 8 EMA and a whole bunch of other stuff, I knew the breakout was coming it was just a matter of when. Several of my stocks broke out too and the signals to buy are in, but considering we are near the R3 I am going to wait to pick them up. I don't want to buy at the top when I know it might be the top - that doesn't seem to smart to me. But at least I know the stocks are in the right position. A couple of my stocks are up +5% today, so it's a good day I know I have a lot of life to live, but I want to retire young and teach high school students with the same ambition as me how to trade. I want to teach them what I learn over the years, and give them the same chance a dear friend gave me.

Well I had a lot of time to think about it today, I went into work just to be told to come back at 1. Thanks boss, I missed the rally. I set all my swing trades last night, so I'm going to let them unfold and sit on the sidelines and watch. I also drove to the private airport near my house and watched all the lear jets, it tends to give me a lot of motivation. Brownsfan you're absolutely right, I've noticed that my fear of success could probably be linked to fear of failure. If I'm not successful, I'll feel like I let everyone down. But I need to just get some balls and get it done already. Thanks for the input guys, it helped a lot. I really need to figure out how I can view my trading as my own personal business and not just something I love to do. I believe once I move into my office and am around other traders that will finally click in my head. But I'm definitely more motivated today then I was yesterday, and I just have to make that last.

Yes, I am starting yet another thread So most of my life, friends and family seem to have decided that I would be the "successful" "rich" one. I would grow up to be very wealthy, blablabla. Although it's nice to constantly hear, "when you make it and you have tons of money" I am starting to wonder if it's actually holding me back. I hear it so often, I sometimes wonder if I really can be wealthy? I feel as if I have a lot of boot to fill, sorta speak. This crosses over to trading. I have noticed (yet not said anything until now) that I greatly understand many concepts, charts, etc. Yet, when it comes to doing things real time I hold myself back and let myself get emotional. Like Soultrader said in another thread that the successful trader has a constant hunger to be successful and come out on top. I am a very competitive person at heart, at work I always strive to sell the most and be on top no matter what I do, sports, selling, whatever. But at trading, I seem to want to prevent myself from being successful. For example, I will make some great trades, then doubt myself and make some stupid trades. After this eats me away, I feel like I don't know enough and I want to learn more and I set myself aside. I get so close to a goal, then I somehow purposefully take a step back. I can honestly say I've never accomplished a true long-term goal. I set them, get halfway, then I get bored and do something else. For my age (19), I am probably pretty successful. I have a $30,000 car that I pay for myself (loan is in my name). I wear designer clothes and not Abercrombie, things like Armani, Prada, etc and it all comes out of my own wallet. But I refuse to believe I am actually successful, I always feel like there is something eating me up inside and I'm not quite there. But when I get "there" I purposefully miss the opportunity. It's like some self destructive path (better yet a game my subconscious mind plays with me), and it's been going on my entire life. Take high school, I didn't do anything the entire 4 years (except study the markets) because for some reason I unconsciously thought getting an A was overrated so I opted for the easy C - I never did my homework yet I always got an A on the tests. I knew that was enough to get by, I never wanted to be the good student. When I used to work at Best Buy my goal was always to work in Magnolia Home Theater. I would get very close, then something would click in my head and I would stop striving for the spot - thus missing it. This went on for nearly 2 years. I did so well selling Digital SLRs they sent me to Dallas for a training - yet after the training I slacked off and felt no more reason to keep going - I was bored. Again, people always expected me to be moved back to Magnolia, yet I kept doing something to prevent myself from going back there. This constant pressure of success from everyone close to me, almost makes me scared to be successful. I know I can be a good trader, but I honestly feel like I hold myself back from being successful on purpose. I don't really know how else to explain it, maybe someone has gone through this in their lifetime and can give me some tips.

My ex girlfriend was on the committee to make marijuana legal in Colorado. To be quite honest, I don't remember when she WASN'T high. She always tried to tell me how it didn't affect her and that there were no consequences to her actions. I think thats what made me stay away from it the entire 8 months. But seeing as how it makes you so relaxed, it might be nice sometimes after a stressful day

Thats pretty cheap. You must make a lot of trades with a good amount of capital?

Is anyone as bored as I am right now? I've never seen the tape move so slow.

I wish I had a third monitor... but two will do for now

Good idea, I didn't trade yesterday (Tuesday) because I had to work at my other job and I took the opportunity to sleep in a little bit. But I will definitely add that in my next entries.

I'm going to copy my daily trading plan for Wednesday onto here from Word. It's short and simple, I have a more detailed weekly plan already sitting on my desk. This is basically just an update for me, so I know what to focus on. The trades to take are just the names that are in my 2007 online trading plan and are detailed there. I just list them on the daily plan so I know what to wait for. Input is definitely welcome. What trades to take: - Opening Gap - Pivots - Ambush Plays - Scalps The YM continues to trade in a tight range, and the NQ is proving to be the leader. Watch the NQ closely for a rally off the 8 EMA. Continue to watch the Dow swing plays I have in place. Tuesday Review: - AIG hit 8 EMA and fell, trade continues to work. Look for a small bounce when the stock hits the 50 EMA on the weekly chart. - C – Continues to fall but the weekly trend line is holding up, watch for support. - HON continues to trade in consolidation and what looks to be a bull flag, wait for a breakout. - Same with HPQ - IBM broke out of resistance and is looking for support, buy if support holds. - JNJ – 8 EMA tried to cross above 21 EMA, if this happens then the short play is over. - JPM – Continues to fall, short rallies to 8 EMA. Take note that the stock could be finding support at 50EMA on the weekly chart. - KO continues to consolidate, wait for breakout. - Same with MMM - UTX is continuing to trend higher, buy pullbacks to the 21EMA which shows to be the strongest support line. Objectives: 1. Focus on capital management 2. Focus on proper trade execution 3. Do not get emotional 4. Stops happen, follow the plan. 5. Daily YM goal – 20 pts.

Okay well then maybe it all come across wrong and I apologize for that. Now, I have seen a lot about mentorship and things like that in this thread. I can get a two week mentorship through my firm but I'd have to fly out to Vegas for two weeks and I believe they focus more on equities than futures, but having someone watch my emotion may not be such a bad thing. But anyways, back to mentorships for futures traders. How many of you have actually used one and what were your experiences like? This sounds like it could be very beneficial.

Theres a lot of negativity in this thread, maybe it's just rubbing off on me the wrong way since I'm a newbie as well. But I would expect that kind of stuff at Elite Trader, not so much here. I have a ton of respect for the veterans here, and I would expect more constructive criticism rather than what seems to be negative bashing and making the OP out to be an idiot. If I'm just reading this wrong then I apologize and ignore what I just said. 1 - You should always know your targets before you enter a trade. Know where your stop and target are, if you get stopped out who really cares? You're doing your job by preserving your capital. 2 - Did you go into today with a plan? Try writing a plan and noting where all your pivot points, or whatever you trade, before the day starts. If you have a plan, make sure you follow it. It doesn't matter what kind of trades are in this plan because over time you will learn what works with you and what doesn't. You wouldn't go into battle without a plan on how to conquer the enemy, treat your capital the same way. 3 - You seem to have a lot of emotion. I hope you take thorough notes throughout the day and review them at night. This way you can probably see a lot of your emotion and learn how to avoid it. Emotion is a part of life, but should not be a part of trading. Stick with it, never give up, and you'll do well.

Well I did trade today, and I did occassionaly flip through my weekly plan that I had laid out. None of my swing trades fell into place so I didn't do anything there. I took a lot of notes on Microsoft Word and printed them out, and I'm reviewing them now. I did notice something though, I hit my goal fairly early but I wanted to stay in the market. Usually I just walk away, but I stayed and noticed my emotions went up by quite a bit. I was just paper trading, writing down where I'd make my trades and I noticed I was just being stupid - no other way to describe it. I would try to take the contrarian side to a quick move (which I'm usually good at) but I would screw it up and wonder why the heck I just did that. Or it would work, and I would get greedy. I didn't notice this while I was trading, but thinking back about it now I noticed it. Then tonight after the markets closed I felt like there was something I should be doing. Not sure what, but I felt very bored, so I just studied for the Series 7 test then read Vogue lol (I sell womens shoes so I need to know womens fashion). I also noticed I have a hard time paying attention during the market, I get very bored (not saying I want it to be exciting, but I get bored staring at candles all day when I'm waiting for a trade). So I set audio alerts in case any of my trades were about to take place and shopped for new shoes and other things. Not sure if that's a good idea, but I figured it was better than walking away and going back to bed like I used to do. Sorry if that made no sense. I know a lot about trading and I can explain a lot of strategies to people. I can look at a chart and tell you what you should have done. But I'm still new, and being in the game real time is completely different and it will take lots of practice. My main goal for this week is proper trade execution, and not to worry about money.

I used to live in Texas every summer since basically 3rd grade up until I was a sophomore and my sister was shipped off to Iraq. I used to stay in Killeen/ Temple and would frequently travel to Austin. The weather didn't bother me, I just enjoyed it because it was a nice change from Colorado. Colorado doesn't really have cool weather in the summer. It's usually in the high 80s to low 100s and it's very dry. The mountains are nice, but after living here for 19 years they seem to be like everything else. And to Brownsfan, what simulators do you recommend for trading futures?

Welcome. I will trade you spots, you can come live in Colorado and I will go live in Texas. I've been here for too long, and I love Texas. What specifically are you trading?

Thanks for the idea to take notes on Microsoft word. I usually end up scribbling most of my notes since I'm busy watching the market and I can never understand what I wrote. I'm taking all my notes in word today, and so far it's working out very well.

They don't find out the information ahead of time, or they do and it's called insider trading. But theres another way, doing your homework on the stock. Then those breaking news announcements aren't so much of a surprise. Most of the people with big money have news feeds so they find out about the event far before it hits CNBC. For example, I did a lot of homework on Jones Soda before their earnings announcement. Feb 27 came and the stock was sold off pretty fast, I knew it was cheap and I knew they would report a great quarter and I knew they would be reporting very positive info that could bring great future growth (bringing their product to places like walmart). So I went long ahead of earnings and made 17% over night. Will this happen everytime? Absolutely not, but I did my research and had a plan ahead of time. Please notice the keyword there too, I had a plan. Not having a plan and trying to trade is like going into battle with no idea who you're fighting against, just blindly shooting at anything. You will get slaughtered. Remember when you trade, you are trading other traders and money just flows from one account to the other. You have to have this mindset. I would start off looking at a lot of the IBD stuff and learn how to do technical analysis (if that fits your style, I know guys who make a ton of money and couldn't read a chart to save their life). That way you can understand how the market moves and why it does the things it does. You will be able to understand why certain stocks shoot up and why others don't. From there, figure out what fits your personality and trade that. People can recommend futures, forex, options, but you have to figure out what fits your personality and go from there, thats the only way you'll be successful. Good luck!

Well I just went ahead and wrote a plan for next week. I looked over all the technicals for the YM, ES, and NQ. Checked the charts for all my swing trading stocks, then did research on all of my investments. Then I put together a list of what I'm looking for as far as trades go, and basically how I'm going to trade the whole week. It definitely helped and now I'm back in the proper mindset and ready for tomorrow.

Thats the answer I like to hear I'm going to start reading some books and looking over charts tonight and tomorrow so I can get back in the swing of things. If it doesn't work, well then lesson learned.

So I took the week off since I knew there was a holiday it would probably mean light trading, so I took the opportunity to study for my series 7 and catch up on some sleep. Now I feel a bit lost, like I lost my motivation and "edge". I know that taking some time off to clear your head is a good thing, it's in my trading plan. But do any of you have any suggestions on how I can jump full swing back into things?

The first pivot of the day you should have just watched to see which way the market would take it. From there when the next pivot was approached you should have looked at the market internals, where had the tick spent most of it's time? Where was the trin trending? If you notice they are all confirming a down trend, then go short and don't try to fade. But when you see price rise back up to the pivot after the down trend, then that's your signal to fade the pivot. Cliff notes: At 17:14 when you get the blue TTM and the red dot, that was your signal to take the pivot trade and go short.

I agree completely, and you'll usually notice the tape move faster when you approach a pivot level. Just another reason to follow your stops, you won't always be right and things don't always work out.

Well through synapses your brain will know if it's a winning or losing trade, it's basically creating a memory. That's really what it boils down to, think of it as walking I guess. You do it over and over and eventually you learn what works and what doesn't work, so your brain focuses on doing what works (your brain wouldn't teach you how to walk where you fall down every step). Granted your trades don't work 100% of the time, but you get my drift. I hope that's clear, it's been a while since I've read up on this but that's kind of how I see it. If I'm way off then I apologize. You can dig very deep into this subject, and it would get very interesting. For some reason when I think of this it reminds of me the movie What the Bleep do We know (down the rabbit hole). Once I start thinking like that my mind just gets scattered and I can't possibly put it all to words in an organized fashion. But if you have seen the movie you might be able to understand why I think the two could be related.

I LOVE the article! The human brain is very very interesting and it's nice to see someone put together an article like this. I could go on and on since this article makes me excited but I won't, I will say though that it makes me want to dig up some of my notes I took a while ago on the human brain. For a long time I wanted to invest on the side and become a neurosurgeon simply because the brain is so interesting. Great article, I hope you do a follow up!