james_gsx

http://collegefootball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=849400 I bet you're excited for that one?

Besides visit the CME of course. Through some trading profits, I decided to book a trip to Chicago for my 21st birthday. I told my best friend to come with me, and we are hoping to see some cool stuff and just experience what life in Chicago would be like. I've heard there are cool museums, and a few other things. But I'm curious what a few members here would suggest? I don't even know if I'm talking to the right audience since a lot of you seem to live in other countries :o

While I think having a plan is a great idea, the reason most people over trade is because they don't have the discipline to follow their plan. They can take notes, chart stats on spreadsheets and clearly see that when they deviate from their plan they screw up. I think we should focus on how to establish the discipline to follow a set of rules in an environment without preset structure. Most people are successful outside of trading because there is structure, in trading everything comes down to the individual. In Vegas, the bet ends when the dealer ends it. In trading, the bet ends when the individual ends it - which can sometimes be very difficult.

Looks like we will get a nice range setup between 1200-1300. Granted 100pts is pretty big, but not in this market. As you can see, we had a nice gravestone doji that kissed 1300 and was swiftly rejected. After that, everything came crashing down. I've learned price tends to re-test those breakout points, which we got. The issue with the volatility is it can easily wipe out accounts if you're trying to swing trade something like this. So instead, I would recommend some sort of credit spread utilizing options until we get a breakout and another confirmed trend... but that's just me, and just for swing trading.

Judging from the volatility and pricing of the options... my gambling side wants to take a small risk But I won't, I told myself after I got lucky with the BSC incident that I won't do that again.

Palin...... :o

I'm looking forward to college football this year. I doubt there will be as many upsets as last year, but I always enjoy watching the new talent that gets cycled through so often. The Broncos are going to suck, again. But that's not important, because the Avalanche start training camp soon and I am about to buy the NHL package and watch non-stop hockey. I figure this will be the year my mom gets fed up and kicks me out of the house :rofl:

I've lived in Colorado my entire life, and like most people who have lived here for a long time, I never take advantage of the mountains so nearby. My friend and I met up in Broomfield (near Boulder), then drove a 250 mile loop that crossed the continental divide, overall incredibly scenic. I'm surprised it took me this long to take this drive. It took us a little over 7 hours including lunch and all photo stops. The first part on highway 36 we were driving fairly fast, and passed a state patrol officer going the other way. After that, the radar detector came out and we obeyed all posted speed limits - until Bertha pass where I just couldn't help myself :o If any of you ever find yourself in Colorado and have a day to waste, I highly recommend this drive. Even I was impressed with the scenery, it's overall very relaxing. Oh well, heres some pics of the cars (mines the Mercedes) and some scenic pics. Unfortunately, most places that have beautiful scenery are poor places for photography, so that explains the lack of landscape pics.

First off, I apologize if that is the way I came across in my post. That was not my intent, but now I can see how I was perceived that way. So again, I apologize. The reason I said what I said was because of what he said in the first post about looking for shorter term trades, and because I've been there before. I used to take longer term objectives, and then try to take trades from there. Obviously, it didn't work in the long haul as I was tossed around a lot and couldn't hold on. In hindsight, it looked like a good idea. But hindsight doesn't show the candle in the making - if that makes sense. I would venture though to say, that the OP has experience in reading charts. But I would say he does not know how to translate this skill into a profitable trading plan? eh... maybe I should learn how to read the opening statement. He offers advice to <b>new traders</b> looking for help. I thought he said he WAS a new trader looking for help. I'll insert my foot in mouth, and kindly look like the forum douchebag.

I think everyone knew this mess was coming. The problem was when, and how bad. The issue was most banks were so balls deep in easy money trends (as Wall Street loves to do) that they weren't able to move the massive investments before shit hit the fan. GS was also involved, but was luckily hedge well enough to walk away with a profit. In fact, it was only a few guys in the firm who knew they were shorting the entire subprime market, the rest of the guys buying up the junk had no clue. So is that really GS, or is it just a firm that was smart enough to listen and make a move? The interest rate was at 1% for far too long, anyone with any interest could have told you that would create problems. For the most part, the "mess" was about as bad if not a little better than most people expected. It's interesting because it's going to last longer than expected, but be a little more shallow then people had expected. So overall, I wouldn't say it was a bad case of missing the writing on the wall, but more or less not managing risk properly

I have a question for you, you use longer term moving average and try to determine the longer term price trend, then you take a short term signal. That sounds contradictory. Have you thought of using those signals to find the big picture, then taking "big picture" trades? From my experience, if you use something long term as the 80ema then take a "short term" trade you will most likely get filled with emotions and take a bad trade. The reason being is because it takes time for price to reach those levels, and they won't be accepted or rejected quickly. Rather they will hang around that area and bob around, before making a move. If you want a shorter term trade, try looking at a shorter term picture and taking trades that correspond with that picture. There is no right or wrong time frame, just find the one that works best for you. While it may seem easy to hold for 2 hours, you may find it difficult to hold for 15 minutes. Theres nothing wrong with that, it's just the way you trade. Now, onto some of your charts. The first problem I see come up is theres no real system involved. You are doing a good job at analyzing the markets, but I don't see anything in there that you could use consistently as a system. What you did is really easy to do in hindsight like you said, but not so easy in real time. From there, I would suggest looking over your annotations and see if there is some sort of consistent flow that continues to pop up. You may not notice it over time, but eventually you'll probably see it. From there, try to draft a system and stick to that while watching the market in real time. You should also decide whether or not you want to trade trend or counter trend. From looking at those charts, I see a lot of good counter trend setups. Since I want to help you, I'll let you look for them. Pay attention to the size of the candle body in relation to support and resistance. That might be a starting point for you. Hope it helps.

Here are some of my dog Buddy. He's grown a lot since my mom brought him home a year ago. He could fit into the palm of my hand, I felt bad for the little guy running around my living room. Now he's huge for a Papillion, about 18lbs (pretty small dog, but big for a Papillion). The only picture of him I have of him grown up is with me holding him. So you all get to see how good looking I am, unlike the last pics with stitches in my face :o He finds a way to piss me off at least once a day. Either by trying to piss on my bed, or running into my room and grabbing something and running away. Occasionally he'll sneak under the fence to go piss off the neighbors dogs or he'll bark at the sky for no good reason other than to wake everyone up at 1 am. But I still love him. I recently taught him how to play soccer. And this was just from a few weeks ago. My family was celebrating something (hence why I'm dressed up), and my mom begged for a picture of me and Buddy. This is Dakota, he's one of the most lovable dogs I know. All he cares about is making you happy. He will seriously get excited and jump up and down if you make eye contact with him. His favorite hobby - boxing. He loves to jump on his hind legs and box with me, it's his favorite thing to do. I smack him around on the chest and on the side and he scratches at my arms and always has a huge smile on his face. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture on this computer of Mikey, the smallest dog. He's my moms lapdog. I have a picture of all three, my mom likes to call them the Band of Brothers. And this is the last picture I got of my last dog Maddy. This was her last winter. I remember bringing Maddy home from the pound when I was 5. She was 3 at the time, and we put her down last year. She was 15 years old, and the greatest companion I've ever had. My favorite memory of her was when I lived in Monument and would walk home from the bus stop every day after school. We had a huge yard, and she would smell me and go crazy and run around the yard then wait for me at the very edge of her electric fence.

This is so incredibly true. I have a number like that stuck in my head. Whenever I hit that magic number, it's like everything goes downhill and I'm unsure of how to get rid of it. I KNOW I can make more than that, but for whatever reason I hit that plateau and fall apart.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: I love when things like that happen.

Yes, I'm familiar with that area. I often go to Avs games at the Pepsi Center which is relatively close, or I take Speer down to Cherry Creek. Sometimes I actually go downtown, but I try to avoid it with all the one way streets lol I'm up north around 120th. Good luck, if you need help with anything in Denver send me a PM.

I found this post on "Important Info on the ES for Any New Traders" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month July, 2008"

I just pick the maximum amount of contracts allowed for my account, then close my eyes. But in all seriousness, I'm the opposite of Brownsfan. In a $100,000 account, I prefer to have a large amount of cash on hand for my options trading biz. The reason being is completely different though, as it's geared towards a much more conservative approach. For a futures account, I have considerably less cash for much of the same reasons Brownsfan said, but I can tell you I'm a lot more conservative. Say with a $15k account, I won't trade more than 1 contract. The reason for only having $15k, is because it gives me wiggle room to make mistakes when I'm staring out. It really comes down to how it will impact your business, and whether or not you can emotionally handle the large amount of leverage or not.

What? Another 20 year old from Denver? Do I have a clone? What part of Denver and why haven't I met you? Just some quick advice I picked up from scanning through this thread. Maybe instead of trying to trade, and inadvertently over trading, just sit and watch the market all day without doing anything. Just watch the order flows, the way the market moves. You will pick up a lot more information, and from there you will be able to find specific trends that suit your personality. After a sizable amount of observation, you will be able to piece together a basic trading plan that works for you. It will be much easier to trade, because you will know exactly what you're looking for. When you simply jump in making 20 trades a day, you close a lot of doors and miss a lot of opportunities that come in the form of information. Just my .02 cents.

IMO, from the little bit that I know you on a more personal level, you should get back to trading. You won't get back into your usual flow unless you take the step back to trading. Maybe start just for the first two hours of trading, and then go from there. If you keep waking up and thinking, maybe tomorrow, then it can turn into a vicious cycle. I know it's tough, but once you get in the flow of trading nothing else will be on your mind - you can trust me on that. If thoughts keep coming up, then you are obviously not in your flow and you should just leave the house and go to a book store or something to that effect and try again the next day. But you have to just sit down and give it a shot, that's my .02 cents.

Looks like it will be good. I'll have to go see it for sure, even if I have to go alone without any of my drunken college friends :o

Sorry to hear that. I went through several human losses over the last few years, but I took the loss of my dog the hardest. Give yourself as much time as you need, and you will most likely find another one. I'm definitely glad we brought home our 3 puppies after my first dog died, they brought new life to my home. I still have a picture of Maddy on my fridge, and I'll never forget her.

Good work MC. I bought several calls after the ES bounced hard off 1200. Today I sold those calls for a nice profit. Although I probably sold early I'm still okay with the profit I took.

By job, I meant as a trader :o But I know what you mean, because I'm in that exact situation right now

Great post, I love it. I've noticed over the last year and a half it really comes down to passion. Show me a trader who hates his job, and I'll show you a trader who will never make it

There is one thing I see new traders do consistently, and it doesn't matter who it is or what they trade, I see it ALL THE TIME. 1 - They get comfortable 2 - They start taking bigger and bigger positions 3 - They defend their large sizes by coming up with "risk management" 4 - They take a loss that should be small under normal conditions, and it ruins their month/year/account I see it so often, I wish I could start a brokerage that gave out fat discounts like free trading period. That way, I could design a system that monitored trades and found when traders enter this stage. At that point, my system would automatically take the opposite side of every trade. Unfortunately, I never see a trader admit or listen to me when I tell them they are doing the above. But after the fact, they see it, unfortunately. I've noticed people want to learn and see it for themselves rather than listen to advice, precisely why most men suck with women too