james_gsx

If I feel I have predicted the market and I get excited over what I think will be an awesome trade. I'm wrong 99% of the time and I feel like an ass.

ES, I only pay attention to the chart unless the Fed says something. Every now and then I will monitor newbie sentiment on an announcement like CPI as I know an easy money setup will occur. CL - I pay attention to both fundamentals and the chart. But I lean more towards the chart, as the fundamentals are a good thing to know if you actively trade commodities IMO - at least a very basic understanding. Stocks, depends on what I'm doing. Swing trading, I just make sure I'm not entering on the day before earnings. I don't want to get in then get blown out by some ridiculous gap. But for the most part with stocks, I don't even know the company name. I use maybe three technical patterns for trading stocks, and if I see that pattern and the options market is liquid enough for me, and I see a nice entry then I go in. It really comes down to volatility. We could argue that the ES is volatile, but it's not as volatile as some stocks and commodity markets. If I know a market I trade acts volatile to a specific report then I will pay attention that report. I wouldn't trade orange juice without studying the crop report.

You got it all wrong. It's actually a, "James loves busty blondes with a dose of plastic... star". The next one was, "The Browns suck star." Just kidding. The names don't matter. I've realized that there are three (sometimes four) types of candles here. Spinning top, WRB, hammer, and sometimes a doji if it's not labeled a spinning top. Why? Because the name doesn't matter, we just look at the context of the candle in consideration with previous price patterns. But nice first post, I'll be sure to give you a nice fat thank you. Stick around in the candlestick corner and we'll be sure to corrupt you.

I voted Yes, all is known in advance. That doesn't mean anyone knows what it is, or that it's unpredictable. And I think it's that reason that people think it is predictable, that leads them to losing money and searching for the holy grail. At the end of the day, I really don't care. If I make good trades and make money, the market can do whatever it wants. If the market wants to explode, chances are one of my signals will pop up before it does, and vice versa. It's just a matter of if I see the signal and take the trade. I guess you could say I'm kind of in between the two descriptions, but I picked the first one because more people had already clicked that one

Aside from the fact that it is non-existent? :o I like to think I am a fairly intelligent individual. I never took notes in class, yet always did well on tests. I never did my homework, ever. I procrastinate a lot, to the point where it takes at least a week to accomplish a simple task. Let's say I want to start waking up at 6 am ever day. It works, for about two days then I'm back to my usual routine. But here is how it relates to trading. I will focus on charts, setups etc. But I won't follow these plans, or I won't wake up in time to execute the trades. The market will move against me, and I will over trade knowing full well what I'm doing. While I was writing this, my chair broke and I fell against the wall. Sweet.

After a year of trading live capital, I must say my biggest downfall is self discipline. I have the plan, I can control the emotion, and I know all about risk management. But that all goes out the window with poor self discipline. It takes a lot for someone like myself to actually follow that plan day in and day out. I can read a chart better than most, and I can see things setup ahead of time. When I follow my plan, the cash pours in, when I don't the cash goes right back out like women shopping for shoes. So for any newbies reading this, please take all of the advice listed. But be brutally honest with yourself, if you have poor self discipline then focus on that as much as you do focusing on chart patterns and risk management. You don't want to go through your first year and wonder why you know so much but can't seem to get it down. It took a while for me to realize this, but now that I do, I can work towards improving this skill and become a better trader.

Is anyone here on TL in the military, if so what branch? Or did you serve, and if so what branch? What are your overall thoughts? And is anyone here an officer? I am considering joining the Navy once I finish up with school. Specifically I am considering doing the seaman to admiral program, but I am skeptical. So if anyone has been in the Navy and done that program or knows about it, please let me know. Thanks.

I wish I knew. I know when you start they limit you to the amount of capital. With special permission, I believe you can get more. I took a pretty big turn in my trading career, so I won't be doing Bright. But I do think it could have something good to offer for others.

I really wanted to put my camera in the car and help out all the crews. I will probably talk to my store manager and see if there is some kind of charity run we can put together. You really can't put this sort of thing in words. You see it in movies and on TV all the time. But when I walked around and saw for myself the families sitting outside their broken homes with a look of despair on their face, it was pretty sad. There were these two little boys that were playing through some of the debris. I wanted to take a picture of them when I saw them climbing through what used to be a window on their door. Unfortunately I wasn't using any type of zoom lens and I was too far away. But it will be a memory I will carry with me throughout my life.

Some of you may have turned on the news to hear about the tornado that went through here yesterday. I live about 35 miles south of Windsor. I didn't go there on purpose today, I got stuck in heavy traffic and decided to just drive around and look for severe weather. I wanted to take pictures of lightning or cloud formations. On my way, I hit a detour and had to go through Windsor. Since I was following a news van I started to realize this was where the tornado was yesterday, which would explain why the road was closed. When we entered the town, everyone followed the detour and went straight, I followed the news van and turned right. A few blocks into the town I could see the devastation. The look of loss on the locals face was definitely sad. News, pictures, video, simply don't do it justice. Anyways, I decided to park my car and walk around the town for about an hour or so. I thought I'd share...

You answered your own question :o But to more extent of your question, it does show that sellers came and rejected the price. In your second circle, you see a doji, then an "inverted hammer". Basically what that is telling you is that price reached it's tipping point so-to-speak, then fell the next day. Those two candles together were a strong signal that price was being rejected.

Do you want an actual RSS feed like what Google has, or do you want something that spits out financial news like on eSignal? I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, the window that flashes news the second it hits the wire.

I'm not really sure why there is that inverse. My guess would be mostly psychological over the last few months. People moving funds from financials to oil because it seems strong compared to financials which appear weak. As far as statistical proof and reasons, I have no idea.

I wish there was something like that available. I would have used it along time ago on my search for great indicators. Now I use a few different indicators from time to time, and it changes depending on what market I'm using and the time frame. The simple reason I use them is to help confirm what I am looking at on a chart. I won't sell because I see an "overbought" (btw I hate that word) signal, nor will I buy on an "oversold" indicator. Instead, I will look for a signal to enter a trade WITHOUT the indicator, and the indicator is simply there to say, "James, once again you have proved to be a badass." When you do decide to work with indicators - when you are past the holy grail stage - I suggest going over to http://www.stockcharts.com and playing around with what they have available. Use the MACD, stochastic, RSI, whatever and find one that fits your trading style and personality. You may walk away thinking you don't need one, and that's absolutely fine. But don't count on them doing you any favors

I love talking to myself Anyways, we had a doji at $120 and the short position was confirmed. I covered to day at the 21 EMA. The original plan was to cover at the low of last weeks spinning top, but since we closed below the 8 EMA yesterday I thought I would wait to see if the 21 EMA was tested - and it was.

Best post ever on TL

I thought stockcharts was owned by Murphy? Maybe it's because he's plastered all over their site :o I personally thought The Visual Investor was an easy book to read when I was new. But to each their own. One guy who hasn't been mentioned and I think should, is O'Neil. While not many of us trade stocks, I think he has a lot of good stuff for beginners. That's basically how I started when I got serious a few years ago. While I don't think you should go out and sign up for Investors Business Daily, I do think his books do a good job of explaining charts in a basic form. Like Db said, you need a solid understanding of supply and demand first. Everyone has their own journey and starts and ends in different places. Just make sure you stick to what works for you. Just because we recommend something doesn't mean it will work for you, thats for you to find out on your own.

http://www.investopedia.com Check out the beginners stuff here, and the psychology threads. DO NOT pick a style of trading yet, explore a few then pick which one works for your personality. I say that because if you pick the wrong one first you are more likely to keep looking for the holy grail (which will happen). But as Torero said, you need to study price action and pyschology. There are tons of different ways to do this, but I would suggest getting the basics of TA down then look a little deeper into the different styles and find one that best fits your personality. For me it's candlesticks, for others its VSA or Market Profile, or it could be a mixture of several things. Murphy has some great TA books, and you might want to get one to store in your library (make sure you have a good sized bookshelf as it will fill :o) . But at the end of the day, experience will count more than anything. Stay away from elitetraders.com Go to http://www.stockcharts.com so you can view charts for free, it's a good alternative and you can learn a lot about charts there as well. In fact, it's murphys website so I definitely recommend it. Honestly I would say focus a lot of your time on learning how to read charts. If you want to trade, the fundamentals are nice for a casual discussion but typically have little to do with the style of trading most of us do. Mark Douglas has a great book, but it might be too much for you now. You can read it, but I doubt it will hit home for you. You need to go through the experience yourself before it really makes sense. At least that's my .02 cents. Check out this article, it is a great one. Hopefully you will understand the journey ahead of you. If you want to succeed then this will become an obsessive passion for you. You will learn more about yourself in the next years (if you stick with it) then you would doing anything else. It's not easy, but it's too lucrative to pass up even trying. So good luck, and if you have questions feel free to ask. Hope it helps.

Yup, each perspective is different. Weekly on my chart shows 1400, so I'm going with 1400 No trade setup yet, will be patient and wait for one. Good news for the bulls that we closed above the 100 EMA on the weekly. So the possibility of more upside next week is pretty good IMO. But what do I know.

By all in I meant I would be bullish. Not that I would put money in the market. You could argue that the breakout was on April 16th, but then why the sudden resistance at 1400? Not to mention the psychological significance of 1400, I would rather wait for that. But that's just me.

I definitely agree with your analysis, and to be honest I think we will break 1400. The US Dollar is looking stronger, and energy is actually starting to look a little weak. All of this has been setting up the markets to pop, but as I've said my rules won't let me buy until we break that resistance. Once we break it, I am all in. Should get interesting in the next week or so.

I'm still waiting for 1400 to be broken. It's against my rules to buy in front of resistance. Until then, I still view this as rangebound. Sure there are plenty of things that are in place that SUGGEST price COULD break 1400. But it hasn't happened yet. Price is king, and price is yet to break that level.

CL could be setting up for a nice short on the weekly. The daily has shown some weakness and inability to break out $120. The double bottom from $100 would be complete at $120 as well. With today's rally it's a better risk/reward. One could argue that the entry was a few days ago, but from a weekly standpoint I still think this could be a good entry. Obviously the stop would be a close above $120. Thoughts?

:o There is the TL chat that is open during the trading hours and I know a few people are in there. The only issue is some find it to be a distraction.

Glad to see people are finally noticing this thread lol How do we go about making polls?