daedalus

First day back live and my management is rusty. I took really nice entries today (at least I thought so). Pure textbook stuff that I saw develop and pounced on when the time came but I was so ancy to take profit I ended up missing out on what I deserved. As per my management rules I should've had an additional +2 ticks on the first trade, and an additional +4 (at least) on the second trade. But I bailed out of newbie fear and it cost me an easy +50.00/per contract. So i'm done beating myself up for the day. Gonna get my head on straight and come back tonight with something to prove. Two Trades, Both in the BP @ 6.25/tick: Net P/L: +56.25/per. I should mention these trades were on the 89Tick chart using OEC's data.

Just curious if any of you find that taking these LH, HL setups on trending swings works more consistently than taking them on counter trend setups? I know its all based off S/R for a lot of you guys but i've been focusing on finding the most consistent entries and weeding out the entries that are going to be more PRONE to torturing stops, giving up smaller R:R, work more immediately, and have a overall higher chance of success. What I mean by that is say on the following chart, (the "Scalper" pivot study is applied making the white dots) is it easier and more consistently profitable to find entries on swings that are already trending (making new swing H/L's and pulling back to LH, HL's themselves) rather than trying to fight the perceived trend. *Please note this is a pretty horrible example using a VERY small tick chart, but it illustrates the point fairly well I think. All example trades use that confirmed L or H close and rotation to test at either a DT/DB or HL/HL.* Now granted this is just an excerpt of price from last Friday but I think the overall message might be true. Yes, some of the best trades you encounter are purely counter trend - but how much additional risk do you undertake trying to find that one thats going to collapse immediately? And how probable is it that it will work in comparison with trending opportunities? This post is not intended to say you are all doing something wrong, but simply point out an observation and give you something to think about. I will take counter trend entries sure - but I make sure those opportunities give everything I want and more before committing to them because personally I feel that they are lower probability opportunities. I want to wait for the best opportunities out there and frankly, I find that trending pullbacks offer the safest probability of not only success, but getting paid at LEAST 2:1 for my effort. In the 3 trades I outlines, all were textbook entries, all worked to some extent or another... but only two of them ran for at least 2:1 and they both had something in common - they weren't counter trend. Again - just to provoke some thought guys. Hope it helps. Cheers!

fyi... fasterfox does work with FF 3.5+... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12878 Just installed it here... And I should mention it has made a NOTICEABLE boost in my browsing speed. Highly recommended!

Just simming today... won't be back until after new years live but there actually have been some nice moves and decent volume working back into these markets. They are certainly tradeable today, albeit a bit quieter than normal. Just a few of the trades I saw form this morning... all of them textbook entries exactly fitting the criteria i've outlined in this thread before. But on another note, one of the ideas i've been throwing around for managing stops (to allow for bigger runners) was that on every candle that made a higher close than the candle before or a lower close than the candle before that I would trail stops to the high/low of that candle to lock in profits and reduce risk.... Just seems like a logical way to trail stops (if you're into that sort of thing) after price proves that it has advanced in favor. So in these examples you can see on the runners, you just keep trailing down and down and down (each candle with a number is a candle you would trail stops on to the H or L of it). Which has the potential to hold on for even bigger profits rather than taking targets (if you're into that kind of thing). But what I really like it for is the ability of it to protect you when its not going to work for you.... Obviously in this failed trade you could avoid a loss 13 ticks bigger than you possibly would have too. I know a lot of you guys don't need this stuff or care, but for anyone learning in this thread who doesn't quite trust themselves yet to make those "hold 'em or fold 'em" calls this management might act as a good crutch for you to hold onto while your skills build. Cheers!

I think you are on the right track Cory. My interpretation is this. Prior S/R acts not only as an area on the chart where price can reverse, but more importantly it acts as an area on the chart where price is drawn to. Prior S/R is nothing more than a magnet, i.e. the reason when it continuing up to the first real zone is expected - price is drawn to it fundamentally. As far as the retracement comment, I can only surmise this: As we know yes price can be attracted to Prior S/R area, but the other part of that statement was that those areas are typically where price can reverse. When I look at that chart I see a MASSIVE sustained upmove with minimal retracements at best. To me, the most PROBABLE thing would be to expect a reaction at the first S/R area and due to the underlying nature of the move (hugely overextended and straight line) that a heavy retracement would be probable before seeking out those even further Prior S/R areas. However, i'm just little ole' me, and this is just my opinion. Cheers!

Agreed... i've nagged Chris's ear off and hes always been top notch in answering all of my questions and going so far as to email me a response when the chat function on my computer wasn't working just to make sure I got my answer I needed. They have the best support in the biz.

To be honest, I didn't really get to far coding it in tradestation. To my knowledge no one has been able to port it successfully in .eld format.

Came across a fantastic learning tool for anyone in this thread and wanted to share. First off - thanks to RichardTodd, as it was his fantastic blog that got me onto this new site. The site is Nasdaq Day Trading Simulator - Practice Makes Perfect - Tradingsim.com All it is is a market replay website for Nasdaq stocks. The awesome thing is you can pick your stock, select your day, and then speed up, slow down, pause price action as it unfolds. I've been using this site to just go say pull up a 1 Min AAPL chart and speed up the data 1-2x and then just mentally watch it unfold and say, I would want to be long above here, short below there... etc. Watching price is essential to learning how to trade (and this method for sure) but sometimes watching price unfold in real time is boring simply because it unfolds so slow most of the time and waiting for that HL or LH pattern to confirm could take hours... but if it takes seconds you can get that much more practice in and really train yourself to see. I have really improved my "eyesight" using this website and think you all could as well. Best of all - there are no ads, its completely free. Hope this helps you all get some additional training in over the holidays! Cheers!

Anyone know how to get the traded volume on the quotes bar? I'd like to keep track of when I need to be looking for rollover on the contracts i'm trading but I can't seem to find an option to add it anywhere?

I think you've done an awesome job cory and approached this as good as anyone could. I love the fact that you're willing to go live on a small account and can accept that maybe you don't have everything figured out yet and you aren't willing to risk an entire account. Thats smart thinking - and thinking most traders don't use. I think you'll do fantastic. I think my workspaces have worn off on you though! Good Luck, Happy Holidays, and Happy Birthday!

Just to update - i figured out one of my questions.... About the selectable background vs. dragable. If you right click on a chart and go to View > Selection it toggles this option on and off. However, I've been unable to keep this option toggled off when restarting the platform. It turns itself back on automatically on all of my layouts after i've saved them with them off. But at least I know how to get the functionality when I need it. Hope this helps!

I appreciate all the responses guys... the more I play with OEC the more I think I may just stick with them as a platform. As you mentioned blowfish - as far as indicator support goes my stuff is basic and easily supported by OEC. And the more I play around with OEC's trade from the charts function the more I love it. Right now i'm trading on a laptop (and want to be able to trade soley from just a laptop for my dream of travel trading the world) but I hook up another monitor for all of my order DOM's... with OEC it would eliminate the need because as one chart fires up a a signal I could just enable trade mode and manage it perfectly from the laptop. That in of itself is enough for me to keep multicharts collecting dust (save for some coding on occasion) and let OEC handle everything else. Thanks again guys - i'll let you know when I get answers to my other questions!

^^ I was gonna say I don't think thales ever brought up or advocated indicators... it was the others in this thread like myself that have the desire to lead everyone astray....

When I installed the demo a day or so ago it seemed like most (if not all of these) were available by default in the installer... Just putting it out there. Great to see them offering this kind of support. I'd love to use the market replay feature for sure.

BF - You're the man. Thanks for the quick response. I'll def. ask them about closing the chart. Only question I had was in response to the draggable background... The shift key didn't seem to do anything for me. I'd like to be able to click anywhere on the chart and drag back in the price data rather than having to click on the scroll bar at the bottom to move the price history. Some of my charts will do this - others I have to use the scroll bar at the bottom. Any ideas?

bought my version second hand from another trader who stopped trading... can't upgrade so i'm SOL.

After the announcement TradeStation was raising data rates again I closed my account and opened one with OEC yesterday. Idea initially was to use OEC to feed MultiCharts 5.0 but apparently OEC 3.4 is not backwards compatible with any Multicharts version prior to 5.5 so i'm stuck with their platform, which while a little gimicky has allowed me for the most part to recreate my workspaces and charts (and import all of my .eld indicators with 100% functionality). So I suppose i'm blessed (and the fact that its free is amazing), but I do have a couple questions. 1). Is every version of OEC limited to 10 open charts at a time? (I'm still on the demo version now while the account is setup). 2). How do you make the background "draggable" to pull back in time? Some of my charts allow this - but others just "select" a portion of the data in gray. Can't seem to figure out how to change this option. 3). How do I fully close a chart? Seems like I can click the X and the chart will dissapear from view - but if I go to View > Charts > that chart will still be there (and it counts towards my 10 open chart limit so I need to get rid of some of the un-used charts that were part of a layout by default). 4). Is there any bar spacing options other than just zooming in or out? Thanks for your help gents!!!

Boring week this time around. Fought trades all week and ended up with a good deal of pars and a only two small 5-6 tick winners prior to todays trade. That being said, I stayed out of trouble. A couple changes in my trading I wanted to share: - I added the 5 minute chart of the BP/JY/EC to my charts. I found that these time charts were fantastic in catching some breakouts (see my example from today below). - I have decided to start trading in the evening from 7PM CST - Till around 12AM CST. Obviously some times there isn't much happening but I think you'd all be amazed at the moves that can be found dialing down on a smaller tick chart. They are as crisp and clear as ever. Anyhow - only 1 trade today as per the rules (quit after the first winner on fridays). Pretty self explanatory. Again I regard double tops/bottoms as LH and HL failures. Last day of the year for me. I continue to read and watch this thread daily and am impressed by everyones progress. Keep it up guys and have a great holiday!

When I first started making money consistently I started paying myself 10% a week of the profits because I wanted to grow my accounts primarily. But at the same time, you want to pay yourself something to make it all worth it. For years while I learned I never paid myself a salary (even when I started to make money on occasion) and all I can say is that it wears you down psychologically because you never get any reward for your work. So some type of small compensation in the beginning is recommended if for no other reason that being able to go out to a restaurant at the end of the week and know that the markets are picking up the bill this time. Personally i'm really scared of ever not being able to pay bills, etc on time so i've done a couple things... As soon as you can afford to put money away into a "oh shit" savings fund to cover the expenses that can pop up at any time. I try to add to this fund every time I take money out of my trading account and continually grow it because I like having that added buffer in my life. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy at night knowing that I have a backup should something bad happen in the markets, etc where I can't trade for awhile. Beyond that, I budget yearly on what expenses i'm going to have (car payment, insurance, cell phone, rent/mortgage, food, etc) and put this money away ahead of time. Much like others in this thread I put money away towards these expenses each month FOR THE NEXT YEAR. There is something for me mentally that having all of my living expenses paid for one year out that reduces stress on me and my trading. I don't like monthly bills so I pay all insurance/rent/cell phone bills in lump sums once a year. Upsides are this - I never have to worry about paying bills during the year, and a lot of times with rent or insurance you can get discounts for paying ahead of time. So it saves money as well. Most utility companies allow you to have a credit balance in your account (just as if you were to have overpaid on a bill) so I just overpay 13x's on my first bill of the month (one amount for each month + 1 extra buffer month) and am done with it. Of course you can still check the outstanding balance each month on your statements but you don't have to worry about pulling funds out of X, Y, Z, wiring them to A, and then bill paying them to B all the time. Just a couple thoughts. Cheers!

^^^ Possibly buy a house? Dude... buy a small island! I'm very impressed by the results you continue to post. Congrats on the great year and may you have an even better next year!

Huge props to you cory for actually printing out charts and picking up a crayon. Thats awesome!

6e/6b/6j, etc all are very liquid and actively traded. I switched over to futures from spot a couple months ago and will never go back. The additional order types you can use, a 1 tick spread all the time, and the fact that I don't have to pay the spread twice unlike with fixed spread spot fx.

Just got an email from channelingstocks.com with another one of their winning stock picks... First off, i do find them to be legit (all they do is find stocks at prior S/R) and they usually have pretty good picks, but they let you decide when to get in and they always advocate waiting for a stock to stop falling or rising and start to reverse before getting in.... That being said... this was one of their picks a couple weeks ago... And here it is now... anyone see what made this puppy launch? :rofl: Cheers!

Only one trade for myself this morning... nothing else setup and thats just fine by me. Textbook trade, so I thought I would explain it in detail. First, we have divergence from low to low on the swings downward and the CCI is at the extreme. Next, at point 1 there is a bar that closes higher than the previous candles high. This is the start of the HL rotation. At point 2 price closes lower than the previous candles low. This is the second stage of the HL rotation, i'm now in "buy mode". At point 3 price hasn't filled yet and the CCI remains lower than the 0 midline, i.e. i'm still in a good "value" area for entry... basically a substantial move hasn't occurred yet so jumping in still makes sense. I move to par on the 200% extension (purple line) and target 270% line. Point 4, (on the chart I accidentally put another 3 - this should be a 4) the CCI closes > +100 and I exit the trade. Easy peasy. I got slipped on this trade by a tick on entry so I was actually long from 37 but I got out at 51 and didn't wait for the bar to close. CCI was > 100 intrabar so I was just looking for a solid exit price and was happy with what I got. Don't think I can explain my trade logic any further than that. Theres nothing left to explain! End result was +14 ticks. Cheers!