MC

The trade yesterday I was up $140 and walked with $50 so it's bitter sweet for now though I'm not going to let 1 trade define my will power. I'm only allowing 2 trades a day to force myself to be very selective. I just took one and got out for $10 gain despite being up $50. The key though...I executed again, so though it sucks I've left money on the table these last 2 trades I'm executing and in the long run that will reward me I'm sure. I can either be rewarded a few times for not executing and re-enforce my bad habits or I can break them now and never look back. Yesterdays play honestly could have just as easily kept running and I gave myself a shot at that. When I finally catch and ride a rocket this will all be worth it and will prove net positive. Thanks for the input gang. Added---- OK, took my 2nd trade and am done for the day. Net $60 gain. I didn't let the 2nd hit my target so it was not a solid win to me. And yes, it did go on to hit my friggin target and then some, so the times I don't let the trades work for me I get burned. Fitting and reminds me why I need to keep following the plan. You never know which trade will hit your target so treat each like a winner till stopped out. 2 of 3 following the plan is 2 better than I've ever done before so I need to press on here and stay focused with my new comfort level. What a difference pivots and my other guides are making. Both trades were shakedowns that I normally would not take due to fear. I saw the key levels and will continue to take high probability trades with sound risk to reward ratios. Some may find this hard to believe but I was sporting 5 point stops on these trades on a 3 minute chart. On the YM that's pretty damn tight but the levels were there and if they failed the reason for being in the trade were void anyhow. No wonder I was failing left and right with no levels or MA's on the chart. I had no road map to help spot entry and targets.

I know some of the unaccounted $ was prorated platform fees that they didn't tell me about up front. They aren't very good at communicating charges etc... I just looked up my history. 43 trades with a total of $105.66 commish. So $2.46 per turn, per contract. Not way off but still I don't like hidden fees and BS published prices. Looking back at the execution list slippage seems to be not as bad as their charting indicated. I wonder what the issue with the charting speed has been. And my data error wasn't pleasant but it was the first time that happened. I was more upset at the persons reaction to me calling and telling me not to trade off charts. I'm going to have to call them and see what they can do for me again. I'd love to see a basic statement with data fees and less jibberish so I can understand the charges.

Thanks for the tips...I'm going to try this out for a week and see how it works. Looks visually alot easier to read and I can't wait to see if live.

Awesome pdf...I have been looking for a good candle doc like this. Piercing and cloud cover are 2 definitions I've heard but never really visualized enough till now. Thanks

Definitely not ramblings there Hlm. Thanks for all the input and advice so far from you both. You're right, I really just need to start doing repetitions of proper execution and turn this into a problem of the past. I'm normally a very systematic and balanced person in all other aspects of life so for me to be emotional is awkward. I think that makes me stress even more and look for the first out so I can stop feeling that emotion. I don't like feeling emotions, perhaps I need to add that to the list of quirks. :o I daytrade the YM off either a 5 minute or 144 tick time frame depending on action. I'm a former skateboarder/rebellious type so I dislike micromanagement yet that's what I'm choosing to do here. :doh: Overall I think my market sense for risk profile and money management are ok. It's just getting some properly executed trades under my belt to ditch the emotional side of things. I have looked at some NLP and hypnosis things and would be open to anything that might make my transition easier and quicker. Again thanks for taking the time to assist me.

I'm going to give their support one more try. I love the platform capabilities and that's the sole reason I'm even trying. I believe their commish is something else I need to address because it seems they are charging me more than the advertised price despite telling me I am getting the correct price. I am running 8.3 with a very capable computer and bandwidth. See here's where I get angry, they hold orders serverside so even if I had sub standard stuff on my side the execution side shouldn't matter. I had someone suggest that their Matrix window was a resource hog and it was slowing down my order execution. I fail to see how that could be knowing TS servers are holding the order. And 8 seconds for a stop market order...cmon now that's just unreasonable. Many use Infinity AT as a broker to compliment TS charting. I may look in that direction down the road as well. By all means let me know what you come up with in your search as well. Thanks

I'm hoping the Dr. and/or those of you that had my problems and overcame them can help me out here. I've been in the market just over a year now and have learned an immense amount from giving everything I have mentally to my studies. I watch the market real time from open to close at work where I also am lucky enough to be able to trade as actively as I want. Then I come home and at night and on the weekends and study many MANY more hours (thankfully my Girlfriend is VERY supportive). I've put so much into this thing and I feel I'm approaching the stage of using my edge and becoming profitable but my mind keeps getting in the way. I know there is no substitution for experience which I'm maybe lacking, though I also know where my issues are and can spare trading capital by getting my head right early on. Please here my cry for help. :o I have very little gambler in my blood and love a sure thing (AKA greed). I know the market trade for trade is NOT anywhere near a sure thing, though NET profitability can be a sure thing if you set yourself up for it. I also know to gain you have to risk and that many success stories often start with a failure. I know this and know how to get there in concept but my mind won't allow me to execute the plan. I have a profitable system in backward and forward paper testing which is the easy part since paper trading subconsciously is just a game to many, myself included. I execute stop orders no issue and can deal with loss on that level very well. What I can't seem to shake is letting a trade work for me in the face of profit. I get a glimpse of profit and cash out knowing my target probably will be hit without me. I have tried to scale out only to sell the 2nd half right after the 1st half. My system calls for a scalper contract to know I'll book some profit and then a runner with a trailed stop from break even for a chance at the bigger move risk free. BUT...I can never seem to allow myself a shot at the bigger move. I thought the knowing sure profit is waiting would help quench my greed but sadly it hasn't worked for me. I'm a perfectionist which may be a battle deep in my head causing me stress as well. Perhaps I fear being wrong so much that I'll take the quick win of the battle at the expense of winning the war? I do realize consciously I'll rarely if ever hit a home run and that perfection isn't needed to be net profitable, but execution IS needed. At the risk of sounding proud, I think my smarts are actually hurting me. I over think everything deep in my brain despite being able to tell myself to trust my instinct. I know I will gain profitability because if I let winners run live I'd already be well into profit just like I've done paper trading. So it's not a question of if, BUT when. And this is where I hope yall can help this greedy perfectionist out. :o Anyhow, the cliff notes version... *I suffer from perfectionism and greed. *I'm smart enough to know what to do consciously and whats broken but now I need help with the sub-conscious to stop hurting my performance. *I NEED HELP. :helloooo::o Thanks for listening to my rant and I look forward to your insight. I think this is the best trading community on the web and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Sounds and looks like a bunch of marketing BS to me. I mean the PS, PPS, PPPS thing really annoyed me. If you have a good product you don't need that many gimmicks IMO. If you try it and I'm wrong do let me know though.

Subscribed, awesome stuff Walter.

AHHH so if the contract/contracts are bought on an uptick it's green and if it's bought on a downtick it's red. I understand the difference, I have the tick delta indicator only. Have you shared your custom indicator here, I'd love to watch it at work if you're willing to share. Thanks for the correction.

I'd love to have/gain that edge your looking for, to know what the volume truly was comprised of. I'm tuned into this thread anyhow but this discussion just got that much more intriguing. I think the point of VSA though is through the plain jane volume and the candle's spread you can try to gauge effort vs. results. That combined with the concept that swamping volume on any extreme is usually the start of a trend reversal and to watch for the test of extremes with lower interest to confirm. I know I'm barely scratching the surface and want to keep learning more about No supply and No demand bars etc... I'm a rookie and no pro so this is merely my understanding of VSA. Keep posting the charts guys, I'm learning from you all.

Interesting tip...never though of it that way. Thanks Edit---- ZOMG...I just did this trick and WOW, that's freekin awesome. You're a HUGE asset to this site bud.

At bid or At ask volume. My question though is how reliable is it to expect at bid means it was a sale and ask means it was a buy. It seems highly probably that that tick delta works well, but I'm curious to hear from those that trade on the delta info. Thanks guys.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the volume shown there just at bid or ask? Red if at bid or green if at ask? And if that's correct how reliable do you think it is to expect that an order at bid was a sale and at ask was a buy? Thanks

http://www.trousermusket.com/video/flash.html Ok...here's a video clip of what I've been dealing with on TS the whole time. Odd issues like that a few times a day as well as the below posted chart/data errors. The flick over was me moving to a RSI chart instead of ADX at about the moment the order was taken out. Then you see they then put it back in and lagged for a few seconds further before finally really filling. I counted 8 seconds which on a serverside order isn't right at all. It was stop market so I expect some slippage but not that bad and the benefit is it should be an instant fill. Some may think the flicker is me hacking the vid or something, all I can say is I have nothing to gain by doing that and I have a track record of being overly honest. I've posted charts that were downright embarrassing so I think my credibility shouldn't be in question. Not that I care about E-rep that much but it's nice to be backed by your peers. After looking around I think I'll be moving to IB and use their DOM's entry and then use Ninja Trader for the charting. I am open to suggestions as well.

I didn't mean it in a negative way, sorry if it came across that way. Honestly the typos kept me really focusing cause as I was reading I was looking for errors at the same time. On perfect books I sometimes drift through and don't focus or retain like I intend to. :o I appreciate the work you're doing.

Yep I have both...the original has hard to read charts and TONS of typos. It's still excellent raw data though, honestly I've yet to read the new edition beyond a glance to see the corrections and better charts. Now I just want the boot camp cd to complete my collection.

Sweeeeet. Thanks for the link/software.

Thanks for the documents. They should help me as well.

Look at the buy and sell on the chart...how did I get filled on a candle that didn't even touch my price for either side??? I'll tell ya how, TS data fcuked up and my chart had wrong data! Here is a chart after reboot of the platform. So the buy order was touched but not the sell order? I called them to be sure I was flat and he said don't trade or go by charts...time and sales shows orders at my stop level. So the premiere chart vendor says to not use their charts. I don't think I'm being unreasonable at all, a platform that isn't free needs to be accurate IMO. Maybe I didn't have slippage all those times and perhaps they were chart issues? I can tell you who NOT to use. I'm looking heavily at OEC, anybody with experiences with them live have input? Thanks

I'm gonna be on again, I'll try and hang in as long as possible from work. It's nice to be in a room with real traders and not paper wonders or wannabes.

ANYTHING with enough followers can yield results. That being said I gave up on internals and only use volume and price mainly. The key is to develop a strategy/setup/system that works for you and fit's your mentality and trading style. Back test and forward test before playing it live and be sure the odds are stacked in your favor.

It was fun, hopefully it will be a common occurance now.

This whole thing is disgusting!!! Way to reward the fools, those with bad credit and people that overextended and $hit on those that do the right thing. Just 1 more example of why I want to but can't bring myself to except karma.

Could any of you guys that use Tradestation help me out and save me a call to the broker. I need a screenshot or description of the OSO order window on a 2 lot setup. I can't figure out which spot to put the trailing stop in and for what amount of points. What I want is a scalper lot out at 10 points. Trail the stop to break even on the 2nd lot. Open target on the 2nd lot so I'd probably set that limit order at 200 points or something way out there so it doesn't get hit and just manually trail the stop to structure high/lows then. I think the below screenshot is right but I'm not playing it till I'm sure. Oh...1 other side note. I had a 7 point slippage on a stop market order on YM, is that reasonable? I was pissed but it was a fairly sharp move and it's only happened 2 times on me. Thanks.