I have learnt to disassociate myself from “feeling” whilst I trade. I only trade what I see. I trade the miniscule movements second by second and watch as they unfold into large positive trades. I can’t put it into words, really. It’s just something that develops within you over time. Time and anguish spent learning the hard way brings many to this point of just watching price.
I don’t think I am great, I don’t think the market owes me... I do care that each week collects a profit from the market table.
I can’t say anymore than that really. It’s a voyage of self discovery. It hurts, but eventually yields results.
I should have stuck with my original trading style at the very beginning, but the problem was I needed to learn Money Management, Emotional control and numerous other aspects of trading.... the hard way. I look at it as a blessing in disguise to have arrived back at this point.
The route down this trading path has turned out to be a complete circle, the circle leading back to myself.
I have found the “Holy Grail” after much searching. We just “don’t see the wood for the trees”. The Holy Grail is within you.
Please read this free short book "My Secrets of Day trading Stocks/Day traders Bible"written in the early 1900's by Richard Wyckoff, a legendary Wall Street tape reader. It's how I trade, but explains it better and in much more detail than I can. (Many thanks to FXsurfer for the link : ) )
http://www.tradingfives.com/wyckoff/chapter1.htm
My Trades
I will be using the tick chart. The trades will be numerous, and only on days when I have time to post. Obviously there will be a slight delay from entering the trade to when the trade is posted, but I envision this to be only a few seconds. This journal will hopefully help me develop my trading style over the next few months and get me back on track with pure price in the smaller timeframes.
Due to the quickness of entries my posts will form the following format so I can post them immediately:
CLOSED TRADE SELL 11745 1+10, 2+87 (EUR/JPY closed trade at 11745)
(First lot closed at +10, all trades are entered with 2 lots, 1st always closed at +10)
(Second lot was closed at +87 in this example before reversing)
CLOSED TRADE 11745 1+10, 2+87
SELL 11743 (existing buy trade was closed at 11745, rentered sell at 11743
Stop Loss: -15, SL will be moved to BE on 2nd Lot when 1st Lot closed at +10.
I stop and reverse most trades and will close the day’s trading with
the total accumulated results. If a trade immediately goes against me and I think it will approach my SL then I am out an await another entry
I use a 1min Line chart only. I look at a wider chart to assess where to enter and then zoom down to fine tune entries and exits. Chart examples on page 5.
I used to work with indicators for scalping, but was fustrated with the number of trades that went against me...
I came to realise that the smart money had already traded before the small-fry such as myself entered a trade. They knew that we trade based on indictors..lagging ones. I decided to just watch price and have come to know where to nip in and out of the trade. I just watch the price stall or accelerate/attempt to make higher highs/lower lows and decide when to jump in and out.
I use the MT4 platform to assess entry/exit analysis and I use a seperate Broker for trades. Speed is of the essence and I always have the BUY/SELL windows open set to a default of -15 SL, 2 lots, 1st lot TP at +10, 2nd Lot moved to B/E when 1st Lot closed at +10. 2nd Lot is allowed to run until I see price stalling...sometimes I may lock in extra pips as the price moves but by locking TP at B/E I can catch some large moves of 200+. With a SL of 15 (ie 30 due to 2 lots) the reward risk ratio suits me.
I also trade mid and long term, but due to the uncertainty of the market and uselessness of indicators this year I have traded more and more from a black line and nothing else...with some success.
My spread on EUR/JPY is 2 pips, so this must be taken into consideration. I do not post my trades with the spread, but obviously from each trade I am paying the brokers....I sometimes trade over 40 times a day and the comission can really add up, but it is just a necessay evil I put up with.
Due to the nature of my trading I get worn out quite quickly, after 2/3 losing trades in a row I take a break or stop trading for the day. The market is always there to give me some pips when I come back rested and fresh.
Sometimes I take a break from trading for a few days at a time, this clears my head completely and I can pull some good results out of the bag when I resume trading.
Ranges and Trends:
The problem with mid/long term trades is knowing when you are going from a trend into a range or vis versa...not knowing chews up accounts, and when you realise eventually that you have entered a range your account has suffered...thats my experience anyway...the beauty of this method in this thread is that ranges and trends dont matter, the smaller timescales lead to the larger timescales...everything is dictated by what happens NOW, not in 1 day, 1 hour, 15 mins etc...Price history is irrelevant to me...PRICE NOW is all that counts, what is happening with that price second by second, minute by minute.
Hopefully you will see as I trade what I mean by this, I don't want to say I "feel" price, because that sounds stupid....I just observe the fight between bulls and bears and pick a side, I can see when the fight is evenly matched, or if one is about to rip control from the other. Sometimes I am wrong, in fact I am wrong quite a lot, but money management and win ratio keep me in the boxing ring.
I wish that newbies entering into Forex where not taken for a ride by the "Snake Oil" salesmen peddling their "Buy my system", "Buy my Expert Robot", "Buy my signals" crap. I wish they would ask themselves why the owners of these systems arent using them to make billions? Unfortunately I have been there and fell for the Snake Oil when I started trading, I understand why newbies fall into this trap. I hope they read this and learn that a moving black line (or candlesticks if you prefer, I found them a bit unreliable though) is all you need.
OK, bit of a rant there, I hope you understand where I am coming from. This is not going to turn into a "Ohhh, I think I'll start charging for this" like a famous Oz trader we all know of. I earn enough and if I can make even one person see that price without lagging indicators is all you need to suceed and do well in trading; then I'll be happy.
Anyway, I'll keep the journal going till I'm happy that I'm not interferring with my rolling trades, which was a problem for me, also, you need to see what my losing streak looks like and I am going to adjust this over the next few weeks.
Thanks for letting me rant, lets see how I get on...
Cheers
Shakesfx |