Plan the Trade

I had to adjust it - for some reason my head is much bigger than yours

Hahaha!!! That would be to accommodate all those extra years of wisdom that you have attained, one would assume?!)

I still can't believe i didn't get one 'thumbs up' for this piece of analysis of the NQ.

Friday;



(i've enlargened the important bit!)))

Today;



*Edited, cos sometimes people don't get my humour in written form online!)*

Anyway... looks like we are now reacting off of the underneath of the top channel line.

Volume still up but not nearly as crazy today. I got off a few trades.

In demo, on NQ 1min cfd MT4

I think 2b correct
I probably closed too early.

Who besides H is trading live?

I built an account with a system for UJ last year in forex, now moved the profits over to futures. Its been 3months in transition and not live yet, but really really liking the experience with nq and the input from guys here. Good stuff.

I was, before I had to clear out the account for bills.

Yes, but using SB's at mo. Last time i switched to contracts, i lost my fluidity and it was the difference between win/lose. Looking to build position sizes, but the spread of a whole point (4 ticks equivalent) means adapting the strategy and looking for larger set-ups. Not ideal...

I was trading the Dax which also has a 1 point (would be equivalent to 2 ticks) spread during normal hours, but i prefer the Nas. It has a canny knack of retracing deeper than any FX pair or other Index that i've studied with this method...

I've been trading live on a regular basis since about 2001 (actually, my very first trade was in about 1999 - the "discount" commission was $95 round trip for one futures contract !), although occasionally I go into sim either to test something (I started live H8 trades as part of a longer term project just this morning) or after a losing month. I mentioned that I switched to sim yesterday because I found the current volatility totally unmanageable and stayed there today (but still sat on my hands the entire session : I dislike losing sessions as much in sim as live, which suggests something about "needing to be right"...).

At different times of my trading career, depending on all sorts of variable circumstances & account sizes available, I have traded from 10c (hard to get inspired, except in the beginning) to $100 (too scary for me) per pip/tick. I have traded mostly futures.

Right now, my account is at the small end of the scale (like cap, I too have had some "lifestyle-changing disaster bills", having spent 7 years unsuccessfully suing a bank, which I took all the way to the European Court of Human Rights : my legal costs well into 6 figures) & in the last year I have been trading between 1 - 4 NQ contracts. Trading well is easier with a large account & a supportive, secure home life : my trading was steadier and much more profitable before I got involved in a protracted, very serious legal battle & all that that inevitably entails, especially when fraud and corruption at the highest levels are involved.

I have the feeling that, whatever they may suggest, most retail traders are either not trading live or shouldn't be.

Now that I have started to write, I'll answer a question that might be relevant to ask, which is "How would you trade if you could turn back the clock & start again from scratch with the knowledge you have now ?" Without any doubt whatsoever, I would say, "Trade a very simple price action method consistently off Daily charts only". I have met a handful of very successful D1 traders. I know only one really successful day trader. Whilst I have "met" hundreds of traders online & some have become good internet friends, the successful people to whom I refer above I have met in person. By "successful", I mean they have made multi millions trading (the day trader was making 7 figures for quite some years, but he is unique in my experience, almost "idiot-savant" in character, & has a trading gift I have never seen elsewhere).

So that also answers any question about why I am shifting to Daily via H8 (using H8 charts is just a way of shifting my Daily trades' start time to 0700 in the European morning, as that's when an H8 bar ends, at least for FX). Well, sorry to blabber, I just got goin' & there was no-one around to stop me...

Interesting post JT. I wouldn't handle the stress of such a legal battle very well myself. Well, I can't imagine anyone could. Sorry to hear about that.

I too, took my first position in 1999, but it was simply buying and selling shares - Tech stocks to be precise. I made the most common mistake of all and after seeing on the news and reading in the papers, that anything with '.com' in it's name was taking off like a rocket, regardless of their business plan or likelihood of ever seeing a profit, i started buying in earnest.

I remember for the first time ever, tech companies such as 'Baltimore Technologies' entering the FTSE100 by market cap and yet they never even turned a profit, yet companies like 'Whitbread' with their millions of turnover and profits made way for them.

I had to drive to my local city centre broker to make the trades at first, although online brokers started springing up offering CFD's with margin right left and Chelsea.

Well, i bought right at the top and kept buying as the inevitable bubble burst. No different to what has been happening with Bitcoin recently. I have had dozens of friends asking me if they should buy and all i can tell them is that it simply does not interest me. Anyway, they will do what they like regardless. Greed and fear of missing out has cost me more money than i care to think about.

I thought i was smart, thought it was easy, but we all know how that was going to turn out.

Well, i recovered from that episode just in time to buy into the credit crisis crash. Two small cap companies that i was sure were going to change the way that oil&gas was extracted. I bought massively on margin and then added all the way down until they wiped me out. I mean completely. Everything that i had worked for over several years, with several successful business's, disappeared. About a quarter of a mill in $'s to be precise.

I sold oil at $100 on it's way to $147 and then i bought it at $60 when it collapsed to $37. I sold the rise of the markets out of the crisis and then switched long just as a flash crash occurred. Several £5k accounts have seen their demise under my instruction on top of those small cap company losses.

You name a mistake to make and i've made it... not just once. I like to do it several times just to make sure!)

Anyway, that's when i moved away from any kind of shares and concentrated on TA. So i should perhaps clarify. I have traded live all the way up until last year when switching to Futures. I recognise that trading up position sizes is a process for me.

I've also come to learn that I forever under-estimate timescales regarding trading. When i think i will achieve something in 3 months time, it's probably best to think in terms of a year instead!

Having Harold aboard keeps that target and belief instilled. For a long time, i've been a fantastic analyst (even if i do say so myself), but a poor trader (riddled with fear)...

It's all being rectified bit by bit. Just think where i will be in another year!)

Some deep thought provoking quotes by JT and CG. the way I look at it find something that works and trade the crap out of it

When you say "Trade a very simple price action method consistently off Daily charts only"
Do you mean the methods used here applied to H8?

No, although of course they could be.

I have mentioned several times before that I am a member of my friend, Darren's, Facebook group (he used to post here as 60minuteman : some great threads); he was booted into the Commercial forum when he started charging for his services : https://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=555261

Timeframes from M15 to Weekly are investigated in an informal, but serious, manner.

I am using H8 primarily to give me a bar close at 0700 CET.

I did actually post some Bitcoin analysis elsewhere on t'interweb, but if anyone else actually made any money from it, it would be more than i did!

Dang guys I’m sorry to hear that. I hope what you’ve lost comes back to you both 10 fold

Haha - I'll never need to trade again if that happens

... but we all have our karma to face; it's best to do so and "just get on with it" .

Thanks man, willing to keep an open mind. But it is easy to get taken off track in this game.

123s 2b's keep em coming. I like the simplicity, as long it works I'll keep on beating the shite out of it.

By nature of the nq market 123s and 2b will always be there market tanks then market rises maybe 2 to 3 times a day

I'm feeling it, just need to grow some balls. I've been proper whacked in the past (not by trading) it is a real challenge to get over, just need some consistency and to keep the faith...