Roadmap - A Way To Read Markets

Don't you find currencies unbearably slow after trading indices?

I think the issue isn't so much about the trade outcome, more about your internalized expectations.

You said it's like working all day and not being paid, without being told that you wouldn't be paid. I think this is where you need to re-frame what trading is and is not in your mind.

We, quite rightly, have a traditional view of labour in exchange for reward. That is, the more time/effort we put in the bigger the reward. This is where we need to short-circuit that traditional thinking for trading. Trading is unlike almost any other pursuit. I can sit at my desk for 2 minutes and make a fortune, or I can spend 10 hours and end up barely break-even.

Once you stop equating time/effort with expected reward you will view each trade as simply one in a long, long series of trades (as Mark Douglas used to say). The outcome of an individual trade will have such tiny significance that you won't be inducing all that adrenaline.

Hope this helps.

An okay morning straightforward trade the channels and stops on opposite sides of channel.
Enjoy your week-end folks.

This was a more trendy affair today than the above post. And it's nice to get them -yes.

Afternoon Dow -Note the two losers prompting me to put in a high/low and waiting for a break -last trade on the right.

Yes.
Laura:
I traded the SP500 on a 1 minute chart. Seems okay but do you have any experience of trading it over a lengthy time period ?

I don't really. I've dabbled back and forth over the years but Dow, and sometimes Nas, are my staples.

Messing up my dax this morning thus far. Waiting for shorts now?

Only one other trade ( short) taken since none of my levels were broken by subsequent price action after break of level at fat arrow where I took the last trade of my session (short). Sitting and waiting is okay and I was wary of making another losing trade by jumping on any channel break without looking left.

Hi Lura T. May I aske whey you abandoned the Daylight trading strategy forum, as we were getting the hang of it.

Could it be , because the strategy wasn't workable or even, profitable.

Thanks

I haven't abandoned anything. I set out the strategy and left people to decide whether to use it or not.

Well said Laura. Everything works fine so we get on with trading rather than repeating posts that are similar.
Dax today was good even if price rebounded on me a couple of times rather quickly. I should have grabbed a partial if I was awake.Good session today and done for now.
It may have been said before, many times; but thank you Laura for a fantastic method. Each person has to make it their own and then tackle the hard bit - their psychology. try Laura's exercise on discipline in her journal thread - "only getting out when price exits the other side of the channel.' Later you can adapt as per your observations , results and psychology.

And to avoid repetition and in keeping with my comments above, I shall not post again for a while.
Keep plugging away people ( trading , experimenting and studying not just reading) and you will get there).

Agreed. Thank you Laura for sharing these methods and your expertise and providing feedback.

Dear Laura,
Thank you for your feedback. In the past two weeks I was able to overcome my previous roadblock of needing to take breaks between trades and my trades are becoming less and less emotional. I do hate a negative day, but it is all a part of this job. I would like to apologize in advance that this is going to be a long post. I have had a lot of thoughts that I would like to put down on "paper" so I'm doing it here, but I can remove this post and move it to my journal which I will start on FF soon if you think I should. I am doing this for the sake of sharing my journey with those new to this method, perhaps this will help someone else.

I have been actively trading using this "Roadmap" method for two weeks with my live account, "June 15 -30" and I have DOUBLED my account balance. This should get someone's attention. I'm not doing anything crazy, I didn't get lucky with a couple of runners. I'm not trading crazy trade sizes. I've traded a few hundred trades in the past two weeks. I'm not trading all day, I have a full time job, so I'm watching the charts on and off about 3 hours a day, sometimes a little more. Here is what I'm doing exactly.
Laura risks 1% per trade, I risk 5%. I feel consistent enough to risk 5%. I've had negative days but not many. I understand 2 weeks is not a huge medium to work with but so far everything is working as intended. 3 bad trades in a row and I'm done for the day. 20% up and I'm done for the day. I use 200SMA + 8EMA channels, Day HI/Low, RSI, Dashboard, ADR indicator, everything from Laura's 1st thread. My risk is set in stone, 8 pips max. I set my stop loss against a combination of 2 levels that serve as support or resistance. This might be 200SMA + diagonal trendline + pick one (day hi/lo, yesterday's hi/low, ADR, supply/demand level.) Two of these levels are good, 3 are ironclad, 1 is unacceptable. I HATE seeing a profitable trade become a loosing trade. As soon as a trade is up 5-6 pips, my SL is at breakeven, if I it goes to 0, so be it. 0 is better than a loosing trade. I've had plenty of losses, but they are a set amount (which equates to 5% of my balance. I've had 1 or 2 break evens. My take profit is usually not very large. I'm happy with 10 pips, I've had a few 20's. A couple of 30's only. I haven't had any runners (although I'm hoping for one every time I place a trade). I only trade 4 pairs which give me PLENTY of opportunities, EURUSD, USDCAD, USDJPY, AUDUSD. These 4 pairs have the lowest spreads with my broker. I trade the 1m charts while looking at 5m charts for confirmation. I ONLY TRADE WITH THE TREND. I've had a few successful countertrend trades but I don't feel that I'm battletested enough to practice this regularly. I use multiple bullets always. In fact I use way TOO MANY bullets as I'm building my position. I've had 15. It gets slightly challenging to manage a trade with 15 pieces but not extremely. My trade manager sets my trades to BE quickly with 1 click. In addition to Laura's setup I very much rely on supply and demand levels on 1m and 5m charts. I use them as an additional level to the 200SMA + trendlines. Before I place a trade I always tell myself "not to trade into a wall".

Here is what works for me BEST. When Laura's dashboard is all green or all red (or at least 1m,5m,15m are the same color) I love trend continuation trades. These are clean bounces off the diagonal trendline (with the 200sma on 1m nicely flowing parallel closely to the trendline)..while keeping my SL super duper tight, 8pips or much much less. These are the bread and butter trades. When I wake up and there has been already a massive range for the day (I always look at yesterday's range, today's range and ATR) I wait for the price to retrace and then trade the BREAKS of TRADE STRUCTURES...in the direction of the trend). I have two wide monitors, and I have 2 charts only 1m and 5m to watch the supply and demand levels on both and 200sma on both. My TP is set way before the next supply and demand level (usually on 5m charts rather than 1m charts). More often than not I exit my winning trade when price goes outside the 8m channel in the wrong direction....sometimes a bit earlier.

I listen to Laura's trading journal almost daily, this is now my trading bible. I said listen because google assistant on any android phone will now read the webpage aloud to you on your phone. The biggest eyeopener for me was the "don't fight the momentum" section, and the very first section (Mark Douglass stuff is gold really). And trading breaks of trading structures, you could just focus on this and nothing else if not going for massive pips.

Here is what I would like to get improve/get better at/get into:
I really wish I had a mentor (but Laura's posts are doing wonders for me...) I'm really good at my entries. I REALLY suck at holding my winners for more than 10-20 pips, even if all the lights are green for continuation of the trend. I guess I'm too focused on the $$$ and/or hitting my 20% per day (which I've done). Also because I make a relatively high amount of trades, by my calculations, I give away 20% of my profits to my broker in commissions. So instead of making 100% in the past two weeks I would have made 120% if I take away commissions. This is significant but not horrible. I think I have a pretty good broker, I haven't had any issues with them in a year, and commissions are twice as cheap as my other broker. I would like to learn to use less bullets. Say 6 or less, instead of 12 or 15. I would like to learn to take partial profits and let some run. I haven't let any of my bullets run yet, I usually close everything with a close all button on my trade manager. My SL is automatic too, to 8 pips on every trade, which I will then tighten up manually to a combination of important levels near the price. I will try to post what my 1m and 5m setups look like. I would like to learn to trade indices and gold, but I'm hearing the action might be even faster than FX?

Here is a small mt4 related Wishlist from me. I would like to find a "simple" MT4 trade manager where I have 2 or 3 buy and sells buttons with different set trade sizes. Same manager would set a SL and TP for every trade that is opened. It should have a couple of buttons to Close all, set SL to BE, and perhaps some partial close buttons. If it had a Trail function, would be nice as well. I accomplish most of this currently using a couple separate managers that I have running on separate screens.

5min Chart in blue and 1min chart in white background below. Market is closed so spreads obviously look huge.

Near Term Goals: Let my winners run 50% longer than now or better. Double account in next 2 weeks again. Trade less often. Attempt to trade (small for now) indices, gold and oil.

Thank you for updating us on your journey. I'm really happy to read that you are no longer experiencing such an emotional rollercoaster with your trades.

I do think a journal is a great idea for you, but please also leave your post here. As you say, it will help others who come after you.

Lots for me to unpick from your post! Firstly, congratulations on doubling the account in two weeks. Must admit, I am a little nervous with your risk percentage, as three bad days in a row (which can and probably will happen at some point) wipes out nearly half of your capital. But this has to be a personal choice. Sometimes people prefer taking more risk initially as perhaps they have a smaller account they want to grow relatively quickly. But there does come a point where capital preservation becomes slightly more important than capital gains. You will know yourself when you reach that point as losing 15% of your equity in a single day will feel painful.

If you could go into more detail about your multi bullet approach, that would be helpful. My understanding from your post is that each position is automatically closed at -8 pips and the whole basket is closed if you reach your 5% risk limit? If that is the case, do you keep adding fresh bullets at set intervals until either your profit target is achieved or your risk level is hit?

I think you are right to focus on continuation trades. They are also my favourite. Sometimes we only need to isolate one element of a strategy and become expert at that, rather than trying to master the whole thing. As you say, you could make a living from a fairly narrow selection of trade types.

You say you suck at holding winners but, if you've reached your target with a basket, what would be the advantage in continuing to hold? The more time we spend in the market the more risk we are subjected to (and the more randomness in terms of price action, but that's another topic) - so if you can get in and out fairly quickly while achieving your target, is there really anything needing fixing? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big advocate of the benefits of taking partial profits and leaving a bit to see how far it can go, but perhaps it just won't be necessary for your trading style.

You will definitely find indices and gold faster beasts than forex. In fact, I probably wouldn't attempt to trade them just yet. If you have a winning formula that fits in with your trading personality and your lifestyle then don't mess with it too much for now. My advice would be to build a consistent track record doing what you are doing and, at some point in the future, you can consider extending your reach (both in terms of markets and trade management).

Hello Laura,

I have started using your roadmap. I have a query. When I switch between different timeframes I see different setups. E.g on 4 hr the channel may be far away from 200 ma where as on day chart it may be very near 200 Ma. I am getting confused what to follow.
Also I am using the road panel indicator on TradingView, hope that is the correct one. I don’t use mt4/5 but analyse charts on TradingView and then enter on broker website straight away.

Thanks in advance.
Ani

Hello,

Unfortunately that's the reality of multi-timeframe analysis. Different timeframes will present entirely different pictures.

I would suggest beginning with a single timeframe. The panel indicator already tells you whether price is above or below the SMA so in effect you have the multi-timeframe information you need. Sure, it means occasionally you will enter a trade that a look at another timeframe would have talked you out of, but that isn't a massive problem in the early days.

Going forward, you could look to use 2 timeframes. One for forming your bias and a shorter timeframe for finding your entry points.

Feel free to post any charts you want feedback on.

I didn't trade this ( traded the Dax instead)
This is the only Forex pair I look at sometimes. If you got on this trade then Laura's Roadmap did you well. But such falls are rare compared to the usual forex grind lately.

Hi Laura

In your journal thread section 8 you cover basic support & resistance and go on to say it is only scratching the surface of being aware of support and resistance.

I've always thought of S&R as being fairly self evident when you mark up a chart in the way you suggest, but given your comment I couldn't help wondering if you had any further concepts on this you might be able to share which might have real impact on profitability? You've also covered the potential of the daily open and previous day's high & low in this regard, just wondered if there were any other useful concepts not yet mentioned.

Best as always
Z

Good question - I'm surprised nobody has raised this yet actually.

Ah, where to start? I feel a journal post coming! I'll link to it here when it's done.