The PriceBob Strategy

IYKYN



no more posts from me today, and possibly no more this week. My main focus is the ES. I do have two stand alone, instrument specific fixed bar set ups I'll be trading as neither will be a distraction from my main event: The ES.

If you know, you know.

Good trading to all

Day #6:

Gold Long: 7.30 - 8.00 AM fixed bar (SL hit)

It's actually a winning trade if I take the entry at the first opportunity when price broke high of fixed bar. I've missed the first entry since price moved fast and I've entered buys when price came back to entry level thinking that it would go back up again. But ended up with SL, lesson learned.

Vidvad what is the right thing to do when missed the entry, are there any special cases where we can have our second entry on the same fixed bar?

SP500 5 minute ORB Long to Vids target of 0.618 ( hope I drew the fib thingy ok as I have only web version on Imac.)

I think Vidvad uses M30 bars nowadays.

Yes he does but I do not.

You're in the wrong thread. See Post 1.

Quickest ignore I've ever used. One post and he's gone.

I do use M30 currently. However, any fixed bar of any duration can serve as the reference bar for a trading plan. I only recommend that whatever bar one chooses as his or her reference that it is at or near a major market center open.

Price did not touch the entry price until 4 minutes after the close of the reference bar. That is not "price moved fast."

Price did come back to the entry over a minute after the buy stop triggered, and then it proceeded to the target.

You have got to be honest with yourself or the whole exercise is nothing but a fool's errand.

The virtue of the fixed bar method is that there is no room for discretion and there is no excuse for error. You know exactly when your reference bar is set to close. There can be no excuse for "missing" and entry unless price is already moving toward the breakout level as the bar is set to close. In those cases I click the buy stop a few seconds before the M30 close, and if it immediately starts to move against me, I close out with a market order, keeping the loss manageable, and then enter the correct orders.

But today you had "all the time in the world" to enter a buy stop at 4087.10 to go long, and a sell stop at 4076.2 to go short.

You have a job to do. Your job is to be at your trading station within 2 minutes of the 7:30 to 8:00 M30 bar close, and then set the appropriate entry orders. You simply must accept and admit to yourself that for whatever reason you did not do your job today. But there is no mystery as to what to do. You place your order. In the case that the market actually does move too quickly for you to set your order, place a limit order at what would have been your entry price, and cancel the order if the take profit level trades without you having been filled.

We've all been there: We have all tried to fool ourselves into believing a missed opportunity was because of market or other forces beyond our control. That cannot continue if you are to become consistently profitable. You have to own your errors. Whatever prevented you from manning your station and performing your job today is to blame. And no has any answers as to how to fix that other than you yourself.

Got it, I agree it's my mistake. I will make sure do the job properly.

That's all this is. A job. We are told to treat trading like a business, but it is really just a job. Skilled labor. Do your job correctly and you get to keep it. Do it in a slipshod and careless manner the market will take your tools and you'll be fired.

"Fixed bar trading will fix your trading if you let it." - vidvad D'Sonovabicci

Two funded prop accounts and my own self-funded account. IYKYN.

Day #7:

Gold Long: 7.30 - 8.00 AM fixed bar (TP hit)

SP500 5 minute ORB UK time
Trying to show .618 target using Fib retracement tool but am I using it correctly?
Anyway -enjoy your day folks.

Well said Vidvad

Btw may I know how do you do risk management. I see that you have fixed daily target, do you make that in one fixed bar trade itself?

How do you manage to hit the daily target if you lost first trade. Do you risk more on the second one inorder to cover the previous loss as well as reach the daily profit target. Please let me know, thanks.

For the most part you are asking all the wrong questions in this post.

Get access to a spreadsheet program and track all of your trades: MFE (max favorable excursion, i.e. how far did price go before retracing to your stop loss?), Max Adverse Excusion (how far did price retrace against your position after entry without hitting your stop loss?), length of time in each trade, if a trade is stopped out, what is the MFE in that direction?, what is the MAE in that direction? Is there a pivot between your entry and your take profit? Between your entry and your stop loss? If so, which pivot? What does/did price do when it reached that pivot? If it retraced, how far? Track how many minutes between fixed bar close and trade entry. After the M1 of the trade entry closes, does price retrace back to the entry price before hitting the take profit?

In short, you need to track anything that is trackable. I now have close to 250 days of data on the NQ, a similar number for CL (which I am not trading currently and therefore I am not currently tracking and if you saw the spread sheet data you'd understand why), 200+ days of Gold and the ES.

You don't have to track them all. Only track the instrument(s) you are trading. And at this stage, you should be focused on one instrument only.

Tracking this data (and any other data of which you take notice and interest in tracking) you will, at the end of each 20 days, have the data you need to refine your trading plan.

In case you missed it, I strongly advise you to change only if you feel your results are not strong enough to allow you to trade your trading plan with live capital (whether your own funds or a prop account). If you feel your results need to improve in order for you to maintain the requisite discipline, then you may change one variable, and only one variable, and then commence with another 20 days.

My answers to your questions are immaterial to your success. I have refinements that would only complicate and derail you. You will discover your own refinements over time. You will learn, perhaps, when it is the market conditions are such that you take your stop loss and immediately reverse. You will learn, over time, how to adjust your position size relative to your drawdown allowance. For example, I can trade larger size and feel comfortable taking fixed bar set ups that command larger risks in an account that has $100K in it (a true $100K, not a $100K prop account with a $3K EOD drawdown fail point).

You have just hired yourself to perform a job. Your duties do not include you investigating my job and how I perform my duties. Just focus on yourself and the know that your job performance is being graded by your ability to execute the duties of your job flawlessly. Yesterday you failed flawless execution. You must guard against such poor workmanship. You are an apprentice to the market (not to yourself and especially not to vidvad or any other internet personality, but to the market. The market decides if you remain employed or if she will confiscate your tools and relieve you of your duties. You are an apprentice working on becoming a journeyman, and then developing into a true craftsman.

A trader who reaches craftsman status will be able to make a consistent income week after week, month after month, that he or she can rely upon.

Keep your head down and do the work.

Fixed bar trading will fix your trading if you let it.

You are using it fine, turnip. The only flaw I see is that your anchor points, both the high and the low, are each off by 1 tick. The high of the M5 ORB ES today was 6679, not 6678.75, and the low was 6645.50, not 6645.75 as you have it. The result is that the actual .618 target is 6624.75, and not the 6625.25 as you have it. However, on both the ES and the NQ, I have found it wise to place the take profit up to 8 ticks inside the .618, i.e. up to 8 ticks close to the entry, and so the way you did it you already have a +2 tick inside the true 61.8.

In the end, trading is a lot like horseshoes and hand grenades ... you only need to be "close enough" to get the result you are looking for

Thanks Vidvad, your every post feels like a sophisticated wisdom. I don't know what that means, but feels like eye opening every single time.