Strat's Long Term Stress Free Trading

Hi Strat

This is excellent , thank you it really helps, especially once a trend is running aka EurJpy - i will pull up a chart and check out, also PSAR - interesting this was an indicator that I did ditch! - back in my armoury now.. thanks again, Cheers, Nicole

If today's bar forms up to be an inside bar, by some random stroke of luck...

Does that make any stop for a sell stop above the high of the IB? or the high of the past 5 candles? I was thinking an IB would make this trade less risky because your stop doesn't have to be as far out.

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5702/usdchf.gif

Amin

I'm not sure. Just looks like it needs to breakout, but I couldn't be sure which way. Four candles ago we had an IB. If you had placed your suggested short order like today you'd have got hit on it then stopped out.

I sit patiently waiting to see something.... saw a few potentials yesterday but nothing stood out.

Bloom

Thanks Bloom. You have a valid point. What I am about to say has nothing to do with what you said, so don't take it personally.

I guess to some extent, no one will analyze any one setup exactly the same way, and every good analysis by one person would contradict the analysis of another person. I guess you have to just go with what is in front of your eyes and just take a trade that not everybody sees the same way...

For expample, Strat sees support at 1.1000, somebody else sees support at 1.1140, someone else mentioned some support around 1.1100 and 1.1040... If you had all those levels, you would never find an entry price, because you would always feel like you're selling into support! You can keep waiting for the heavenly entry that everyone sees exactly the same, but that is all you will do, wait.

Hi Strat and team,

A few pages back i posted asking for your thoughts on how i was trading.

Not my entries or trades, but HOW I WAS ACTUALLY TRADING. I was setting up my charts, analysis, entries etc on daily bars, s/r etc etc, and then moving very quickly once they opened to lock in profit.

This was working for me (profitable) but i knew something was wrong (and yes, i do know how absolutley stupid that sounds in hindsight).

I wasn't in fact trading the daily, i was still in 15M mode.

My GREED and FEAR were causing me to jump back into the market during the daily bar and trade as if i were on a shorter timeframe, when in fact (and again, i know this sound so ridiculously obvious to a lot of you), i should only be evaluating my decisions at the DAILY BAR CLOSE.

Our resident Sage Baba summed up my problem in one easy sentance; either i don't TRUST my plan, or there are holes in it. I have not even been letting my trades run to plan to find out if there are holes in it, so i obviously don't trust it.

I'm not going so far as to say i've had a 'lightbulb' moment (i feel far to stupid for that) but it has only just struck me over the last day or two that for all my bluster about moving to the daily - how great it is, how profitable i am blah blah blah, i hadn't changed a bit - i was still acting like a scalper - which is not where i want to be by any stretch.

As Strat and many others have said, profitable trading is 90% psychological, and this is where i am going to focus most of my efforts. To this end, i would love to here from Strat and others about managing open trades, particularly scaling in/out when in profit OVER A LONG PERIOD.

I am confident in my growing knowledge of PA, S/R etc - i'll get this right, guaranteed (with a little help from my friends ).

However, it's TRADE MANAGEMENT where i'm going to make my money (or preserve my capital), and let's be honest, that's why most of us are in this game.

So thank you to everyone who has helped me so far, commented on my analysis, offered advice, taken the p1ss () and contributed to this thread. It's the first thread i've contributed to out of the many i've read and i think it's fantastic. Thank you Strat for setting it up and taking the time to help us rookies and even experienced guys (and gals) out.

Keep on keepin' on!
Dan

(Oscar speech over, soapbox away, back to business)

An inside bar is classified as a bullish reversal pattern, so keep that in mind and see how the next candle closes for confirmation in whichever way the price will go

Hi Dan

I can understand how you feel. When I first started I was on the 5min and 15min TF with loads of indicators, watch this cross then when x changes to y enter. I was getting stressed out as I was getting in and out of a trade, when ever I had time to look at my lappy. We've all seen it... I was in a mess. So I stopped ( I was using a micro account so losses minimal), I realised that I needed to educate myself properly. I discovered J16 read and read, demo'd. I then found this thread and I'm growing in confidence each daily, always learning.

What I have learnt from J16 and Strat is that trading doesn't have to be stressful.

I'm in the UK and I work fulltime in my own business. I have staff and clients to deal with during the day, so I can't be glued to the screen. So now I find it so much better trading the daily; I check the price action in the evening, when there is a set up I will place a trade. It gives me enough time to make a decision, I will only take A class trades, the best setups. There may only be a few per month...that's OK for me.

I can now work through the day without constantly being glued to the screen! The 'phone going, decison time... do I answer or do I watch my trade!!! Never ever again! I enjoy my cups of tea at my desk and catching up with the thread, and yes, I do look to see if there are any setups getting ready...but any trades placed will be checked towards the close.

Trading is psychological; it takes guts to pull the trigger, the emotion clashes with common sense. Strat & others here in the team, have helped with so many 'gems'.

It can be hard to change, but determination can help you to succeed. Grab a tea or coffee, get a pile of chocolate at your desk and if you get that twitching feeling to look and end a trade, have another bit of choc to stop yourself!

10pm now, I'll be checking MT4 soon ...Nicole

[quote=AstonDan;2631303]Hi Strat and team,

A few pages back i posted asking for your thoughts on how i was trading.

Not my entries or trades, but HOW I WAS ACTUALLY TRADING. I was setting up my charts, analysis, entries etc on daily bars, s/r etc etc, and then moving very quickly once they opened to lock in profit...

Nice post Dan,

You are absolutely right in your assertion that trade management is what makes a successful trader.

The old adage is, you can take two new traders, tell one of them to go long and the other to go short and they will both lose money.
Now you can take two experienced traders and do the same thing and they will both make money. The reason: Trade Management.

What I have started to do over the last few months with some success is scaling in and out of my positions. I am also looking to improve on this so everyone, by all means correct or add to this in any way. On Strat’s theme of looking for the “meat” of the trend, I realized after many attempts that accurately picking when the market is going to stop and turn around is next to impossible.

So in order to try to cash in on the main part of the trend I like to have a core position in what I see as the main move. I then add and subtract positions according to PA, SR levels, and Fibs during the smaller waves that go counter to the main trend. This keeps my main core position in the big move but lets me capture some profit when I see the indicators pointing to a retrace and then reload on indications that the main move is resuming.

When I am wrong initially I like to have a minimal position at risk, then as the market proves I am right I like to add to it. This is one method for everyone’s input.

Whoa, Naws, where ever did you read this? This is NOT true.

An IB is a PAUSE BAR - both the buyers and sellers have lost interest.

An IB can be a reversal bar, bullish continuation bar, bearish continuation bar or mean nothing at all. It all depends where in the price, the IB falls.

An IB means nothing by itself - we have to look at everything around it to make our decision and that decision could be to do nothing.

Catching the big bird in the sky this afternoon (Friday). I will catch up during the week - end, trouble and strife permitting!

now that a bar i can trade......Big boss!
Still waiting for a directional ber on the daily........weekly IB? followed by the beob on the monthly sell sell selll


But just not yet.

weekly

BARS......

A long time ago far far away i said "i want directional bars".....looks like so did market as nothing happened.....all week.

I like that the fact it did nothing means i feel im in sink.

Now the swissy i feel is a microcosom of the world fx scene right now,close but no banana.

Soon we my have a Big boss beob,with hopefully a boss IB.

After those bars close i will sell an IB.

Thats the beauty of price action....it unifies the market to a single mind

Remember we all have to do it to get price to move...as one.

Analysis without a price bar is at best a waste of time.....at the worst...oh god.


Yes we can see the supp/res on swissy...if you cant then your blind but the big question is WHEN and WHERE is the point of no return for price.


All this IB biz on swissy,if the BIG BOSS BEOB and BOSS IB where closed my ticket would be pending...back on trend.... look dont get me started.

Do you think im waiting for nothing.Or im being a twat about this and havin a laugh?

Im DEADLY serious....learn price.....become one with market and have faith.

"see but one,say but one,know but one,
In this are summed up the roots and branches of faith"

When you are one with price and you have some nice trigger time in on that vibe in demo super chill....just work on different management stuctures.First you MUST become one with price or you are blind.

Let her show you the way.


g

"Make a journey out of self into self.
For by such a journey Earth becomes a quarry of gold.
From sourness advances to sweetness,
Even from the dry soil a thousand fruits spring up.
From the sun,behold these miracles,
For every tree gains beauty by the light of the sun"

On my favourite candle recognition website

But I totaly agree with you on that about a patterns different meanings

Why I said bullish was because these inside bars in this congestion are forming after a bearish move so a bullish bounce off support is a possibility. The previous IBs didnt have a confirming third close so if we get that on this one the price might go up? just something to watch for

nice fib....

About the discussion on IB's on the usd/chf..

I just read in the james16 thread that when you get several IB's forming in a row this signifies a tug of war between bulls and bears and that a big breakout is very possible

Just thought this was interesting

On the pairs I follow there seemed to be an unusual number of daily IBs Thursday.

To me that indicates that the whole market is in a state of indecision as to which direction will come next and that today and this weekend might be a good time to sit on one's hands and watch to see what happens.

Am I seeing this correctly?