StewartR - I want my trading to be boring.

Hi Jason,
No. I am not trading full time anymore.

When I used to HAVE to work, all I wanted to do was trade.
Then I was able to not HAVE to work - so I went and traded full time.

I discovered a lot by going full time.
1. To do it well is boring.
2. I missed being part of the working community
3. I felt like I had dropped out of society
4. I felt like the years of experience and skill I had built up in my industry were being wasted (not used).
5. At 40yrs old I was too young to retire!
6. There was no one to play with (because they were all at work), or they only wanted to talk about their bladder problems, or retirement investments as they were wheel chaired around the golf course.
6. When my old company asked me to go back, I surprised myself and jumped at the chance.

This 4 hour method takes me about 10 minutes to trade (every 4 hours). I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO bored (as a full time trader) that I painted the house and did major work in the garden etc etc. But you can only do that so long before its 'just not enough'. So I threw myself into the 5 minute charts. I even doubled my account a few times on the 5 min charts. And.....
I discovered that I 5 minute trading did not give me the lifestyle I wanted.

Some people might call me crazy. Why would you work if you dont have to? Well ...... just try it. When trading is all you do......trading is just like work. Retirement is totally overrated.

So now I work a job from 3am to 11am each day; as an emploee instead of being an 'owner'. I love it. And I trade the 4 hour chart. And I am free to go to the beach and be with my family (wife +3kids) during the afternoons.

I used to think my full time job got in the way of being able to trade well.
Now I think that most people would trade better if the DID have a full time job and accepted the job, and just traded 4hr and 1day charts.

PS - I was looking for excitement, challenge and thrills from trading. I thought the 5 min charts would satisfy my need for mental stimulation. Here's what I found : trading is very very very simple. And its not mentally stimulating, challenging or thrilling. So I now have another outlet for my mental stimulation (work).

If I could summaries where I'm at.....I used to be a worker who wanted to trade. Now I am a trader who is happy to work.

If you have any questions on this, PM me and I'll be happy to talk further on this. (18 months ago I would have said you were crazy if you told me I'd actually NOT want to be a full time trader.)
Best wishes
Stewart

Pending (Short) order placed. Now I wait to see if I get filled.

Downtrend
Oscillator
Pin bar
Rejected from round number.

Daily Chart - daily trade

10 trades, 9 wins and 1 break even now so far this month.
EurAud was a 1:1 winner.

Been overseas this week. Did not trade at all. Just looked at the charts each night.

.... as perfect as I could imagine.
1. Trend down
2. Pull back to between 50 and 61 fib
3. Confluence of fib and prior support (now resistance)
4. Pin bar
5. Oscillator diverging.

This was an A trade.

Potential Double top
Pin Bar
Trend turning
Oscillator extreme
Short on break of pin bar.

pull back to fib (38)
uptrend
bounce of support
bullish outside bar
oscillator extreme

GBP CHF was a loss of 1%

Comments:
- so what, it was a loss
- its not my system's job to predict winners
- its my system's job to put the odds in my favour over a string of trades
- I cannot control the markets (and neither can anyone else) so its impossible to 'know' what the market is going to do.

- just like the selling profession...this is a numbers game and you just need the odds to be in your favour.

I reconfirm my belief in my method. s/r + oscillator + price action puts the odds well in my favour.

Euro Trade was a winner (+1.5R)

I have taken to entering half the position at a break to a new high/low and half the position on a pull back to 38% of the trigger candle.

This trade pulled back almost to the pip for me (no drawdown on the 2nd position). Entering on the pull back gets me 2:1 most times.

Exit was based on the James16 idea that price will make it to prior bar lows.

I exited this overnight for +$5.
I entered on a break to a new low and entered another position on a pull back of the outside bar.

It looks like the market has not decided which way it wants to go. An inside bar is forming on the daily. I want the see the trade move in my direction quickly. So I exited this trade today at Break Even.

Since posting live trades in again (in May 2009) result has been

10 wins
2 b.e
1 loss

This is a solid method that produces 5 to 10 R per month.
So if I risk 2% the method generally gives 10% to 20% per month.
The super adventurous could risk 5% and this method has proven itself to return 25% to 50% per month.

My gut feeling on this one is that it wont work out. I think I am not convinced the pin bar is an indication of a reversal vs just a pull back. I think its because I like to see pin bars in 'space' (as mbqb11 teaaches).

Regardless. Its meets my criteria so I am in.

Downtrend.
Pull back.
Oscillator hooking (Although I like both lines to be coming from the top together).
Pin Bar - but is not a great pin bar.

Entry technique - 50% if/when it breaks down. 50% if it pulls back to 38% of the pin bar.

Edit: confirming these are live trades. My broker doesnt have the indicator I use for this method, so I use MT4 for charting via another broker.

AUD CAD was a loser.

Not posted live - but taken anyway.

Downtrend
Oscilator pull back
Pin bar
Winner

I did not take this trade. But that was an error on my side. I allowed distractions to keep me from the charts when I should have stepped up. There was not reason not to take this trade and it was a beauty.

did not take this trade either. but I should have. had interstate travel that distracted me from the discipline of executing this system. my bad

Trend + a couple of sideways bars on 4 hour
Went long on break of the sideways range with a TP of 1:1

looking good.

Pin Bar + trend + oscillator

Daily pin bar.
Took early entry - ocscillator has not started to turn. That means this does not meet my requirements for a trade. I am thinking about exiting because it doesnt fit my rules. But we are coming up for London Open and things normally hot up at that time.

This was a rob booker trade. Waiting for a daily pivot to be missed and trade back from S3 to missed pivot. It worked out. I am just trying these for a month to see how it goes.