Strat's Long Term Stress Free Trading

Thanks for that Strat! A marvellous piece of teaching. You have a way of making things seem completely obvious!

Of course if it was THAT obvious, then we wouldn't need you at all! But we do, we do, don't we just. So perhaps it just ain't as obvious as it seems after you've told us.

Many thanks.

Why the move Strat? Just curious as TD closed his thread over on T2W too - are there evil forces at work on the forums??

Yes, I enjoy talking my book!

Seriously, I am long above 94. It reminds me of times past trying to tame cable though....that ridiculous twisting. I see the daily as quite bullish, though the monthly is appallingly bad for that view, unless one believes in divergence. Weekly can be viewed either as consolidative or reversive, in my opinion.

Strat

This post can either mean one of two things.

1. You are testing us by mentioning the 4H chart when you have said many times to only use daily or higher.

2. You are hinting that ONCE a day AFTER the daily close when you look at your charts and set buy stops and stop losses (or do nothing), you will also look at the 4H chart to see the action in the previous day or so - are we seeing Higher Highs in the 4H timeframe?

Which is correct or what have I missed?

Thanks Surfer

We make our decision to trade off the Worker and can enter off the Worker's PASR BUT, you can also drop down to H4 and sometimes get a better fill. I have done it a few times when the price and time was right. Nicola (elitejets) enters most of her trades off H4 BUT she is able and prepared to watch the one eyed monster all day long.

Again, we make our decisions on the Worker and trade the Worker. We do not trade H4.

Strat,

Interesting look to Loonie, no? I am with you that there is some longer term bottoming action; however, things look a bit heavy to me here.

strat,
"Congratulations" on "Strat thread part 2".
Coincides with my more detailed look at your wonderful thread.
Keep it up Sir

Nicola,
thanks for the reminder.

I am still grappling with the previous thread and i hope it does not get deleted while i go through all the contents.

elitejets,
in addition to your post above... here is 1 courtesy of copi88

"Today we have Quad or Quadruple Witching on the calendar. Quadruple witching only occurs four times a year - on the third Friday of March, June, September and December.
It is a day when the contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures (SSF) all expire. This usually leads to
some erratic price action in the equity markets. Since currencies like to take its cue from equities, we could see some uneven price action in the forex market."

Yes, like I said, I would like to see it drop down to 1.1020ish from which it would have a nice base to blast off again.

In the last few days I have had a good many PMs on problems with trading emotions, specifically FEAR and GREED.

Remember, trading psychology accounts for 90% of our success as traders. Ignore this and you will be forever doomed to failure.

It appears many of you are being successful on demo but cannot repeat it when going live with real money. This is entirely due to trading on emotions rather than DISCIPLINE.

I am probably the world's best trader on demo; I can rack up a 98% success rate and make $millions of profit. However, the minute I switch to using my REAL money, I go into ultra-conservative trading. My FEAR of LOSING is greater than my GREED for PROFITS. It wasn't always this way as I had it the other way round when I was losing.

As you know, I don't like demo trading. For testing my Momentum Cycles and Cycles stuff, I don't use demo. Instead, I use REAL money but with a low $/pip value as I need to always be testing my emotions in addition to my strategies. For me, the two go hand in hand and I must have a balance between them.

So, from my perspective, I always, always, promote trading with REAL money BUT in the smallest micro lots you can find.

Some of you are still struggling with your PLAN, specifically interfering with your PLAN during a trade. Again, this is trading with your EMOTIONS instead of with DISCIPLINE.

If you have to interfere with your PLAN while trading then the solution is simple. You do NOT have a PLAN which you BELIEVE and TRUST.

I recommend everyone find my post where I previously detailed all this.

Remember, the FIRST thing you should think about when taking a trade is HOW MUCH WILL I LOSE? In other words, what is my worst case scenario?

This MUST be BUILT into your PLAN and you MUST accept that you "can" lose this amount of money. This has to be done while developing your PLAN.
It is at this point where you "tame" your emotions. It is at this point where you find the REAL "you".

Some of you are not being honest with yourself and until you do that, there is no hope for you in trading. Agreeing with yourself in the PLAN that you can accept the LOSS and then changing it during trading is YOU not being HONEST with yourself. Trading finds out who we really are and is probably better than any tests a psychologist can give you.

While developing your PLAN, if you cannot accept LOSING that amount, you have two options:

Reduce the $/pip value to a monetary level that you CAN accept

OR

Don't take the trade.

You MUST address this key issue at this point. If you cannot do this then my frank advice is not to trade because you are incapable of controlling your trading psyche.

When you can do this, and you have a successful style/methodology/strategy, you will wonder what the fuss was all about.

Always think about how much you will LOSE first BEFORE how much you will win.

FORGET about winning, your style/methodology/strategy takes care of that, instead, FOCUS on LOSING, learn to control how much you LOSE.

LEARN how to deal with LOSING because WE ALL LOSE - LEARN how to keep your LOSING trades SMALLER than your winning trades.

Change your thinking to having a GREATER fear of LOSING than your greed for profits (winning).

Hope this helps

While developing your PLAN, if you cannot accept LOSING that amount, you have two options:

Reduce the $/pip value to a monetary level that you CAN accept

OR

Don't take the trade.

Hi Strat, what a great post!!
After having taken a bit of a beating recently, as i posted, I'm not trading live, well only off a micro acct, and i have to say, it's been great!!
I think i've realised ego plays a part in a traders pyschology, or at least it did with mine. The need to be right, thinking how can this trade go against me?, when everything looks set up to make a nice profit.
I almost took it as a personal affront, when trades didn't work out.http://www.forexfactory.com/images/icons/icon8.gif
Since trading micros, i've realised, and accepted, that sometimes even the prettiest signals fail, and it's not personal. As long as i'm happy with the risk, i can now accept it and move on.
Unfortunately, at this stage i am back to being a lurker, but my thanks go out to all the posters on the thread, I am always learning something. Hopefully i will be able to contribute at some time in the future.

A humbled but hopefull Golfer.

Today's early London action saw a few quick hit opportunities, though the closing action I found disappointing. Overall though, it seems that the recent 2 days' H/L and associated TL's in EURUSD and USDCHF will be up for play again next week. I do see sufficient potential for the major trend to reassert itself.

The Yen crossess proved a late day disappointment to those inclined long; however the bearish late day action does not appear to me as relevant at these levels as it would have at more extreme prices. On that basis I will likely hold a long bias there until proven otherwise.

Strat has commented a bit this week on the commodity currencies, so I will leave him to further elucidate those ideas.

Hi all

Still catching up on the entire thread but would like to test the waters with some analysis.
This is a hindsight trade. I did not take it and I am sure it would have been talked about here at the time. Anyone take this trade?

Boss making stong leg down and has broken support.
Boss below 20EMA and broken horiz support.
Bias short.

Reasons for short trade on daily on chart below.

This worked out to be a nice trade and one could still be in it with a partial position.

Strat - just wanting to check that I am using the tools you have been explaining correctly.
Was this about as good as they get?
Any reason not to take this?

Baba G - you are about as conservative as they come. Did you take this one?

Thanks Surfer

Surfer,

I took this trade for the same reasons you mentioned. My feed is different from yours so i recieved a little diferent PB mine was more of a Gravestone doji than a SS. I got filled at 8476 and placed my stop @ 8611. Chart looks pretty clear of S/R down to the 8250 level. I have really been being more patient lateley looking for only A+ trades, i considered this to be one of them. My only trade for the month so far but if it works out it could be all i need!

Wow a new thread.....in the proper place...like i said....this aint a bl88dy journal...anyway......

So i only monitor the 4 hr when im in a daily.....i dont trade the 4s but its a nice way to speed up the price action recognition process but i dont know about trading it....it will be good to watch...

Im currently working on a Intraday system....a fractal of my daily work....which is very demanding and needs expert price action analysis.....instant recognition of direction.....immediate execution.....perfect management protocols.....and beautiful exits.........and more impotantly a clear trading mind.......


Im loving it....i feel it really takes all my knowledge and drives it to the max......my day starts at 5.am and ends at 7pm.........sometimes i wait all day.......mostly i get 1 trade a day...or if im lucky 2 or 3 so please forgive me if im not posting that much at the moment.

Im not gonna share this new developement in my trading here as it really does draw on all my 4 years expirence and i would not recommend it to anyone without the basic 3 years live standard,,,which aint much trust me.

Im still a daily player and trend trader....at my core and ill share all i can with you........

For technical reasons i dont trade this pair on the daily but its a beatiful pin....and i did trade it but in my other system.......i did good......

if i had of taken a daily on it,its a set and forget to me....just make sure your risk aint so big so the "butt ring" dont get ya!!!!


Nice call people!!!!!

Please can I join the Path of Learning? I pm Lance last week
I have very limited experience, 6 months, so am a blank sheet.
I have read the thread and re-read it and am practising, and have stopped trading intra-day ( its just too stressfull!)
I am currently reading J16s thread on PA.
Strat and Team Strat, you are a true inspiration! Show me the way!
Ps
I may be distracted this weekend, what with Formaulae 1 and 20/20 cricket...

I sometimes find it hard as too which one is the more relevant for the current Daily PA to trade off?

Steve,

"You are not alone in knowing which BOSS trend to use to trade the Worker."

Hi Strat
Big thanks for helping me in understanding the break down in interpreting the Boss trend; you have an uncanny knack of making the obvious obvious.

But it’s so much more than that making the complex uncomplicated that’s the skill you are kindly sharing with us. I’m trying to make my daily analyst as simple and clean as possible and your interpretation will defiantly help me with this.

Cheers
Steve