AtClarkson Trading J16

Hi,
I have come through your threat and I like it a lot. I am reading through the Jim staff last month and I like it...
Seams you have a strong determination and you are picking things quickly. Just wanted to say you are doing great...

English is not my mother language so please excuse the way of writing...

Jan

HEy Booky, welcome to FF, and my journal! I'm honoured your first post was here J16 stuff is incredible. Best of luck in your journey!

Thank you for friendly welcoming, Clarkson...you know, I'm digging in to an FX for 8 moths now, and I committed after some time at the beginning, that I will look for people that are going to help me because they know what it means to be at the beginning rather then for a strategy...And when I came across Jim's threat I was amused by the way he is doing it. Then I read your journal and I just find myself joining the family ... I just know, that with the vision as a light on this gloomy path, and Jim's and God's help we can get there.
Have a nice trade.

No problem, happy to have ya.
Love the Jim/god comparison.... you're gonna make him blush lol
Good luck, keep up with J16 thread its golden!

Alright, so I have come to a realization last night that 5% right now is fairly crazy. So I am lowering it to something (for now) a little more reasonable.

I am going to aim for 2% growth a month, month over month. This is 26.8% per year... nothing to sneeze at!

Now... this willcome off as the "hand someone new a calculator and tell them about what a few % can add up to..." but hear me out.

Start out with say 5k. 2% gain/month over 10 years, plus an additional contribution of 5k per year comes out to 257k.
At which point 2% a month is 5100 dollars. Over 60k a year.
THIS IS DOABLE. I CAN ACHIEVE THIS.

I will not be overtrading to get it, but it does provide me something to work towards. It also makes me feel much better about truly waiting for the good setups to arrive.

I also am working on my own business of snow removal and now looking at driveway sealing for the summer months. This, when it comes down to it, is part of my long term trading plan, because it provides income now, and enables me to be even more patient in waiting to grow my account to a size where I can live off of it.

Going to look at charts. Daily/Weeklys today, it's friday!

Possible Plays for the open:

AChf: Nice pinbar in space. Swing Low. With the trend, almost touched trendline, close to bottom of consolidation, decent close. 50 and 61 Ret.
The play: Buy break of .93, first minor area at .9335, then .94. Stops to BE at 15 pips profit.
Target: .9450 (just under top of consolidation box and trendline)

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z.../dec18Achf.jpg

EA: Minor Outside bar. With the trend. Minor swing high. 38 ret. Not a whole lot of space. Only worth playing with tight management and quick TP level.
The play: Sell break of 1.6067 (minor PPZ) Stops to BE at 10 or 15 pips.
Target: Full TP before 1.60. (prob around 1.6020)

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...on/dec18ea.jpg

EG: Inside bar. Swing low. Good space, Nice ppz level at .885, almost 100% ret of last move. With long term trend, against very short term. 150 MA. Into Traffic.
The Play: Sell Break of .89, Stops to BE at 10 pips.
Target: .90, so look to get out around .8980-.8985

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...on/dec18eg.jpg

EJ: Weekly, Daily, 4H and 1H pinbar. Swing Low, bottom of consolidation, stuck thru trendline, Crappy open but great close. So so pin but nice location. Top is at Round of 130, but closed below it. Almost everything is screaming up.
The play: Buy break of 130. Get to BE at 30-50 pips. Give it a little room to breath. Trouble at Bar highs of 130.70, then ppz at 131.60 area. Manually trail stops behind good areas.
Target: Would like to see 134.50 (top of descending trendline) if I can let it breathe enough.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...on/dec18ej.jpg

Peso (UM) Pretty inside bar, with the trend, at clear ppz and round of 130, swing high (minor) 365 MA.
The play: Sell break of the inside bar. Stops to BE at 15-20 pips (before bar lows)
Target: Full TP at prev bar low (12.70)

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z.../dec18peso.jpg

UChf: This one I have been waiting for. I put that blue spot up a few days ago. I wanted a pin, but I'll take the IB/semi 2 day pin. With the trend, nice breakthru of 130 and retrace to it, obv PPZ at round 130, Trendline, 150 MA, piles of space.
The play: sell break of bars (both close) trouble at 1.035 then 1.028, but I think this is a great location and I want to let it breathe. I will move stop to above 1.042 when we hit 1.035, then BE when we get to 1.028. beyound that I will trail it, I think this could see the 1.00 level again, tho I would be out around 1.003.

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z.../dec18uchf.jpg



I'll set up my orders tomorrow before open and cut the pairs I'm going to play a bit. I'll post here what I take.

Hi atclarkson

Great journal - keep it up. I like the Usd/chf sell analysis, because in addition to what you have posted, price seems to be bouncing off 105. This would seem a major S/R line given that seemed to act as major support from June to Sep, and has already offered resistance to price going up.

Regards

Thanks pip. We'll see what they do!

Drop by anytime. You have a journal?

At the open:

Took Achf, EG, EJ and UChf.

Not taking EA, and Peso hasn't printed a new bar, so a little lost there.

I'll prob take one of the euro pairs off before they get filled tho.

EJ was the only one that triggered, got out at BE, got in again, and got out at BE again. Weekly pin is a little small for me to play.

Canceled the rest of the above mentioned orders.


Thinking of taking the holidays off to regroup and get back at it in the new year. I have alot of crap in my head (to do with trading) right now I need to clear up. Probably going to read trading in the zone, as well as a few other books I have. I want to finish a trading plan document I was putting together, and some other little things I've been thinking about.

Back fresh in the New Year.

Thanks to everyone reading this in 09, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope to see you back in 2010!

Andrew

For the fellas messaging me about setting up the EA phone alerts... it's pretty simple

Go to Tools>Options>Email Tab and fill in the info as I have below (if you don't have a gmx email account, go get one http://gmx.com/ otherwise you'll have to figure out how your mail server works.

smtp login is your new email address.

smtp password is your new password

from is the same as your smtp login

to is where you want the alert sent to. This is the slightly tricky part. Every cellphone with text messaging has an email address that forwards to you inbox. For example, mine is 6473932222@txt.bell.ca (phone number changed, obv)If you email that number, I get a text message. You need to find out how your carrier works, or have it email your phone if you have a smart phone.

Hit Test, and if you get a text, it worked!

yo yo clarkson, you still on break? update on your trading please

hey buddy

Def stepping back until the new year... got some ideas flyin around in my head, I've got some stuff to bounce off ya on msn sometime soon.

Also just too much going on in my head with trading in general. A week off for xmas, then got some partying to do over new years, then I'll be back at it on the 3rd/4th.

Been reading some more of "Trade your way to Financial Freedom" and thinking of better ways to run exits and manage trades. More to come soon

Thoughts for today....

Trading PA (Pin bars especially) at prime locations (big round numbers, extreme ends of consolidation, trend lines, etc, need more breathing room.

In going over a few recent examples of PA in prime locations as described, a trade where you get to BE really quickly would almost always get stopped out with nothing (yes, better than a loss, but let's make this thing really work!)

Yes, some take off regardless.
Yes, some hit a spot, then fire back the other way for a loss.

But I've noticed in reviewing many of my trades days later, price went in my favour in a big way, if I only let if do its thing!

I plan on looking at a pile of past charts over the holidays to gain more of an understanding of this. It is completely backwards of what I thought before, but If I can determine a good way to manage this, and only take the real good, A+ trades in prime locations, giving them some room should be easy. I will be studying more of Mbq's methods, as I know this is similar to the way he trades.

I believe I was getting to BE ASAP (like 10 pips) is due to my fear of losing. This is something I must overcome. Not to say it isn't viable, especially with a bigger account, but that is something I will look into as my account grows. Now, I think there is a way to protect your capital while letting trades run.

More soon.

more thoughts on prime locations (sorry if this is repetitive lol)

I understand Jim's response to my email:


Taking a trade at a round number as my first, "must be fulfilled" criteria is going to filter out many bad trades, and give the confidence to let trades run.

Matt and I have been talking about this. I've read a bit of Clockwork's stuff and he has read even more. He lets his trades really run, because he has so much confidence in the LOCATION. Location is so important. Sure, it may retest a few times... but if it truly is an A+ bar at an A+ location, odds are (this is our edge) it will move where we think it will move.


Idea: Set trade entry, risk, money management, stop loss. Then walk away.

Do not touch until close of next day. Check and move stops if it's moved far enough. Lock in profit each step of the way.

Other idea: set Stop, set reasonable TP, and don't touch until it hits one of them.


Maybe being greedy?
Maybe teaching myself discipline?

Right now, I'm not sure.

34 pages into "Trading in the Zone"

more (third post today lol)
Just went over the EU chart from 05 to now to see what I could find that proves/disproves any of my ideas.

Quick look thru of taking trades only at big rounds, major swing low/high, playing out til it goes at least 100 or so pips or hits initial SL.

Pins - 5 wins (3 w/trend) 2 loss (1 w/trend)
OB - 4 wins (3 w/trend) 0 losses
IB - 6 wins (3 w/ trend) 0 losses


17 trades in 5 years lol... that's only 3 per year (it is only one pair...)

But 88% wins, and most wins were 4-5 times bigger than the losses. Decent at first glance.

profit taking

idea: take profit just before the next round number...

interesting stats there clarkson . 3 trades in one year lol. i dont think i could do that.

you still keen on only playing pa at rounds to?

Yeah remember that was only one pair.... watch 10 or 20 pairs (I have 29) and that is 30-60-90 trades per year... (2-7 per month)

I'd rather have less trade with more success! And on top of that, this was a quick run thru, not a daily in depth analysis. There could be more.


(also... my stats are one pair... more research needs to be done.

I'm actually thinking about FX Tester, it's still on sale til tomorrow (xmas) I might grab it.

and yes PA at rounds, altho there are some other big levels you can play em too. (Tls and MAs and stuff)