Strat's Long Term Stress Free Trading

For those of you just joining the thread and maybe for some of those not to the end, these posts are some of the more important ones. These posts are how to apply what is being taught.

I save every one of these along with the chart because this is the thought process of trading PASR. These posts help me make better trading decisions.

Thanks, Strat, for posting follow-ups.

-m

G’day All

I came across this thread over the Christmas break and have now made it up to page 150. I have been feeling like a bit of a lurker, so I thought I should stick my head in and say G’day. I am getting through 5 to 6 pages an hour so I think I will be a couple or more weeks before I get through the whole thread.

Strat, I have a story similar to yours…I am also an ME and I have been “trying” to trade for the last 10+ years. I haven’t quite lost the amount of money that you have, but have managed to blow a few accounts and have spent countless thousands on books, seminars DVD’s etc. Fortunately I never gave up the day job. I have also done the whole Gann thing with astrology, numerology, geometry and harmonics.

I have stopped trading for now. I have often read (including on this thread) that one should have a good think about whether trading is suited to them and would they be better off focusing there efforts elsewhere. I have thought about this, but I am just too passionate about the markets and my charts, that I can not give this away. I started this journey wanting to become a professional trader and my desire is stronger today than when I first started.

I can’t remember how I came across FF and your thread…….something must have guided me here, but I can tell you that PASR is vibrating to my “key note”. Can I please sign up to The Path of Learning and stress free trading.

Did you trade the first pin bar? or the 2nd or even the 3rd?

This pair is hovering around major R.

I am keeping my eye on it for PASR to indicate a potential long entry.

The Big Boss last month had a big BEEB (BEOB)

The Boss still looks like its in an up trend with HH and HL's.

It looks like there is a fight for control on the worker and the winner is undecided. There was a BUEB on Jan 4, but the candles are showing long wicks which indicates the buyers can't hold.

Hi All,

2010 Resolutions:
1) Trade Less
2) Be more Patience
3) Be more Discipline
4) Trade with Boss
5) Plan the trades week ahead

Or maybe another BabaG is borning!!!! Lol.

LOL - thou dost quibble with my powers of erudition?

Just another obstacle on your road to success, Danny boy

These things happen to "TEST" our resolve so you did good!

For those of you just joining the thread and maybe for some of those not to the end, these posts are some of the more important ones. These posts are how to apply what is being taught.

I save every one of these along with the chart because this is the thought process of trading PASR. These posts help me make better trading decisions.

Thanks Marcus. I guess I need to take a few steps back to explain situations like these as I just see them, take them for granted and act accordingly.

So noted for future developments.

Welcome! Where in Oz?

I came across this thread over the Christmas break and have now made it up to page 150. I have been feeling like a bit of a lurker, so I thought I should stick my head in and say G’day. I am getting through 5 to 6 pages an hour so I think I will be a couple or more weeks before I get through the whole thread.

Make sure you UNDERSTAND as well as read.

Speed is not important, UNDERSTANDING is.

Strat, I have a story similar to yours…I am also an ME and I have been “trying” to trade for the last 10+ years. I haven’t quite lost the amount of money that you have, but have managed to blow a few accounts and have spent countless thousands on books, seminars DVD’s etc. Fortunately I never gave up the day job. I have also done the whole Gann thing with astrology, numerology, geometry and harmonics.

Must be something about Mechanical Engineering then?

I have stopped trading for now. I have often read (including on this thread) that one should have a good think about whether trading is suited to them and would they be better off focusing there efforts elsewhere. I have thought about this, but I am just too passionate about the markets and my charts, that I can not give this away. I started this journey wanting to become a professional trader and my desire is stronger today than when I first started.

Suitability to a hobby or profession is very important however this is often determined by the amount of knowledge (or not) on the chosen subject. I was also at that point and tried to give up but my determination to succeed drove me on (frustratingly).

If you have the perseverance, drive, determination, will to succeed, patience and discipline and can throw away your past trading methods and accept PRICE as the only vehicle driving the markets then you are in the right place to learn to trade profitably and successfully.

Having done that you will have to deal with the 95% that does the financial damage and find out how to deal with it.

I can’t remember how I came across FF and your thread…….something must have guided me here, but I can tell you that PASR is vibrating to my “key note”. Can I please sign up to The Path of Learning and stress free trading.

Send your details by PM to Naws. He may take a while to answer as he unravels himself from the chicks (and Bond chicks) in Thailand.

It looks like there is a fight for control on the worker and the winner is undecided.


SR across all time frames are dominating this pair and its alter ego pair.

but the candles are showing long wicks which indicates the buyers can't hold.

Neither can the sellers.

Wait until the big boys start playing and then follow them

6) Have more FUN!

Thanks Strat - I am posting my thoughts/analysis more often to make sure I am understanding what is being taught. I am still waiting to make my first live trade.

I have mentioned this many times but it is so important it is worth repeating again.

Although we take our orders from the BIG BOSS and BOSS, how we look at the Worker has a profound effect on the decisions we make.

If your chart is “too close”, you will only be looking at the near term trend which more often than not, will be in conflict with the BOSS and BIG BOSS. When we see conflict, our sub conscious plays havoc with our logical thinking and decision making.

Our sub conscious is the most untalked about, not discussed and most misunderstood in trading. While we are learning, studying and practicing we are teaching our sub conscious, we are giving it “memory” – it is our “technical analysis” memory.

When we present conflict to our sub conscious it doesn’t know what to do – we haven’t trained it to deal with conflict so it goes into a “search” state.

Who do you think it contacts when it searches?

Right, our demons, gremlins, little man in your head and the man in the mirror.

When we feed these guys with doubt and uncertainty, they take over our logical decision making and turn everything we know and believed in, upside down and inside out. This in turn, make US (you and me), a nervous, trembling wreck!

Enough of the head games.

Make sure your Worker chart shows the BIG PICTURE which is in harmony, where possible, with the BOSS and BIG BOSS.

Take the AUDCAD for example

If your Worker is too close, your sub conscious is looking at a down trend which is in conflict with your BOSS and BIG BOSS.

Zoom out on your Worker so that you can see the BIG PICTURE.

When you see PRICE at SR, this is the time to take notice and with the BIG PICTURE, BOSS and BIG BOSS in your sub conscious, zoom in to observe PA.

The last chart is OK if you click on it - think the demons, gremlins, little man in your head and the man in the mirror were taking their revenge!

Stress Free Trading

In addition to only being required to check our charts after 5pm NY close thereby saving us the mental stress and anguish of watching the one eyed monster all day long, we further reduce our stress during trade selection.

Again, both Blackeagle and myself have covered this a few times but, while learning basic PASR, you don’t need to trade until PRICE is at SR.

If you have your SR levels correctly identified and you are SEEING the big picture, then you only need to study those charts where PRICE is at or nearing SR levels.

This takes away the conflict in the decision whether to make a trade or not.

So, at 5pm NY close, open up your charts and just eyeball your charts. Ignore those where PRICE is in between SR levels and focus on those where PRICE is at or nearing SR levels.

Yes, this will REDUCE the amount of trades you make and this is GOOD.

Think about it. When PRICE is between SR levels it is in no man’s land. We expect PRICE to go to the next SR level but we know that nothing is perfect in trading and PRICE can reverse on us.

These are the HIGHER RISK trades which often are our LOSING trades. Not taking these trades will improve your win/loss ratio AND your bottom line.

But what about when we see BEOBs, BEEBs, BUOBs and BUEBs when PRICE is in between SR levels?

More thinking needed! For the lowest RISK and safest way to trade, we need these candles to be at EXTREMES, in other words at swing highs/lows in confluence with SR levels.

When these candles appear in mid – swing in between SR levels more often than not, they are the exhaustion of a move followed by a correction. When this is not the case, you will find them to be near an SR level which is not the place to trade.

These are only a few of the many components in Stress Free Trading

Strat, I totally agree with Marcus's view. Because you are experienced you may have forgotten just how helpful it is to the rest of us to have it spelt out in simple detail.

Frequently I find that what can seem obvious later, at the time just will not reveal itself. In fact it can appear completely confusing - should it be read this way? that way? which is the important element in the analysis of this particular chart? what is the significance of that particular candle in that cluster of candles?

It needs experience to push us in the right direction. I don't think this is spoon-feeding but a real help in understanding. Like Marcus I save a lot of your posts to a separate file so that I can read them through later.

I don't want to 'go over the top' with this, but you should be aware, if you aren't already, what an enormous help it is!! So thank you, and please go on doing it.

The MAGIC and BEAUTY of PASR

For anyone who doubts the value of PASR for trading

Not an indicator or MA in sight or needed

All that is needed:

SR Levels
PRICE
Knowledge of PASR

PRICE is Lord, King, Queen and Country

Trading is SIMPLE

It REALLY is THIS SIMPLE

Throw out your technical brain and just trade PRICE

Did the swing failure marked tell you anything?

Thanks Strat for the confidence boost - I'm sure it will all fall into place soon; I'm more determined than ever to succeed this year.
More great posts too - PASR - what a wonderful beauty she is!

Early on in my participation on the thread, both you and Blackeagle on separate posts told me to 'step back and look at the big picture'. I did, but I still didn't know enough to know what I was seeing.

A lot of things have started to make sense recently and I understand this post...finally. Stepping back I can see 3 monumental things.

The overall trend with it's retraces and changes
HH/LLs and their interaction with SR
The higher time frame MAs providing a smoother long term picture

Recently, I've been analyzing MAs and what they really mean as trading tools. It's a given that we don't play their crosses and the thread even provides specific ways for us to utilize them. However, what I've been looking at is WHY they mean those things (I've always been cursed with having to know how or why something works.)

WARNING: What follows may be ramble and sheer conjecture but it has always helped me to 'talk things out'.

The first thing is that we use 2 MAs. A fast one and a slow one.
The second thing is that MAs only shows the past (as we all already know).

I believe, that when a lagging indicator (a moving average) begins to react to price, it is able to show you a smoother picture of what might be coming down the pipe and to be watching for it.

The fast MA is the first indication that a change might be on it's way. When price merges with and then crosses the fast MA, it tells me market momentum is slowing and the market is either catching it's breath or unsure of where it wants to go. Reason being, when an MA begins to hook, the visual result is that price bars begin to bunch up and grow tails and shadows.

The next indication is that price and then the fast MA crosses the slow MA. Rather than being an indication to trade, this tells me that momentum has begun to build in that direction and thus 'more prices in that direction are likely'.

Once the slow MA begins to turn in the same direction, this shows that price has built up enough momentum to impact a larger average and that higher prices are even more likely. This is where the physics of once in motion it stays in motion comes into play.

As the faster MA now begins to pull away from the slower MA, this is simply a smoother way of visualizing steadily increasing prices and that higher prices are now even more likely to follow. Furthermore, momentum (now being a function of the distance between the 2 MAs) is increasing.

The rubber band effect I now see as really just a retrace or wobble where the market is catching it's breath...the MA just helps you to see it as such.

When you see an MA acting as support or resistance you have a combination of self fulfilling prophecy, since traders use them, and a simple indication of momentum by the angle of the MA. But the beauty of it is that you can use them as such.

So to sum all of this up as it relates to the worker, boss and big boss and why the higher time frames rule the lower:

If price has been going in a direction so long that it is able to move the 50 SMA on the big boss, then it's momentum is the equivalent of a freight train. Don't try to stand in front of it then expect it to stop and suddenly go the other way...even if it's going slow. This is why the big boss tells the boss what to do.

The boss is more sensitive to movement than the big boss but is still a city bus. Don't fight it. Also note that a city bus doesn't argue with a train. We've all seen the videos of what happens to the ones that do.

The worker does what the bosses say because (in relation to the MAs):
As price heads in the general trend direction, it retraces and changes...these oscillations have an overall impact in a direction on the big boss MAs. A very slow one. Monthly is is the ultimate price smoother and why you use it and it's MAs as the big boss.

So, if I see momentum decreasing in the big boss (MAs getting closer together or the fast MA beginning to hook and price is crossing it), this an indication that the overall trend, while still intact, might be at a pause because price is now between the MAs. Pay attention to SR close by.

What you will see on the boss as a result, is that weekly price is showing good headway in that direction already. Pay attention to SR close by.

STEPPING BACK on the worker will show that same picture but with all the wiggles, wobbles and retraces that are tradeable. Look at the HH/LL in relation to SR and interpret them accordingly. If they are at SR, do your PA analysis and trade accordingly in the direction of the trend.

---end of ramble.

This only part of what I've learned thus far from this thread but I believe it to be an important part. I needed to share this in visible form because it helps me cement what I've learned. I suppose in part this is also why you eventually can get by without using MAs at all.