A fluid approach to trading

JCP,

Is it possible to put the Mechnical Part of your strategy in words? I tried to infer the rules of your trading from Fig. 1 but it was still baffling.


Keep up the good work buddy.

Hey there, I think you still have my Skype, I'm on now, it may be easier to communicate that way?

Meanwhile, to try and answer your question, I really don't have any rules in writing and don't trade mechanically at all. I have basic guidelines and a basic system that guides me as I scroll through charts daily looking for a set up for an entry. I can certainly show you this setup and will get together some charts with notes when I have a moment. Basically the important side of what I am doing is just managing open positions, whether positive or negative. I do not use hard stops, but rather choose to exit a negative position when it is clearly gone against me, or when I am significantly up for the week or month and can "bury" the loss. I try to maintain a positive floating equity to buffer any bad trades, and hope to get to a point where I can hang onto many more trades and increase this floating equity along side my balance.

Ok, here's my end of month status w/floating equity, ect...

Ok, so here's one particular setup I look for where I base my entries on my ultimate target profit area, so the further it goes from this area the more my TP increases, ideally being patient and waiting for a few bars to close before it passes point A in the chart below is most beneficial. I won't just trade any setup that looks like this as I like to be sure that I am either going with the trend or that the weekly/Daily is also extremely extended, giving me the opportunity to "recover" my position if need be (meaning add to it) The chart on the first post kind of eludes to this idea, while sharing some of the other approaches as well.

More to come...

Here's another setup I look for, this is an example from a trade I posted on page 6

Another area I look for, specifically longer term, this would be where I'd like to place entries that would add to my floating equity

Open Position 74

NZD/USD
6/2/14
Buy
10k
0.8453

I prefer to wait until it reaches 0.8494 before jumping in long. We will see...

Open Position 75

EUR/CAD
6/3/14
Sell
5k
1.4887

Close Position 66

GBP/NZD
6/3/14
1.9842
+$68.00

Been too busy to post for a bit, updating some short term trades I opened and closed without posting charts:

78 EUR/JPY 6/3/14 6/3/14 Sell 2.0 139.8500 139.7500 10 +$19.00
79 GBP/JPY 6/4/14 6/4/14 Sell 2.0 172.00 171.9500 5 +$10.00
80 GBP/JPY 6/4/14 6/4/14 Sell 2.0 171.98 171.9200 6 +$12.00

Open Position 76

AUD/NZD
6/3/14
Sell
0.5
1.0988

Open Position 77

GBP/JPY
6/3/14
Sell
2.0
171.52

Open Position 78


CAD/CHF
6/4/14
Buy
1.0
0.8197

Close Position 74

NZD/USD
6/4/14
0.8445
-$7.00

It's been a long time, about 10 years since posting in my journal here. I miss it and I'm glad I posted it here, it's good to be able to reflect and see what I went through and achieved, as this was a lifetime ago!

Much has changed, the journey for me is now going on to about 25 years, it's taken me that long, 10's of thousands of hours, giving up I don't know how many times. It's embarrassing to admit, but not really, I don't get that embarrassed about much anymore. I'm a different person, but still the same. My approach has some similarities to my early days, but I am much more honest about it.

I am a horrible trader, at least in the sense that everyone else seems to put it, I realize now that it makes no difference in the end result. Consistency, management, discipline, day in and day out is all that matters. This is real work.

Rules, I no longer have them, they hold me back, they stress me out. Placing trades and managing them, and have fun doing it is all I need to do. If there's no skin in the game, then nothing will ever happen. My years of pain in this game remind me what consequences await me every time I place an order. I trust myself now.

I use charts and a couple of indicators as a guide, but could just as well do without them, managing positions is where the work is at

I like extremes, and these can be a bit subjective, so I allow myself the ability to be subjective. I find the trend has not been much of a friend to me so I do mostly fight it, but the trend can be my edge at times.

I primarily enter all initial positions using options. Options on Currencies, Futures, Indexes, and Equities. I occasionally own the underlying asset when necessary.

Much has changed, but I will say that the subject of this thread still very much represents my approach. It is a fluid and adaptable path I am on, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Looking forward to sharing ideas and meeting other traders!

I like to trade extremes, on all timeframes. An entry I took today off the 1H on SBUX, looking for a pullback to 74.50

Long 71 Call (7/19 exp) for 2.55, will look to sell at 3.50

Entered Gold (2380/2385) Call Credit Spread for 2.40, expires Friday July 12. Goal is to close for .40 or lower. If goes against me, I may roll it out and up.

Short term SBUX opened.

Long 72 Call (7/19 exp) for 1.51, will look to sell around 1.80-2.00, or end of day whichever comes first