Cutting the cord with M1 scalps

A counter trend. A simple chart. Back to Mongo style, with help from a M5 Stoch and 2 MAs. I really need to get comfortable with the continuation trade!

Was shooting for the BRN, but am satisfied to take the 4 points. We will see if it makes it.

It made it to the BRN.

Ouch. Let it go to far against me for a scalp. We never really had HH or HL and we were in a decided downtrend with USD strength. I was looking for the long based on how far it had dropped and as fast as it dropped. I guess, considering Mongo method, I would have looked to see if it ever hit the midquarter after breaching the quarter and it never did. That may have been a clue that I disregarded.

My first GBPUSD trade. I hit this one correctly, going with the change in momentum. The chart is a little busy, but I actually use all that is on it for now. The trade was long at 8:52 and out 2 minutes later. I closed it because I was already late for work.

2 lunch trades. a loss and a slightly bigger win. Both on the chart.

EURAUD on counter trade. I think it may go to the quarter line at 1.41250, but, this was a 2% trade, and I am good with banking that. As I am typing, it busted the quarter line. Oh well. hindsight is 20/20 and greed has killed me so many times recently. I have had 1% in the account and decided to stay in the trade, because "it will certainly keep going my direction", only to be slapped with a losing trade a few minutes later. No more of that.

On another note. I have sent out hundreds of resumes and finally had a first phone interview with a local company for a good position that has a great base salary plus incentives on top of that. I had a second phone interview yesterday that stared this way, "We have several other candidates that have more experience with what we need". I have heard that so many times. I pressed a bit and found out from the search firm I was interviewing with that companies are really only looking at the past 10 years or so of experience. For me, that is my real estate business and being a car salesman. Her advice was that I will probably be in sales for good now. That was a kick to the jimmy!! I do not like my job and she said, you are probably stuck in that industry. I have been here for 2.5 years and the longer I sit here, the lower my chance of getting out. Wow...that sucks! I guess God is in control and can get me out no matter what, as long as it is where He needs me. I guess the search continues....

In the meantime, I resolved that Forex may be my only shot out. I will have to do it on my own because corporate America does not seem to want me. I guess I am alright with that. It is daunting however and will take a long time. Unfortunately, time is the commodity I have least of.

Good to see you persevering! Nice work my friend. Keep @ it!

Thank you for your encouragement and for watching the progress, if that is what you want to call it. LOL

I am a pretty stubborn person, just ask my wife. I will stick with it and persevere, especially now, in light of the search exec's comments as noted above.

I wouldn't worry too much about the search executive. Check out 48days.com. Guy wrote a book about getting the job you want in 48 days. That's his website. He lays out a plan on how to tackle the job search. Read the book a number of years ago when I was in the market for a job. Some might think it's hokey, but I've seen it work first hand. Good luck!

Hi Capstone

Love your first post you sound like me!! Thats my goal too to become a fulltime trader and I also believe the 1 min charts are the way forward as you quite rightly state. Haven't really read your thread or your system, so apologies for that but in my honest opinion the only way to trade the 1 minute timeframe is with the trend and the strongest trends at that too.

If you're scalping then its absolutely imperative to just look at the 1 min forget about anything higher its all history too far away from what you're after. maybe trade with the 5 min trend but thats it absolute tops!!!

Remember price can only go up or down so pick a chart where you have absolutely no doubt which way its going then wait for the perfect entry either pullback, my favourite or if you're just grabbing the momentum run then breakouts ok too.

Time of day absolutely imperative on 1 min charts too!!! Only trade market opens 2 hrs either side if you're a scalper...

Hope you don't mind me popping over and giving you my two pennies worth , but I think we're two of a kind with the same mission in life to trade fulltime on 1 minute charts..

Catch up later

Hi Clive. Welcome to my spot. Yes, we do seem to be on a similar path. You have progressed much faster than I have though. Kudos to you! I have definitely adopted your ideas and chart. I also really like Mongos quarters and mid quarters too. I am using them as a guide to take profit.

You seem to be able to take advantage of the FO and LO in your timezone as well. That is 2 AM and 3 AM for me so I sleep through them. I might have to start getting up though. I like my job less and less all the time. With your ideas and Mongos ideas, I feel close to being able to cut the cord. I do think Mongo's quarters and mid quarters will be more important when all of these runs we are seeing go away, which will happen. Your system will not perform near as well at that time, without a tweak. I am looking forward to the challenge!

Thank you Clive and Mongo.

A perfect entry untaken....It was what Mongo looks for and what Clive looks for!

Nice trade, I think any system/strategy will benefit from trading with strong trenders including Mongo's as I have found the 25 levels to be excellent break and retest entries time after time but again even better in strong trending pairs because you should get a better run for your money...

Will spend some time going through yours and Mongos strategies over the weekend

Good luck with your trading...

A trade from this morning. Not a trade I normally take because of the timing. I take my kids to school in the morning, leaving just after 7 AM, so I do not usually take a trade within 10 minutes of this because I do not want to leave the trade on while I am gone. Well, this morning I did just that. I took the sell based on a close below a support line. It was a close within 0.5 pip of the support, so not a convincing break. Anyways, it proceeded to go against me but the CCI was going overbought and it was setting up as Clive trade with a quarter just above me, so that is a Mongo entry. I let it run while I was taking the kids. It did go my way for profit as you can see. I did not get back until it was already back to BE. I took the small loss.

I am getting this and that feels good. We are in a time of high trend movement and that makes it easier. I will have to adjust when this goes away.

I played with the MAs a bit and realized I am basically back to trading my original charts! I replaced the stoch with the CCI and added the quarters, and that was it. I took away the ribbon too.

I remember the first time I had to walk away from a trade. Pretty much did the same thing, moved against me, moved for me and then moved against me and stopped me out. I came back & I shouldn't have been surprised, but for whatever reason, I was. Didn't even occur to me that all that could happen, in the matter of moments no less. Too funny. Guess I saved myself some heartburn that time!

Hi Capstone

Charts looking nice and clean, always a good sign of a good trader in my book.

Haven't had time to read your thread or system yet but promise I will at weekend so if I'm stating the obvious here thats in your strategy then I apologize profusely.

But what I see on your chart is something I use to do all the time when I was trading breakouts. I hate breakouts with a vengeance for exactly what happened to your trade... Look at your chart can you see the lovely waves it takes as it makes its way up and down your chart?? Do you notice that your entry is hanging on the bottom of a wave down??? You never even had the chance to get to BE even at say 3 pips?? This is what I use to see on my charts all the time and I'd have to sit there and sweat it out or call it a day and take the loss, only to then see it start to wave back down past my entry, bloody infuriating isn't it???

Well heres the thing that vastly improved my trading, I made myself a promise to never sell at the bottom of a wave and never buy at the top of a wave ever again!!! Still do it mind you but get mad everytime. No matter how well price is moving never ever hit it on the move, always wait for it to pullback for your entry always wait for the top of the wave to enter short and the bottom of the wave to buy. How do you know its at the top or the bottom of a wave??? Look at the CCI its really cool at identifying the waves perfectly so make it a rule the CCI's got to go overbought for you to sell and oversold for you to buy. Add the obvious only sell in downtrends ,waves rolling down, and only buy in uptrends, waves rolling up. Use the last CCI signal as a reference point for the next one and when selling only sell lower CCI signals than the last eg LH and only buy the higher CCI than the last one HL.

Now if we look at your chart again and identify the waves its pretty obvious where to enter isn't it?? Actually this is an awesome chart to demonstrate these waves on and how neatly they tie up with the CCI. If we say the entry you took is the bottom of wave 2 then look back at the overbought CCI see how it clearly identifies the top oif the last wave?? Also look back at the CCI overbought signal before it, see how this is a higher wave than the next CCI signal??? In otherwords this is a LH CCI signal than the previous one and a perfect sell opportunity. Now see how the price drops down and the CCI crosses down below the zero line so starting the wave down. Now notice that the wave down doesn't finish until the cci crosses back up over the zero line, thus telling you the next wave up is about to begin and we have reached the bottom of the current wave down. Ideal place to bank if you're a momentum banker!!!

Sorry if this is all old hat to you but it wasn't till I started to recognise these waves that my trading took off!!! Trading the waves is the secret to trading absolutely no doubt about that and only ever selling the tops and buying the bottoms is also crucial and once you add that to always trade with the trend and never against it then you're start to win more and more. On top of that you're be amazed how often price goes your way almost by magic!!

Just to come back to why I hate breakout entries with a vengeance, think about what they are??? We are told to buy at support and sell at resistance but what are breakout trades??? Yep, the exact opposite,selling at support and buying at resistance, bloody nightmare!!! I tell you now my friend when I looked at your chart and saw your entry hanging by a thread from the bottom of that wave it brought back painful memories!!! Seen it all too many times, breakouts, I F*****G hate em!!!!

If you really want to enter at that breakout wait for the breakout and enter on the retest at resistance, have a look to the right of your entry where price breaks that level, see how it immediately retests it??? Thats the only way to enter a break of support in my honest opinion.

Hope you don't mind me posting here and hopefully I haven't offended you in anyway but if so let me know and I will leave you be...

all the best Clive.

PS attached an old chart I found showing the waves perfectly matching the CCI swings...

Good post. All your points are valid and on point. What I suspect, and forgive me if I'm wrong Capstone, is that it's a huge lack of confidence and conviction. I see good looking charts as well. But also, I see hesitation. Could be wrong, but I know that when i was getting the hell kicked out of me in the market, I could see the right trade, but I was gripped with fear which would result in hesitation, which would result in chasing trades, which would result in more losses. I could be completely off base - wouldn't be the first, nor will it be the last.

Yes very true I think we've all been there, its very hard to hit the trigger on a pullback entry because price has just been going against your trade and then as it turns you have to believe you're right and hit it. Not always easy to do, especially as you say after a couple of losers.

Here's something that helped me and still does, look at the chart I just posted and notice how the CCI leads the price. Yep I know everyone says indicators lag price well have a look at the first and third waves cci signal on my chart above. Notice how the CCI candles are turning down way before the price does?? The CCI turns down as much as 3 to 4 candles before the price does. This is showing that the momentum in the price moving up is slowing down so that gives me the confidence that if price is slowing down as it approaches my level then there's every chance its going to turn. Soon as I get a colour change on my HA candle then I drag a pending order under that candle and away you go. Just find seeing that CCI turn first gives me the confidence to place that pending order or pull the trigger.

Hope that helps...

Absolutely correct Mongo. I do hesitate. I will often see the trade set up, think I should take it, then watch it proceed on without me. I really am only in front of the screen for an hour in the morning then, maybe, a half an hour before work. I am trying to catch it in these periods. I cannot wake up at 2 AM for the LO and FO, not if I want to be worth anything at work. Maybe I should try it for a week. Funny thing is, the opportunity is usually there, but I find something to distract myself so I miss it. Self sabotage I think. Maybe I need a performance coach. Nah, just need to have conviction. The confidence will come, just like it did over time at the poker table. When played for the first time not long ago with the guys I work with, they were blown away at my comfort at the table because I am generally quiet at work (weird for a car salesman huh). I get my head beat some nights, but overall my performance is good (in profit) and I love the opportunity to play again. Trading is the same.

I think combining the CCI, as Clive has done, and using the quarters, like Mongo, is a winning combination that is easy to see. In my chart above, had I taken the sell as it broke the neckline of the H and S pattern, which I did not see at the time, I would have had 2 days worth of profit! Instead, I waited for the bottom, like Clive mentioned, and had a hard time with it. The other thing I should have done was to set a take profit of 5 pips (1%), before I left. That would have hit.

I like Mongo's quarters as easily identifiable entry and exit points. I like the MA and CCI that Clive uses because it helps me with continuation trades, which I have always struggled with. I feel like I am there now, sitting at the table. I just need to put the food on my plate and enjoy the company!