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  • #681
  • Feb 12, 2016 8:01am Feb 12, 2016 8:01am
Quoting cat
{quote} You are right, that doesn't help anyone at all, so please, in future, if you are going to tell people how many pips you are making, how about providing an explanation of how you are doing it for the benefit of everybody, because without it, such posts are pointless and belong to the interactive trading threads.
Agreed. Won't happen again.

All trades were long, using the 2b pattern as the setup and buy stop orders for trigger of the trade. I use 5min and 1 min candle charts for overview and primarily 4 range charts overlayed with heikenashi for entry. I use a 10 point stop and 20 point target.

I trade variations of the 2b pattern. I have found a set TP of +20 works well with the DAX even in trending moves where I miss out on lots more points but the frequency of my setups make up for it and most importantly I don't want to try to pick the best exit point or trail a stop. My aim is for consistent chunks out of the market. It's working for me at the moment. Basically fading the boundaries of price action.
  • #682
  • Feb 12, 2016 8:34am Feb 12, 2016 8:34am
Quoting Sakk
{quote} Agreed. Won't happen again. All trades were long, using the 2b pattern as the setup and buy stop orders for trigger of the trade. I use 5min and 1 min candle charts for overview and primarily 4 range charts overlayed with heikenashi for entry. I use a 10 point stop and 20 point target. I trade variations of the 2b pattern. I have found a set TP of +20 works well with the DAX even in trending moves where I miss out on lots more points but the frequency of my setups make up for it and most importantly I don't want to try to pick the best exit...
  • #683
  • Feb 12, 2016 8:59am Feb 12, 2016 8:59am
Quoting Sakk
{quote} I was going to make a post on todays market action on the DAX but decided not too as it wouldn't be of any benefit to anyone rather more of a cheeky remark but after reading Medici's post I just had too. So here it is........ Who needs a trending market when you can take out 100+ points with 8 long only trades in the first two hours of London Open ;-) A great trader once said he played "ping pong" in the morning session and was done for the day and it stuck in my head ever since ps. He might even have posted on this thread ...
Oh, I know you're on your new patio enjoying the very late and sunny autumn evening with too many beers, dreaming about making 100 points nothing else...

Anyhow, I thought I'd illustrate the kind of opportunities you are talking about. See chart, and recall the 2B pattern discussed above. Called failure break in the book by Adam Grimes. In an accumulation phase they're, kind of, local support levels verified by short-term price action.
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  • #684
  • Feb 12, 2016 11:03am Feb 12, 2016 11:03am
Quoting cat
{quote} Thanks for that medici, I'll watch it this weekend.
You're welcome. And I appreciate the abundance of experience that comes through in everything your write

The interview posted was meant to deter anyone who dreams about the algo/EA that will print money for them. To build an algo, that you can leave unsupervised while enjoying other things, requires some serious knowledge and insight - far beyond what you find on public forums.

Quote
This what i always try to impress upon traders with less experience of the markets than you and I, though I think you have more than I do, and that is that the lessons we do learn can come only from experience, they cannot come through a trading course or manual, that there are no short cuts in this business even though so many people continually look for them.

Thank you. While I may have more experience, measured in years, yours may be more thorough and capable. No point in comparing, I think.

As to professional training courses, none turn you into and independent and consistently profitable trader - with the exception of those that teach you one single method for one or a couple of assets. This leaves you very vulnerable when, in a few years or sooner, the method stops working, because it will. Then there are the courses that give you a thorough grounding in a syllabus similar to the content of Adam Grimes' book. Might be worthwhile if you can spend the time and money. Last but not least, most professional trading courses are worth wasting time on. You really need to look for the needle in the haystack.


Quote
Traders out there who are frustrated because they still fail to make money even after two of three years of trading need not feel depressed or dejected because in reality they are probably only 50%, if that, of the way towards gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to make something as difficult as trading the markets into a full time profession. Few people realize this or even want to accept it, somehow believing that they are the exception to the rule, and though I dare say there are people out there making good money consistently in less...

Indeed. One way of putting it would be to say that if you make good money after less than five years, then you are a faster learner than some of the best traders around.

In other words, don't count on it.

Quote
With time, those who stay the course evolve into the people they need to become to be successful traders, not people who win all the time, but people who have adapted fully to the requirements of the market, with all its vicissitudes and uncertainty, just like life in many ways, but without life's forgiving nature for those who are naive and unprepared.

An absolutely essential point - trading is a journey of transformation. And that transformation doesn't happen without serious challenges and significant discomfort. Yet so many come to the markets expecting the exact opposite.

For those who doubt us, when we harp on about this, take a look at what a pro with more than 20 years experience on Wall Street has to say: http://adamhgrimes.com/blog/traders-...heros-journey/
  • #685
  • Feb 12, 2016 1:00pm Feb 12, 2016 1:00pm
Something happened this afternoon which I want to share here on my thread, not that it's got anything to do with trading, but because it is always worth remembering that in life, we never know what lies around the corner. Each and every one of us should strive to relish every single day that we are fortunate enough to walk upon this earth, and to have what we have, because tomorrow, it could all disappear.

I've copied this from my Facebook page :

I went to collect Wil ( my ten year old son ) from karate after school today at 4pm, and as usual, he was one of the last to leave the hall...too laid back sometimes for his own good, just like his Dad. Suddenly there was a terrifically loud crash as one of the massive lights on the ceiling of the gymnasium/dining room came crashing to the ground with glass flying everywhere. Wil was over on the other side of the room, and I was waiting just outside the door. Just 5 minutes earlier, there had been parents and children standing around right where the light fell, and just 10 minuted earlier, the hall was packed with children doing Karate, as it had been for most of the day with kids doing sports classes and eating lunch, with tables placed directly beneath the light.

I picked up one of the long, sharp metal sheets moments after it came down, and I reckoned it weighed several kilos. Certainly falling from that height it could have easily killed anyone standing or sitting beneath it. As if by some miracle, no one was at the time, though the two karate instructors and a few people who had yet to leave, were just feet away.

Apparently, the lights, of which there must be twenty or so in rows, have been there since the 1950s. They will now all have to be checked, and if it wasn't for the fact that it's half term next week, I'm sure the school would have had to close on Monday at least.

That this happened after the children had left the school, and just minutes after most parents had already left with their kids from Karate, is indeed incredibly lucky, perhaps even a miracle. It could have been so so much worse!
  • #686
  • Feb 12, 2016 1:18pm Feb 12, 2016 1:18pm
Quoting cat
Something happened this afternoon which I want to share here on my thread, not that it's got anything to do with trading, but because it is always worth remembering that in life, we never know what lies around the corner. Each and every one of us should strive to relish every single day that we are fortunate enough to walk upon this earth, and to have what we have, because tomorrow, it could all disappear. I've copied this from my Facebook page : I went to collect Wil ( my ten year old son ) from karate after school today at 4pm, and as usual, he...
Count your blessing on a fortunate escape.

Whenever something unexpected happens that could have been harmful to you (directly or indirectly), you should give something to charity. I was brought up to do that. Just passing it on. Have a great weekend.
None the wiser!
  • #687
  • Feb 12, 2016 1:54pm Feb 12, 2016 1:54pm
Quoting FxClown
{quote} Count your blessing on a fortunate escape. Whenever something unexpected happens that could have been harmful to you (directly or indirectly), you should give something to charity. I was brought up to do that. Just passing it on. Have a great weekend.
I most definitely Will. You too pal
  • #688
  • Feb 13, 2016 2:44am Feb 13, 2016 2:44am
When people vibrates at higher frequencies attract positiveness and also in bad situations like this one they usually get out without damages
  • #689
  • Feb 13, 2016 4:51am Feb 13, 2016 4:51am
Quoting strongtrader
When people vibrates at higher frequencies attract positiveness and also in bad situations like this one they usually get out without damages
Yes, perhaps there is something in that, positive energy is powerful indeed, and who knows, maybe the energy created by all those beautiful children prevented that light from falling down earlier when the school was full?
  • #690
  • Feb 13, 2016 5:10am Feb 13, 2016 5:10am
That last post I just made in answer to strongtrader referred back to a critically important point - that of positive energy. Don't worry, I'm not about to launch into a long sermon on the importance on PMA, but believe me when I say that without it, you are on a hiding to nothing in this business.

When you are frustrated, depressed, confused, as every trader will be at times on the long learning curve, it is very difficult to remain positive, to see a clear way ahead, but if any trader tries to trade a live account when they are feeling negative, overly- burdened by the pressures trading exacts on an individual, then the results will almost always match that negativity, making it even worse.

Whatever you do, try to maintain a positive mental attitude to your life. and to your trading. How you do this is up to you, but I and anyone else can assure you that as a trader, remaining positive throughout your journey will shorten that journey towards success considerably. Succumbing to the inevitable stresses attached to becoming a profitable full time trader by allowing yourself to wallow in negativity will dramatically shorten your journey towards failure.
  • #691
  • Feb 13, 2016 1:15pm Feb 13, 2016 1:15pm
Some days ago a dear friend of mine sent me the picture below.
My first thought has been that since the ancient times we made an unbelievable technological progress but human mind has been conditioned to an equally unbelievable regressive process.
This is what a great man was thinking 400years ago and, I'm sure, today, in the year 2016, very few people will be able to understand the power of Giordano Bruno's sentence
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Here is the translation in english:

"whether we like it or not , we are the cause of ourselfs.
Being born in this world , we fall into the illusion of our senses;
we believe in what appears, we ignore that we are blind and deaf .
So we are gripped with fear and forget that we are divine ,
we can change the course of events .
It is not the matter that generates thought ,
is the thought that creates matter."
  • #692
  • Feb 14, 2016 6:02am Feb 14, 2016 6:02am
Quick word about risk, which I know has been talked about above, but no harm in referring back to it again. In my opinion, risk per trade should be no more than 1-2% of your account. As most traders begin live trading with a pretty small account - I opened my first account with £100, then they can only trade a micro-account with 0.10 lot sizes if they are to remain within this risk level. Any trader risking more than 5% of their account size, before they have a well tried and tested strategy with plenty of live trading experience under their belt, will almost certainly blow their account in a very short time.

FXCM offers a pretty good micro-account, and there are of course others, but I cannot stress the importance of keeping your risk small, at all times, and managing that risk with cast iron rules which must never be broken, ie, widening your stop when the price starts moving against you - the biggest mistake in the book and the surest way to blow your account in one moment of madness.
  • #693
  • Feb 14, 2016 6:53am Feb 14, 2016 6:53am
Quoting medici
{quote} Oh, I know you're on your new patio enjoying the very late and sunny autumn evening with too many beers, dreaming about making 100 points nothing else... {image}
you got the dreaming part right....I was dreaming of trading with 10 full lots and the overly expensive custom guitars I can buy with it...

And thank you for going the extra mile and explaining the 2b setups. I now feel guilty so for the others reading this thread I have marked up my charts with the actual trades but overlayed onto a 1min chart as it is much clearer to visualise where I'm entering on a larger perspective as opposed to my 4 range chart which you can get lost in all the noise.

The chart is self explanatory.

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  • #694
  • Feb 14, 2016 7:29am Feb 14, 2016 7:29am
Quoting cat
Quick word about risk - the biggest mistake in the book and the surest way to blow your account in one moment of madness.
Bam!! "in one moment of madness" When your logical part of your brain switches off because your emotional part of your brain kicks in and you let it completely takeover, in that one moment of madness you're are on the surest way to blow your account!!

I've repeated that line three times = 3 x of madness because I've been there three times and not so small accounts either. It's extremely gut wrenching, a massive hit to the ego and difficult as hell to get back up and go again.

For me it usually came after a very profitable period and became less disciplined. This led to small mistakes, which led to more mistakes and the cycle continued until that one moment of madness.

I can point out some of the obvious reasons that I am consciously aware of but I think there are far more deeper reasons as to why I let it happen. This internal kind of search is difficult and I don't know whether it's possible to fully discover the truth of ourselves but I've had some great teachings and learning's from a mentor who to me is inspirational. I thank him greatly.
  • #695
  • Edited 2:22pm Feb 14, 2016 2:10pm | Edited 2:22pm
Quoting Sakk
{quote} I think there are far more deeper reasons as to why I let it happen.
I believe these deeper reasons have to do with our sense of purpose or mission. Are we trading just to make money, or do we have a purpose beyond that?

Alexander the Great didn't fight to win battles, he fought to turn the defeated foes into allies.

Aeschylus, the great Greek tragedian, who devoted his career to writing more than 90 plays - for which he was, and still is, greatly honoured - composed his own epitaph:

Quote
Aeschylus, the Athenian, Euphorion's son, is dead. This tomb in Gela's cornlands covers him. His glorious valour the hallowed field of Marathon could tell, and the longhaired Persians had knowledge of it.

There is mention of family, land, and warrior valour, but nothing about what he dedicated most of his life to...Hmm

I believe it is essential to have a purpose that goes beyond not just what you do, but beyond yourself.

Every corporation is measured on its profits, but they all have a mission statement - the business is not just about the money, or about its own success and well-being.

So if you are treating your trading like a business, shouldn't you have what every successful business has - a mission statement, i.e. a why, or a purpose, which is beyond money, and beyond yourself?

If you are trading to pay the bills and feed the family, let that be your purpose, not the money-making. And while that would be a purpose, I'd advise you to think bigger. And also to have a grand vision, which is also behind every successful business.

There's a good book, NLP: The New Technology of Achievement, with a whole chapter called Discovering Your Mission - called so because it requires the kind of difficult internal search you anticipate.

Trading just to make money is an ego-trip, and the ego will get in the way sooner or later. Dreaming about custom guitars may be the first step towards the next drawdown.

Quoting Sakk
This internal kind of search is difficult and I don't know whether it's possible to fully discover the truth of ourselves
Because trading is so individual and isolated - it's just you and the market - the purpose of a trading career becomes intimately related to the more difficult question of life purpose. And lack of life purpose may impact your trading negatively.

As Steven Pressfield says in The Warrior Ethos (which I read today):

Quote
The hardest thing in the world is to be ourselves.

Who are we? Our family tells us, society tells us, laws and customs tell us. But what do we say? How do we get to that place of self-knowledge and conviction where we are able to state without doubt, fear or anger, 'This is who I am, this is what I believe, this is how I intend to live my life.'?

That is how 'big' one must think, I believe.
  • #696
  • Feb 14, 2016 2:19pm Feb 14, 2016 2:19pm
Quoting cat
Quick word about risk, which I know has been talked about above, but no harm in referring back to it again. In my opinion, risk per trade should be no more than 1-2% of your account.
For the sake of conversation, let me ask a few questions.

 

  1. When George Soros "bet the ranch" on breaking Bank of England, was that wrong?
  2. When algo folks let their babies trade at "quarter-Kelly", which in both your and my case would be significantly more than 2%, is that ill-advised?
  3. What if I withdraw half the funds in my trading account, and put them in a savings account? Should I halve my trading size?
  4. What is the evidence behind 1-2%? Anecdotal, statistical, or something else? And you mention 5%. Where did that come from?


All asked in greatest respect, for the benefit of the readers who may ask the relevant question "Why?".

  • #697
  • Feb 14, 2016 4:37pm Feb 14, 2016 4:37pm
I think there is too much emphasys on money management; there is no fixed rule about it, it depends on many variables: accont balance, how much money you can lose, how solid is your trading method.
Most often money management is used to compensate a mediocre system or method, or to compensate a lack of discipline or a wrong mindset.
If your mindset is not correct there is no money management could rescue you from yourself; if you have no idea of what you are doing a good moeny management can only prolong the agony of your account.
The only fixed rule of money management, in my opinion, is mindset and common sense.
  • #698
  • Feb 14, 2016 8:24pm Feb 14, 2016 8:24pm
1% risk on 10pips sl, 5% risk on 50pips sl, 10% risk on 100pips sl, 30% risk on 300pips sl. When do we choose which to apply? or is it a standard rigid setting? Are they the same or they are not? Are these metrics maintained across all assets and under all market conditions?
  • #699
  • Feb 15, 2016 1:21am Feb 15, 2016 1:21am
We can all do the maths guys. We are all free to choose what we risk per trade, 1%, 50%, it's up to us. My 1-2% rule keeps my account ticking over nicely and pays the bills and that's the way I like it - I am no George Soros, neither would I want to be. Admittedly, if one has a very small account, as one should during the early days, it's going to be difficult if not impossible to support yourself and/or a family, which is why reaching the level where you can is a long , slow process, and why it's also necessary to have a supplementary income of some form, at least at first. This is just my recommendation, and I may well raise this a percentage point or so this year.
  • #700
  • Feb 15, 2016 1:28am Feb 15, 2016 1:28am
Quoting cat
We can all do the maths guys. We are all free to choose what we risk per trade, 1%, 50%, it's up to us. My 1-2% rule keeps my account ticking over nicely and pays the bills and that's the way I like it - I am no George Soros, neither would I want to be. Admittedly, if one has a very small account, as one should during the early days, it's going to be difficult if not impossible to support yourself and/or a family, which is why reaching the level where you can is a long , slow process, and why it's also necessary to have a supplementary income of...
I use 0.5% personally per trade. But this can add up quickly. Great comments!
If you are good at something, never do it for free--Joker
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