Search results

I should probably clarify this. I was at war with myself. There was a battle going on between what I wanted to do and what I knew that I should do. At this point there was no long trade in my mind; it was either short (fight the market) or no short (don't fight the market). Thankfully I...

I came back to see how the market would close. What I see frustrates me. My ability to see things in the tape (if not just a series of coincidences) far exceeds my ability to trade. It is so unbelievably frustrating. It's like I'm trying to duplicate a photograph by painting it from memory...

This weekend my confidence about my theory continued to build to almost scary levels. Sunday night I wrestled with taking a position trade all night; but decided that my confidence was too high (I wouldn't be able to accept a loss). I forced myself not to trade until 9:45 EST because I wanted...

Sorry. Next time I will use a private message (I just want to take this small opportunity to wrap this up in the journal). You were one of the posters to my journal that I couldn't quite get a handle on. I couldn't justify taking any of your suggestions until I knew where you were coming...

Since you are always advising me, I thought that I'd return the favor. It seems to me that you prefer the role of mentor/teacher to that of trader. It also seems to me that you are too risk averse for trading. Trading is the business of managing risks, not avoiding them. I could see where...

I think that Friday was a preparation day (or an inflection point depending on how you look at it). In the tape I could see that there was a lot of positions (long and short) being accumulated (this was most evident around 2:00 EST although I didn't realize it at the time). There are always a...

My problem is that instead of getting out of the snow when I know that I should, I'll think about how last time they came by five minutes after I left. Then I'll stay another five minutes; only this time I'll be just a little bit colder. Then five becomes ten, ten becomes twenty. At this...

I appreciated your post very much. I was wondering, could you please elaborate on this point? I am interested to hear what you think about this statement; specifically what was your first impression and/or initial reaction? Thank you.

I should note that a lot of these issues never really came up before. Here is what I attribute that to. The better my tape reading skills become, the more I realize how bad a trader I really am. Before in my ineptitude, it was easy to explain any poor preformance by using the typical trader...

You may be on to something. Tonight I realized that this is a source of my problems. Making money trading is not difficult for me. What I struggle with is that many times in order to make money (or more accurately maximize profits) I must take trades that I feel are not the right idea. Today...

I've been trusting the tape and it's been signaling down for several days. It has been doing so in such a way that I couldn't ignore it and subsequently have been holding a position trade. About once every three months I get a feeling about a position trade, and I usually take it (most of the...

I would like to apologize for lashing out at dbphoenix yesterday; I overreacted. I was upset that on a day where I was overcoming some issues that I have struggled with in the past, he chose to focus on the negative. I am actually a little suprised that his post angered me as much as it did...

I wasn't going to respond to this post but I feel compelled to do so. Is this post supposed to be constructive? Even the very best traders make bad choices and bad trades. A good trader will always make good decisions that outweigh (not necessarily outnumber) the bad. Furthermore, what...

I agree that this is still one area that I need to work on. I tend to be a very logical person, and even though my gut knows the market is going higher, my brain doesn't want to let me participate. I still have enough sense not to hold these types of countertrend scalps very long (both...

True. However, at the time of my post I hadn't had sufficient time to be able to make a sound judgement on the situation. I think that in stressful emotional situations people often say things or draw conclusions that they later realize may have been incorrect. I understood the positive and...

There's quite a bit to talk about today. Late last night, after I had a chance to cool down, I was thinking about what happened. I was really mad at myself, because at this point I am too good a trader to voluntarily let that kind of stuff happen. I was thinking about the times that this...

The pain I feel right now is overwhelming. Trade 1 (SLD 1281 BOT 1276) This was a trade that I found via tape reading. I was looking for 1270 NDX. When it was at 78X78.5, I was looking for one last spike downward. But at 1276, that 5 point profit looked so good that I couldn't resist...

Thank you very much, this post was just what I needed after a very discouraging day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I am really disappointed with myself today. I saw that the tape was pointing higher. Believe it or not, I was convinced that the force that had been trying to hold the market down yesterday afternoon had been lifted, and that the NDX was headed for 1270. I saw an entry at 1256.5 at...

I mentioned being able to keep my cool much better than usual. One thing I attribute this to is taking that stupid P&L thing off my screen. I never really paid much attention to it anyway, but on July 18 I caught myself looking at it at critical times. This is one of the major reasons I...