Birth of a trader

You've been trading CL, 6E and TF. Are you finding the price action is consistent in these different markets or do they each have their own "personality" ? Put another way, would you be better off learning/trading one market for now ?

I don't know the answer but for me i'm just focused on NQ until i figure it out. (actually not trading recently due to work)

That 2nd trade where price broke hard off the highs then you bought support- do you have other trades or examples where this set up worked ?
 
Quote from jas_in_hbca:

You've been trading CL, 6E and TF. Are you finding the price action is consistent in these different markets or do they each have their own "personality" ? Put another way, would you be better off learning/trading one market for now ?

I don't know the answer but for me i'm just focused on NQ until i figure it out. (actually not trading recently due to work)

That 2nd trade where price broke hard off the highs then you bought support- do you have other trades or examples where this set up worked ?
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I traded CL for over a year, and had a lot of success with it last spring. I was killing it for 3 months. In hindsight I can see that my success was due entirely to newbie luck. My trading was completely indicator-based. It wasn't until the late spring/early summer of last year when the indicator started failing and I went into the indicator spiral, then embarked on my attempt at price action trading.

Recently I swallowed my pride and gave up CL for now. Perhaps I will be better off by only trading one market, but I'm going to keep doing TF and 6E. Sometimes I find that I'm focusing so hard on one chart that I miss setups in the other one, so it's almost like I am only trading one market at a time.

I do think that all three of those markets behave in a similar fashion with regard to respecting S/R levels. However, I'm certainly no expert.

My setup is a basic pullback. I identify a trend, then wait for a pullback. I identify my entry by waiting for a new pivot to form. The other requirement is a with-trend candle. Sometimes the pivot is formed by the with-trend candle. The exact entry depends on how far away the close of the with-trend candle is to the bottom of the pivot. Usually I'll move up 7 ticks from the pivot for an 8 tick risk, then wait for a retracement. If the distance is 10 ticks or less, I 'll put a buy/sell stop in place beyond the with-trend candle and let price action fill the order.

I wasn't bothered as much about buying near the HOD as I was about how far from the EMA price was. The violent move down was strange. It happened simultaneously in 6E at the exact same time. Maybe a news event? Who knows. I know markets can be correlated, but that was over the top.
 
Trade #1
This trade went well. I followed my rules by taking a with-trend entry. Didn't move my stop too soon and let it play out. +1

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Trade #2
Less happy about this one. After price failed to go lower, it made a put up. Got in on the pullback to the first leg. However price had made a double top before pulling back, and there didn't seem to be a target in site. I didn't give the trade enough time to work. Moved my stop too soon and missed my 16 tick target. +1 tick.

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Had to knock off early.

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Bad day. Totally ignored my plan and passed on winner after winner. Managed to talk myself out of each of them. Only 1 trade for BE+1, and I spent so much time arguing with myself I got a worse entry by 2 ticks.

Way too many distractions today. I'm involved in a lawsuit and have to gather docs, and my son is having his Eagle Court of Honor this weekend, so I've been doing a lot of planning for it. I'm not using these distractions as an excuse, because I saw every entry and even marked them on my chart in real time. Just didn't take them. Made entries in my psycho journal that may be useful to my therapist someday.

I think I'm going to make an appointment with a doctor to see about getting my gender changed. Maybe I'll be happier as the pussy I'm turning into.
 
Frank,

With the amount of experience I have, I learned long ago, pick one market and only trade that market, otherwise you will never learn the personality of that market, and when your account starts going up, add contracts not instruments.

You either got to be a sim trader or real time trader at beginning of the day, dancing back and forth is pointless. But one of the biggest areas I think you should be concerned is you are so lost after you place the trade, which really tells me you don't have good rules in place that have been extensively backtested. You are just handing over your account to others, day after day after day. You think you know where to enter, know where the stop goes, you seem tentative on trailing the stops and no clue about targets AT the time of entry. And you don't understand volume.

When I use to teach, students were never allowed to trade unless they did profitable sim profits 13 out 15 days with min of $100 a day.

Each of the three markets you are attempting to trade, CL, 6E and TF have very different personalities, and all three of them are defined markets, meaning, if you enter wrong, most of the time getting out at breakeven is doubtful and getting out at plus one is a gift for a breakeven stop cause of constant slippage. Emini Nasdaq is a sloppy market, it often gives opportunities to get a tic if you enter wrong.

Indicators don't stop working, but many believe once something works, it will not change, methods always needs tweaking due to volatility and experience, either expanding or contraction. Certainly not going to risk the same during chop as you would on range expansion.
 
Decided to take Handle's advice. Focused on the Euro today.

Trade #1
Market was in a nice down trend all morning. Waited until after the news and tried to short the close of the 06:18 bar. Filled 1 tick lower that I wanted. It was near the LOD and was waiting for a test of that. The next bar formed a double bottom with my entry bar. Hesitated moving my stop to the top of that first green candle. When the next bar didn't go lower, moved my stop to BE+2

Trade #2
Price made a HL and crossed the EMA. Got a long signal, and debated about taking it since news was in a few minutes. I thought to myself, "Not this crap again. Just take the fucking signal". I was expecting a test of the 1.4075 pivot, but wasn't patient enough. I had a hard target of 16 ticks, and when price went 15MFE and backed off, I moved my stop up to +10 to lock in something. Stopped out before the pivot was tested. +10 ticks.

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Focused again on just 1 instrument. My goal was to see if I can make a louse $100 a day.

Trade #1
Saw some support at 1.4065, then a HL at 05:30 which was right at an orange report. The next bar closed up and I entered long. The setup was valid on the 3 min chart, but looking at the 5 min chart (which I did after I entered) I realized this wasn't a great trade. Got slammed seconds after entry. -8 ticks.

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Trade #2
Got a couple of failed long breakouts above the EMA. The 07:00 bar formed a gravestone doji and I entered short 1 tick under it. The trade immediately went my way, and I was sorely tempted to move my target to 10 ticks to break even on the day. Resisted the urge and was rewarded with +16 ticks.

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At this point I decided to be a spectator.

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Quote from frank8800:

I think I'm going to make an appointment with a doctor to see about getting my gender changed. Maybe I'll be happier as the pussy I'm turning into.
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Was this said with a big grin on your face as a joke or in a depressed manner? :)
 
Quote from Laissez Faire:

Was this said with a big grin on your face as a joke or in a depressed manner? :)
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I was feeling a little frustrated, but it was a joke :p

My life is too wonderful to get depressed, but I do get angry and disappointed from time-to-time.
 
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