Quote from BCE:
BTW how come no one told me that NoDoji had stepped away from her desk causing the second selloff before I stepped away from my desk and missed it?
I did not step away from my desk in pre-market. In fact I had just settled at my desk, noted all my levels, looked at the chart and said, "Trend is up, look for a long entry". Found a long entry and it fizzled. I still had the trade on, in fizzle mode (you can actually feel the momentum has been sucked out of your trade and you sit there with a feeling of hope, knowing deep inside it's very likely over). So I looked at the chart, price fizzling to the long side and saw signs of a 2-leg pullback to the 20 EMA. I figured, well, if it ain't going up, it's going back to the 20 EMA, good for at least a scalp, maybe more, and then I'll look look for another long entry.
(I can't re-iterate enough how important it is to use hard stops, but SOFT targets. I know there are some CL traders here on ET who use fixed targets. At least once a week there's a rogue news-based move that simply defies all the technical stuff and you don't want to take 20 or 30 ticks out of a move like that.)
Quote from Picaso:
Yeah, that's kind of weird: I used to try to anticipate, whereas Nod (as I understand it) waited for the breakout via stop; now I'm trading primarily via stops (not so much by choice as by need, due to shaky internet connections) and I think she's becoming more anticipatory... which goes to show that it's not the method, strategy or technique you use, but how well you use it.
Picaso, I'm using anticipatory entries more often, and also still using stop entries with no hesitation off the 1-min chart, or when playing pivot entries. But if there's a key breakout level in play (like price in a trend expected to make a new high or low, or an ascending/descending triangle), I like to position myself in advance of the move. There's a risk of getting shaken out, but the occasional losses I've taken while positioning myself in advance are far outweighed by the lack of slippage on entries. The key to getting successfully positioned in advance is the stop placement. A lot of head fakes during ranges, channels, triangles, and I found it best to wait longer than you think before trading. These consolidation periods seem to average between 45-60 minutes, so I don't bother positioning myself until more than 30 minutes inside a containment zone have passed.