clm outlined at the start of this journal precisely the problems faced by every trader who has defined an edge and developed a plan, and then struggles with it at the hard right edge, often for such a long time that s/he doubts hir sanity.
CL can be a bit volatile. This is why it's attractive to day traders/scalpers. However, volatile trading instruments have a tendency to bring out the worst in traders. We look at the charts at the end of the day and see all this potential for easy profits. But, as I stated earlier in this journal, "it has an uncanny way of getting you to violate your plan", because in real time there is a lot of noise in the smaller time frames that reside within your chosen trading time frame. If you trade a 5-min TF, you have to deal with 1-min noise; if you trade a 60-min TF, you have to deal with 5- or 15-min noise; and so on.
clm has very recently acquired Skype buddies for the pit hours. He'd benefit from having Skype buddies during the London session because that's his main trading time.
The best assistance he can get at this time is help taking a lot more trades, as he states clearly in his opening post to this thread.
When we pick and choose (in other words, when we're the gambler instead of the casino), we have an amazing tendency to choose the losers and skip the winners, because the market (and life in general) rewards what is difficult, and as discretionary traders we are often attracted to what "feels" easy.
A good example is from my days as a counter-trend fader. I'd form an opinion that price had gone too high and I'd short and I'd hold without a stop until it either reverted to the mean at some point or I cried uncle and bailed for a nasty loss (very rare, but nasty nonetheless). Usually there'd be a point in a strong move up where I'd literally become afraid to short and entertained thoughts of joining the crowd and just buying. That was the ideal short signal every time.
(This led me to post here on ET that when you wanted to fade a trending move, place a limit order at the price level where you planned to place your disaster stop and that's where you'd get an ideal entry for the reversion to mean. It's quite a solid strategy to this day.)
Keeping a public journal has benefits (experienced traders offer solid advice), and disadvantages (knowing you'll be posting trades/results may negatively influence your trading, and frustrated traders may post useless negative comments).
My suggestion to clm is to place on Ignore anyone who posts useless negative comments.
CL can be a bit volatile. This is why it's attractive to day traders/scalpers. However, volatile trading instruments have a tendency to bring out the worst in traders. We look at the charts at the end of the day and see all this potential for easy profits. But, as I stated earlier in this journal, "it has an uncanny way of getting you to violate your plan", because in real time there is a lot of noise in the smaller time frames that reside within your chosen trading time frame. If you trade a 5-min TF, you have to deal with 1-min noise; if you trade a 60-min TF, you have to deal with 5- or 15-min noise; and so on.
clm has very recently acquired Skype buddies for the pit hours. He'd benefit from having Skype buddies during the London session because that's his main trading time.
The best assistance he can get at this time is help taking a lot more trades, as he states clearly in his opening post to this thread.
When we pick and choose (in other words, when we're the gambler instead of the casino), we have an amazing tendency to choose the losers and skip the winners, because the market (and life in general) rewards what is difficult, and as discretionary traders we are often attracted to what "feels" easy.
A good example is from my days as a counter-trend fader. I'd form an opinion that price had gone too high and I'd short and I'd hold without a stop until it either reverted to the mean at some point or I cried uncle and bailed for a nasty loss (very rare, but nasty nonetheless). Usually there'd be a point in a strong move up where I'd literally become afraid to short and entertained thoughts of joining the crowd and just buying. That was the ideal short signal every time.
(This led me to post here on ET that when you wanted to fade a trending move, place a limit order at the price level where you planned to place your disaster stop and that's where you'd get an ideal entry for the reversion to mean. It's quite a solid strategy to this day.)
Keeping a public journal has benefits (experienced traders offer solid advice), and disadvantages (knowing you'll be posting trades/results may negatively influence your trading, and frustrated traders may post useless negative comments).
My suggestion to clm is to place on Ignore anyone who posts useless negative comments.
