Diary of a very bad trader!

Quote from Brianharvey:

price going up? We were down on the day at the time of the short, price had dropped off nearly 40 ticks from the high of the day, AND we were below the 20 ema on the 5min chart.

How many ticks does it take to quantify up? (or down)
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And that's a large part of the problem, if not the largest: you have not yet defined the difference between up and down. Without that, MAs and the DOM and stops aren't going to help you. At the time you posted your short, price was falling. But then a few minutes later it reversed. Then it went sideways. Then it began to rise again. Did you recognize any of this in real time? If not, then however tight or loose your stops are -- or even whether or not you use them at all -- is not your primary concern. Unless and until you understand what it is you're looking at, you aren't going to know what to do with it.
 
Quote from djmartin:

You have to be a contrarian, when the market is going up you have to assume you missed the move and start looking for short setups. Even if your buying pullbacks in a up trend your still a contrarian because your trying to time the turning point. The funny this is when your trying to time turning points you actually can use tighter stops and take more shots at it, you can be wrong a couple of times and then catch the move. Another thing is use multiple contracts and scale out. When your first target is hit it takes the pressure off. You can get your first target hit, get stopped out and its ok. Mentally it'll make all the difference.

Learn how to read order flow by watching the DOM, I know there's a lot of fake orders on the bid and ask but thats not what i'm talking about. Watch how price moves on the DOM, for an example, i trade the es, If I'm long at 1760 and every time price hits 1760.25 and jumps back down 2-3 ticks or keeps jumping off that price then i know there may be a big seller there holding the market so i just may scratch the trade. If you start watching the DOM you'll know what i'm talking about its a certain way it jumps off prices.

Trend trading is dead IMHO, a lot of new traders want to be trend trader which is a huge mistake. There's a GRAY area with following the trend and fading it. With experience you'll learn the difference. IMHO brake outs are the worst of all, the market already moved a certain distance and now you want to jump in. Think about that in terms of your everyday life, would you wait until something gets way over priced and say now is a good time to buy it, you wouldn't so why do that is trading. Say you buy a brake out and that ends up being the high of the day, do you know what that will do to you mentally, you were stupid enough to buy the high of the day. I've done that a few times so I know how it feels. The loss wasn't that big of a deal just the fact I bought close to the high of the day made me feel so stupid.

A lot of people don't like to talk about this but learn Market Feel. No one can teach you this it just comes with experience. Start trying to listen to want the market is trying to say, I know it sounds a little new age but its true, try to feel the market. Keep asking yourself during he day,WHAT IS THE MARKET DOING RIGHT NOW. STAY IN THE NOW.

Master one setup, train yourself to just look for one thing, then once you do that then add another setup. Wipe the slate clean and start over. Theres no rule in trading that says you cant start over. Go back to the basic. WHAT ARE MARKETS, start from there.

if you ever read any trading book about great trader there's two thing that keeps coming up, order flow and risk management.

Don't let anyone tell you you can't become a great trader. You can be anything you want to be but you have to believe it first. Tell yourself either your going to become a profitable trader or your going to die trying. Put in the work and you'll get there. You owe to yourself.

This is just my two cents. This is how i see the market and it works for me. Good luck
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One of the best posts I've read in a long time!!!:)
 
Quote from Brianharvey:

I thought so!! Glad to have it confirmed.
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But then ten minutes later it stopped falling and you didn't know what to do about it, so you handed the reins to the market and let it stop you out -- i.e., take your money -- instead of exiting your trade for a small profit.
 
Quote from Brianharvey:

No stop, but if price goes up, i'll exit (usually stop would be at 94.64 but taking advice)
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And how are you defining "up"?
 
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