If you want to fail as a trader, study TA

[Dackster]

Quote from The Expert:

To trade without charts is to trade blindly:eek:

There is not much logic in such a statement, and, all that it shows is that such people have yet to discover how to read charts CORRECTLY.

One can also make money trading by throwing darts at a printout of the S&P 500 stocks, but, even a child knows how silly such an excercise is.

Wether a person uses a chart or not, how they will make money will be totally unique to themselves.

Afterall, there are only two sides to the market, the right side and the wrong side.

A trader may find themselves on the right or wrong side of the market, but it's how they cope with both sides that distinguishes them,......chart or no chart.

Merit, ability, conduct.

 

[The Expert]

Quote from Dackster:

Wether a person uses a chart or not, how they will make money will be totally unique to themselves.

Afterall, there are only two sides to the market, the right side and the wrong side.

A trader may find themselves on the right or wrong side of the market, but it's how they cope with both sides that distinguishes them,......chart or no chart.

Merit, ability, conduct.

If you look at a chart, you must know what to look for

An art lover will see the art in the painting, when, the general public will see nothing but colored smudges:eek:

You are starting to draw out my REAL charts, so, I best be careful in case I give away too much and get kicked out of TFF



TE

 

[Dackster]

Quote from The Expert:

If you look at a chart, you must know what to look for


This is true, but a market is only a value, a market is only a chart if a person wants the market to be a chart.

I know you already know this, i'm only stating this fact for the benefit of the majority.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from macattack:

I've noticed that days when I exercise the most patience and wait for very obvious setups I'll do better. Days when I think about "time = money" and where I try to catch every single move to avoid wasting time I get my ass kicked.

The day after an ass-kicking I'll try to be patient again, but usually too patient, and I'll miss the good moves, watch it leave without me, and then take marginal setups to try to get something out of it which doesn't work out. So far only patience for the very best setups has worked. But I'm not sure if that is good or not, because sometimes I miss out on excellent moves because the setup wasn't obvious enough, so I tend to go back & forth from one way of thinking to the other, and I end up getting nowhere. It just comes down to confusion in my head. I'm not sure of the best way to go about trading, so I don't know how to create the best process to follow.

I'll just keep working at it until I figure it out. I appreciate any help I can get from you or anybody else, but I know in the end it's up to me, and I will figure it out. I think at this point I'd have to have part of my brain removed to get me to stop.

Patience waiting for your best setups will pay off most of the time. Marginal setups usually follow hesitating to take a prime setup, missing a great move and then wanting to get back what you missed. Getting back what you missed comes from patiently waiting for the next best setup to come along. I don't think trading a marginal setup has ever resulted in a winning trade for me, come to think of it.

Every day and every trade is brand new. I'm fighting this one all the time. Very easy to let what happened in the market before make you think it will happen again, or to let news give you a bias even when price is going the other direction, or to let three profitable trades reverse to stop out break even, then catch the big runner of the day and take only a fraction of the move because you aren't gonna let THAT happen again! :eek:

So, my advice in a nutshell is to wait patiently for your best setups and jump on them immediately. If you lose your mind (as we all do, and often without warning) and take an ass-kicking, take a break, picture yourself taking only your best setups again, and just do it.

Sometimes fantastic moves come out of setups that aren't a part of your arsenal. Trading is an ongoing learning process. When you see those moves, study them after the market closes. Is there a longer term trend line or S/R level that incited the move? Was it a break out of a flag, triangle, wedge, consolidation, prison cell, etc? Or was it just news-based? If it looks like something worth adding to your arsenal, then add it.

Patience does pay off as long as you take your setups. Patience is difficult to exercise consistently, though, because price is constantly moving and we feel like we should be catching some of every move. But really just one good trade a day can provide a great income.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from The Expert:

One can also make money trading by throwing darts at a printout of the S&P 500 stocks, but, even a child knows how silly such an excercise is.

Thanks a lot TE! There went MY edge.

 

[ES.Contract]

Quote from The Expert:

Why does it bother YOU what DT does ?

If you don’t mind ‘The Expert’ I would like DT to answer (if he chooses to or not is another matter). I don’t mean to interrupt your thread, but I am curious as to why DT has come here to learn how to trade even though he is close friends with rathcoole_exile from trade2win.

It must be because DT has realised that rathcoole_exile from trade2win is an absolute clueless imbecile.

 

[Redneck]

Quote from The Expert:

MK, you are all over the place:eek:
TE

Painfully so


Let me see if I can put together a series of post to possibly help – without being overtly OBVIOUS


RN

 

[Redneck]

TE Posted - What is the most important thing to learn about for trading effectively?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjsjZWlRVvo



MK – this carefully how this applies to trading

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TE Posted

Why complicate things that need not be complicated

BLASH or SHABL

&

SLABL or BHASH

OR

WTBATFP or WTSATFR

&

WTSATFBD or WTBATFBO



MK – To do this successfully you need to do the above


TE - The failure fails..


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Quote from The Expert:

Quote from The Expert:



Always think before you act.

TE

I restructured your post

MK Posted

Often I'll be up, but there is no logical place to move my stop, so a win turns into a loss.

The times I move the stop up to avoid this I often end up with a tiny win after being stopped out and then price goes to the original target which I miss out on.




From the last two charts TE posted – seems you would have entered long on the first one…. Exited on the second one… then watch price end up where it did (again on the second one)


Rhetorical question… You ever go back and analyze your failed trades…. Or analyze what price ultimately did… and why it did it……



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MK Posted

I'm really not sure what the "most important" thing is. – refer to the video and use your grey matter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'd want to know as much pertinent information as possible about what I'm trading. – This is bullshit – trade what you see
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I'd want to have a process/plan to follow and know it inside & out so I could execute if flawlessly. – This is the goal
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I'd follow my process – This is the goal

if I could create one, - This is bullshit – use your grey matter to create one

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but I'm stuck on the mechanical parts of entering at the right time and when to exit prior to a target being hit.


That you’re stuck – I have no doubt…

That you’re striving for perfection (perfection in each trade and perfection from the market) – I have no doubt……and its bullshit… THIS IS TRADING…


Strive for trading excellence by

First removing you head from your butt and thinking through this logically and figuring out how to…


Manage you and your actions
Preparing a plan and executing it exactly
Trade exactly what you see
Identify low risk and exploiting it
Analyzing your failed trades to see what price ultimately did.. and why


RN

 

[macattack]

Quote from Dackster:

Wether a person uses a chart or not, how they will make money will be totally unique to themselves.

Afterall, there are only two sides to the market, the right side and the wrong side.

A trader may find themselves on the right or wrong side of the market, but it's how they cope with both sides that distinguishes them,......chart or no chart.

Merit, ability, conduct.

"Merit, ability, conduct"..................I just read those exact words yesterday from someone with the screen name of Socrates on the T2W board. These forums are starting to become very strange; everybody seems to be intermingled with everybody else.

 

[macattack]

Quote from The Expert:

MK, you are all over the place:eek:

What are you trading, what is your average size, and how much risk per trade are you taking on (% of leveraged trading capital)

TE

Thanks everybody for the comments & advice:

Trading NQ. 1 contract. Risking a max of 1% of the capital in my account per trade (usually less than 1%). I'm slightly under-capitalized or I'd risk less. Sorry, not sure what you mean by % of leveraged trading capital.

Yes I'm all over the place. I know that's a big problem of mine because I actually say that out loud to myself all the time.

The good news is I used to be even worse; I'm making progress.