Iterative Refinement
- Thread starter Spydertrader
- Start date
Annotation is a commitment.
The market is full of signals, and noises. Your mind is trying to decipher them all.
You monitor and analyze, your mind is wandering all over the places: Up, Down, Sideways... then back to Up, or maybe Down... maybe, maybe...
Your analysis change 100 times a second.
Finally you came to a conclusion: You commit your analysis in writing, in the form of annotation.
The reality? --- no sooner than you finished writing the annotation, you will realized your analysis was wrong! The market has moved against you. But don't erase the annotation. Leave it there for your EOD debrief.
The market is full of signals, and noises. Your mind is trying to decipher them all.
You monitor and analyze, your mind is wandering all over the places: Up, Down, Sideways... then back to Up, or maybe Down... maybe, maybe...
Your analysis change 100 times a second.
Finally you came to a conclusion: You commit your analysis in writing, in the form of annotation.
The reality? --- no sooner than you finished writing the annotation, you will realized your analysis was wrong! The market has moved against you. But don't erase the annotation. Leave it there for your EOD debrief.
Point taken. I will attempt to be more exacting with the text annotations, both for myself and the clarity of others who wish to comment on the charts.
Also, after rereading my first post of the day I see I should have said "hope to REPLICATE" not "demonstrate" as I am hardly in a position to demonstrate anything
Chart for February 19 2008. Includes trades.
Quote from callmate:
I think it will be useful for all of us to do MADA using ES and YM charts each day. It would help to clear some of the grey areas.
Give it a try, now is the time to seek help if not sure
Sheesh, callmate, you had to pick Friday!!! And the Friday before a 3-day week-end at that! Ugh!
For the two cents they are worth, here are some of my high level notes... The OBs (Outside Bars) on the ES are confusing for me and the 9:35 ES was no exception at that. (Side note: Has anyone else noticed we are getting more OBs lately on ES â now often 8/day vs. 2-3/day?)
The morning was much clearer on the YM (for me), initially continuing the CO\ (Carry-Over Down Channel) then an FTT\ at 9:58 starts the UP Channel. 10:32 FTT/ starts the next Down Channel â do you know what a falling wedge is?
That entire down Channel is a retrace which ends in an OB at 11:50. A short-lived hard push ends in a big pennant on both YM and ES (which ends in another nasty OB on ES) and another down channel. Note that retrace down still cannot match the volume on the Up traverses even though the price moves further.
Still looking at YM, messy OBs and lateral movement on YM until finally 13:06 FTT\ starts another traverse with volume but price stops again and retraces down into another lateral movement.
The bottom was actually easier to see on the ES, because of the DB (Double Bottom) formed by the 12:30 & 13:05 ES Bars. To me, that is where the last Up Channel started, which held until EOD.
Anything after noon was untouchable for me, simply because I did not trust the volumes levels. But still good for watching and annotatingâ¦
Charts for today...
If any are up to a MADA critique, here are my "MA~D noA" log notes. There is no action at all 
That is also something I need to fix.
The notes are handwritten and somewhat cryptic at first. The corresponding charts are posted above...
/ = up channel, \ = down channel
R & B refer to direction of PRICE movement
the arrow after R & B refer to VOLUME increase or decrease
an arrow after (or through) a formation or event refers to the direction of price movement after that formation or event.
That is also something I need to fix.The notes are handwritten and somewhat cryptic at first. The corresponding charts are posted above...
/ = up channel, \ = down channel
R & B refer to direction of PRICE movement
the arrow after R & B refer to VOLUME increase or decrease
an arrow after (or through) a formation or event refers to the direction of price movement after that formation or event.
It would be nice if some of those that attended could go a little into detail about what they were/weren't doing before and what's now changed.
Avi8 - mentioned the speed of Sypdertrader's analysis and when to go to YM
Tiki - also mentioned when to go to YM, and "what must come next when wrong"
Stepan7 - mentioned a lot of grey areas were simplified.
Care to give examples?
Quote from LostTrader:
If any are up to a MADA critique, here are my "MA~D noA" log notes. There is no action at all
The notes are handwritten and somewhat cryptic at first. The corresponding charts are posted above...
/ = up channel, \ = down channel
R & B refer to direction of PRICE movement
the arrow after R & B refer to VOLUME increase or decrease
an arrow after (or through) a formation or event refers to the direction of price movement after that formation or event.
Here are some important helpful suggestions.
MADA is a sequence and so are the parts within MADA.
Use some of the things that are powerful and working in your mind.
Paper is cheap. Were I you I would make it a work effort to be able to log in a manner that is useful for making money. I am asking you to smile and you read this.
Since you like to prep logs; do the YM bar timing on the left and make a column 2" from the right titled ES bar #.
Then do something new to you. Write what is going on from left to right by doing the YM before the ES and more frequently than the ES.
Turn your sheets to landscape instead of portrait you will find that there is space for you to label a lot of columns for each, the YM and the ES. then for each column stay up all night for many days and make vocabulary symbols for each column. Use each one you now have and add many many more.
Read national geographic this month and see the advantages you have. I like your dull pencil it beats clawing.
Lets say you use half the width to do the symbols in 10 or 12 columns to get M done frequently for the YM and ES (P, V and annotations.
A has a result it is always listed. Use C for continue and X for change. Fill in every row with a C or an X. this cements in your mind what you monitored and its FINAL result by analysis.
you will begin to see that you are comparing the completed row with the row you are filling in like a hawk would who only sees movement (different symbols) as the means to get meat. where is the beef is well know to humans. The beef is in getting the analysis, otherwise known as the MODE done on every line.
During Continue (C) there is nothing to do but annotate. Do it and note it in the middle of the landscape in a wide column. this is done so you can see right above you, when doing the next line, what you just did. you DO stuff as an active partner with the market. When you annotate you log it and you FEEL IT.
After the wide column you can have a column for what and how you are executing. There are five entries: W, Ent, H, R, and X. If MODE is C then H is placed in the execution (action column). On the right side you have several columns which state what is going on with money: Bar, Price, contracts stuff. Only use these when you have an Ent, R or X in the action column.
You can make up the log (I like that Idea) or you can adopt one.
as you know there are only so many combo's of the symbols under M. There is a predetermined answer for each of these sets of data. D for now comes down to C or X. you can use the leftside of the wide column to qualitfy X as it reappears row after row occasionally. If you have C, then annotate as required.
X appears when the gausians peak or trough, in V columns (ym and ES use a V for peak and an inverted V for peaks and troughs, respectfully and repeatedly..
There is a lot of beardowness in logging. you are working rom left with M to get to making money with bar price and contracts. the opjective is to use a number between 25 and 50 in the contracts column.
By continuing to make reference to a consistent vocabulary in each column as you do a row and look at the row above, you are performing and partnering with the markets. this earnest effort is great fun when you rip each row accurately and keep ploughing.
the goals are to make money when price is changing. So note price changed and where it is within your annotations. This immediately give comfort and support. Back up price with volume which leads price so you now know what price is going to do next. Now you FEEL support. Repeat with ES and see the YM leading the ES (for many reasons). now you feel support and comfort. Put in an X or a C. If you use C then do annotations as required and jot in an H in the action column and hit the return key to drop down to the next row (figuratively speaking)
Repeat a couple of hundred times during the day.
Note if the PRV column is saying YM is off peak then you put in half of the X in the MODE column. You know this stroke already IC. If you put in half an X in MODE, you are looking for a reason in ES to fill in the other half. It will not be there in the first half X row. Doing a half X job is okay we finally see. but we do it the way described from now on.
When you are in half X you are beginning to carve a turn so fill in the bar because it is going to happen. All you have to do is pick the time. Pick it record it and write R in the Action column. see what price records on the print page by bringing it up. write it down and drop the print page behind everything and do the carriage return.
When you finish the logging or rows, you then debrief. Add the new vocabulary you created today. Use it tmorrow. Go down the trade net column for each turn and also do the cummulative net column to find out what you made by doing things right.
Notice there is no concept of making mistakes. Just keep filling in rows and doing what you determined was correct at the time.
All actions can be noted as serving one purpose. That is: to stay on the right side of the market. Annotating shows on the display which side of the market is the right side. This is done during Continue well before the half X appears the first time. half X trading is not called for very much but it is commonly done.
Full X's work best for doing R's.
I would add several more columns to take into account all the additional info that is on the display. you can get wider paper as required and as you have time to take care of business.
Circle your highest and lowest action to see the daily range.
I am stating a lot of stuff here and it all falls under IR (iterative refinement).
the above post is very important in that it lets you work in a way that is closely related to "reading" and "writing" and "rithematic".