Just to respond to the overtrading remarks on their own. I realize I made more trades today than is "wise". However, I was aware of it the entire time and chose to continue not with a mindset of revenge. I was actually rather relaxed as I went, all things considered. I was trading to learn and learning to trade. Right or wrong, time will tell. I do know I am not going to learn to scalp any time soon by just making three or four trades a day.
Journal of ashes and Eminis
- Thread starter phoenix_rising
- Start date
I trade most of the time without looking at the volume.
My trading charts are simple. They have 20 period moving averages and 200 perioud moving averages.
I look at 7 charts all the time on one 19" monitor.
I watch the 2minute, 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and Daily charts.
I watch them act in concert.
If I were to take a 5 minute setup without knowing first what the 15min and 30min and 60min charts were doing....I think I would be getting killed too.
Take a seriously look at knowing what the slightly larger time frames are doing than just the one you are trading on.
My trading charts are simple. They have 20 period moving averages and 200 perioud moving averages.
I look at 7 charts all the time on one 19" monitor.
I watch the 2minute, 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and Daily charts.
I watch them act in concert.
If I were to take a 5 minute setup without knowing first what the 15min and 30min and 60min charts were doing....I think I would be getting killed too.
Take a seriously look at knowing what the slightly larger time frames are doing than just the one you are trading on.
Agreed. Very backwards. I had 1:3 instead of 3:1. That is a big problem with my initial plan to pick up two ticks at a time. That obviously was a bad idea, because it is nearly impossible to give an wiggle room to the trade and accomplish even a 1:1 ratio. Though, I had honestly hoped to have a very high win/loss trade ratio to partly offset such bad stop (lack of) system.
True, buy I can't live on 10K a year. I would be perfectly happy with two points a day if I can scale up to at least five contracts. So maybe my goal should initially be to just make two points with one contract.
Good philosophy, which I agree with. I just need to come up with my definition of the best setups. Hopefully time and experience will render the answers.
Hmmm.... My 5 minute bar chart has a grey background with red and green candles. The tick line chart has a red and green backround, where it is green above a 2000 tick moving average and red below the 2000 tick moving average.
Maybe that's my problem?
I would respectfully disagree. I do have what I consider to be a good understanding of the markets. I new it would be choppy today, hence the scalping and the ignoring of my possible trend system. I would agree that my knowledge (or maybe better, "feeling") of scalping itself seems to be weak. Early on I had considered not playing today, but the urge to get some practice did convince me to give it a shot.[/B][/QUOTE]
At one time I did have a lot of charts like that, but for pure scalping I would think it would be way to distracting. I would love to trade a pure tick chart and nothing else. That is my ideal. Will it happen? We shall see.
Originally posted by phoenix_rising
Hmmm.... My 5 minute bar chart has a grey background with red and green candles. The tick line chart has a red and green backround, where it is green above a 2000 tick moving average and red below the 2000 tick moving average.
Maybe that's my problem?
I would respectfully disagree. I do have what I consider to be a good understanding of the markets. I new it would be choppy today, hence the scalping and the ignoring of my possible trend system. I would agree that my knowledge (or maybe better, "feeling") of scalping itself seems to be weak. Early on I had considered not playing today, but the urge to get some practice did convince me to give it a shot.
Nice color selection - so that's not the problem.
But just a thought - scalping works best in a trending market. Always has, always will...
I certainly didn't prove that wrong today.
Thanks for the advice.
Somewhat on-topic...
would you trade a system that wins 80% of the time, loses 20% of the time....
but winners are 2 points, losses are 5 points.
If the percentages are correct it's profitable, but what about the streak of 3 or 4 losses in a row? (or only 1 or 2 wins in 7 or 8 trades)
Lastly, a poster above stated that after the gap opening the last 3 days it was a range bound market. Isn't this just hind-sight? Couldn't the markets just as easily started to sell off today (or prior days) after the gap opening, thus creating a downward trending market after the gap opening?
Thanks for answering the above.
would you trade a system that wins 80% of the time, loses 20% of the time....
but winners are 2 points, losses are 5 points.
If the percentages are correct it's profitable, but what about the streak of 3 or 4 losses in a row? (or only 1 or 2 wins in 7 or 8 trades)
Lastly, a poster above stated that after the gap opening the last 3 days it was a range bound market. Isn't this just hind-sight? Couldn't the markets just as easily started to sell off today (or prior days) after the gap opening, thus creating a downward trending market after the gap opening?
Thanks for answering the above.