Quote from TradingBillions:
i have good days where i feel like sharing my ideas and bad days where i need a little assistance..
As SideShowBob said, what is your system? Your ideas result in a system, not a win or loss. On your bad days, it doesn't mean your ideas are bad, just that you need to refine them.
Trading ideas can come from anywhere---your investigation of them can result in a trade action. I don't trade crude, but I have some ideas I'd investigate if I were to:
1) How likely is it that the US will invade Iran, and it what time frame? (Bullish futures or volatility options play)
2) Has the massive storage of crude from a few months back reverted to normal? (Back then, oil refiners had all but maxed out their storage capacity, this could have a serious impact on spreads)
3) How does crude look seasonally with the spring lull here, but the peak driving season coming?
4) What is the real impact of ethanol and biodiesel on the crude market?
5) How closely have OPEC members complied with their output decisions?
If you don't believe in fundamentals affecting the market, then how about technicals?
1) Are any moving averages natural support and resistances?
2) Does the volume & price combination show any tradeable patterns on price extremes in the past?
3) Does Open Interest tell me anything useful?
4) Can one, simple indicator prompt me to see price action that I'm slow to recognize?
My point is, you need your own ideas and you share those with people who are like-minded. You then refine those ideas until they're successfully tradeable.
I don't think you need a mentor to tell you how to trade, you need to brainstorm and investigate. Since I started trading, I've probably built hundreds of spreadsheets, backtested thousands of systems, written programs to analyze and display data, read dozens of analyst reports, transcribed data from every WASDE report going back 20 years, read the CRB Commodity Yearbook, etc. Some ideas stink. Some lead me to trade and prove me wrong. Trading is all about creativity and adaptiveness.