PA and Screen Time

A

antincedo

recently thinking about the topic and after playing Wii a couple days ago i realized how much the two theoretically have in common. the screen time on the Wii and the screen time in the market.

trading price action seems to be more than anything a skill to be acquired such as the skill of becoming very good at a particular video game. our brains process the constant data flow and associate the patterns with probabilities and we become more accustomed to the consequences of each scenario. i believe most of this is done subconsciously without us even realizing it until we actually see the improvement within our results.

just a thought, that has me seeing trading in a different perspective.

any insight into this would be interesting.
 
you are right, learning PA is all about screen time and experiece. You must also practice deliberately towards a goal, not only screen time but what you do with that screen time that is important. I think the reason most scoff at taking this route is because its a great time commitment and a lot of work. And people generally regard the market as a get rich quick scheme which it's not.
 
i find it fascinating because it's a skill that once acquired gives you potential like no other skill. also pondering on this topic after taking some time off, i believe the markets are probably as predictable as they are random. after all they are generated by human behavior and there is a predictability in human behavior. yet also a complete randomness as is life.
 
I agree, the skill once gained is well worth the effort and sacrifice many times over.

The markets are, well not "predictable" but they do generate consistent signals which play out time and again. The trained PA trader spots the signals and knows exactly what he needs to see to take the trade. Once in a trade, the feedback provided by the market guides him from there.

Quote from antincedo:

i find it fascinating because it's a skill that once acquired gives you potential like no other skill. also pondering on this topic after taking some time off, i believe the markets are probably as predictable as they are random. after all they are generated by human behavior and there is a predictability in human behavior. yet also a complete randomness as is life.
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I agree. Takes a long time but after a while the price action sort of "talks" to you and you find yourself relying less and less on zillions of indicators.

Screen time - either paper trading or just watching the chart and going "hrmmm i'd go short about THERE" or "this looks tempting but it's too close to resistance" helped me out tremendously and saved $$$ when I did go live.

Indicators can help, sure. It all depends on your style of trading. I admit it, I use some, but nowhere as heavily as I used to, and especially not in THIS market, and certainly not without considering the price action and greater "environment" first like s/r, chop, length of trend, etc being FAR more important to me than what any indicator might say. Besides, indicators can frequently diverge with the PA in this market, so what do you trust? It comes back to PA and "pilot's instinct."

But I think all newbies to trading think if they use a ton of lines, oscillators and "tools" they'll be a better trader and get rich overnight. 'tain't so. :)
 
Quote from rickf:

I
Screen time - either paper trading or just watching the chart and going "hrmmm i'd go short about THERE" or "this looks tempting but it's too close to resistance" helped me out tremendously and saved $$$ when I did go live.
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You would keep a written journal of this too, correct? Otherwise, how could you gauge progress.

Otherwise, spot on post!
 
Quote from illinimatt81:

You would keep a written journal of this too, correct? Otherwise, how could you gauge progress.

Otherwise, spot on post!
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Thanks. :)

ve not kept a written journal per se. There were/are times when I'll print out charts, study them (and my "trades") to see what I could see....especially if/when I stray from my trading style and lose. I might reflect on good trades briefly but will scrutinize the s--t out of bad ones so I don't make the same mistakes again (ie, "why did I take this trade" or "why did I take this trade HERE") especially since most of my bad trades today come when I deviate from my trading style. Gives me a self-inflicted Come-to-Jesus moment of individual browbeating with the mantra "you idiot! you know better!" uttered frequently. :)
 
I agree with the OP. I good exercise after hours to build price action reading skills is to rewind a chart back to a day that you do not remember and then fast forward through the day, stop where you want to place a trade, write down the entry price and stop and then continue fast forward and stop where you would take a profit and jot that down.

I use prophet java charts so what I do is set the chart to 60 days, 5 min bars. I then highlight 5 days and with a click I can then go forward 5 min.
 
Quote from IndexSwing:

I agree with the OP. I good exercise after hours to build price action reading skills is to rewind a chart back to a day that you do not remember and then fast forward through the day, stop where you want to place a trade, write down the entry price and stop and then continue fast forward and stop where you would take a profit and jot that down.

I use prophet java charts so what I do is set the chart to 60 days, 5 min bars. I then highlight 5 days and with a click I can then go forward 5 min.
More...

I replay the charts using sierra charts, works good. I'll replay the trades I made during the day that same evening. Even though I know what is happening it helps me to see it again so I can critique myself, kinda like watching game film. I think the key is to compress the learning curve and if you don't have someone experienced to work with then using the replay function is a good 2nd best method.
 
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