putting all my efforts

[tomahawk]

Quote from darktrader:

Hello tomahawk!

many thanks to your reply, very apreciated, I replay to your post a little quick, because I'm very tired at this hour of day (I'm in europe), and I'm about to go home.

You are totally right, but it is impossible to test my strategy, this because I manually draw my trendlines, the tradestation automatic trendline indicator doesn't work for the kind of trendline that I draw (see picture attached), I have in mind to ask to a programmer if it is possible to program an indicator that could automatically draw for me something that could be similar, this way I can backtest and also even if I want to trade it discretionary I can have an idea of where to take profits and where to place stops, etc.. Also drawing all this charts is a very big work...

it is very stressfull to work this way, with all the pressure I have from my personal life, with a strategy that you don't know if it will work, you don't know when is best to take profit, you don't know which is the best distance for the stops, etc.. I only know that many times the markets respect my lines, and that often they are the low or the high of the day.

thanks again

No problem. And yes, I understand. Then it might not be a bad idea to forward test in sim for a couple months, and even if you don't take all the trades at least keep a detailed spreadsheet on entries, exits, MFE and MAE to at least have some data to fall back on.

The other thing I might suggest is looking at a shorter time frame for your trendlines if this is for daytrading. I look at TL's on the hourly charts as the maximum time frame for daytrades. And they do seem to work quite often, at least on the indices.

But bottom line, whatever your strategy is don't neglect the hard data. I can't tell you many times I've perused a bunch of charts and noticed what seemed like an incredibly consistent pattern ("many times the market respects my lines") which actually ended up being a coin toss (or failed miserably) in any kind of test. You can still make things like that work with position sizing and management, but it does help to be armed with some data.

Again, good luck.

 

[emg]

Quote from darktrader:

I'm not english mother tongue so my english is a little poor.


- INTRODUCTION (very important to understand what trading for me means)

I started trading in 2008, daytrading mainly the e-mini nasdaq, just before the financial crisis, the worst scenario for a novice trader, at the time I had around euro 400.000 (I sold an apartment) on my main account, now I have euro 120.000 ….
I spend an average of euro 60.000 per year for living, so I've lost around euro 200.000 with trading.

I'm selling another apartment but I will just get around euro 40.000 from it.

I'DONT HAVE A JOB.

My 120.000 are full invested in various stocks (very bad actually, banks, solar, and other battered stocks).

I ESTIMATE NOW I HAVE MONEY FOR 2-3 YEARS OF LIVING

let me help u out darktrader:

Facts:

1) u loss a lot of money since 2008
2) u don't have a profitable trading system
3) u don't have a job
4) your saving will dry up in 2 years


Solution:

u need help. u are suffering gambling addiction. If i were u, i stop trading and seek a license psychologist. It is the leverage and the volatility that is attracting u. u cant run away from it. u are addicted.

The odds of u losing in the next 2 years is 99.9%.

Think about this, the house is winning and will always win. The reason why the house is winning because they have a strict employment policy meaning if anybody overtrading and losing money will result employment termination asap.

More than 90% of small traders lose in a "Spectacular Fashion." They just lose!!!!


If u disagree with me which i think u will, good luck.

 

[Zr1Trader]

You were in the best case scenario to put some of your funds in safer asstes for the last two years which probably would have doubled your available capital while you paper traded intraday to learn for a couple years .

 

[jokepie]

Quote from emg:

let me help u out darktrader:

Facts:

1) u loss a lot of money since 2008
2) u don't have a profitable trading system
3) u don't have a job
4) your saving will dry up in 2 years


Solution:

u need help. u are suffering gambling addiction. If i were u, i stop trading and seek a license psychologist. It is the leverage and the volatility that is attracting u. u cant run away from it. u are addicted.

The odds of u losing in the next 2 years is 99.9%.

Think about this, the house is winning and will always win. The reason why the house is winning because they have a strict employment policy meaning if anybody overtrading and losing money will result employment termination asap.

More than 90% of small traders lose in a "Spectacular Fashion." They just lose!!!!


If u disagree with me which i think u will, good luck.

Emg

Respect your analysis. And your other posts as well.

I believe very few of us are blessed with the a structured entry into the markets. Most of us first see the pot of gold and run towards it. Who keep at it, either get it some do or vanish.

You and I both know, he will not take ur advice. As such, All the help he needs wouldbe the least we can do. As I hoped I had some one to help me and tell me what not to do at those DARK times.

Ur alright EMG.

 

[promagma]

Quote from darktrader:

but it is impossible to test my strategy, this because I manually draw my trendlines, the tradestation automatic trendline indicator doesn't work for the kind of trendline that I draw (see picture attached), I have in mind to ask to a programmer if it is possible to program an indicator that could automatically draw for me something that could be similar, this way I can backtest and also even if I want to trade it discretionary I can have an idea of where to take profits and where to place stops, etc.. Also drawing all this charts is a very big work...

Be warned that programming trendlines is a tricky thing .... hard to get the kind of result you want.

It seems like it will be almost impossible for you to come out ahead paying 600/month for an office. But anyway, good luck.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from darktrader:

I spent the last couple of years trying to set my mind thinking in the opposite way I used to do:

I used to add to losing trades: the opposite is adding to winners
I used to take profits very soon: the opposite is to let the profits run and aim at big winners
I used to let the losers becoming big losers: the opposite is to keep losers small

I basically committed the old sins, but i began to lose the bad habit to add to losers

Another mistake a made was to try to catch a reversal by placing tight stops and insisting I ended up by making lots of trades with lots of small stops that when a market keep trending will result in a big loss.

I started to notice that many times when I was losing money in a mad trade the market finally reversed near a long term support/resistance, like a trendline, 200/50 SMA, or a fibs.

I started last year to apply this supports/resistances in the daily/weekly and monthly charts, and actually I was astonished on how the market seamed predictable when the market reached those points. Often with an unbelievable precision.

So in December I decided to give my trading a last chance, I decided to build my own strategy based on DAILY/WEEKLY/MONTHLY supports and resistances and trying to do the opposite of the mistakes I used to made.

If you hold small losers until they become large losers and if you average down, it means you're trading against the trend and trying to pick tops and bottoms.

Support is only support when buyers find value at that level and come back into the market there with enough power to overtake sellers; resistance is only resistance when sellers overwhelm the buyers at that level.

If you sell resistance and buy support, your stop is a break of that level, meaning very small losses. If you hold through a breakout and then add to the position as it moves against you, you're fighting a trend that is not yet over, or you're fighting a new trend, unable to shift your mindset from the old one.

The good news about being a trader who's lost a lot of money is you have an enormous edge. How many traders make $200,000 on a $400,000 account in a year? Not many. Yet you lost that much, therefore you had a massive edge, but were doing the opposite of what you should've been doing. If you do the opposite of what you were doing (most likely you were fighting a trend or trying to pick tops/bottoms), you'll make money.

All the best to you!

 

[Instynct]

Darktrader,

Every trader knows what its like to struggle and I hope you don't give up. One thing I want to add as a practical matter is that you try to detach yourself from the value of money as much as possible by either trading on a sim or continue trading 1 contract and working a regular job. It will take you some time, but your experience will be worth more than any indicator, book, or guru you pay for.

Good luck on your journey, this game can be won but it is reserved for the elite few that work harder and are more persistent than anyone else.

 

[darktrader]

Quote from Instynct:

Darktrader,

Every trader knows what its like to struggle and I hope you don't give up. One thing I want to add as a practical matter is that you try to detach yourself from the value of money as much as possible by either trading on a sim or continue trading 1 contract and working a regular job. It will take you some time, but your experience will be worth more than any indicator, book, or guru you pay for.

Good luck on your journey, this game can be won but it is reserved for the elite few that work harder and are more persistent than anyone else.

Thanks Instynct for your post, unfortunately I don't have a job and if I had a job I couldn't spend all the time I'm spending on trading. But of course if I had a job or more money, or no wife and no daughter I could trade with less stress, and avoid many errors, also I don't want to simulate because it would not be the same, maybe I could do both, trading live and simulate at the same time.

 

[darktrader]

emg, I don't disagree, reading what I wrote it is normal to think that I suffer of gambling addiction and that I will dry up my money in two years or probably less than 2 years, (because of the very bad stocks I own: IRE-C-WFC-BAC-TOM2.AS-QCE.DE and other bad stuff like this).

but I'm not taking trading this way, I mean with a gambling attitude, I'm trading with the minimum size, and as I said i put all those bad stocks in a different account that I can't trade, I'm just trading with a small account of $3500 now, when those $3500 will be gone, I will trade sim and i will stop trading if I wont have good results in the next year.

at this point, after all that I've lost and all the effort I'm putting now on this, to give up would be stupid I think.

Quote from emg:

let me help u out darktrader:

Facts:

1) u loss a lot of money since 2008
2) u don't have a profitable trading system
3) u don't have a job
4) your saving will dry up in 2 years


Solution:

u need help. u are suffering gambling addiction. If i were u, i stop trading and seek a license psychologist. It is the leverage and the volatility that is attracting u. u cant run away from it. u are addicted.

The odds of u losing in the next 2 years is 99.9%.

Think about this, the house is winning and will always win. The reason why the house is winning because they have a strict employment policy meaning if anybody overtrading and losing money will result employment termination asap.

More than 90% of small traders lose in a "Spectacular Fashion." They just lose!!!!


If u disagree with me which i think u will, good luck.

 

[darktrader]

Hello it is about midnight here, so tired, I read all your post, and also private email I received, thanks to everybody for your support, I will replay to all of you tomorrow morning.