Spydertrader's Jack Hershey Futures Trading Journal

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OK, this may sound crazy unless you get what I'm talking about. If it clicks, this is for you, if it doesn't, place on back burner if you find yourself frustrated later.

When monitoring and annotating charts, we often, almost continuously, find ourselves having to identify something. "Is this increasing?" "Is this decreasing" etc etc. I find this a very difficult exercise, because usually the answer is not black and white. Uncertainty rules and then emotions can take over easily.

The solution is to give yourself a different question to ask. This can make all the difference in the world for some of you. Change the question from "is it this or that" to "is it more like this or more like that"? That might seem like a meaningless shift. It isn't. It takes your mind to a different place of reasoning. Try it.

In addition, try reversing the logic of your reasoning. Move from deduction to induction. Don't look at a piece of chart and ask "what does this mean". Instead try "if this is a point 3 of a new up channel, then volume should be doing such and such." Assume your conclusion is correct (instead of questioning yourself to death) and then ask what the data RIGHT NOW must be to support that conclusion.

This boils down to testing your conclusion with new data and keeps you in the NOW. Continuation.....change.....continuation....change. Use the thought process I just presented and it HAS to keep your mind on continuation versus change.
 
Quote from BA_Trader:

In bundlemaker's video on channels he mentions a tip Spyder gave him regarding annotating:
More...

I been looking but cannot find the link to the video, can someone who is as helpful as always provide a link :)
 
I wanted to make a separate post on the YM leading the ES and how I was finally able to see that. Frankly, I didn't have any doubt about YM leading ES, I trusted Spyder, but I just wasn't seeing it.

What I did, to focus on that part of the YM that gives you this leading information was to skip drawing any channels on YM EXCEPT the tapes. By doing that I end up ONLY focusing on that small part of the YM chart that has bearing on my current decison process.

I have my chart windows overlapping, so usually I can't even see the YM. That keeps me off that fine resolution tool when I shouldn't be there. When I need to see YM, I just click on the little bit showing to bring the chart up front.

When I think I see an FTT on the coarse level (for example, the high of the 15:15 bar today) I jump over to the YM, throw on the current tape (an up tape at that point) and watch for the tape to break to the down side.

This procedure caught three forest level FTT's today. As I recall, all FTT's were called withing 3 ticks of the best price.
 
Today's ES. I had some difficulty in the morning (over traded), but by by late morning things started to gel a bit better. I havn't tallied my log sheet yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm positive! It's just paper though.
 

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In an effort to assist those following along, I have altered my annotation style to include only The Forest Level Resolution. Keeping in mind my previous post with respect to "How Big is the Forest?" Note the Gaussian changes which occur. Are they different on my chart when compared to your own? Do you 'see' things as they are, or as you'd want them to be? Are you monitoring on the correct resolution level, or do you only think you monitor correctly? In an effort to assist you to know the proper resolution level, I have added the following guidelines for data gathering.

Forest Level - Point Three Channels and Gaussians
Tree Level - FTT's (and the above)
Limb Level - Tapes (and the above)
Leaves Level - FTT's of Tapes (and above)
Bug Level - Intra-bar Changes (and above)

If you find yourself confused about a bar changing color halfway through a five minute period, are you really focused on the Forest? 'Cuz it sounds an awful lot like you are looking for bugs, on a leaf, on a limb, on a tree, in the Forest.

Stay focused on your current resolution level to allow you to properly learn about the next finer resolution level. From the Forest, you can learn about FTT's and flaws without concern for loss. From the Trees, you can learn about the tapes and how they contain temporary micro-trends throughout the day. Everyone must build a strong foundation at their current level of expertise, before moving forward.

I hope you find the above information helpful, and I'll post today's charts after adding some requested information.

- Spydertrader
 
Hi everyone, I'm back after a "hershey hiatus" making money by other methods. My methods were more akin to investing than trading, though my time frame was fairly short-term. Basically I was taking the "best of the best" from the stocktables.com site and buying them.

Needless to say the bull run appears to be over for a bit and I'm in cash after having a good ride up. What's a long-only investor to do when the bull market ends? LOL

This idea of YM leading ES is intriguing, particularly after I recently saw someone say the opposite: "ES leads YM"

These folks are trading YM and watching ES for the leading indication! Go figure.
 
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