Someone PM'ed me with a few questions about the stop logs, and since this was an issue that people kept asking about, I thought of posting my answers to the PM below.
Do I track/log it whether or not I'm in a trade?
Yes, you're supposed to log stops continuously.
And, for instance, if the ES is trending down, do I keep a successive list of each lower high? How about the lower (or not lower) lows?
Record the high or low of everything that you consider an "important price formation", regardless of trend. When in doubt, mark it down. I was using the 1m for this but now that I am rid of it will use 5m bars.
As the market retraces over the values you recorded you cross them out. See the chart - thick blue lines indicate stops that were not crossed out by retracements.
In a down trend, only the highs will serve as stops. Recording both highs and lows will give you an idea of the market pace (the more you record in a given time period the faster the trend) and makes you more aware of values important to market operation. Most importantly, keeps your mind occupied and you have less time to rationalize and second-guess.
And if price is in a lateral channel then what am I keeping track of -- highs, lows, both?
I keep two columns - one for long trends the other for short. In a lateral trend, if traverse is long record as if in a long trend.
Finally, and probably most important, after I've accumulated this list of numbers what do I do with them? And do they tie in with C&R which I think means Cancel and Replace (Close and Reverse?) although I don't think that's a beginner or intermediate strategy.
C&R means Cancel and Replace, and you do it at predetermined intervals - I use close of 5m bars. Depending on the trend, you count back 2, 3 or 4 entries (fast, intermediate, slow) that were NOT crossed out, add/subtract 1-2 ticks and use that for your new stop.
On the chart posted, the list would look like this from the open:
1012.25
1011.50
1009.25 XXXX
1010.00 XXXX
1010.75
Say you wanted to enter short at 9:42, assuming an intermediate trend, your initial stop would be 1012.25 + 1-2 ticks.
5 m later your log would look like this:
1012.25
1011.50
1009.25 XXXX
1010.00 XXXX
1010.75
1008.50 XXXX
1010.00
so you replace your stop with 3rd non-crossed out entry, 1011.50 + 1-2 ticks. You get the picture.
Hope this helps.
