KP: sounds like you have made some improvements over the past several months. Sticking to your smallish stops and getting the occasional 10 pt winners? that's a huge change from what I remember in your journal (you ever gonna revive that?), way to go. Keep testing stuff out and working in your plan!
The Trouble With Scribbles
- Thread starter Buy1Sell2
- Start date
Thanks bh_prop. I absolutely plan to start posting again, but not until I attain some level of consistency. I essentially just have to reverse everything I was doing before since I was such a consistent loser. Small stops and making sure to hold out for a profit is a huge step in the right direction.
No small stops are only usable when volatility or lack thereof calls for it. You're totally allowed to use small stops but only if you're solid on entries. Right now you're jumping entries too quickly IMO.
I also don't think those 5s charts are helping at all. But i'd say it's probably best to only change one thing at a time.
I have a feeling you're using 5s charts to try and get better entries so you can keep using small stops out of loss averse behavior. You're not accounting for the amount of retracing and other crap happening on a 5s scale vs a 1m or 5m scale. The former is going to exhibit more back and forth before actually going somewhere. On a 1/5m timescale you're going to see candles pierce trendlines with a wick as a common scenario before reversing. What do you think that looks like on a 5s timescale? In essence its like you're trading a 5s chart with the price action expectations of a 5m chart. If you're hellbent on 5s then you must account for the movement that happens primarily on a 5s timescale. Expect things to happen more than once. Expect a reaction against a support being *tested*. Expect a reaction against that reaction.
It's not even time that's important anyways - its volume, but again don't change any of that yet.
I also don't think those 5s charts are helping at all. But i'd say it's probably best to only change one thing at a time.
I have a feeling you're using 5s charts to try and get better entries so you can keep using small stops out of loss averse behavior. You're not accounting for the amount of retracing and other crap happening on a 5s scale vs a 1m or 5m scale. The former is going to exhibit more back and forth before actually going somewhere. On a 1/5m timescale you're going to see candles pierce trendlines with a wick as a common scenario before reversing. What do you think that looks like on a 5s timescale? In essence its like you're trading a 5s chart with the price action expectations of a 5m chart. If you're hellbent on 5s then you must account for the movement that happens primarily on a 5s timescale. Expect things to happen more than once. Expect a reaction against a support being *tested*. Expect a reaction against that reaction.
It's not even time that's important anyways - its volume, but again don't change any of that yet.
I think this sounds quite accurate. A better entry, closer to the level I'm watching is I think not a bad thing. An aversion to loss is also not a bad thing I think (fear of loss is of course bad, but avoiding or lessening losses in general is not a bad thing). I'm always trying to look at what the 1 minute chart is telling me, it is right there as well in plain view, but the 5 sec does allow me to perhaps see something forming sooner.
I'm sorry I don't know much about candles to be able to comment, and have never really studied them, especially in relation to the wick and body. I do see that some people draw their trendlines along the bodies and don't include the wick, but I'm not sure if this works for me. The only reason why there is a wick after all is just because that 1 minute time segment captured price hitting a low and coming back up. If you shift the time scale over a few seconds, maybe that candle would be all body and no wick since price would have "exited" the candle on the low, just before price went back up. This of course doesn't matter much I don't think, and I certainly don't want to get into candle patterns, but just focus on the fact that price hit a low point and rose higher.
On a 5 sec chart, this would be even more obvious, and I could see how long price hung around the low, or perhaps it shot straight up much faster. I do agree though that sometimes I'm sucked into micro price action that I should be doing nothing about on the 5 sec chart.
Your suggestions about expecting reactions and tests is for sure something to focus on, and something I'm not too good at. If my entry is such that the test would mean price goes against me 2 or 3 points, this is a huge problem because if the test of support fails to hold, this trade is now a much bigger loss (ie. first I have to let it go against me 3 point to test support, and then if it drops some more, it costs me at least another point or more to get out). So the idea is that if I'm expecting support, I use the 5 sec chart to get in as close as possible to the support level, and if price should happen to test again, this should be within my stop.
My point about the wicks is not about candlestick patterns or any of that stuff (although some of that "theory" is supported by typical behavioral patterns of price around notable areas). The point is that it's common to see price pierce a support or resistance and then reverse. All the people who hopped on early expecting a reversal at that point get stopped out. All the people who took the breakout get stopped when it does actually reverse. By playing the 5s chart with your entries you are in effect extra early and the first to get shaken out. The behavioral action of price around a notable S/R at a 5s resolution will NOT be the same dance it does at a 1m or 5m resolution. Wait for the curveball to happen which screws all the early people and either enter at tbat low (with a preexisting limit slightly below or above S/R) or when it does actually retrace and reverse. There are pros (not necessarily or always big or other-timeframe players though) watching these areas with a goal of maximum screwage for their own liquidity gains. Expect price to spend some time back and forth for a bit before actually doing anytning. Don't be the mark.
And price reaches 76.75.
Note how price tests and bounces off the median of the range formed after the market re-opened. After breaking up through 50. As discussed earlier.
Note how price tests and bounces off the median of the range formed after the market re-opened. After breaking up through 50. As discussed earlier.
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Where was this level on your chart you posted earlier? Sure its nice to see now that 73 was an important level to watch, but you didn't have this on your chart, from earlier. So now you can claim you went long above 73, but since this level wasn't outlined earlier, you can't take the credit for this.