For anyone that cares, I have an update on my status.
All i have to say is WOW. What a difference 7 months makes ! I've made big progress since then, and now I look back at how freakin' naive I was.
Lost my ass bigtime in those 7 months to the tune of probably $15-17k from Febuary to mid September.
I started off as any newb would, experimenting with indicators and trying to find a holy grail from them. Then proceeded to say fuck indicators, and try to make it scalping off the 1 min charts on YM. Still lost my ass, but learned a lot. Finally came to the conclusion that the 1 min chart has too much noise to accurately predict where the market goes.
Then a fellow ETer (YOU KNOW WHO U ARE!!) enlightened me to many things starting in late June and early July. Using only candlestick patterns, MA, and volume I spent a SHITLOAD of hours analyzing charts of bigger time frames. Without him, I know I would have failed as a trader. And don't bother asking me who it is in PM, b/c I am going to respect his privacy unless he comes forth in this thread.
I used to scalp for 10 point moves in YM. It was very very pathetic.
Now, I've switched to the ES intraday swing trading I like to call it that b/c I base trades off the 5, 15, and 60 min charts. 2-3 point stops and a R:R of always 1:2 or better. Dont stay in for 1-2 mins anymore. Holds are longer.
I think I have a gift for this, b/c after so much chart study, when the market is moving, i can pretty much visualize where it will go (or at least the higher probability direction) based upon candle patterns of all the time frames and experience in reading charts. Its unbelievable how I'll see a pattern form, and automatically visualize its different possibilities which just pop up in my head. I've never been able to do that before. This has contributed a LOT to my success. I am assuming the successful traders do this as well. Its almost laughable how right I've been lately. How did the markets get this easy and why did I lose so much money in recent months ? LOL.
It awes me to see how big of a change I've made since my days of struggling back in the summertime.
Oh, and my system has setups in which the probability of success is over 60% for every trade, usually having 3-6 trades per day.
I am not out of the woods yet, but so far, I've had 14 winning days in a row, last loser being 9/25. Last half of September, and so far all of October have been great. A flawless October would be great....no losing days ! That would be a great November birthday gift.
You can make the argument that these markets are easier to trade as many days are trending. I will agree w/ u, but do not contribute it to my recent success. I used to go into the trading day HOPING I wouldn't lose and hoped I would make $50-$100. Now, I go into the day wondering how much $ I can extract. BIG change of mentality. It wasn't forced, it was due to gradual confidence in my abilitiy and seeing myself succeed continually.
I'm no longer wondering if I will make it in this game. Now I am wondering how long it will take me to make a million dollars.
Less is more in this game. I've been humbled many times, and that is what keeps me disciplined from now on
Judging from my posts I've made in this thread in the past, you all are going to say I dont believe you've made it, you have a long way to go, you probably are exagerating, or yada yada yada. Truthfully, I don't care what any of you think. I know how ET gets.
Many of the schmucks that are going to post in this thread, I can probably out trade anyway...which is a big statement coming from someone without a lot of experience, but thats not the point.....thing is, purpose of this post is to give some of you hope. If i can do it, it is certainly possible for anyone. It just takes a lot of hard work.
