Trading the Plan

easymon1 said:
You have a good eye for the charts. You'll do fine. The question is, when.
If you want to be a rules based trader, then read on. If not, no problemo. Skip to next.
If you want to try something that could make it easier than you expect to glide out of this morass, get a sidebook and a pencil. Got one already? Good. No not on your computer. Set that steno pad next to your mousepad. This week when you act on something from your chart in a way that you want to do more of - jot down what you did. Forget the screw-ups for next week. Catch yourself doing good. Next weekend boil that section down and summarize it into a prototype set of rules. Then comes the fun part. Week after, start your error log in the same steno pad. When you do something that you want to do less of, then jot that down in your sidebook. Weekend after next boil that section down and summarize it into a prototype set of bad habits. Give your errors short names at the boil down session so in the future you can just jot down ... late entry, missed entry, did not enter, made up a trade MUT - which means entered for reasons that are not defendable or are unsupported by a track record at this time. Eventually you might be ranking these errors according to how much they cost you or how they rate by number of occurances per month. Break a leg!
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Great idea! Got one started.
Thanks!
Do more Do less notebook May 30 2022.jpg

I'll plan on putting it on the checklist and mentioning it in this journal sometimes to help build the habit of using it. :)
 
Thanks for the download!

Something practical to work at. I like it. Thanks!

tiddlywinks said:
My advice...
Think about what you are thinking about.
Think about what you are thinking about as you prepare to check the box.
Think about what you are thinking about as you are checking the box.
Think about what you are thinking about after you have checked the box.
Then, think about what you are thinking about.
The more senses involved, the better!
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Good suggestions! Thank you!
 
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kroxobor said:
You have to simply automate your strategy to avoid this issues. If you follow any pattern to get a signal for a trade, then it's feasible. However if every trading setup is unique, for example you read lots of news and try to predict next developments and bet on your guess, then you can't avoid manual trading and best you can do is set trading stops according to your risk management plan.
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The trading set ups follow patterns. I have automated parts of it, but felt like I hit a wall with what I was doing with the NT8 strategy builder unless I learn to program. I have settled for using colored indicators as a way to make the set ups stand out visually. It's been a while since I looked at the strategies. Maybe I'll pull them up again and give them another try. Thanks!
 
I became frustrated with my checklist today and stopped using it for a while, when price was in a choppy area.

In hindsight it's much easier to see the choppiness.

Went back to my checklist after the choppiness of the first 2 hours of the day and did better and regained my confidence that I do like the ES when it trends, just not when I trade the chop as though it were trending.

I need to write up better rules that differentiate between chop and trend and include profit taking and stop loss placement for both. The problem is that I often think the trend will break out from the chop and get chopped up in the process.

If I had done more thinking about what I was thinking about in those areas I might have noticed the behavior around the trendline areas and it might have helped make better decisions.

When price doesn't behave as I expect it to, I need to be more aware that maybe I need to be more flexible in my thinking....and stay out if not sure.

So, the choppy areas I failed in today, BUT, I have a plan to work on it.

Demo trading only today.
 
Stayed in demo again.

Still need to figure some things out.

I made too many minor exceptions to my rules today because I didn't want to wait for a better set up and those trades did not do as well. I did get one excellent trade following a strict interpretation of my rules. Waiting for a good opportunity is really hard, partly because I don't know that a retracement will happen that will give a good opportunity...sometimes if I wait for a retracement, that never happens.

I decided to trade the open also, which I rarely do, just for the practice and that also did not go well and I didn't follow the rules then. I need to make up some rules for trading around the first 15 minutes after the open because the volatility is so strong that doing what I do the other times of the day is just asking for my stop loss to be taken. So, before I trade the open again, I need to have a separate plan for it.

I'm really surprised at myself that I haven't been able to say each day that I carefully followed my rules.

I also need to figure out some changes to my rules as far as stop losses go and re-entries.
 
Do you guys ever look back at a dozen charts that have simple setups to see how many of them worked and how they performed?
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/charts-for-no-reason.344272/page-25#post-5608406

KGTrader4 said:
The rule I try my best to follow, and USUALLY do, is….

do not trade before 10AM
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studentofthemarkets said:
Stayed in demo again.

Still need to figure some things out.

I made too many minor exceptions to my rules today because I didn't want to wait for a better set up and those trades did not do as well. I did get one excellent trade following a strict interpretation of my rules. Waiting for a good opportunity is really hard, partly because I don't know that a retracement will happen that will give a good opportunity...sometimes if I wait for a retracement, that never happens.

I decided to trade the open also, which I rarely do, just for the practice and that also did not go well and I didn't follow the rules then. I need to make up some rules for trading around the first 15 minutes after the open because the volatility is so strong that doing what I do the other times of the day is just asking for my stop loss to be taken. So, before I trade the open again, I need to have a separate plan for it.

I'm really surprised at myself that I haven't been able to say each day that I carefully followed my rules.

I also need to figure out some changes to my rules as far as stop losses go and re-entries.
More...
 
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