At long last, I've settled on a trading method.
It's based simply on location and Price action.
I can see it has great potential, and has already given me some beautiful trades.
The big problem with the method, as you will see from my first logged trade, is me!
I got itchy fingers yesterday, and made an idiotic trade. I thought I had rid myself of this daemon, but it seems it's not completely banished yet.
Well, Nietzsche's statement that 'The road to wisdom is paved with embarrassment' has rung true throughout my whole life, and that's why I'm going to post my mission statement, rules, and all my trades here. There's nothing like the fear of public humiliation to make me, at least, try to do a good job
I'm sure I'll add to this and edit it over time, but I won't delete the original- I want to remember where I came from.
So, the rationale:
Why do I want to be a trader?
1. I want to keep my love of people. I'm very gregarious by nature, but having run a construction company for years I found that I was withdrawing from people more and more - you tend to see the ugly side of people when you're doing business with them for hundreds of thousands of euros.
2. I don't want to deal with money - I've never liked the stuff. Pips will do me fine thank you!
3. I love to solve puzzles, be it chess, sudoku, crosswords, riddles, quantum mechanics, astrophysics. You name it.
4. Having been a builder in Ireland, I'd like to have a recession-proof business
5. My wife is allergic to dust mites, and the Irish climate is great for their propagation. Her life is hell while she lives here, so I want a way for us to live where she can be healthy and happy.
5. I want to be able to teach my children a skill which could serve them well throughout their lives - the younger the better.
What sort of trader do I want to be?
As mechanical as possible.
I want a strict list of rules for entry and exits
My Primary Strength is
Allowing my winners to run
My Secondary Strength is
I'm now mostly panic free
My Primary Weakness is
Not taking profits where I absolutely know I must
My Secondary Weakness is
I'm still a bit trigger happy
I will only trade on days when
I am not hungover
I am not stressed
I am properly rested
My First Live Annual Financial Target is
€50,000. Starting at about €4 per pip, this is a lot of pips!
My Annual Trading Goal is
Spot every A++ setup and trade it. Ignore the rest
Learn all I can about trading and myself
My Annual Reward is
A nice long family holiday
My monthly target in pips is
As many as my rules will allow
My monthly reward is
A weekend surfing and diving
When I consistently reach my goals, I will
Design an build an house wherever my wife would like.
Markets I will trade
Forex, CFDs, commodities.
Which TFs will I trade?
Forex: Weekly, Daily, H4
The rest: Weekly, Daily
My Daily PreTrading Routine
Check and manage open trades
Go through charts, check who's near PPZ and forming nice PA, set price close and TL alerts
Write my notes on the charts
Move the interesting ones to the left
Write my Journal
Drop in on James 16 thread
Hour by Hour
Manage open trades
Watch interesting charts
Keep up with James 16
Study
My attitude towards Risk
I dislike it, but I know there's risk in every opportunity
I will risk 2% equity on A++ setups, with a maximum of 6% exposure at any time.
I will risk 1% on Confluence Trades
I will only have one trade on any single currency at a time
If I lose 4% on any day, I will stop trading until I understand what happened.
I will close a trade before the SL is hit if
Strong PA tells me to
The trade doesn't take off like I'd hoped
I realise it wasn't an A++ setup
Profit Taking
I intend to use discretion in this, but will definitely take 30% at FTA and move SL to TBE
I'll use a two bar trailing stop mostly, but will take Full profits if strong PA tells me to, whether it be at the next PPZ or not
Trading Strategies
1.Find PPZs on the weekly charts
If Daily PBT&CA/B at these levels, look for PA in as low as H4(H1 if it's very strong) for a retrace and continuation.
Trade reversals with strong PA in H4 at the lowest
2. If I get strong PA(H4 minimum) outside of PPZs, only trade highs or lows, and only if I get confluence with at least two of: fibs, TLs, divergence, ema (and I think maybe volumes, which are making sense now I've the right feed)
Punishment for Breaking Rules
A minimum of 24 hours flat. NO EXCEPTIONS
Edit 09/04/2011:
My way of looking at the market has changed forever.
It can basically be summed up in the charts below.
My EUREKA moment came after learning the J16 method and then finding Sam Seiden's free webinars. Just seeing his first chart I could see it all!
This understanding was fine tuned by the profound generosity of Trader General redsword11, Senior Trader Orbital (a reincarnation of Gandhi, I'm sure of it!), Senior Trader Emene (whose simple charts speak volumes), and so many other great traders in the Price Is Everything thread, from whom I have learned so much and still have so much to learn.
I'm posting alot of my trades elsewhere now, BTW, but I'll be posting significant winners and losers here from time to time
It's based simply on location and Price action.
I can see it has great potential, and has already given me some beautiful trades.
The big problem with the method, as you will see from my first logged trade, is me!
I got itchy fingers yesterday, and made an idiotic trade. I thought I had rid myself of this daemon, but it seems it's not completely banished yet.
Well, Nietzsche's statement that 'The road to wisdom is paved with embarrassment' has rung true throughout my whole life, and that's why I'm going to post my mission statement, rules, and all my trades here. There's nothing like the fear of public humiliation to make me, at least, try to do a good job
I'm sure I'll add to this and edit it over time, but I won't delete the original- I want to remember where I came from.
So, the rationale:
Why do I want to be a trader?
1. I want to keep my love of people. I'm very gregarious by nature, but having run a construction company for years I found that I was withdrawing from people more and more - you tend to see the ugly side of people when you're doing business with them for hundreds of thousands of euros.
2. I don't want to deal with money - I've never liked the stuff. Pips will do me fine thank you!
3. I love to solve puzzles, be it chess, sudoku, crosswords, riddles, quantum mechanics, astrophysics. You name it.
4. Having been a builder in Ireland, I'd like to have a recession-proof business
5. My wife is allergic to dust mites, and the Irish climate is great for their propagation. Her life is hell while she lives here, so I want a way for us to live where she can be healthy and happy.
5. I want to be able to teach my children a skill which could serve them well throughout their lives - the younger the better.
What sort of trader do I want to be?
As mechanical as possible.
I want a strict list of rules for entry and exits
My Primary Strength is
Allowing my winners to run
My Secondary Strength is
I'm now mostly panic free
My Primary Weakness is
Not taking profits where I absolutely know I must
My Secondary Weakness is
I'm still a bit trigger happy
I will only trade on days when
I am not hungover
I am not stressed
I am properly rested
My First Live Annual Financial Target is
€50,000. Starting at about €4 per pip, this is a lot of pips!
My Annual Trading Goal is
Spot every A++ setup and trade it. Ignore the rest
Learn all I can about trading and myself
My Annual Reward is
A nice long family holiday
My monthly target in pips is
As many as my rules will allow
My monthly reward is
A weekend surfing and diving
When I consistently reach my goals, I will
Design an build an house wherever my wife would like.
Markets I will trade
Forex, CFDs, commodities.
Which TFs will I trade?
Forex: Weekly, Daily, H4
The rest: Weekly, Daily
My Daily PreTrading Routine
Check and manage open trades
Go through charts, check who's near PPZ and forming nice PA, set price close and TL alerts
Write my notes on the charts
Move the interesting ones to the left
Write my Journal
Drop in on James 16 thread
Hour by Hour
Manage open trades
Watch interesting charts
Keep up with James 16
Study
My attitude towards Risk
I dislike it, but I know there's risk in every opportunity
I will risk 2% equity on A++ setups, with a maximum of 6% exposure at any time.
I will risk 1% on Confluence Trades
I will only have one trade on any single currency at a time
If I lose 4% on any day, I will stop trading until I understand what happened.
I will close a trade before the SL is hit if
Strong PA tells me to
The trade doesn't take off like I'd hoped
I realise it wasn't an A++ setup
Profit Taking
I intend to use discretion in this, but will definitely take 30% at FTA and move SL to TBE
I'll use a two bar trailing stop mostly, but will take Full profits if strong PA tells me to, whether it be at the next PPZ or not
Trading Strategies
1.Find PPZs on the weekly charts
If Daily PBT&CA/B at these levels, look for PA in as low as H4(H1 if it's very strong) for a retrace and continuation.
Trade reversals with strong PA in H4 at the lowest
2. If I get strong PA(H4 minimum) outside of PPZs, only trade highs or lows, and only if I get confluence with at least two of: fibs, TLs, divergence, ema (and I think maybe volumes, which are making sense now I've the right feed)
Punishment for Breaking Rules
A minimum of 24 hours flat. NO EXCEPTIONS
Edit 09/04/2011:
My way of looking at the market has changed forever.
It can basically be summed up in the charts below.
My EUREKA moment came after learning the J16 method and then finding Sam Seiden's free webinars. Just seeing his first chart I could see it all!
This understanding was fine tuned by the profound generosity of Trader General redsword11, Senior Trader Orbital (a reincarnation of Gandhi, I'm sure of it!), Senior Trader Emene (whose simple charts speak volumes), and so many other great traders in the Price Is Everything thread, from whom I have learned so much and still have so much to learn.
I'm posting alot of my trades elsewhere now, BTW, but I'll be posting significant winners and losers here from time to time