[taq]

great post
thanks for sharing

[CandleWhisperer]

Originally Posted by edabreu »

....If it was the market...welcome to the club. It is a merciless hungry beast out to devour you and take all your money. Accept it, ... then let it go. You have no control over it....

Thanks for this valuable thread, but with all due respect, wouldn't a better prism to view the market from be:

The market is a free for all buffet- All I have to do is collect my money. The market is a friendly place; the market will provide.

Call it the "Law of Attraction" or whatever. But do most of the successful traders you know, view the market as friend or foe? I am trying to work on my mental program (read demons) and nothing I have seen would suggest to see the market as anything other than a place where money can be made easily.

[BennyHey]

Originally Posted by edabreu »

First, my response is why? There is not enough space in this forum to properly answer that question with enough substance to really mean anything to anyone. My answer may be interesting, but that's about it.

Second - The indicators I use may not fit your trading personality, as it is now. So what I tell you below may be interesting, but won't really mean much in comparison to what ever you use or how you trade. Spend some 1 on 1 time with someone who has what you have now, and who taught you to trade and is making it work. If there is no such person, and if you are not able to make what you have work, then you may need to get some help.
If you have nothing right now and are just starting out, then the below may help point you in the right direction.

I use a few big picture charts. I use a 550min big picture for market imbalance points; a 30m MP value zone and intermediate range & big trend; a 5m with standard market details like pivots, OHLC, dynamic S/R and session trend and range. I have these arranged left to right.

My trade setup chart is a 5 Range candle chart with BWT indicators. 1 oscillator filter on the bottom.
My entry/re-entry chart is a 233tick or a 610 vol depending on either the FESX or ES, and dependent on either the cash session or the overnight session.
When trading 1c or 2c, I try to keep my R/R at 1:1 immediately after first target. Initial stop is based on the BWT stop/rev marker but never more than 2%. As price moves in my direction, I get to BE stop and stay behind price about 2.5 points (ES) or 5 tics FESX.
When trading 3c or more, I go for the free trade principle.

I rarely hold anything overnight. Only if a significant S/R was respected big time. Which lately seems like gone with the wind.

I look for my trade signals as per the trade entry rules of the indicators I use.

The key issue is whether your stuff works for you. If you keep a detailed trade journal, and I mean detailed - plan, rules, results, crap and all - then you have a very good chance at discovering what is not working and what is. Your journal should have your setups clearly defined - your risk.reward clearly defined, case scenarios that tell you how to react in each trade situation that got you a win, and most importantly, what caused the loss. You need to know whether it was you, or the market.

If it was the market...welcome to the club. It is a merciless hungry beast out to devour you and take all your money. Accept it, ... then let it go. You have no control over it.

If it was you, then your journal will help you discover the problem, and either fix it yourself or get someone who can help you fix it.

Hope this helps.

Thank You,
I did not ask to try and copy you. I have been trading futures for a while and have a system that I already use. I am just curious to learn about other traders and what they do. My "system" is just an amalgam of other peoples ideas and I am always looking to improve upon them.

[edabreu]

Originally Posted by CandleWhisperer »

Thanks for this valuable thread, but with all due respect, wouldn't a better prism to view the market from be:

The market is a free for all buffet- All I have to do is collect my money. The market is a friendly place; the market will provide.

Call it the "Law of Attraction" or whatever. But do most of the successful traders you know, view the market as friend or foe? I am trying to work on my mental program (read demons) and nothing I have seen would suggest to see the market as anything other than a place where money can be made easily.

Yes..you can do that after you let that demons go. First is recognizing it, then forgiving yourself for making mistakes, then accepting it as your friend as it is and loving it. Its a good way too.

All depends on who you are. Candy works for some, the belt and the stick works for others.
I know traders who are excellent, and they treat the market as a wild beast, and are not shy about what they are doing to traders when they 'take their money'. It works for them. If they adopt the 'law of attraction' then they may not do as well..and who knows...maybe they already tried that.

Know thy self, and do not force your 'should' rules on anyone else. In your beginning the search is to find what works for you. It is a waste of time to try to convince anyone to see it any other way than the way that is going to help them survive the beginning years, and eventually make some money.

In my personal view, the market is a place where the big take advantage of the small, and the small need to find a way to see where the money is going and follow them. You need to trade like a local. You need to be very diciplined, patient, practical, and cautious. In my trading I have little room for wish fulfillment or emotional considerations about the cosmos for my trading. In my prayers I do wish for it to be easy.

Yes, it is a candy store....eventually. But misjudging it in the beginning can cause you a lot or pain. It is a place where money can be made...easily??? Maybe one day if you get your act together. Pretending it is so after a few winning weeks will come back and bite your head off. The traders with lots of successful experience can either help you see the reality clearly, or they can paint it with starry eyed wonder and wish fulfillment and charge you plenty for their help. I doubt that if you sat down with any successful trader who has no personal financial interest in you, that they are going to tell you the market is anything other than a place to be very careful, a place where the sheep will get slaughtered, where the un-diciplined will get ripped to pieces, where most people go broke because they fail to see it clearly, or understand why they are in it.

I am so sick and tired of brokers, tool vendors, trade coaches, moderators, and pundants who paint the market as a place to make money easily. It is a place where 90% of trader fail miserably...period. That is a cold hard fact.

[MAH]

Hi - Thanks so much for the posts, a friend forwarded them. The trade journal you referenced is an email address, is this correct? MAH

[edabreu]

yes- just send an email there and ask about the journal.