[swansjr]

Day 37
July 8, 2009

One trade. One winner.

Today's, action was much more choppy as apposed to yesterdays trending market. I was getting conflicting signals on my timeframes and thus, I was cautious. I did record several videos but the bulk of them never materialized into a trade. But I did manage to capture one quick scalp before my session was over. I won't bore you with the video but you can find a screenshot below. The price just moved below the fast SMA and I took the first valid signal. Very clean entry and the market moved quickly to my target.



I recorded my trade today. Is it no wonder my trade was a winner?
P&L: $100

[swansjr]

Day 38
July 9, 2009

Another day of no trades. I've been distracted this week with non-trading obligations and it's really showing. This should last just through this week so, one more day.

[Truckload]

I have enjoyed following your thread so far. I hope you are not dropping it. So after all of the work you have done trying out the Watts system what do you think of the system? Is it worth the effort?

One thing I wonder about is why not just program all of the rules into an automated strategy, then you would have no psychological issues to deal with. Have you tried automating?

[swansjr]

Originally Posted by Truckload »

I have enjoyed following your thread so far. I hope you are not dropping it. So after all of the work you have done trying out the Watts system what do you think of the system? Is it worth the effort?

One thing I wonder about is why not just program all of the rules into an automated strategy, then you would have no psychological issues to deal with. Have you tried automating?

Thanks for writing. I've not given up. The last few weeks I've been busy, distracted and generally unable to focus on trading. For example, I design web pages as a side job - been doing that for years. Well, I had a project that needed some work for a demo that was coming up this past weekend. During the morning I would switch between working on my web page and trading the EC. Not a good idea. After suffering three losses in a row last week during market conditions which should have been easy for me I decided I need to stop trading to clear my plate.

My complete and total intention is to clear my plate of non-trading obligations and get back to focusing on the markets. This will be the last web page for me as I truly wish to focus my energies on trading. It's so much better than web design. No customers is one big plus. Anyway, I'm still around and sorry for not updating. I've been so busy I really had to cut back on posting.

As for the Watts system, I like it. It's the only purchased system I've made money at. Is it worth the effort? I thinks so. Time will tell. For such a low cost I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to day trade. It's a small price to pay for such massive potential rewards. It may not be for everyone but you won't know unless you try. Lord knows I have trouble executing trades but that's a psychological issue that can occur with any trading system.

I thought about trying to code up the system as well. I made a half-baked attempt months ago but like with many profitable discretionary systems there are always elements that prove very difficult to quantify in computer code. In the end I decided I need to learn to trade. I series of tools that could highlight price bars or somehow alert me to possible setups would be more useful. I might attempt to create a tools set in the future. But in my opinion the biggest obstacle is me and if the Watts system could be coded up someone much smarter than me would have done it already.

[swansjr]

I need help! I'm going back to my simulator for more training. Why? While it's true I'm muddling along making a little money with my live trading, I'm not happy with my inability to take every signal. The way to overcome this is to build more confidence in my trading skill and trusting with my system. So, starting Tuesday I'm going to take every valid signal without fear or hesitation on the simulator. I will track my progress as always and I hope this will demonstrate that by just following my system money will follow. By the end of the week if I feel more confident then I will revert back to trading with real money on the following week. It's important for me to accept that I can always revert back to sim trading if I feel my performance is lacking.This is not failure but simply acknowledging my weakness and attempting to fix it without losing too much cash.

[1pipatatime]

Originally Posted by swansjr »

I need help! I'm going back to my simulator for more training. Why? While it's true I'm muddling along making a little money with my live trading, I'm not happy with my inability to take every signal. The way to overcome this is to build more confidence in my trading skill and trusting with my system. So, starting Tuesday I'm going to take every valid signal without fear or hesitation on the simulator. I will track my progress as always and I hope this will demonstrate that by just following my system money will follow. By the end of the week if I feel more confident then I will revert back to trading with real money on the following week. It's important for me to accept that I can always revert back to sim trading if I feel my performance is lacking.This is not failure but simply acknowledging my weakness and attempting to fix it without losing too much cash.

Thats fine to do that but make sure you are doing it for the correct reasons.

For example when I was trading awhile ago I was missing valid entries and getting really p$#sed off with myself and did what you mentioned above to no avail, but when I went to search for the source of the problem I found that it was just me trying to be a perfectionist and when I realized that all I had to do was focus on the probability of the trade then everything eased up and I was trading well again.

I still get caught up in the perfectionist thing every now and then but I have a message next to my screen to remind me to trade with probabilities.

Cheers and hope this helps

1pipatatime

[swansjr]

Day 38
July 22, 2009

The EC market was choppy today but I did manage to squeeze a scalp in this morning. Price moved above my moving averages then came down to test a consolidation area which consisted of both the 89 sma and 50 sma. I took the first signal near these averages.



P&L: $100

[swansjr]

Day 39
July 23, 2009

One trade. One winner.

The EC market was still in range bound since yesterday. Attached is the video of the trade and you'll see I realize the range bound nature of the market and enter long at a valid entry on the 445-tick chart instead of my usual-89 tick in hopes of capturing a larger move. Well, it was not a huge move but it was larger than my standard scalp.

Here is the attached video capture of todays trade:
Live_Trading_2009-07-23_0800.swf

P&L: $150