[Maelstrom]

This one is easy.

My initial stop is a tick below the entry bar. For YM, that means a 21 pt stop if I nail the entry right at the close of the entry bar, 22 if it slips a point.

I also set a second stop market order 50 points below my entry as a precaution against a catastrophic move and having my stop loss jumped. Will that save me in a flash crash? Not sure, but it makes me feel better if something weird happens.

Next, profit targets..... this will get a bit more complicated now

[Maelstrom]

I have to throw this out there.....sometimes simple is best.

I personally do not (usually) like using fixed profit targets, but..... with the way I trade, a 1:2 R:R ratio would work just fine. Use a 22 point stop, set a 44 point target, and go fix yourself a latte. The win/loss ratio with my trades is pretty high, so a profit taking scenario like this would work.

I will not go into one of those endless discussions of how you can get rich with a R:R like that, don't be greedy, have patience, blah blah blah. I DO believe in patience, preserving capital, being emotionally comfortable with your trading, and above all, being realistic. BUT.....I am absolutely not one of those traders that needs $50k in their account to trade one emini contract and make $100 a day off of that. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but that's not just me.

A little aggressiveness, or more appropriately, conviction in trading is not a bad thing at all. I like to kick the market square in the ass when I have the opportunity, because I have the scars from when it has kicked back.

On to the ass kicking......

[Maelstrom]

Going on a brief tangent here on something I should have touched on earlier, and that is time frame/range size of charts.

I have traded for a while now, and been through what most of us have - trying this, tweaking that. One thing that I had a very hard time with was trading a "slower chart, but I can tell you, when I did, things changed dramatically for the good.

I laugh now sometimes looking back and trading (or trying to) 10,20,50 tick charts, or 5 second bars or whatever, because I wanted every little piece of the market. Well, I got every little piece all right - every piece of pain and heartache the market had to give me.

In my opinion, a bigger chart will let you get some perspective. Using the YM as an example, 20R bars is approx 1/8 to 1/10 of the daily range. For ES, a 2 - 2.5 pt range works pretty well, NQ, maybe around 5R. That is a decent size bar chart. But it does something for me that the faster charts could not - let me think, to see the bigger picture of the trading day or week, and most importantly, give me a sense of structure or flow, or at least my delusion of that.

Yes, a bigger chart means bigger stops, but for me, I would rather lose $100 on a failed trade every once in a while versus dying a death of a thousand cuts with $10, $20+ over and over.

I know traders who successfully trade insanely fast charts, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them because they do something that I have yet been able to do. But, if anyone is reading this and having that feeling of "wtf is going on" when they are looking at the market, double up your normal chart and take another look. Still looks like crap? Double it again. Bigger charts won't fix everything, but it will allow you to think things through with a lot more time.

M

[Ingot54]

Originally Posted by pa18 »

But I like to experiment with range bars again.

Do you (or anyone else) know of any reliable range bars indicator for MT4?

Hi PA18

Here is something that may be of assistance to you.

If it fails to upload, you can download it yourself here at post #11:

http://www.traderslaboratory.com/for...ndicators.html

Kind regards

Ingot

[Maelstrom]

This is so completely obvious, but I would be negligent if I didn't post it - if a trade is on, no other exit conditions occur, and an opposite signal occurs - take the signal and reverse.

There, now my conscience is clear

M

[optiontimer]

Originally Posted by Maelstrom »

Ok, this is embarrassing, as I consider myself a pretty techie guy, but is there a way to embed images from a file into the body of a post versus it being an attachment?

Thanks!

After you upload your file, right click on the hyperlink in the manage attachments window, and click on "copy link address".

Then click on the "insert image" ikon above. It looks like this:



An address bar will open. Then right click and paste link address into the address bar that opens, and click "ok".

That should do it.

-optiontimer

[tinyboy]

Maelstrom-

Nice thread, but I have NO idea how to follow your charts. I thought I understood what you were doing in the beginning but you lost me at about the 6th or 7th post

Mike

[Maelstrom]

Originally Posted by optiontimer »

After you upload your file, right click on the hyperlink in the manage attachments window, and click on "copy link address".

You're a good man Optiontimer - thank you! I will try that.

M