[AgeKay]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

Grr, one thing that keeps annoying me is whether I'm trying to nail the price or the time. I would like to get it at the top with the short, not wait for it to start falling and get fill in some random spot. If you wait for 3 bar or something don't you end up in the middle of nowhere with bad fill?

[...]

Anyways for me personally, I want in at the first one.

It is possible, but it's not possible looking at a 1-min bar chart with simple volume below it.

[Head2k]

Originally Posted by jonbig04 »

OK I am moving my stop to BE after +2ES. I hope you all are happy at this weakness lol. It's less profitable, but in interest of a smoother curve (while in cash), its worth it.

I believe that this alone is not the way to go, either.
You claim that you are trading PA, but it seems that your PA reading is reduced almost only to finding PA based S/R. That's definitelly not all what can be read in PA. You could focus on reading traders' behavior once they approach or reach your level. And that doesn't always necessarily mean waiting for worse price. Sometimes it does, and sometimes you can miss the trade altogether. But in a lot of cases you can have both low price risk and low information risk. But then you must define what you need to see to confirm that price is probably really turning, and how to find an entry after this confirmation so your stop can be tight while still placed in the correct place. Maybe that's a whole new area you could explore.

[jonbig04]

Originally Posted by Head2k »

I believe that this alone is not the way to go, either.
You claim that you are trading PA, but it seems that your PA reading is reduced almost only to finding PA based S/R. That's definitelly not all what can be read in PA. You could focus on reading traders' behavior once they approach or reach your level. And that doesn't always necessarily mean waiting for worse price. Sometimes it does, and sometimes you can miss the trade altogether. But in a lot of cases you can have both low price risk and low information risk. But then you must define what you need to see to confirm that price is probably really turning, and how to find an entry after this confirmation so your stop can be tight while still placed in the correct place. Maybe that's a whole new area you could explore.

Well said, that's what I'm planning on doing today. I still doubt I'm going to be waiting for all that much confirmation, but I'm being shown some new strategies that hopefully will help me not be at the the mercy of luck so much.

[jonbig04]

I know, I've been journal slack. I've had to take care of a few things in the last few days and missed a bit of trading. Luckily it was only a few hours worth and the system is so easy (limit at levels) that its easy to test the data when the level are already in there.

Net for the month is +8.75ES, and I was lucky to get that. I thought things were going to get ugly until yesterday morning when we had a reversal right off of that 886.25 level I've been bitching about ( see 5/22 chart). Funny how when I think a level sucks it ends up coming through. Anyways, obviously I'm short of the 20-30 goal and we all know why.

All of you have been right all along, despite my wishful thinking. While I don't enter in random place, my stops are too small and the entry itself on the 5-sec isn't PA based. It's more luck of the draw. That's why I missed so many good trades by ticks, I was relying on luck. I'm happy with the zones of S/R that I've been identifying for the most part, though I hope to get better and better at it. Really I should be happy, what if I had that level 2 ticks lower? My net would have improved by +18 and it would have taken me longer to realize the crappyness of my entries.

A TL friend of mine has been kind enough to help me with my entries. Using his suggestions I've managed to create a set of rules that works much better. My stop will now be PA based from 1-2 points. I will waiting and letting the market stop me in. This isn't a magic fix, but it does look like it will perform much better than my crappy entries of this month. In using this technique, I manage to nail 2 of those 5 trades that I missed while only costing me a few points. The exact net difference for this month is +16 which would have put me where I need to be. However I'm not putting much faith in that number, and will rely on next months number to really tell the story. Thanks a million to all those who help me on a continuous basis.

Now, I go drink.

Tomorrow, more charts haha.

[jonbig04]

What the hell happened at Friday's close? I just wish it happened during RTH as there was a bounce off of my R level from a few weeks ago.

I see that my journal got 1 rating, for 1 star lol. Ouch, that cuts me deep.

Anyways I'm working on figuring out these new entries software-wise. I have the chase function figured out, now I just have to figure out the stop limit stuff. I actually had to go out and buy a new mouse as my apple mouse didn't have a clickable-scroll wheel lol.

[jonbig04]

notes in chart..............

[jonbig04]

I will probably go live soon. As soon as I get used to the new entry technique. I think SIM has played its part. Worst case scenario now is that I don't reach my goal...I doubt I'm going to melt down or anything. I'll give it 2 weeks from today.

[jonbig04]

Finished with +0.25.

I loved my stop to BE to early and didn't allow the DB to form. Looks like it cost me 3ES or so. My target was 950 and we never got there, so at least it didn't cost me 10ES lol.

It's nice to see a level from 6 months ago hold so well. It's been S for a while, but price makes little progress above it. I keep expecting to wake up and find that we have broken down below it and are heading to 926, but it hasn't happened.