I have been a full time intraday trader for over five years. I tried numerous strategies only to eventually have them break down or not have enough consistency. I even taught myself computer programming and began coding my own algos, but due to the inherent risk of constantly over optimizing I watch them make money until they eventually break down as well. But I am mostly a discretionary trader. I guess my point in all this is that I am not a “new” Trader and even though consistent profits elude me I am advanced in knowledge but I am struggling and soon if I do not become consistently profitable I will not be able to support my family and I will have to choose another career which is a disaster because trading is what I love to do. I have put in the time and money researching and educating myself yet somehow I have yet to figure out a strategy or strategies that work for me. So this makes me think that I need more personalized and detailed mentoring. However, with all the hacks and failed traders out there pitching their gimmicky trading education systems, indicators and classes it is hard to discover who can be trusted and are legit. I trade stocks and futures (ES, CL, GC). I enjoy trading stocks and feel like a better risk to reward is easier to achieve in stocks but as usual struggle with consistency. My question to the community is: are there any mentors out there you guys would recommend or even Trader education courses that are actually legit or legit successful traders out there who teach traders- futures or stocks. It is very hard to trust anyone because this is my livelihood at stake. Thanks in advance for any help or advice!
Hi Trader2713- I think it would be easier to help you as a community if we know more about your process. Why trade both equities and futures if you have not found a winning process yet? Maybe, for now, it would be best to focus on one. What is your process? What triggers a buy or a sell to open? What triggers an exit? How do you size your trades? When you made money, why would you say that worked when you did the same think on another trade and it failed?
Agree w Robert re focus, and btw great post you're exactly on target. 99% of educators are bsers who have zero proof of recent winning trades. People who try and sound like experts re chart patterns without real money recent P&L proof of winning live trades are a scourge on the industry and imho why so many lose. Sounding smart vs really trading are VERY different. One statement I've made to audiences at my Moneyshow appearances that gets lots of applause is, "don't spend Any money on any educator's courses until you make money using their free content tips (YouTube, Instagram, forum posts etc)." + Do they regularly post real p&l proof they trade + is their approach one you can relate to and reasonably follow +are their stops small +have they been trusted and in biz for 10+ years w strong reputation Red flags: - ridiculous performance claims, eg making 1000's a day in wins - overpriced $3000 bs courses - in business less than 10 years - use hype phrases like financial freedom or consistently profitable - upselling into partner scanners or bs proprietary indicators or software - claims of turning a few hundred dollars into 6 figures bs etc. without tax return proof Thankfully the FTC/SEC/CFTC eventually get around to enforcement actions, iin the meantime caveat emptor. Main tip = don't spend a nickel on any educator until you make winning trades using their free content.
I added equities this past year mainly just to take a break from futures and try a different product. I do not trade futures and equities at the same time or same day. I have been trying to find the fit for me and after years of futures I am trying equities. The reason I stop trading a strategy is usually one of two things...typically after a couple months it was working and because of market conditions the opportunities or trades dwindle down to nothing or it just starts losing. For futures, I trade price action right now. Some set-ups I look for are reversals after a move or trend in one direction looking for double top/bottom or a bottoming out range and multiple retests of the high or low but fail to move higher/lower. Or a bounce with a solid attempt to retest the swing high or low but fail shy of reaching the last swing high/low and break of the bounce high or low pivot point- I like to see a solid attempt indicating buyer/seller failure as opposed to trading a counter-trend and getting rolled up in that move. I look for actual reversal indications and shift in market sentiment based on the price action. When a reversal pattern breaks I take a position looking for a minimum 1:2 risk:reward set-up. I use horizontal support and resistance line to assist. I also take trend trades by looking for a breakout of a range but I usually like to see a tight consolidation before the break or light pullback before the break. Otherwise, if price has moved in a long swing to reach the support or resistance I wait for the break to occur and not fail. If it fails and then retries and takes out the failed high/low I enter. If it does not fail then I look to trade a second swing by waiting for a shallow pullback and quick break of the swing high/low and enter on the break. I would really like to perfect a swing/pullback entry for trends. I have constantly tried swing/pullback trading for better trend entries but I never come up with a pullback entry that works consistently- moving averages, price action etc. And for low volatility market conditions I have struggled trading the range- fading support/resistance...its either breaking the level or bouncing too early and my limit does not get filled. And if I wait for price action to tell me the level will hold the entry is poor or in a true range bound market it does not sit on the levels very long and the opportunity is lost. For equities, I currently try two strategies. I put together a pre-market list of gapping stocks with high volume and a news catalyst looking to trade the ones with a tight consolidation at the pre-market high or low and take the breakout after the open. However, the set-up (the premarket pattern) does not occur very often or sometimes does not break out or does a fake breakout. So the opportunity is low and the win rate is suspect. I also run an intraday scan for trending stocks and look to trade a pullback. Currently through I am unable to perfect a pullback entry method that works for me. I also struggle by becoming overwhelmed with scanning and sifting through the charts. Sometimes I feel like I am rushing the trade without doing enough due diligence. I would rather devise a list to watch before the market opens (like my pre-market list) and watch those stocks to trade as opposed to finding them on the fly during the session. But at the same time I want to catch the stocks that are moving during the current day not after the fact so it feels like scanning intraday would be the most ideal if accomplished. Basically for equities, I struggle with putting a list of stocks in play for the day together and then unless I catch a breakout that works I then struggle with pullback entries. I am trying to take more trades in my pre-market list if they do not break out and use price action for pivot point breaks of reversals.
This is good. Have you ever done a deep dive into the trades that worked and the ones that did not? Did you get in too soon, stop out too soon, not let winners ride, break a rule or two because you did not wait for a break out with a volume confirmation, etc? I suggest you start by reviewing old trades and setting up a set of rules. Read them each morning before you trade. I also would consider avoiding small and mid-cap stocks. Maybe avoid pre and post-market trading for now. See if your strategy works with NASDAQ 100 stocks. Go back and play smaller for a while. Good luck-Bob
So you want to know what books to read? STOP DO NOT GO ON THAT ROAD. I WENT ON IT FOR 30 YEARS been there so I know what you are going through like you searching but for 30 years. I recently have hit a winning streak . let me explain because it will help many others maybe....or not! I have tried most things in 30 years such as eliiot fib Demark and then Brooks: when I first read him I felt I had read a Holy Book. i tried to use his method for day trading for 13 years but just could not be profitable and lost money very fast. Since I went from being 85% losing to 100% winning, I realized why most people lose money trading. they want to be great, they want to be the one on top, a leader not a follower....who wants to blindly follow....?: people remember clearly hating following their parents, doing their bidding. this is one reason why people lose in trading. Did you ever think of joining the armed forces. Most intelligent persons hate it because the forces demand obedience without thought. you have to follow your collegues you have to do it with a whole platoon or brigade and you have to do it as your commanding officer does and you cannot do it alone. You get no credit, you are trained that, if this happens you jump and do this. You just have to do what the others are doing and this makes some people feel inadequate because they are losing their individuality. The armed forces are for those who just follow the crowd. what has this got to do with trading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in trading you are told not to follow the crowd.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can you follow orders? without question. can you blindly follow others without knowing or asking why? or you want to be intelligent and solve riddles? if it is this, then stop trading. if you can follow orders, THEN TRADE: wait for orders. From who? From the market: you must take orders from the market, from the other traders, you must follow them blindly, do as they do. if traders are selling, sell. go brain dead. hit that sell button. do not wait for 50% retracement, do not wait for moving averages, …...do not wait for RSI above 70 or below 30, do not wait for 2 wave to get over, do not wait for that final trendline to get broken, do not wait for support ,do not wait for resistance, do not start a thread on ET 'what should I do'...….. do not think HIT THAT BUTTON
I'm not interested in mentoring but here's an ES chart that goes over some of my process for tackling an ES chart. Its hind sight bias, yes. But it shows how I approach the market. There's no secret sauce, no perfect entries, just perfect exits. if you've been doing this for 5 years and are struggling, its likely "process" that you are failing at. Stop looking for entries, setups, etc. You need a repeatable way of viewing the market. Understanding when market participants are selling to open new positions, selling to close for profit, selling to close (forced selling stop runs), buying to open, buying to close (short covering). Always know whos' doing what. it keeps u on the right side of things, and prevents you from "hoping" for a move when there's unlikely one is coming. Attached is todays 60 min ES chart
Since I’m not a licensed financial advisor, I never make recommendations, but I’m more than happy to share what I do personally (or what I have done in the past). My angle on discovering what might lead to success in trading financial markets was to take the Berean approach of examining the “truth” of price action every day to see if what “experts” said was true. This led me to trash all indicators with the exception of moving averages and moving average envelopes. I could explain why, but I have since found others who share my views, one of whom has already recorded them in this video, so you can find my reasoning by navigating there: Again, rather than use ATR, as mentioned by JP, I use adaptive price-range envelopes. And I don’t use standard moving averages either. I use baselines—painstakingly selected moving averages that accurately convey whether price is rising or falling within the context of a given time frame. This greatly simplifies the decision-making process, as illustrated by this image I posted earlier today… …which left no question but that any long positions in the DOW (Futures or ETFs) needed to be replaced this afternoon by shorts. So then, nothing is subjective. It’s all about the math. Which direction does the preponderance of numbers (represented graphically by moving averages) indicate price is headed, and how far do the numbers suggest price will continue heading in that same direction before meeting with support or resistance (represented graphically by dynamic adaptive price-range envelopes)? For me, it’s all about the data—about mathematical odds and statistical probability. It’s about relying on principles from cycle theory and fractal market hypothesis, but coming at it from an extremely basic, simplified, practical angle. I have no concerns that my system will ever stop working so long as up remains up and down remains down. Regarding whom can be trusted and is legit, I personally make a habit of always checking out the free weekly wrap-up offered by AJ Monte… He offers a mentoring service, but I’m not interested in paying for others’ advice, so I’ve never used it. I check out the views of a couple of other guys each day, but they are strictly Forex, so I won't bother mentioning them. AJ Monty is into stocks and options. He likes to use Volume, RSI, and CCI. Again, I have no use for the latter two, but to each his own. (I think he might also use a stochastic oscillator from time to time.)
Thanks, I actually do all of that. I journal and write down detailed analysis after each trade. And one has to be careful of over analyzing why a single trade worked or did not work because a person can always point to something as the reason but it could be pure coincidence given the numerous variables hitting a market at any given second. Then unbeknownst to you, you start tweaking your trading based on irrelevant observations. And if the strategy is difficult to code for backtesting then your data pool of trades (just analyzing actual trades) is most likely statistically irrelevant even if it is a hundred or more trades. I devise a set of rules with any strategy I am trading and the number one goal is to trade it by the rules without any mistakes. Then a winner or loser does not matter because if the strategy works then the statistical advantage is on my side. The issue is devising something that works consistently over the long term.
Thanks for sharing the chart and info. I like what you are saying here. I will dig deeper into your analysis.