there are two things that define trend-ema and TL. do not trade counter trend until you get major break and then a retest and then a good reversal bar as an entry bar. for with trend trades the entry bar need not be perfect. this was one mistake i make, i look for good signal bars even when with trend. I must stop doing this
make good entries and money takes take of itself. make bad entries and money management only delays your demise. for example a good entry is entry on a small bar so that there may not be a pull back but it also means less risk. so you need good chart reading to have good risk control.
i agree i have praised his first few posts after which i followed him. why, then, does he need to give out personal insults along with his technical advice. ever heard Brooks say buy H2 ! why do you idiots do not do that and lose money like 95% of traders do.? Does he keep repeating how big idiots traders are and that THEY NEED HIS ADVICE?
YOU HAVE GOT IT ALL WRONG Bollinger gave up the secret of his life the bands which he developed. why? you need others to think the same way you do: if not the trade, will not reach your target: it cannot without their help
you need clarity of thinking and identifying technical factors which i do not have maybe because i am always looking for scalps. i need to look at a lot more bars than i do now. Because though Brooks say he scalps, he also says he does it while waiting to swing.
Mmmmm, CL was the first instrument I started live on (If you don't count the brief and horrible TF flier nastiness in Aug 2015). There will always be a soft spot in my heart for it. The equity index crack took hold of me and I have not looked back since. I HAVE been keeping an eye on CL, and have noticed it being range-bound since the beginning of the year, from ~70 to ~85ish. That is a livable range, and with the re-launched micro CL it could be feasible to go that route again. Ug, so many choices.
In your world view, you are thinking this thread reminds you of this... But apologies PPC...This thread reminds me of this (and it is a more accurate analogy), because it sums up the fucked-up trading world we live in!...
Another one that you might check into is momentum loss at the end of a trend. It can be seen as "the chop before the drop", as price action gets rougher when elite traders start booking profits. Then everyone starts booking profits and volume goes up while price gets nowhere. Not gonna lie, I went long SQQQ this morning, based on these clues. Perhaps the market will reverse, now that Powell threw in the towel!
I have no problem admitting that I am a flawed trader. I'm a flawed trader no matter what my PnL is saying, and those flaws can become amplified all of the sudden. That is trading. The moment I stop believing I'm a flawed trader my next big drawdown is just around the corner. Another matter here is that of professionalism. A professional like an amateur can have a bad week, a bad month, in some cases even a bad year. But the difference between the two is the professional has the tools to manage themselves and restore performance. The amateur doesn't. There are two amateurs. The dilettante, and the apprentice. The apprentice is one who proactively learns and problem solves. He understands where he is on the learning curve, he is humble and he has patience coupled with persistence. Perhaps most important, he is determined to SOLVE the deficiencies he has. He does so by proactive problem solving: seeking answers to all questions and also, seeking to ask the RIGHT questions. The WRONG question: what indicator clearly shows price action? The RIGHT question: what indicator makes the most sense to me and my approach to the market? The WRONG question: what setup works most of the time? The RIGHT question: what setup is right for this market, this instrument, the timeframe I prefer, and for my personality? The WRONG question: what trading course will make me a successful trader? The RIGHT question: what courses offer me value and give me ideas I can use to benefit my trading? The WRONG question: what market can I made the most money in? The RIGHT question: what market has sufficient activity and is best suited for my capitalization and trading personality? At first blush these questions may seem similar, but in fact there's a big difference in each one of them. Btw, the answer to the very first flawed question is simple: PRICE. Dilettantes are quite different: they undertake trading not to make money, but for some reason. There are numerous reasons: get rich quick and easy, get away from other life situations, trying to impress someone, etc. Too many to list. But the dilettantes all share one problem: they do only that which they feel will satisfy them. They will prefer to sit in front of a screen and 'try stuff', and they can do this for weeks or months on end because they may find it exciting. In as much as some find online poker exciting. Or video games. It's being done for a stimulus primarily. That stimulus can just as well be feeding an illusion of big riches, just like people who read books like 'The 4 hour work week'. Go to any trader meetup and you'll find plenty of these dilettantes, some of whom are bona fide gambling addicts, others of whom are hopeless dreamers gambling their time away in pursuit of an unreachable goal, feeding themselves with the American mantra of "don't give up, only losers quit". Dilettantes can read books, attend seminars, meetups, and sit all day and all night on forums. But they won't do anything that requires a process of proactive improvement. Because that's just too uncomfortable. Nobody likes backtesting at first. It's hard on the eyes and worst of all, it shows you just how HARD it is to find an edge. It shows you that what you thought was a viable strategy doesn't really exist, at least not in the form you imagined it. It shows you that you have to work, work, and work some more, and endure a lot of frustration as you back and forward test, as you trade live, etc. Some dilettantes blow up and have to call it a day. Some dilettantes are pulled away from the screen by their family or other life situations. Some dilettantes have no such problems and can continue to perpetually dabble in trading. With the same results, of course. You, Padu, are showing all the marks of a dilettante. Not the mark of an apprentice/trader-in-the-making. And that, my friend, not Al Brooks, Bob Volman, Linda Raschke, Boris Schlossberg, Mack, Mr. PAT trading, Mr. Ross Hook, or anyone else, is the reason why you are not able to get further after investing so much time. Ask me how I know. I used to also sit and as one person so colorfully described it, 'punt Forex in my underwear'. I started this business for the wrong reasons, I was lazy, I made most of the rookie mistakes (though I never blew up), and worst of all I WASN'T SERIOUS. When I finally GOT serious it still took me time, but eventually I got to where I am now, and I hope to keep moving up. It's a never ending process of self improvement. I'm not talking about you as a person. I'm talking strictly about your approach to markets. You may be a great guy in all other ways. But your problem, once again, is not anybody but your own dilettantism. When dilettantes get criticized they get defensive. When professionals-in-training get criticized, they take the constructive criticism with humility and get to work. From everything I see from the others who have posted here, you have done none of this.