Trader X

Cover at 10419. Looking for the 9:00 bump. OK, market jumped and I shorted the ES at 120900 and covered at 120775. I hit my time limit and took my profits.

Trader X

Market looks weaker but no open bar break yet. OK, broke down. I'm short at 10432 YM. Looking for high tick trades today.

Trader X

The plan for today is to take the opening bar trade and look for short entries since the market looked weak overnight. Take any +1000 tick trades or MA trades on the short side until we make higher highs. Use 3-4 point stops on the ES or 30-40 stops on the YM. Condsider closing bond trade (short at 116 25) if the market isn't reacting well today.

Trader X

It was a good finish for me as well. I had one high tick trade to finish the day with a perfect score! Around 1:30 ct the market ran up and had a volume spike and tick spike above 1000. I went short and got 3 points on the down side inside of my 15 time limit. This trade works best in a trendless market. Today was a slight down trend so the + high tick was a natural fade trade. Work just like a text book!

I am also listening to an audio file from Woodies site from Mark Douglas. He has some very good ideas that are worth listening too. Very insightful for newbies.

Trader X.

Today was a good day. I put several things into action. I started the day on an opening range breakout, which was short. Rode that down for 2 points and then the market continued down and rebounded. I went short again in the rebound, a little lower than I had bought back, and then rode that down for 3 pts about 8:55. I looked at the clock and noticed that within 10 minutes the big guys were coming in and so I stayed flat. It bottomed out right at 9:06 when the big guys came in to support and it looked like it was going to go south again. I called Rage trader and we discussed. I kept saying that it bottomed just after 9:00 and that the first 2 waves are always the strongest and that everytime I miss the first 2 and get in the 3rd I get hosed! I didn't sell and sure enough, the market stabilized and is slowly rising. My guess is that the morning fireworks are over and I made 5 es points! Heee Hawww.... (no, I'm not from the south, even thought I love it down there).

Things to remember, I am ending the week on a positive note, I read the market correctly, and I reentered at a lower price when the wave wasn't over and made more money than the initial wave. I didn't take the 3rd sucker wave and waited for the big guys.

I'm done for the week.

Trader X

OK, I've about had it with this whole thing. Before I left for vacation I wasn't trading well. Since I've been back I've been trading even worse, regardless of how I try to follow my rules. The more diligent I've been the worse it's gotten. I've been back for 3 weeks and I kid you not I don't think I've had but 1 winning day and it was for $25. The others have been for $150-750 EVERY F*ING DAY!!!!!! I know I am learning something here but I'm not sure what it is? Seriously. All I can figure is that the more experience I get the worse my trading. I was actually making money 9 months ago! Yes, I was. That's why I've decided to go back to my trade sheets that I printed off everyday and take a look at what I was doing then verses now. Something's got to give! Back then I was trading the Tick trade and was doing it much better than now. I would sell on a plus tick and buy on a neg tick. When I would sell I would also add positions if it went higher and then I would sometimes have to buy those back at a loss but sometimes the market would turn and I would reap the profits. Those were the days when I would lost in a trend day because I the tick isn't a trend trade. Now I'm trying to trend trade but the days are mostly sideways. OK, so what I'm having trouble with is IDing the market I'm in and then trading it accordingly. Today was a great example. I was trading MA crossovers and getting killed. I should have done Tick trades all day long and won. I need to work on this this weekend.

Trader X

I not having much luck lately and something has to change NOW!!! I really think I am going to go back to just one setup, and only one setup. Even if I don't get any trades off for that day which is fine. I also need to sit and read my rules everyday, like.... Don't add to a losing position no matter what!!!!!!! Never trade more than 1 contract and cut my losers short. The last one is the only one I've been following lately and every loss I've had I can document was due to the first 2. I've added to positions that were in the red and when I've lost I then traded big to make it back (back to revenge trading). Both stop right now. No More!!!!!

Trader X

I am now incorporating some of the randomness into my trading. Specifically I don't take it personally if a trade is going against me. I just kill it and kill it fast. I don't hang around to see it hit a stop loss. Nip it in the bud! Seems to be working so far today. I'm still not using random entry because I do believe that skill will improve upon that to some degree. It might be able to push your random entry stats 5-10% to either side. I do believe that skill can increase your returns but that it isn't absolutely needed! The real test continues!

Trader X

PS. Met some option traders last night. It was a small group but very knowledgeable. I always find it interesting how other people have found ways to make money in these markets. I hope to be able to learn about some of their strategies that I don't use and hopefully be able to implement them into my trading arsenal when needed. It should be a great group as well as it it great to have some moral support here in my home town to talk to on occasion. It's a good thing!

I can't be more serious when I tell you this. I've found the secret of trading. Crazy you might say but I will swear that it is true. Please read this all the way through. 5 or 6 years ago when I started the great odyssey of trading (options started before that but I was still doing trading research before I started trading) I was reading every thing I could get my hands on for trading ideas. I kid you not that I read everything. I read about people trading off of MACD's, MA, Vol, support/Resistance, Bollenger Bands, CCI, oscillators, stochastics, Sun spots, moon cycles, Saturn and Jupiter and astrology in general...... and the list goes on forever. Here's the funny thing about every entry method I could find. There was someone that could trade it profitably. Any system can be traded to make money. Any entry. It's the exits that make the money... not the entries. It's trade management that makes the money. Yet we spend countless hours trying to figure out a better entry system. I finally got a chance to watch the whole hour plus video on the coin toss random entry trading from the Woodies web site and what I had thought to be true 5 years ago hit me square in the face again. Here was a random entry system with some very basic but good money/trade management rules that was cleaning the clock off of anything we've tried so far. Random entry with good trade management. That's when I rediscovered the truth about trading. It's not the entry that matters because even at best odds we can't do much better then 50%/50%. The style you chose will skew that up or down as we discuss below. It's the probabilities off how we manage the trade after we enter that makes the difference. There are 2 ways to do this successfully.

1. Trend trading method. Lots of small losses and fewer bigger winners.

2. Counter trend method. Lots of small winners and fewer bigger losers. Mark Cook style.

Yes, exactly the opposite but both very valid trading styles. As long as the probabilities are in your favor you can trade either way. Let me explain. In trend trading you are hoping to catch the larger moves. You are wrong more often then right but when you are right you make more than when you are wrong. The way to make this style work is to make sure your losses are very small and your profits are much larger. How? Take your losses fast and let your profits run. We've all heard that before.

In counter trend trading you do just the opposite. You are willing to take more small wins (higher % then in trend trading, which is why Mark has a 75% win rate but trend traders are about 1/3) but your losers are much larger when they happen. The trick here is to not get to greedy and ring the cash register on a regular basis (which you will do since you are asking for smaller profits to begin with so the odds of the market moving in your directions by a smaller amount are higher) so you have the $ to pay the piper when he come to cash in the insurance policy (big loser trades). The odds work in either direction. Watch the coin flip trading from woodies CCI site. It's required watching!


Trader X

Sorry it's been a while but I've been out to town and only trading options (that's how I make my money while I'm learning to daytrade). But I've been having problems with my daytrading. It seems that I've not been inproving as much as I think I should be so I was writing to Rock Star and expressing my issues as I see them. Below is what I've written. It seems I've become victim to some of the typical newbie trader detours. I have determined to not be seduced by the DARK SIDE!!! I will fight the DARK SIDE!!!! I will go back to the begining and see if I can get some of the simple trading methods down before I can move on to something else. I am only going to practice and trade with $ the Tick trade and the 9/30 trade from NQooo's site. That's all for tonight.

Trader X



I was thinking about something elsetonight that I have to tell you. One of the reasonsI'm going to take a second (third) look at simpletrades like the Tick trade is going back to theconcept that we've both been cautioned on... notskipping around too much. I've probably been skippingmore than you. I'm going to stick with one setupuntil I get it right... right now that setup is theTick and the 9/30 type. One for trending days (9/30)and one for sideways days (tick). I have moreexperience with the Tick and I know when to use it(like today or this week) I have some experience withthe 9/30 type setup and I know when to use it. I needto remain focused on the simple things. I remember MC telling us that he needed a trade tolive off of... that trade was the Tick trade. Hedeveloped that to generate income! Did you hear whatI said!!!! He developed that trade to live off of! Do you understand the words that are coming out of mymouth!!!!! (from "Rush Hour") I really think that Ineed to continue to focus on 1 or 2 things until Imake them consistantly profitable. That is going tobe my shortest distance to making money. While I'mactually trading that I can Sim CCI and other things. I think that if I deviate too far from what I know andunderstand that I will just get lost again (which I'vebeen for the last few months). I got frustrated toofast with the tick trade and 9/30 but I know I wasvery close to really understanding those trades. Ineed to go back to the begining and get those rightbefore I move on. That's my plan for the rest of thismonth.Sorry to be so long but this was more for me that you.