Keltner Channels or Bollinger Bands?

[Nowler]

Also, don't forget to work on your bull$hit filter, arguably THE most important skill to learn in the world of trading (and elsewhere) :smart:

Indeed!
Thankfully I arrived to the party with a pretty good BS filter. Not impervious, but well developed. My training in research comes in quite handy here as I now have a newfound appreciation for criticism. Still, like trading, filtering BS is an ever developing endeavour. With more education and intelligence brings more educated and intelligent lies and scams.

Beware of the man with 1 book

 

[Brumby]

Knowledge - This is self explanatory (the more knowledge about trading I have, the more potential I have). I predominantly mean trading knowledge but it's not limited to it as the understanding of somethings - although they may not present obvious transferrable benefits - can present unique and creative opportunities in other non-traditionally related areas. Schemata complexity, essentially.

Organisation - This essentially relates to the efficacy of what I mentioned above, and much more. The more organised I am, the finer I can tune and the more accurate and prepared I am. Good organisational skills can help me train my body and mind more and to do it smarter. This can also be said for my trading. Which begs the question...why if I am already aware of this, why am I not already implementing it? I have been increasing my understanding of basics in trading, including terms and phrases...tool also and whatnot but I need to step it up. By establishing a few avenues/procedures of carrying out my trading, be it research or execution/management of trades it takes a load off my working memory capacity, which is already very limited. So in a cognitive sense, it could likely make things easier, or at least in a sense of it being tidier. By establishing said avenues/procedures should, in theory, have a positive impact on my trade outcomes, or at the very least will make it easier for me to identify issues and rectify them. Being organised will almost definitely help psychologically. Another aspect of being organised that I should probably work on is getting up earlier. I stay up late and get up late. I am strongly considering getting up far earlier...getting on an hour before the open of the London session

I suggest you relate your goals to measurable outcomes because a constructive program requires effort to be directed, measured, tracked and corrective action taken. What would be your meaureable outputs relating to trading?

 

[Nowler]

I suggest you relate your goals to measurable outcomes because a constructive program requires effort to be directed, measured, tracked and corrective action taken. What would be your measurable outputs relating to trading?

In terms of knowledge acquisition/application:
- Tracked: The acquisition can be tracked internally by means of knowing myself whether I should have learned more that week or not (was I slacking perhaps - I'm the only one that'll get hurt if I'm dishonest). I could implement a minimum number of articles to read each week... The tracking of the application of such knowledge will be tracked by documenting trades (see below - Tracking organisation - "reason for taking trade")

- Measured: Monthly P&L as well as my satisfaction that I worked hard enough


In terms of Organisation:
- Tracked: By means of documenting each trade down (Time, Direction, Units, Entry, Exit, SL, Reason for taking trade, Success/Failure, and additional notes). All of this is automatically documented by Myfxbook (see attachment) and includes a section for me to add notes).
- Measured: If I can look back over the last weeks/months trades and there be no ambiguity, then the goal is achieved. If I can't understand something, then why? What could I have added to my standardised documentation of trades to avoid such ambiguity?

 

[Brumby]

In terms of knowledge acquisition/application:
- Tracked: The acquisition can be tracked internally by means of knowing myself whether I should have learned more that week or not (was I slacking perhaps - I'm the only one that'll get hurt if I'm dishonest). I could implement a minimum number of articles to read each week... The tracking of the application of such knowledge will be tracked by documenting trades (see below - Tracking organisation - "reason for taking trade")

- Measured: Monthly P&L as well as my satisfaction that I worked hard enough


In terms of Organisation:
- Tracked: By means of documenting each trade down (Time, Direction, Units, Entry, Exit, SL, Reason for taking trade, Success/Failure, and additional notes). All of this is automatically documented by Myfxbook (see attachment) and includes a section for me to add notes).
- Measured: If I can look back over the last weeks/months trades and there be no ambiguity, then the goal is achieved. If I can't understand something, then why? What could I have added to my standardised documentation of trades to avoid such ambiguity?

Some suggestions.

You are too focus on P & L. Your immediate measureable output should be on your win loss ratio. There are two factors that will improve your ratio : (a) quality of trades; and (b) less mistakes. The former in turn is affected by choice of currency pair; choice of TF's; and choice of set up's (with trend vs counter trend). The latter could be FOMO; poor consideration of trade location; impatience; poor consideration of risk reward; not having a proper trade plan, etc.

Whilst you mentioned you will put together trade plans, I don't see how you can document it to the level of detail within myfxbook. In my view, having documented trade plans is central to your trade development. It forces you to consider your trade process, trade consideration and most importantly post trade evaluation and corrective feedback.

Your continuing knowledge development is shaped by the output from your trades and post trade evaluation and is not an independent process.

 

[Nowler]

Some suggestions.

You are too focus on P & L. Your immediate measureable output should be on your win loss ratio. There are two factors that will improve your ratio : (a) quality of trades; and (b) less mistakes. The former in turn is affected by choice of currency pair; choice of TF's; and choice of set up's (with trend vs counter trend). The latter could be FOMO; poor consideration of trade location; impatience; poor consideration of risk reward; not having a proper trade plan, etc.

Whilst you mentioned you will put together trade plans, I don't see how you can document it to the level of detail within myfxbook. In my view, having documented trade plans is central to your trade development. It forces you to consider your trade process, trade consideration and most importantly post trade evaluation and corrective feedback.

Your continuing knowledge development is shaped by the output from your trades and post trade evaluation and is not an independent process.

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate it.

The reason I chose P&L instead of hit rate is because the latter will change based on the type of trades I take, ie, larger risk:reward trades (with predetermined target) likely have lower hit rates than more modest R:R. So if I employ strategies that have different success rates, then surely basing my performance off monthly P&L would be better? No?

In regards to the trade plan, what else would you suggest I add? Or how comprehensive of notes about the trade would you suggest?
If you hadn't pulled me on this then I would have happily continued, believing that what I said i'd do with MyFxBook would suffice. As you can see from the attachment, the likes of time, duration, units, direction, pips, SL etc.. are all accounted for. So that cannot be your issue. Perhaps you didn't notice the notes icon the the extreme right of each trade? In this attachment I have opened the notes icon so it's more visible. Do you still have doubts over this as a form of recording trades?

 

[Brumby]

The reason I chose P&L instead of hit rate is because the latter will change based on the type of trades I take, ie, larger risk:reward trades (with predetermined target) likely have lower hit rates than more modest R:R. So if I employ strategies that have different success rates, then surely basing my performance off monthly P&L would be better? No?

There are two major advantages in using non monetary goals. Firstly is the psychological drag associated with monetary expression. Secondly is the contextual advantage of using non monetary factor to access performance. Overall your performance will be incremental not in leaps because there are plenty of issues to work through. You need to put together a practical program before the issues are obvious - something you have not done as yet, Please refer to my comments below.

In regards to the trade plan, what else would you suggest I add? Or how comprehensive of notes about the trade would you suggest?
If you hadn't pulled me on this then I would have happily continued, believing that what I said i'd do with MyFxBook would suffice. As you can see from the attachment, the likes of time, duration, units, direction, pips, SL etc.. are all accounted for. So that cannot be your issue. Perhaps you didn't notice the notes icon the the extreme right of each trade? In this attachment I have opened the notes icon so it's more visible. Do you still have doubts over this as a form of recording trades?

Let's deal with the issue in reverse. You said you have done approx. 200 trades in December. Since your memory is still fresh as they are recent trades, I suggest you populate your notes in myfxbook for each of the trade you took. When populating it, think about how you will classify the trades in terms of performance with the intend that you can develop some meaningful statistics that will help you to develop corrective aspects of your trading. Publish those statistics once you have done. We can then have a meaningful conversation - not before then.

 

[Nowler]

There are two major advantages in using non monetary goals. Firstly is the psychological drag associated with monetary expression. Secondly is the contextual advantage of using non monetary factor to access performance. Overall your performance will be incremental not in leaps because there are plenty of issues to work through. You need to put together a practical program before the issues are obvious - something you have not done as yet, Please refer to my comments below.


Let's deal with the issue in reverse. You said you have done approx. 200 trades in December. Since your memory is still fresh as they are recent trades, I suggest you populate your notes in myfxbook for each of the trade you took. When populating it, think about how you will classify the trades in terms of performance with the intend that you can develop some meaningful statistics that will help you to develop corrective aspects of your trading. Publish those statistics once you have done. We can then have a meaningful conversation - not before then.

I should have said percentage growth, not P&L.
I don't trade for money, I trade for percent as it makes it about my system. And as you said, when it becomes to monetary expression, it can have a psychological drag on me.

Thanks for the help

 

[sandeep shivani]

Can you just brief me about the bollinger Squeeze trading strategies.

 

[piphoe]

Can you just brief me about the bollinger Squeeze trading strategies.

Heard about the BB squeeze but never actually seen one.

 

[timsk]

Can you just brief me about the bollinger Squeeze trading strategies.

sandeep - YouTube is your friend - just search 'Bollinger Band Squeeze' - loads of results come up.
Tim.