Best Thread Trade2Win's 10 Year Anniversary - Day 5 (Anatomy of a Trade)

Hi DT

About what you said about "reversal vs trend trade" - well, I have tried my methods including the DOM on equity futures and I just can't get it to work. Through my eyes, stock index futures are too much chop for not enough trend!

I also looked at my "red light - amber light" strategy for currencies, but the action I think is too spikey - they (fx) can trend better that stocks, but they are still too messy in my opinion.

I don't know why, but most people on forums either trade FX or indexes. Sometimes gold and oil. I think it's a shame that more people dont trade bonds or interest rates (although it would be expensive if you couldn't trade the futures because of the spread).

Another thing about t-notes is that they don;t tend to move around as much. They have never moved around as much as the Bund (german 10 year future) but right now the Bund, to me, looks more like the footsie. It's all over the place!

Unlike you I don't have multiple targets or scaling out. T-notes are deep enough to do 500 lots without anyone caring, and when I get there that will be plenty enough for me hahahah!! No seriously, I get a trade on and take it all off. I don't know if you saw, but my stops are only there in case world war three breaks out or something. I try to be long when my strategy tells me to, short when my strategy tells me too, and flat at all other times. as the saying goes, "you can't be half pregnant!". Everyone says "move your stop to break even"or "cover losses to make it a free trade" but to me I like to have as fewer decisions to make as possible. That way I am less likeley to **** it up! Like we used to say on the rugby team "Get in, get out, quit f*****g about!".

also unlike you i don't write my journal on a computer. I talked about this on another thread, my journal isn;t really about me talking through each and every trade - there just isn't enough time. I dont re-read it, thats not the way I use it. I write my journal in good old fashioned pen and paper (well, a notebook). The thing I like about writing in pen and paper is that you can write really hard and underline and cross out and draw pictures and stuff. I mean, get it onto the paper and out of your mind, right?

last thing - I would also agree that you are an amateur trader :)cheesy:). Of all the trades that were posted here today, only four were posted before the result was known. I think my trade deserves special recognition because I delivered it in a flow chart fashion - This is what I am going to do... I've done that - this is what I'm going to do next... OK done that - the trade is closed.

Yes, your trade was a good one. But how do we know you didn't make the opposite trade as well and only post the good one? It was a good trade, but not as good as mine! :p

P.S. I am playing devils advocate here, but actually I'm in it for the Kindle. Seems to me that since I posted my trade, everyone else has been playing "pimp my trade" with more screenshots, football games, videos and whatnot. I'm only allowed the one entry so I have to defend it somehow. Compared to others it was boring, but simplicity is beautiful once you can appreciate it :)
 
DR - I am not sure why you are pointing the finger at me for 'making the opposite trade' but I take exception at your comments.

Fact is - I trade the ES and I make that clear on the forum. It is fairly clear I made only 1 trade so far that day as the IB log prints all trades, it's very clear I wasn't using a SIM account to anyone that uses IB or Ninja and it should be fairly clear this was done with real money at risk.

Now - I could of course have made the opposite trade on another account - just 4 ticks off the high but I'm not sure how I'd have justified that one. Perhaps I'd be claiming to make a pre-breakout trade but if you look at my forum posts - you will see I don't like breakouts or going long at the high.

Feel free to talk your trade up all you like - but please don't start accusing me of stuff on here or trying to make youself look better at my expense. I am sure all entries will be judged on their merits and not how pretty they look. If you want extra credit for posting real time, then I am sure the powers that be will consider that. If you think my entry is less valid because I put it in a single post after the trade was complete, do expect me to call you out on it.

Do you really want the kindle that much that you need to start knocking the other entries?

Not very gentlemanly is it? :rolleyes:
 
You pipped it on the high and the low because it was near a fib retracement. I thought the idea was a trade you actually took, not do stand up comedy?!

Well - That's it. I'm definitely all for lots more of these friendly competitions...

Nothing like a bit of team building to build up a better relationship between the members, don't you think? :whistling

Lordy - it's a good job you guys aren't giving away a laptop - there would be fighting in the streets!

Just kidding btw.... :LOL:
 
Here is my crude trade, the only thing I traded today. Apologies for the poor sound, my first ever video.

My crude trade

I called my crude trades in Mr Dante's room, perhaps he will vouch for me ;) otherwise I have statements.
Have a great weekend

I went to sleep last night with you speaking to me.

The gf wasn't too pleased.

But it's the closest I can get to a threesome lately.
 
DR - I am not sure why you are pointing the finger at me for 'making the opposite trade' but I take exception at your comments.

Fact is - I trade the ES and I make that clear on the forum. It is fairly clear I made only 1 trade so far that day as the IB log prints all trades, it's very clear I wasn't using a SIM account to anyone that uses IB or Ninja and it should be fairly clear this was done with real money at risk.

Now - I could of course have made the opposite trade on another account - just 4 ticks off the high but I'm not sure how I'd have justified that one. Perhaps I'd be claiming to make a pre-breakout trade but if you look at my forum posts - you will see I don't like breakouts or going long at the high.

Feel free to talk your trade up all you like - but please don't start accusing me of stuff on here or trying to make youself look better at my expense. I am sure all entries will be judged on their merits and not how pretty they look. If you want extra credit for posting real time, then I am sure the powers that be will consider that. If you think my entry is less valid because I put it in a single post after the trade was complete, do expect me to call you out on it.

Do you really want the kindle that much that you need to start knocking the other entries?

Not very gentlemanly is it? :rolleyes:

I was just explaining a bit more about my strategy, and the similiraties and differences between your trade and mine. thats all.

All of the comments about my trade yours and the others trades were meant as jokes, I thought i was making it clear that I wasn't being serious. but sorry if you didn't get it.
 
DR - I got it,alright - but I'm glad to see you have gained some perspective now you have sobered up.

Anyway - onto Day 6 - T2W sportsman of the year - I hear you are in the running ;)
 
Right, since nobody has actually mentioned if I can post a little late as long as it's before Sunday, I'm going right ahead and doing it anyway.

As well as talking about the usual thing that traders talk about, such as trade management or exit criteria, I also want to talk about the fundamental drive in my driving. I don't have a name for it - call it 'life' management if you like. Basically, my mission is to get these numbers on my screens, and the money, to work for me, with the least amount of input, not the other way around. Too many traders spend far too long at their desks in my humble opinion, and I've done so myself, which is a very easy thing to do in the 24h world of the Forex.

So, onto Friday's trade! Here is the level my 'system' identified. Hourly charts.

chart01.gif

Nothing out of the ordinary here. I simply look for previous swings from the last few weeks and months and trade to fade them.

I usually place my entry around 2 - 3 pips beyond the level, however this time I saw that their might be case for holding back on my entry until a little higher up, as it seemed like their could be a tad more supply that price may want to take out before finally moving lower.

chart02.gif

So I placed my sell limit a few pips beyond here. The price was 0.8513 - all my numbers will be including my broker's 1 pip spread. My stop loss was +20 pips higher.

Now here's the thing, do you recall my mentioning of my 'life' management (that doesn't have a proper name!) earlier?! Well, I was applying my principle the night before, perhaps getting a little too drunk, and perhaps staying awake a little too late, and this caused me to be asleep just around the time my trade was being triggered. Now this is fine with me. I have set a set hard stop, that will only need modifying if my position grows, and I use two positions with one scaling out at 2 times my risk. All is good. Except one detail, I don't enter during any fair sized news announcements, as far it's too easy for the momentum from the news to take out a perfectly good level.

The trade was triggered around 8:55am (all times are GMT) - I was still fast asleep! At 9:30am GBP Retail Sales were due, and I wouldn't have allowed my trade to have been triggered going into that, as usually my trades last a good few hours and in that time I don't want to hold any significant risk.

When I had awoken, I saw my trade was in the minus and had already suffered a reasonably large drawdown (-18 pips, including spread), which, however, didn't bother me too much, as my average win size on pairs like EURGBP is 100 - 200 pips. So, after looking at price action on the 5 minute chart, I saw that there were likely to be many stops under the .8549 region, perhaps from those trading the news numbers. I decided to hold on.

chart03.gif

Once I was happy with what was happening - a run was in order! Part of my life management plan is to keep physically fit, so off I went. Life before the screens. When I had returned, I saw I had reached my take profit of closing half the position @ +2.00R - I then watched price action a little further.

chart04.gif

I thought it might be a good time to get my stop to breakeven, as I knew if price went for another test of the high it would be going right for my stop this time. After a little bit of waiting, it didn't seem to be getting any better, the session was ending and my broker would start to charge my overnight fees (plus there was a local band playing and I had only a few hours to get some grub and drive down... you know the rest), so at exactly 6:55pm I closed the second half of my position, at the price of 0.8502 - bringing the total bringing the total R:R to +1.36. Not great, but for a trade that wasn't really off from the start, I would consider it a good result.

chart05.gif

Sure, this trade could have gone either way as I was entering pretty much against my trading rules, however my life management is also an integral part of my rules, probably far more inportant than anything else. Some of you may be thinking that trading like this is going to cost me one day, but I disagree since my results have been far better since I quit those +12 hour days, little rest, not eating well trading routines.

I reckon keeping health (mental too) and life before your income (without necessarily decreasing it), especially in the field of trading, which should give the more freedom than in any other line of work, should be an important part of everyone's trading plan. Try it! Who knows, it may even make you more profitable!!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wow ... anyone know how to fix the size of those charts?! :eek:

If there is a mod around, feel free to help me on that one!!
 
So it's not late (I misunderstood yet again).

I thought it would be a shame not to show beauty of this simple approach.

Here is my Friday's trade. Entry was breach of the latest higher high and exit was time based (before the market close). It is a simple, yet very efficient trend following technique.


'The trend is your friend... apart from the bend at the end.'
 

Attachments

  • mytrade.JPG
    mytrade.JPG
    151.6 KB · Views: 264
Anyone seeing signs of me having the hump in the above reply to DashRiprock would be absolutely correct.

He was kidding. Obvious now. My apologies to Dash for being an a r s e

In my defense though - I AM an a r s e
 
So it's not late (I misunderstood yet again).

I thought it would be a shame not to show beauty of this simple approach.

Here is my Friday's trade. Entry was breach of the latest higher high and exit was time based (before the market close). It is a simple, yet very efficient trend following technique.


'The trend is your friend... apart from the bend at the end.'

Nice & simple - good stuff
 
evrybody is friends again :)

BUt in case the judges are watching, please watch video...


... this weekend, my beloved cat of 7 years Mr Moggles was run over by an ice cream van driver selling drugs.... I went to tell my girlfriend about it but I caught her in bed with my best friend and now they are running off together.... then I was at a cash machine outside a tesco's express because I wanted flowers for Mr Moggles funeral but I was punched in the face and mugged by chavs...


:cheesy:
 
evrybody is friends again :)

BUt in case the judges are watching, please watch video...


... this weekend, my beloved cat of 7 years Mr Moggles was run over by an ice cream van driver selling drugs.... I went to tell my girlfriend about it but I caught her in bed with my best friend and now they are running off together.... then I was at a cash machine outside a tesco's express because I wanted flowers for Mr Moggles funeral but I was punched in the face and mugged by chavs...


:cheesy:



:cry:
 
... this weekend, my beloved cat of 7 years Mr Moggles was run over by an ice cream van driver selling drugs.... I went to tell my girlfriend about it but I caught her in bed with my best friend and now they are running off together.... then I was at a cash machine outside a tesco's express because I wanted flowers for Mr Moggles funeral but I was punched in the face and mugged by chavs...

To be honest with you - I'd paid the ice cream man, the girlfriend, your best friend & the chavs to do this.

Mostly this was because your cat wanted to leave and move in with me. The cat that died was a decoy.
 
Thanks to everyone who entered our contest on Friday. It was easily the most successful contest of the week with some awesome entries, we'll definitely consider making it a regular contest on the site.

Choosing a winner has been really difficult, so the judges have decided to let YOU decide who wins! We've helped you a bit by narrowing it down to our favourite SIX entries (listed in alphabetical order)...

- bbmac (Post #31 - GBP/USD)
- DionysusToast (Post #61 - S&P E-Mini Futures)
- elitejets (Post #92 - Crude Oil)
- Hotch (Post #82 - EUR/USD)
- SH-101 (Post #94 - EUR/USD)
- shadowninja (Post #40 - EUR/USD)

Whichever entry has the most recommendations (just click this button:
reputation.gif
on the post)
by 12pm noon tomorrow, wins the Kindle 3G and $100 of trading books. So get recommending! :clover:

To help you decide which to recommend, here are some of the things the judges considered:

- Is it comprehensive and easy to follow?
- Does the logic/rationale make sense?
- Does it contain ideas and insights etc. that other members could take away?
- Does it contain ideas other than standard text book stuff?


(NB.You can recommend as many or as few as you like. Any sign of cheating - automatic disqualification!)
 
Last edited:
Quick! To the multi nics!

EDIT: I regret repping them all :D

EDIT 2: There's a capital in Hotch Sharky!
 
Last edited:
Top