lets define the correct yardstick

contrakt

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SOCRATES said:
Ah, and I must add...and what is even more annoying is the persistent arguer who argues for the sake of arguing, without any basis in fact, but just opinion according to his frame of reference which is nearly always guaranteed to be the wrong one. Now, to a certain extent this may be excusable in a rank beginner, but totally unpardonable in someone who has been around for some time around this topic and still persists in cllinging to what is patently nonsense, to the annoyance of all and sundry and to the misdirection of the most vulnerable and those in need of real and constructive help because their yardstick is the wrong one on the one hand and because it is very easy for beginners to corrupt themselves until such time as they are able to acquire the correct yardstick for themselves on the other. We have a situation in which no one allows either themselves or the others a proper chance to work things out correctly.

my bestimate:

grow correct and replica-table sensitivity for the correlation, urgency and intent of the dominant market players in the instrument(s) and time frame(s) you want to trade.
 
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illiquid's trade poetry

But what struck me one day was not the knee-jerk clockwork of my emotional buttons, nor the likely impossibility of ever eradicating them. It was instead the recognition that this fearless alter ego, which inevitably spelled utter disaster when allowed to take the reins in desperate circumstances, was exactly the kind of trader I've always aspired to be when all the odds were in my favor. This was the guy I needed to take the helm when the best opportunities arose, when the edge would cut sharpest and where bold and brash worked towards maximizing my advantage.My goal became (and remains today) to transplant this other persona out from a mere instinctual gut-reaction to hostile circumstances, and into an environment polar-opposite to its native one: positive, confident, and proactive. But no matter how clear this was to me in theory, there was no other way to break the habit but continual effort and repetition; reversing years of automatic response and re-directing my aggression to its proper place was not going to be easy.
 
Good. Read what I have to say in the thread Journey from the Basement. It is rather long and a great deal of it has to be presented in the form of allegories, because if you are able to achieve this, you will understand why it is that the attention span of most people is not that great. Therefore all the examples had to be presented as allegories. The dunces thought it was a series of fairy stories, but the really clever ones picked it all up and used it correctly. Enjoy.
 
Secret opening

Tought I would never again postunder this name on t2w. But cant resist sharing this:

"Prince Wen Hui's cook was cutting up an ox. . . . The ox fell apart with a whisper. The bright cleaver murmured like a gentle wind. Rhythm! Timing! Like a sacred dance. . . . Prince Wen Hui: Good work! Your method is faultless! The cook: Method? What I follow is Tao beyond all methods! When I first began to cut up oxen I would see before me the whole ox all in one mass. After three years I no longer saw this mass. I saw the distinctions. But now I see nothing with the eye. My whole being apprehends. My senses are idle. The spirit free to work without plan follows its own instinct guided by natural line, by the secret opening, the hidden space, my cleaver finds its own way... Then I withdraw the blade, I stand still and let the joy of the work sink in. I clean the blade and put it away. Prince Wan Hui: This is it! My cook has shown me how I ought to live my own life!"
~ Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC-c. 275 BC)
 
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Contemplation

"To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity. Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know. And yet those with the courage to tread this path to real discovery are not only offered practically no guidance on how to do so, they are actively discouraged and have to set abut it in secret, pretending meanwhile to be diligently engaged in the frantic diversions and to conform with the deadening personal opinions which are continually being thrust upon them."
~ George Spencer Brown (1923-)
 
Doing a better Job every (trading) day

long-time executive of General Motors Corporation, had a fivepoint "secret of success."

It was:
1. Get the facts.
2. Recognize the equities of all concerned.
3. Realize the necessity of doing a better job every day.
4. Keep an open mind.
5. Work hard."

~ Alfred Sloan (1875-1960)
 
Follow what is most probable

"When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable." ~ Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
 
The Test

The natural formation of the country is the soldier's best ally; but a power of estimating the adversary, of controlling the forces of victory, and of shrewdly calculating difficulties, dangers and distances, constitutes the test of a great general. Tsun Szu
 
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multiplied

“The few things that work fantastically well should be identified, cultivated, nurtured, and multiplied.”

~ Richard Koch
 
"It is circumstance and proper timing that give an action its character and make it either good or bad."

~ Agesilaus II (444-360 BC)
King of Sparta, noted general
from Plutarch, Lives, Agesilaus, 36
 
think it thru. It isn't always first flush right. It's rarely first flush right

scalping framework

mental
attitude
awareness
framework
skills

plan :
loss
risk
money
session
trade
order management

price :
observe+analyse context
internalise current behaviour

trade
snap judge lack of or quality of developing intent
snap act
 
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As a disciplined trader - you act. Without thought. Without second thought. Without looking back. - ASC

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Intraday scalper

mechanical proces executed with talent
twalker said:
There seems to be so much discussion of what should be very simple. The chart provides you with an edge on what is otherwise a 50/50 decision to buy or sell. IMHO the important thing to look for is an entry point that allows a relatively low risk stop and an indicated direction which has already demonstrated its validity by taking out historically important sup/res. Now you have an edge on entry, the rest is risk management. All trades are just probabilities which is why it is important to find your edge somewhere. Entry to winning and losing trades is identical, money management is what makes the winners larger than the losers.
Trading is a mechanical process. I do believe, as I have seen evidence with my own eyes that some intraday scalpers are born rather than made but for position traders, I think anybody can learn the rules it just takes discipline, plainly more discipline than most people are capable of.
 
tight trail stops

SOCRATES said:
The curious thing about all this is that newbies insist on using wide stops on the basis they think the position has to be given space for the price to breathe, but in effect what they are doing is increasing the potential for crippling losses. They consider to be stopped out on a tight stop as an unnecessary aggravation, because they argue the stop is easily hit. This is because they expect to get it wrong often, and because their entry point is not sufficiently accurate and because their timing is not exactly right.
The really experienced efficient trader gets it right many many more times that he gets it wrong, and, when he does get it wrong, it comes as a surprise, instead of an event expected with foreboding and fear.
For this reason, a tight stop is essential to cut losses, if any, and to liquidate a postition which may have been right at the outset, but is now suddenly wrong.

Now think about this carefully again, and how STUPID it is to use wide stops and to think in terms of a 1 to 1 ratio as you do. It is not necessary, it is just asking for trouble where none exists.
 
time stops

Perfect entry
Bigbusiness said:
So what market are we talking about here? A 10 point stop can be tiny on some markets and huge on others. That is one of the holes I can see. As for stops, why not use time? If what you want hasn't happened after a defined period of time, get out of the trade. There are times when the markets are noisy and will consistently take out tight stops. Perhaps some people can get the perfect entry most of the time but I have yet to see any hard proof of this. It is easy to say use tight stops but lets see some examples. I suppose that wont happen as it will give away too many secrets and I will be accused of trying to get a trading method for free but I don't mind being made to look stupid. So please show some examples of tight stops in use.
 
Trade management and behaviour dynamics

Originally Posted by chump
H& S why does this work and why does it not work ?
When it works it is because the H& S pullback from the higher high is in this case a 1:1 retracement of the prior wave..this does two things...firstly it signals that a change of trend is more likely than not (this does not necessarily mean reversal ..it could be sideways and this is important) ,secondly it signals profit taking from the early trend instigators in conjunction with a pullback opportunity for the late arrivals again important.....the right shoulder however may actually form a trend reversal movement or still go into a trading range..this is not known for sure until the move is underway...if you take an entry on a one bar reversal in theory you take minimal risk on your entry...I would say if you take a small delay and take a stop entry on the break of the second bar back forming the right shoulder then you are even less likely to get whipsawed (I have not tested this statistically but have a look for yourselves) ..the caveat on this is the formation of that bar...entry on that bar should still offer 1:1 based on a 1st target at the base of the right shoulder...manage the trade by making sure you are at b/e quickly as the target approaches..two things may happen (but you will already have a good idea of probability by watching the way the bars form on the downleg of the right shoulder) ...one is it arrives at target but resistance forms and repels price back forming a trading range (the H& S failed ..there was still further buying to be done) ..second is it powers past that resistance and sucks in the stops from the former pullback entries of the latecomers..if it does the latter then 2nd target becomes the area for the breakout prior to the H&S and as this approaches either exit on a stop buy , or trail your stop on the high one bar back....there is another option based on a larger move for managing this but it depends on your timeframe..
Another slant on this is to look at the H&S in a larger context..if you think it is forming after one push up it is much more likely to become a trading range that signals the halfway point of the forthcoming move...if it forms as a third push up it is much more likely to be an H&S although end of trend distribution can sometimes come also via a sagging trading range which in itself belongs to a move from a higher timeframe. Again this reinforces the advice of a topdown view.
Good to see people just talking trading ideas without extraneous input.


Nice take on management. Knowing the behavioral dynamics can also be helpful, i.e., buying pressure propels the price into the first high, even more pressure into the second (greed). Then, when the TL is broken (important, otherwise the trader may end up trying to "catch the top" and make a series of counter-trend trades), those few who think this is yet another buying opportunity will push price into the last effort at a new high (hope), which of course fails (fear). Thus the pattern of transactions forms the same pattern as that of price. If one is using "volume bars", they should look the same as the price pattern: a high, a higher high, and a subsequent attempt which is not as high as the first.

All of this helps to ensure that the "pattern" succeeds. Without it, as you point out, one can often move sideways. The particular example provided here is an H&S in form but not in content since the "right shoulder" fails due to an event. End result is the same in this case, but without the event, the probability of moving sideways rather than plummeting is likely different than if the pattern is allowed to ripen naturally.

All of which makes real-time trading so much more challenging (the Fred Astaire approach to trade management )

--Db
 
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in harmony with what is developing

internalising the thought process
SOCRATES said:
Yes, you see the problem for most traders is that when they look at a chart, they are apt to form an opinion. When they form an opinion, for whatever reason, they find it very difficult to separate themselves from the opinion they have formed whether it is the correct one or not, it does not matter. The opinion itself is the poison. This opinion can be very detrimental if it happens to be the wrong one, or, if, unfortuanately the opinion happens to be right, but conditions change that instant, making the opinion suddenly wrong, you understand ? Now the difficulty is that the opinion is pointing in one direction in which the wholehearted commitment is pointed but unfolding developments are pointing in exactly the opposite direction. Now the difficulty is to undo the opinion and deal with the situation as it is, and not as the opinion would wish it to be. This is as a consequence of becoming involved with what is presented in such a way that emotions kick in, messing up everything. For this reason the route I have described contains many dangers. A better route is to immerse oneself inside the decision making cycle of what is developing and why by internalising the thought process in harmony with what is developing instead of externalising the thought process (as a biased observer) with the risks it carries as I describe above. No books will be written about this, ever, as it cannot be described because it is so abstract and personal it can only be arrived at by experience.
 
'Defining the correct yardstick'. It's an arguementitive statement. We all have our 'correct' yardsticks, but can any of us define them in type and text. I doubt it. There should be an index of 'yardsticks' for each member of this site, newbies could peruse the 'yardstick' index at fanciful will and choose one which best suits them. If any newbie was unfortunate enough to choose the wrong 'yardstick' and started to find they were having difficulties in using somebody else's 'yardstick', then they have been unfortunate enough to have been 'beaten-up', by somebody with a 'yardstick'.
 
think it thru. It isn't always first flush right. It's rarely first flush right

RUDEBOY said:
'Defining the correct yardstick'. It's an arguementitive statement. We all have our 'correct' yardsticks, but can any of us define them in type and text. I doubt it. There should be an index of 'yardsticks' for each member of this site, newbies could peruse the 'yardstick' index at fanciful will and choose one which best suits them. If any newbie was unfortunate enough to choose the wrong 'yardstick' and started to find they were having difficulties in using somebody else's 'yardstick', then they have been unfortunate enough to have been 'beaten-up', by somebody with a 'yardstick'.
Agree. Defining the correct yardstick "for me" was the initial idea.
Now Im more into picking pertinent building blocks for just one strategy at a time with special attention for their underlying order and consistency.
 
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