my journal

Another short signal from the fast ma but we're right on the pivot line again, so I can't take it. By the way, I am also noticing that if I had taken all these past few signals I've been discarding, by now I would have made two trades with 20 ticks profit apiece, but it would have been gambling on my part.

Another thing I am noticing is that without the support from the readers I wouldn't be able to be so disciplined right now. Had I not made all these promises, and resolves, during the past few weeks, right now I would be able to gamble and I would be gambling. But the key to this disciplined behaviour are that I promised discipline to people who care, and that I don't lie: otherwise I could just trade all I want and lie. But that's one discipline I've always followed: not lying. It's kind of a discipline, because I rarely feel tempted to lie. It's become a habit.

Another important thing is all the writing I've been doing about trading like a sniper. You can't write 20 posts about it, and then the next day gamble as usual. Probably, unconsciously, I've written so much about it to force myself to implement the principle, for fear of contradicting myself so much by not doing what I've been almost teaching for the past 20 posts.

Also, watching 5 movies on snipers has delivered some of the message to my unconscious as well. Enemy at the gates, sniper, sniper 2, and now watching sniper 3. And shooter, the one with the happy ending I wrote about.

Look how much screwing around goes near pivot lines. Luckily I've understood this part correctly. Pivots are the example that I can't always say "stay away from the crowd". Everyone talks about pivots and so they work. So one should always be aware of what the crowd is up to. Especially if you're trading with them. I'll go play a game of risk later, because it also has a lot of similitudes with trading.

Somehow while playing risk I never played like one of those "suiciders", that are like gamblers in trading: go for jugular as they say. They either win or die. At risk, I've always been patient. Very patient. I let everyone kill each other usually, and then come out of australia, or irkutsk. But the US people have horrible settings, so it's hard to play the game properly any longer (they defend only with 2 dice, and have increasing armies from card sets).

Ok, this is interesting. Despite all my talking, the markets wanted to go up, or at least it seems so far. So, thanks to the discipline, I was wrong and I didn't lose money. Isn't that amazing? I wanted to go short, but was not allowed by my system, so I might actually end up making money by going LONG in a bit.

Or not. Because now they're looking bearish again. The great thing is if I hadn't valued my bullets and my shots, by now, with this uncertainty, had I been trading, I would have made 4 trades and lost 200 dollars between commissions and slippage. Instead, a reader of this journal taught me about pivots, and so I stayed away from the screwing around that goes on near the pivot lines. So, thanks to trade2win and thanks to that reader.

Oh yes. Definitely going up. The GBP is bullish. By now, had I traded my old gambling "overstretched" method, I would have been LONG 5 contracts, and would have managed to lose money despite being right. Yes, because I'd have opened the first LONG contract two hours ago and 50 ticks higher, the second one an hour ago... and so on. Then I'd be closing all 5 positions at breakeven, out of having been so scared until then (because I'd have had 5 losing positions, and would have been praying for a reversal by now). What a messy situation I got myself out of. Value your shots. Value your one daily bullet.

Oh wow... I was wrong again: we're going down. You see? I've changed my mind 5 times already, but didn't lose anything because i was disciplined and didn't place a single trade. This is definitely the way to go. Observe like a sniper and only shoot when you're positive.

And needless to say we're still screwing around on that same pivot line at 1.4754.

Ok, this is it. It's going down. So it will be one fall, then one rise, crossing the fast ma, staying there >= 4 minutes and then, if I'll be >10 ticks from the pivot line, I'll take the short signal (the fast ma bearish crossover).