I love to trade and managed to get in a few more over Christmas while the wife was cooking so here is the new total for the month. this gives me a total profit of 107% in 5 months on am account dedicated to this method.
DAY TRADE # TYPE WIN OR LOSE # PIPS
4 1 RB Win 32.9
5 2 SB Win 10
5 3 RB Win 7
6 4 News Win 16.6
9 5 BB Win 14
10 6 RB Win 12
11 7 SB Win 5
12 8 RB Win 6
12 9 News LOSS -10
16 10 RB Win 12
18 11 RB Win 14
19 12 BB Win 6
20 13 RB Win 9.1
20 14 DD Win 8
23 15 RB Win 10.3
30 16 RB Win 10.6
total pips 163.5
average 10.2
Hey Traderallen,
I've been reading your posts for awhile and I like much of what you have to say. I have not been posting to this forum because I have been working on a futures trade based on the Volman methods, and I did not want to be off topic.
One of my concerns is the concept of the 10 pip target. In my experience you cut off any chance of scoring a fat tail when you do that. I notice that you have reached the same conclusion.
Much of trading is psychological and for me that means getting enough trades in a reasonable time to internalize the setups and conditions. When I began experimenting with the Volman method in week 7 of 2013 there were plenty of opportunities. By week 18 I was confident enough to open an account with MB trading and begin live trading. But around that time the market seemed to flatten out and hours would go by between setups. I don't know why but this continues to persist.
During those long lulls I began to experiment with using this method with various charts of the E-mini S&P 500 or ES. I settled on a 1,000 tick chart and began SIM trading it in Week 26. I am using the Volman almost exactly per the book with one major exception: I have no price targets. I enter with a 5 tick Stop loss and stay in the trade until a tipping point is reached. By week 45 I had convinced myself that this was good for me so I suspended my FOREX trade and began trading the ES in my Tradestation account. I suspended trading an 12/20 and have been conducting a review of the data I have acquired since week 45.
To make a long story short I am convinced enough that this is the way to go for me. My data (from 208 trades) tells me that I really can "see" a good trade and thus I am best served by taking every trade matches my perceptions. So beginning Jan 6th I will be aggressively trading it. My expectation is to achieve double digit monthly equity growth.
My reasons for this post are:
1. To thank you for your contributions.
2. To thank Bob for his weekly charts which I always review.
3. To provide encouragement to my fellow aspiring traders.
4. To make the case that Bob's method is applicable to other markets.
5. To see if anyone else has branched out.
In addition to this I have a concern I wish to share with you regarding MB trading. I chose MB trading primarily because it is a reputable US firm with some SEC safeguards. I did not use my Tradestation broker because the spreads were too wide for a 10 pip scalp, and I was getting 1-1.5 pip spreads with MBT. That said the order entry methods in the MBT desktop pro platform are a problem for me in that it will not allow me to enter a market order with OSO stop loss. So I have to scramble to place my protective stop. I use that platform strictly because once the stop is in place it resides on the brokers platform. At that point I have insured myself of my maximum loss. In my research I could not find a trading platform for MBT that was not a client based system. I would use Ninja Trader, but if my connection is broken or my machine freezes up or a natural disaster occurs I feel I am at risk for a major loss. Maybe even the entire account. I am only OK with this for a small account, but the whole purpose of all this is to increase position size as one becomes proficient.
Based on your posted results I think you are ready to begin trading larger size, in you have'n already. I wanted to give you a heads up on the client based stop thing in case you were not aware of it. But I sense you are a seasoned trader and perhaps You have factored that in. In which case I would love for you to share your thoughts on the subject.
All the best, and good luck in 2014!