Mickey's Journal

[kiravon]

Just wrote a very long essay which just vanished for no reason whatsoever!

I'm not rewriting it but....

A precis - We fail at trading for the same reason we fail at dieting - we know
at the deepest subconscious level that we will never give up eating junkfood
for comfort just as we know we do not have the prosperity consciousness to
believe we will ever truly have the wherewithal to consistently make any
amount of money we care to make.

Best case scenario, we might dare to hope that one day we might make 66%
in three weeks but after that 'lucky break' we will almost certainly blow our
account

Obviously the market, or fate is out to get us so we are doomed from the
start.

We deserve the failure we know deep down we will get, and that will be the
proof that the universe is indeed a mighty unfriendly place!

But we can learn a lot from recovering alchoholics ' One day at a time!'

So T20 and journals are great! but only if we stick with the program!

I have stuck with T20 trading program and it seems to be showing some
consistent results regardless of what I might have thought about my
self image as a trader - indeed it may well be creating a new self image

If I ever reach the Status of 'Competent Trader ' I might well design
and print a certificate to that effect and frame it on my wall above
my monitors on my desk.

( note to Immy - Have you ever thought of making a Pro Forma certificate
that can be downloaded? I can't think of anything better to boost morale )

Using the T20 method I have nearly finished proofreading the 120 page
Fruit Ebook. I couldn't have done it without T20 and public accountability.

For 28 consecutive days using T20 I have achieved a 28/28 DS in my weight
loss endeavours. For three years I have failed to lose a single ounce!

Today, for first time in three years I see my face is a little different and my
midriff is flatter. Within the next 28 days I would predict that someone will
comment on it

T20 has been the key! but just like trading there must be a viable system
ie more winners than losers or higher risk to reward ratio etc

and so with slimming there has to be a corresponding system - even though
it will not work for almost 100% of people, anymore than a proven trading system
will work for almost 100% of traders who try it.

So we know it is all to do with 'Mind'

Success in dieting so effortlessly has given me increased confidence that a similar
approach to trading will have similar success and vice versa.

For me the secret to dieting has been eating out every day, and making a very
big deal out of it. I spend a lot of time shopping around for 'extras' to add to
my salad. Today I found some low fat 'Favita' salad cheese cubes that you throw
into your salad. I also can buy a small jar of olives ( I love olives! ) as you can
gather there is little feeling of deprivation. I found somewhere that sells grated
carrot and grated beetroot. and for dessert I have pro biotic yoghurt. I have
so much to eat I have to leave some! - Not because I'm on a diet but because
I just can't eat anymore! I come away from the cafeteria feeling I've feasted
not fasted.

So 'Mind' knows I can do this indefinitely and enjoy the process.

There seems very little connection to trading here

but I think there must be

T20 teaches you to be consistent and disciplined and soon you are rewarded

So you are motivated to keep on being consistent and not to start craving for
cake or some totally incongruous and inconsistent magic indicator which will just
take you back to the same old hamster wheel

You find that success lies in a disciplined and consistent mindset so you no
longer are distracted and misdirected by the endless array of systems and indis,

because the answer was never outside in the first place

It never is!

[kiravon]

A very sideways London Open This morning
Sequence 6

C1 -5
C2 -22
C3 -31
C4 -5
C5 -10
C6 -15
C7 -16
C8 -4
C9 -8
C10 -16
C11 -26

No Stop losses and I deliberately let price close well over Green without
closing so that I could catch those long runs after retracement. But
that didn't happen - about three fake outs with add ons amounted to
eleven consecutive losing trades and -158 pips today.

I was trying to play the 'Cool Hand Luke' and didn't get flustered
when price seemed to be reversing

Great!

Except it really was reversing!

I'm marking myself zero for Discipline today and will rethink.

I overtraded

[immy]

You see Mickey, you have broken new grounds here. From euphoria to depression, if you could plot an eWave of your emotions and trading where would it be now?

People often don't trade their systems and you're trading your system, you've achieved something 99% don't get near because they stop. What you have experienced today is what makes them stop. Its too painful but those who get past this stage are the ones who make it to the "other side".

[kiravon]

[center]BLACK TUESDAY!!
Lest we ever forget [/center]

Thanks Immy for the encouragement, I consider this present post by
far the most important in my journal so far! Only the night before I was
waxing lyrically about how the mind conspires to sabotage, and very
next morning that very thing happened!! - Whats that you say about
a few humbling moments?

Here are the pics including just one well reasoned winning trade today, Wednesday

Warning! The following is not for the fainthearted or those of a nervous
disposition! Eleven Consecutive Losing trades -158pips

Black Tuesday 1.PNG

Black Tuesday 2.PNG

Black Tuesday 3.PNG

Black Tuesday 4.PNG

Black Tuesday 5.PNG

Black Tuesday 6.PNG

Black Tuesday 7.PNG

Black Tuesday 8.PNG

Black Tuesday 9.PNG

Black Tuesday 10.PNG

[kiravon]

Sequence 6

C1 DS 1 -5
C2 DS 0 -22
C3 DS 0 -31
C4 DS 0 -5
C5 DS 0 -10
C6 DS 0 -15
C7 DS 0 -16
C8 DS 0 -4
C9 DS 0 -8
C10 DS 0 -16
C11 DS 0 -26
C12 DS 1 - 20
C13 DS 1 +80
C14 DS 1 +10
C15 DS 1 +12
C16 DS 1 -24
C17 DS 1 -18

Daily Proofreading Strategy +39p 119 pages now completed

[immy]

Hi

The moment we have a dramatic emotional phase in trading the mind plays its trick again. The next thing you know somebody's changed the scheme of their chart added foreign objects to it.

Trading is a pattern recognition numbers game. There can be many different types of patterns but in trading these patterns are on the chart and that means they are Visual. These patterns are created with the use of our "mathematical and logical coding" i.e. indicators. If you know that a certain pattern works and gives you a statistical advantage i.e. The Fruit Why would you change the patterns?

so, Keep Gator or Keep Bollinger bands but if you keep BB its not Fruit anymore. Less is More. more does not help. Less is what will get you through the river!

another important thing!
minus 158 is NOT black Tuesday. its just 158 pips. its nothing. Peter made over 200 pips in one campaign. So its nothing. don't make such a big thing out of it. Just learn from the experience and move. You've done nothing dramatic. its NOT a black tuesday. and know it if your discipline score was 20 out of 20, you can theoretically catch 20 consecutive losers but the probability of that is very low. NEXT and ENJOY.

pssssst: with today's total now you're at -88... black tuesday is not so black afterall.

edit: I don't really understand what you're doing with your Dax trading. you have h4 h1 m5 and m1 charts? Confused.com

[kiravon]

Of course you are right in that it doesn't look like Sequence 6
will end so badly providing I stay focused for the remaining three
trades

I call it 'Black Tuesday' a bit melodramatically to remind myself
in the future of the day I threw out all the rules it doesn't pay!

[wiseambitions]

This page of musings is the best reading I've found on the site for a few days, well worth reading

I have no time for Bollinger Bands; fractals and aims levels/boxes in conjunction with gator and AO make far more sense. However if someone wants a different guide from Bands there are always the Donchian channels, which show the highest/lowest price in the previous n periods which you can alter.. Simplest is best, my theory is that the higher the Time Frame (eg h1 this morning on Dax) in which price breaks an aims level the higher the probability of a winning trade for riding it that direction

[kiravon]

Thanks Ray, coincidentally that is what I've been looking at

[immy]

Thanks Ray, coincidentally that is what I've been looking at

There is ALWAYS Tomorrow!

(and the next session in our case hehe)

Enjoy Have Fun with trading. and keep blessing us with your lovely "creativity". (meaning your posts)