Mickey's Journal

[kiravon]

If you got out on fruit, that's ok. next sometimes you'll get it 100% right other times not so. Exit is an art.

but if you stick to one or two exit methods that would be better in the long run. green line exit is good fruit only when price moves too far too fast. the rubber band effect. if you're confident about exiting on fruit you should be reversing it. if you're not ready to reverse it then you might not exit on it either. but it all depends on what you feel on that day and that trade. if you're working from a happy no worry carefree state of mind, your perception will be different if you're worried fearful and scared your perception will be quite different to above. if scared just follow the plan and get a quick winner under your belt. you are a winner as long as your DS = 20/20

More wise words on Exit from Immy. A seeming contradiction to my last post but not really in that Immy goes
on to point out that exiting is never 100% objective. I know what I should have done this morning even
if no one else can see what I saw.

But Exit is an Art, and an art that can only improve with practice

[kiravon]

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Just watched a Webinar on Emotion Control - Don't want to forget
the important bits

Here goes -

Its about the different chemicals that are released into the blood stream

A small win is fine and we feel a sense of well being and confidence
Without confidence it is impossible to succeed in trading!

But bigger wins cause a flood of chemicals such as adrenalin and Dopamine that
push confidence over into overconfidence! This results in reckless and
overtrading and inevitable losses.

anything more than a small loss and Cortisol is released into the bloodstream
causing paralyzing fear and distorting perception - we see only more loss,
we hesitate, procrastinate, move stops, bring TPs nearer to ensure a quick
and safe win throwing RR out of the window etc

Demo Accounts - Virtual Trading

Essential to test and refine strategy but cannot prepare us for the real world
of trading! We can lose $1000 of virtual money with no Cortisol release.
Real hard cash might be a very different story!

Milestone Based Business Plan
Be realistic! $5000 to 1 Million in one year is not realistic, even if it has been
done by others. Don't expect too much too quick, a gradual equity curve
is the only way - big wins followed by inevitable big losses is not an emotionally
sustainable way to build your account. Sure way to gambler's ruin

The most important thing I learnt from this webinar - never read it or heard it before -

Make regular withdrawals!

I would personally prefer to keep everything in my account to maximise profit

But this is not an accountancy matter

Trading is about emotion

Reward yourself regularly by withdrawing some of your profit!

Yes I completely get that, even though it may seem to slow the growth
of the account - actually the reverse is true - you need money in the hand to
condition the mind to really believe that your trading is paying off!

Community Reporting

Keeping a public journal is so helpful. For many reasons but the aspect of
social embarrassment is a real aid to keep us from extreme folly

( although not foolproof in my case )

[kiravon]

I must have missed this first and second time around. It reminds me of the advantage of trading Fruit.
To a large extent it doesn't really matter what the market wants to do, Fruit will capture some pips, whether
trending or ranging.

Fruit lets us take advantage of all the market movements. What’s more important to note is that the Fruit strategy is not simply “reversal entry mechanism”. It’s a complete trading strategy for both unidirectional trending markets as well as highly volatile non trending markets. It does not only pick market reversal spots but also get you into the “trend following breakouts” scenarios keeping you in tune with the trend.

[kiravon]

Michael made another great suggestion of utilising a twin exit strategy, one position
to close over green and the other trailing candles.

So I went in gung ho and made a bit of a mess of it, I opened two half lot positions
then two more half lot add ons and it got a bit confusing for me

Really, all I needed to do was keep the opening position stop above green and
perhaps the add on could trail the candles once they really started moving.

But more interesting is why I got confused. Simply too much for me to think about.

As Einstein said, ' Keep things as simple as possible, but no simpler'

My first trade right on LO was a -7 pip rent.

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[kiravon]

Sequence 7
C1 DS 1 -14
C2 DS 1 +12
C3 DS 1 -8
C4 DS 1 -3
C5 DS 1 +13
C6 DS 1 -12
C7 DS 1 BE
C8 DS 1 +46
C9 DS 1 +38
C10 DS 1 -12
C11 DS 1 -7
C12 DS 1 +17
C13 DS 1 BE
C14 DS 1 -2
C15 DS 1 +8
C16 DS 1 +26

So far - DS 16/16 +102 pips and wins now bigger than rents

[kiravon]

Some small rents this morning. nothing much happened on Dax

I made a start at MM, entering with reduced Lot. I can probably
do this better when trading 5M. I could get a bit flustered in
a faster moving environment. One step at a time. Its more
important to not do more than my ability allows without stress

First Pic GOOD ANGLE, Add on PO in place -

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[kiravon]

Four rents this morning but minimal. Didn't I used to get -30 and -40 rents?

now just -6 -9 -6 -10 mouthwatering low losers! There must be traders who
would give their right arm for losers like this!

Discipline this Sequence has risen from 10/20 to 20/20

I may appear to be scoring myself too generously, or too harshly last sequence.

I score myself an automatic zero when I do anything without knowing why,
previously I was doing this all the time, now hardly ever

Last sequence I took Immy's advice about not using a close all EA because
you can exit prematurely.

Unfortunately I went to the other extreme and traded without stops in the
'certain expert knowledge' that price wouldn't keep reversing, it just needed
breathing space! Resulting in my Black Tuesday fiasco.

So ten trades received a well deserved zero for brainless, undisciplined stupidity!

This time I scored myself 20/20 for either sticking to the rules or in the case
of breakouts the spirit of the rules at least.

At one point I implemented Michael's suggestion to split the exit strategy.
I went a bit overboard with this with too black and red many dotted lines
across the chart. It did get a bit confusing but I don't think I actually
made any mistakes or traded in an undisciplined way

What I learnt from that was not to open
two positions initially, but simply, if I find that I'm in a situation where I have
my initial position plus Add on position both still open...

and I'm undecided on how to exit, I might consider green for one, trail the other.
So although I tried it out in a less than optimal way, the resulting confusion
simply illustrated how to keep things clear and simple in the future

Sequence 7
C1 DS 1 -14
C2 DS 1 +12
C3 DS 1 -8
C4 DS 1 -3
C5 DS 1 +13
C6 DS 1 -12
C7 DS 1 BE
C8 DS 1 +46
C9 DS 1 +38
C10 DS 1 -12
C11 DS 1 -7
C12 DS 1 +17
C13 DS 1 BE
C14 DS 1 -2
C15 DS 1 +8
C16 DS 1 +26
C17 DS 1 -6
C18 DS 1 -9
C19 DS 1 -6
C20 DS 1 -10

DS 20/20 +71pips

[kiravon]

While I was busy with the last post I made a very welcome +37
as my Long PO was triggered. I did tell everyone on Skype that
price was about to go up, down or sideways but some people
just never listen

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TIME TO PLACE AN AD ON - but reduce Lot size

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[kiravon]

Seems I was right - everything pointed to more Upside
I flooded my bathroom out and took about an hour mopping up

Came back to find Long PO triggered and +40 pips up

Not sure how NY Open may affect DAX if at all but I guess I'll
find out soon enough

My instinct is to leave Stop just below BE, and below the 61% FIB

I really think DAX is Long today

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[kiravon]

A great way to end the week! Dax went up another +70 pips

Sequence 8

C1 DS 1 +37
C2 DS 1 +70

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