Mickey's Journal

[immy]

I believe the original S1 did indeed trade the breakout
in either direction until Snorm came up with 'Purple'
to reduce unnecessary losses

True but 1. it was not s1, its still active and called the classic breakout entry, its part of the fruit method , which is my favourite method. and 2. Snorm did not come with purple. Snorm recoded the indicators. e.g he suggested we call AIMS levels as teh AIMS Box and recoded it. And he also went on and created his best indicator eWave based on the 10s to Elliott Wave concept.

[kiravon]

I came across this article which goes a long way to explain why you
can have long winning runs followed by a streak of losers.

I wish I had a 'Tom' to tell me which days to trade and when
to keep away
------------------------------


A few years ago, Tom (my former trading assistant) told me he could tell if I was
going to make a lot of money each day, just by the mood I was in.
Rather than just ignoring this comment as a coincidence, I decided to investigate
further. I wanted to find out if it was possible to ONLY have good trading days.
Do You Know Your Edge?

Everyone speaks about getting an ‘edge’ in the market, but what exactly is an
edge?

Essentially, it’s an aspect of your capabilities or strategy that is better than the
majority of other traders. Therefore if you want to outperform the market, you’ll need
an edge.

This often leads traders to participate in the never-ending search for the ‘Holy Grail’
system; looking online, reading books and watching videos.

I’ll share a little secret with you… they’re looking in the wrong place.
If an edge is something you do better than the majority of traders, we shouldn’t be
looking externally… we should be looking internally.

The truth is, when Tom could tell I was going to have a good day, he wasn’t being
Mystic Meg – he was just experiencing the by-product of me utilising my edge.
But how could I know that?

Are You Self-Diagnosing Effectively?
A man walks in to see his doctor, complaining of stomach issues:
Doctor: What’s wrong with you?
28
Man: I’m getting terrible stomach problems.
Doctor: So… what’s wrong with you?
Man: Well, I was hoping you would tell me.
Doctor: How am I meant to know? It’s your body.
Man: Yes, but you’re a doctor – not me.
Doctor: Yes, but it’s your body not mine.

Doesn’t that situation seem ridiculous? Just because it’s the man’s own body, it
doesn’t mean he can diagnose himself with IBS or a food intolerance just by the
way he feels. It would need further investigation.

Instead, the doctor would probably ask him to reschedule for a new appointment
and to track his diet in the meantime.

With that in mind, why do traders not take the same approach?

Rather than tracking psychological and physiological changes that happen during
their day, most traders think: “Well, it’s my body/mind… therefore I don’t need to
track it, I can just feel what’s happening.”

Even worse than that, some traders don’t think it even matters – it’s only the chart
strategy that counts.

Oh naïve traders… thank you for bringing the ‘dumb money’ to the market

Monitoring Like an Athlete

Much like athletes, as traders we have to understand how to use our body and mind
in the optimal way to get great performance – or at least that’s what the world class
performers do.

At the top level, athletes track everything. It’s not enough to be ‘good’ at something,
you have to learn how to do it optimally; this is what provides athletes with their
edge. As Ross from Blackstar says

“On an even playing-field where all the players have the same tools; efficient
utilisation becomes the key to progress.”

Building the Six-Million Dollar Man

When we first teach a client how to trade, we start with a series of questions that
analyses their skillset and what lifestyle they want to live i.e. how many hours are
they willing to commit to trading.

This approach helps us take a trader from 0 to 60 in the quickest way possible, by
matching them with a suitable strategy and approach to trading.

Now let me show you how to take this up to 100.
By capturing snapshots of our daily output, in terms of trading and our overall
routine, we can start to identify trends that contribute to good or bad performance.
Once we identify these trends, we can make changes to bring them to their optimal
level. One-by-one we bring every aspect of our trading day to its peak performance.
Imagine yourself like the Six-Million Dollar Man; substituting average or poor
performing parts for high-performing ones.

The Devil is in the Detail

In my own case, I found that my best trading performance happened when I could
monitor four timeframes in one market, without feeling overwhelmed or
uncoordinated.

The question was then: what changes allowed me to work at that level?
I needed to use retrograde analysis on the good and bad days, to find the ‘lead
domino’ in the process that was leading to my best performing days. By finding this,
I would also be able to explain why Tom could tell which days I was going to
perform well on.

Sounds simple?
It was.

By taking daily snapshots which included how I slept, what I ate, what exercise I
did, how I felt etc. I was able to identify a trend, just like I do with the markets.
The best performing days went like this:

I would get a minimum of 6 hours sleep and a maximum of 8 hours.
This would be due to sleeping earlier, rather than waking up later. Therefore, I
would wake up with enough time to have a good breakfast.

Both of these contributed to me starting my day fully focused and making better
decisions in the market. This meant I performed better in the morning and could
afford to take a lunch break.

Having a lunch break meant:
I ate properly throughout the day, keeping up my energy and (importantly for
trading) my blood-glucose levels.
I traded well in the afternoon, meaning I could stop trading early in the day and
still feel fresh.
I could exercise in the evening, due to not feeling burnt out from trading late.
So as you can see, the lead domino for me was getting a good amount of sleep.
However, this is just the beginning. Those improvements made my trading better,
but it didn’t bring me to my optimal level.

Taking Things a Step Further
Monitoring how you feel during certain times of the day can also be very revealing
about how to improve your performance.
For example, if you find yourself having a slump in the morning after a good first
few hours, you may want to look at what you’re having for breakfast – perhaps
ditching coffee first thing in the morning will give you sustained high performance
until lunchtime and eating more protein and slow-release carbs will keep you
energised (think cooked oats and scrambled egg, for example).

Alternatively, if you just can’t get active first thing in the morning and it takes you a
few hours to ‘ease into’ the day, it may be that you aren’t drinking enough water and
are therefore waking up feeling groggy due to dehydration.

You may also be suffering from low blood-sugar levels after sleeping, which can be
avoided by having a spoonful of peanut butter before bed.

Sometimes it can be the activity of trading itself, which causes your performance to
reduce. Decision fatigue in trading has been found to set in, on average, after 2
trades.

However we’re looking for an edge, aren’t we?

Finding Your Edge
So why should you base your trading on the average person? We should all be
experimenting (and tracking everything!) to find what level our decision fatigue sets
in and performance declines.

For me, I found that I could make three trades perfectly, but depending on the
amount of time I was waiting for the fourth trade, it was either slightly worse or
much worse. Either way, it was clear that my decision fatigue sets in after three
trades.

We also need to monitor ‘ego depletion’. This occurs as a result of our will-power
and self-control having a limited resource pool to draw from each day.
As we control ourselves more, or make more controlled decisions, our ability to
make similar decisions later in the day will reduce. This means we may be more
impulsive, which can lead to poor positions and overtrading.

Overcoming this can involve sleeping, but can also have a simple solution such as
eating sweets.

Surprisingly, glucose has been found to reverse some of the ego depletion effects
and restore some of your resources. However, the rate at which you decline and
improve will depend on other factors such as age, amount of sleep and diet.

It’s only from tracking your days and testing new approaches that you can find what
will work optimally for you. Perhaps you work best in short periods of time, but
would be happy to work around the clock; in that case, polyphasic sleep may work
wonders for your trading performance.

Applying It All to the Markets

When it comes to trading itself, you need to understand what style of trading works
best for you and what market types you thrive in.

You can also relate your physical signals to your performance and find what days
you trade at your best; therefore understanding what days you can push yourself
further, or step back from the market.
-----------------------------------
taken from Duomi which I am not recommending, but the article is so spot on

[kiravon]

It's hard earned and paid for in blood, sweat and pips
but it's worth it

Along with the Famous, when they happen, I still
favour reversals

I use two of Snorm's indis

This is what I have found:-

Exits-

If a reversal is going to happen, 50% of the distance to nearest
missed weekly pivot as a starting point, but compare this to TZ1
and BRNs

Average win on Daily is 80 pips so look at everything from 50 - 150 pips
but err on the side of caution, avoid greed.

This makes for a very high win rate. some argue that a low win rate with
winners making hundreds and thousands of pips is the professional way.

Perhaps it is

But psychologically I need one or two wins a week with just 80 pips
a win rather than a string of losers and the occasional 500 pip winner.

You have to know what kind of trader you are

The bad news is it can take years to find out!

and when I say 80 pip win, I will take 50 pips at a major BRN, rather
than greedily hoping for the 80 pips just past TZ1

Psychology-

Some trades take 12 days to hit on Daily and I've found checking charts every
ten minutes is not great psychology

I don't have my charts open anymore but have price alerts sent to my
phone when TP is hit

Its a real buzz when the alerts come through, and keeping the MT4
platform closed after entry helps me keep out of my own way

I had the ability to be a consistently profitable trader years ago,
but it only happened when I stopped being glued to the charts
and got out of my own way

[immy]

Thanks for your post Mickey ... long time not type/write...

I agree 100%. Trading does not have to be taxing.

[kiravon]

qwerty

[kiravon]

have all but four of the 1,350 members really gone? its mighty quiet round
here these days, but good luck to anyone still keeping up with the T20s
it will pay off

[immy]

have all but four of the 1,350 members really gone? its mighty quiet round
here these days, but good luck to anyone still keeping up with the T20s
it will pay off

Damn it, that was a GREAT post... why deleted/edited? I did not want to reply first. Yes, people don't have access anymore, hence its quiet. lol a wealth of information getting rotten. But hey, nobody wants to work hard. People just want promises...

[baldeagle]

Mickey,

Thanks for posting and drawing my attention back to your journal. Before my "Lifetime Subscription" expires at the end of the year (Maybe Immy is trying to tell me something as I will be 81 by then) I want to Thank You again for all of the enjoyment I have received from your thoughts and examples. You, Immy, Ray and all of the other "journalists" have kept my mind challenged and I believe younger.

I am not sure why there is less activity here but for some of us Life and in my case, loss of life, sometimes imposes its stark reality. Also, I have received several "Access Denied" messages as I troll through the site which are a little off putting. I note that Immy is taking action with many new emails and videos and it is my hope that the forum activity will once again be robust and the knowledge sharing home it once was

Will you post some more and let us know what you are thinking?

Ed

[immy]

Hi

I had sent out messsage to all the previous members that if they were having this issue please let me know. if you have purchased Premium in the past before 2017, do let me know. I will upgrade your membership to Old Premium Lifetime it will NOT expire ever. (as long as I'm alive lol)

cheers

[immy]

Just had a quick look . i have turned your access into Lifetime. if you still face issues, do let me know.

thank you.