Mickey's Journal

[kiravon]

Reading the Charts

All highly profitable traders seem to agree on certain things

Firstly that trading is all about psychology, also that ultimately
your success is not finding that Holy Grail system or indicator
but rather it's your ability to read the charts.

and the longer I trade the more I find them to be 100% correct on
both counts.

I think this nice AIMS S1 winner +200 pips demonstrates this
so well. Purely speaking for myself, I believe if I traded every
S1 set up I saw I would be far less profitable than if I exercised
patience and picked only those with greater confluence.

Being more selective doesn't mean trading less, it means reading
the charts more accurately which will enable us to be more
selective in our trading.

So lets take the following S1 trade and then look at the trade
more closely afterwards

wilde bar.jpg

Now for the AIMS purists what we might see is an excellent
S1 set up which was taken a little belatedly.

However the reality is that I probably would not have taken that trade
even though it turned out to be very profitable. The reason I took it
was because I noticed added confluence which I found very compelling.

So lets zoom in on the candle immediately before where I entered:-

signal candle.jpg

What do we note about this candle? Two things.
Firstly it's a bit stalky, ie it's mainly wick and tail, the
body is less than 50% of the candle's total length.

Secondly, in relation to it's previous candle it has printed a higher
high and a higher low.

This candle pattern in itself is not significant, but there are times
when it can be a powerful confluence! For example, it must be
supported by Ewave, never contradicted by it.

So in other words, if you have a compelling S1 set up and then this
candle pattern appears it is a very powerful confluence!

But it is NOT a system, it is far more about reading the charts.
This is just one simple example of how reading the charts can
lead to a very profitable trade.

Now you may be thinking, yes ok, but would you have made more
pips if you have simply traded the S1 in the normal way?

Yes, in this case I would, but only a few more pips.

But if I just blindly traded every S1 I wouldn't always do so well.

So I prefer to be more selective, here is another great example that I missed:-

signal candle3.jpg

Perhaps you can see how this could be a useful confluence to an already
proven set up.

It doesn't happen very often but when everything else is perfect it can act
as the green light to enter the trade.

You cannot be static as a trader. With experience, even within the AIMS
environment you start to notice how price interacts with the indicators, how
they in turn interact with each other, when candle patterns are significant
and when they are not.

and strangely this is very closely connected to the first point,
that of trader psychology

When you make these observations and distinctions such as the above
you feel your chart reading ability improve and your confidence as a
trader increases

How important is that?

Critically important! Without that level of confidence you will never
survive the periods of drawdown that cannot be avoided

You must reach the level when your greatest asset isn't the system
you follow, or the indicators, or the signal service or the profitable
traders you follow.

You can learn from all these things but your greatest asset is you!

For a while I copied someone's signature -

''Stop searching for the holy grail. you've already found it, it's inside you''

[kiravon]

duplicated below

[kiravon]

A Great Week!
Finally I found the broker of my dreams! A true ECN broker
that doesn't stop hunt, that doesn't 'accidently'
ignore your TPs when hit while always dilligently acting
on your SLs when you're losing! plus unbelievably tight
spreads with no commission.

There are actually many such decent brokers but none
that can give you a Polish currency account. Those that
do are either market makers trading against you or scam brokers.

So with my new 1,000 ZL account on 19th I was off to a great
start with my first campaign ( A strategy that combines AIMS old
and new )

comprising 17 trades over 1 hr 9 mins, 13 wins 0.5% risk per trade
+8.5% profit day one

There was a lot of confluence, perfect chart symmetry so I milked
it for all it was worth.

It can be done guys. Just keep practicing!

8.5 percent on campaign.jpg

biggest campaign.jpg

[kiravon]

New Account Up 42% in four days

risking 0.5% per trade

The top mentor who is also a multi million hedge fund manager
recommends you look to a consistent 10% pa

He was also taught by a top fund manager.

Was he taught not to expect more than 10% pa?
Beliefs are powerful!

There are a lot of guys frequently doing that in a day, not a year!

Meantime, did you know you can create your own indis without
any programming?

Its free! If you want to create EAs you have to pay a small
cost but its completely free to create indis
http://www.eabuilder.com/

42pc.jpg

[wiseambitions]

Hi, your 42% in a few days is good

I hope you don't encounter the same difficulties as me. The broker who I last "stole from" (using the rules!) due to a phenomenal run today widened my bid-offer spread on Dax from just 1 up to 4 pips (!!!!!) let alone imposed all the other things I mentioned last week such as ban on instant orders, with stops or pendings or TPs to be at least 6 pips away from current price, and any amount of slippage and delay at their pleasure etc etc................
Mind you I'm pleased to say I asked for a major withdrawal at 8 am and it was in my bank by noon, although they did indeed ring me and ask me why I wanted so much out!

Surely it was obvious they didn't want my business.

I could not find anything in their terms and conditions about a minimum holding period of 2 minutes and various other things they accused me of.

I fail to understand why brokers don't want us to survive and keep going with them.

[kiravon]

I think you should shop around for a new broker Ray!

a few pips mandatory to SL and TP?

If you are trading M1 this is impossible

M5 and very often the broker saves you from yourself.

M15 and up its not a big deal except if they are true ECN
broker and not a market maker why are they doing it

Usually its just another way of squeezing a few more pips
out of you

I notice though with my broker they also impose a 200:1 leverage
which speaks well of them, it is hard to think that the 888:1 and
even 1000:1 brigade really have the traders interests at heart.

There are some very ethical brokers around, IC markets and
Thinkforex I've used for years and there are many others.
I'm very limited by Polish currency brokers.

GKFX have a rubbish execution but they do offer tax free trading
which is why they are popular with many of the guys here, and
you can trade DAX mini lots which is useful for trading M1

but stop hunting ( most common ploy ), widening of spreads or
requotes, ignoring TPs when hit or disallowing profitable trades all
say one thing - they are trading against you

- as if trading isn't hard enough already!

[kiravon]

Chart reading and Confluence

After a good morning I had a look at the market when I returned
home this evening.

I noticed the EURUSD seemed to be consolidating into a Pennant
pattern at the point that I closed my earlier trade. This usually
indicates a resume of the previous move can be expected

I glanced at some analyst comments that mentioned Brexit, Stocks
bla bla and EU finding support at 1.1000, EU rebounding up
but has the Daily 200 SMA resistance to contend with at 1.1052

But with PO set at break of AIMS it should hit the 200 SMA for
2R

or it may even continue its descent for a much bigger move
down, either way the Pennant formation is helpful

Of course it may continue ranging all night

I may pay a modest rent here but hopefully will come out
with a profit

flag.jpg

[Sonata95]

Hi Mickey, thank you very much for your post, it help me a lot to understand the key thing in trading is chart analysis skill more important than indicator. I saw you trading result improve last 3 months and also increase your confident. My understand your trade base on movement HTF and entry at 5x LTF and your entry 0.5% per trade but you have a lot add on if your trade is right direction your expectation. Is it possible to share a little more detail your trade management ( add on strategy ) and your entry rule.

have a good trading day!

Thang

[kiravon]

No strict Add on Strategy. Normally break of next AIMS level
would be sensible

But sometimes when I feel the momentum building I can be
a little more trigger happy. I seriously don't recommend this
approach. and you must have a trade manager that has a kill
button ( ie close all trades )

Every second you fumble about trying to close individual
positions can decimate your account.

[kiravon]

''Greedy Pigs get Slaughtered''

How true that old trading adage!

I was just reminded of that in my last trade. 2R win followed
by a 1R scalp on the retrace

but even so when do you get out?

My charts are very clean but I call up tools and draw lines
when I need to.

In the screenshot below I didn't know when to get out.

I thought TZ1 is usually excellent
Then I drew a trendline
Very close by was Purple ( dotted white )
Then I pulled up up Fib retrace and noted the 61.8% level

So which to choose as TP?

Well If you wanted the most profit choose TZ1 in this instance.
Next most profitable Fib 61.8%, Purple and the trendline all
converge at 112.75!!!

But if you place TP at TZ1 you get an extra 7 pips!

Except you wouldn't because price never made it that far!

A powerful lesson in convergence but an even more important
reminder to keep greed out of the equation

purple.jpg