I am going to adopt this as one of my favourite quotes 
something yoda or master oogway would say. Now just have to wait for the right conversation with someone and then slip that one in there to make myself sound clever lol.
Haha, yeah itâs sounds very zen. But trust me, some of my thoughts about trading in the past, perhaps wasnât that Zen-like
Iâm glad you find this thread useful. I hope you will at least consider backtesting a simple breakout system and start a journal of your emotions and feelings. It should give you a pretty good clue on what best for you. Going for a small win pr week? or aim for larger profits, but with less winning weeks. Although my testing tells me that going for larger profits overall gives better returns, what matters is that it fits your way and you can take the trade and Take profit consistently, day in, day out.
Iâll tell you, itâs boring as hell once you get there
Well, I donât think that markets are a complete random. You can see how trends develope, get momentum, then that momentum fade and finally you have a trend change. There are consolidation, diversification periods. I mean, you can see that if you ignore the noise. Thatâs the point, the big picture is clear if there is enough volatility. There are choppy periods, periods to avoid in your trading. But you must train your eyes to see the trends, the cycles, the consolidations periods⌠there is no random, really. Of course if you go to 5 minute chart, its more difficult. For H4 charts and above, the price language is much more clear. Even for H1 charts you can see it.
But, I agree with your idea that the exit is more important than the entry. The important thing about the entry is that all entries must be equal: if you trade a break of level plus retracement, then all your entries are break + retracement. The point of the entries is: create your discipline for putting orders in the market. What is different for every trade is how you manage your position and how you exit. This depends on what the market is doing after you put your order. Of course you can have rules for exiting a positions. But you must see what the price is doing and be flexible enough to change your exit method according to what you see.
Well, I donât think that markets are a complete random. You can see how trends develope, get momentum, then that momentum fade and finally you have a trend change
Sure, trends or Imbalance of supply and demand is a so called pattern that we donât know when starts or ends. A trend is usually very clear to see after the fact. And so is the drop or fall after it has happened. What we usually doesnât notice is all the retracements that failed. Then there might be some more volatility at the end ( such as a bubble) but that is because you see these more significant on a chart. You can make money in both believes
CAn you explain this in more detail? Sitting watching a trade tempts you to exit early before reaching target something Iâm guilty of. Shouldnât one trust their initial assessment and leave the trade to reach target?
Everyone has his own way of thinking, just my saying that PA TA is a non sense wonât make any difference to the millions of traders using them.
Very interesting point of view. One I say I am going to due some research on as one thing instantly popped into my head. Then as I read the thread I didnt see anyone even think about it (I may have missed it if it was stated). Stocks, options, and futures markets are anything but random. You buy a contact or a share or whatever price instantly reflects it. Thats why they are way more volatile then spot forex. They also have a central exchange that calculates it. So yeah many people are buying and selling for various reasons. but if there is more buys than sells price goes up. Spot on the other hand has no central exchange. So someone in Japan decides they want to buy 500 million US dollars they call up the bank and make the transaction but how does that change the price as there is no actual market to dictate the price? Just the bank that quoted how much Yen they wanted in exchange for the 500 million USD. So how are we actually getting these price quotes and are they even accurate. I know futures contracts of pairs can and will differ quite a bit from spot prices. Something I never really looked to far into but I am going to maight take quite some time to find the answer. Also could be the actual reason why most traders fail. Who keeps track of price if there is no exchange? With all this money going into the market where is it going besides banks lots of different banks. Someone may have an answer and hell I may have knew the answer at one time but I have forgotten more about the markets than I know today. Either way very cool thread.
CAn you explain this in more detail? Sitting watching a trade tempts you to exit early before reaching target something Iâm guilty of. Shouldnât one trust their initial assessment and leave the trade to reach target?
You can have the âbestâ entry and it wont make a difference, what matters is what happens after your position gets triggered. If you buy when the market goes up, and at some point the market goes down again. You then need to make a decision. Do you take profit, take some profits, hedge (might be an option?)? You can also move SL to breakeven and hope it goes in your favor again in the future?
Do you need a target? I think what you are referring to is the fear of losing and fear of missing out? No matter what your exit is, you will always feel bad. However, I would say not sticking to your structure that you have backtested, is probably not profitable in the long run. Ask yourself why you exit early and why you feel that way might help you.
I find mindfulness meditation very use full - and trust me, I have fear of losing when I need to let my profit run. It never gets comfortable, but I think thatâs where the edge lays!
So true! You either should have let it run further or you should have seen the signs to get out earlier.
I do this too! Mindfulness meditation helps me immensely with my trading. You have to work hard to reach a level of acceptance and to be able to âseeâ how your mind and ego works against you. Otherwise you bring a subconscious imbalance to your trading decisions.
I use price action in my trading and it doesnât seem any non-sense what so ever. In fact PA has helped me a lot in improving my trading and making money from the market.
Yes, you could argue a simple breakout of each candle is a simplified PA as well. The market might not actually be random, we do not know. You might need all information on the planet, including all traders and money managers state of emotion, and the market might not be random. Since we do not have that sort of information, you might just tread it as random.