wow, i can’t believe i feel a little bummed that i went on a climbing trip. i still haven’t had the chance to see a live session. at least iv’e learned by now that, like a good trade, there will be another one.
my goals for the next month:
-trade less!!! no more than 4 trades per week(i use one other method as well as ict’s)
-i have set a weekly goal of 50 pips(so i probably won’t need to trade that often)
-go over my trading habits with a fine tooth comb. there are so many variables(if done right), that a novice might have a hard time putting all the parts together into a complete package. i think i’m ready to put all of the parts together now.(btw-it has taken me a year and a half to have the confidence to say that i THINK i have enough understanding to do this)
hope i get to see an ict session in action some day!
This is only the second I have seen live and I will say even though we know most of what he brings for now. It is amazing to see it live and what he states. Kind of a market review but you can ask questions and get an answer with a little chart example on the spot. He does not disappoint thats for sure.
So I’m a little slow on my homework for the week, but here goes…
My goals for this month are mainly psychological in nature. I’m on the never-ending quest (as we all are) to eliminate emotion from trading. To fight the urges of revenge, boredom, greed, sadness, and excitement, and be a purely methodical, disciplined, decisive, almost robotic like trader…never deviating from trading plans or risk management. So with that in mind I want to write up an almost mantra-like set of guidelines/reminders for myself that I WILL look over before every trading session. I will force myself to read these reminders out loud to myself so they are fresh in my mind. These reminders will consist of general wisdom, i.e. never risk more than 2% and don’t chase price, as well as bad habits to avoid, i.e. trading the LC session without proper planning just because price has shot up really far and exceeded ADR. I frequently look back on a bad day’s trading and say “Dang it Matt! Why did you do that same crap again.” Hopefully by proactively reminding myself to avoid certain tendencies before a specific situation arises, I’ll have some more success at controlling myself…
I still feel like a “new” trader, and I am, in that I’ve only been involved in forex for just over a year, but I’m tired of being range-bound with my equity. I strive to eliminate my poor habits which are ALWAYS what causes me to give back my gains. The more and more I get from ICT, the more and more I know the strategies I am putting into place are not the flawed part of my trading, its me.
So in addition to creating my “pre-trading review sheet,” I will be reading “The Millionaire Mindset” and “Think and Grow Rich,” I also plan on creating a more formal journal to record emotions and mindset of each trade…to this point I’ve really only been tracking hard data from my trades.
So that’s my plan. I still don’t know exactly how to use a journal recording my emotions in the sense that I don’t know what to do with it after I write things down. With hard data I can see which kill zones I’m the most successful with, or if trades in line with 4h MF or daily MF are more successful, but with an emotional journal it seems a bit hard to glean insight from. I already know if I’m upset, or tired, or seeking revenge for a losing trade I’m not as successful…How do you guys use this type of journal? Or is the value gained simply “in the moment,” being mindful and more aware of yourself?
Matty
Hey everyone. I don’t post on here very often. Forum phobia I guess 
I’ve been following the ICT threads for a year and a half or so and it awesome to see so many people doing so well. It’s inspiring. Well, frustrating sometimes because i’m not picking it up quite so quick but still inspiring 
I have definitely learned to be patient. I wasn’t patient at first but I am now.
Anyway, here are my objectives for this coming month:
.30 pips per week is my on going goal
.I want to learn how to use SMT better ( i"'ve kinda been ignoring this one :8: )
.I want to trade with higher time frame directional bias (easier in trending market but tricky in consolidations)
.I want to develop some sort of trade checklist or rules for entry (and exits for that matter)
Thats it. Thanks to everyone on here for all of your posts and inspiration
And thanks to ICT for…well for being Cool and sharing his life’s work with us 
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
I really feel like I am in the same situation. If I just eliminated the trades I took because of some psychological weakness (boredom/revenge are my main 2) then I would be profitable, and profitable enough to realize my dreams even! Like… the good side of me is a really good trader… and I am very proud that I can do it.
But the weak parts of me… I feel very ashamed and very angry about that side of me. And I fear it, because I can have 3,4,5 good weeks in a row, then the weaknesses come out and erase all that hard work. It’s very sad, but my conclusion is that I start to fail when I feel that I have “beaten” my weaknesses. I’m realizing now that you will never beat your weaknesses… there is no victory… just an ongoing quarantine, at best.
I am the weakest when my results look the strongest, I know this now. That is where I am focusing my energy these days… never letting my guard down, stricter discipline, consequences for giving into weakness. It really is like you must treat yourself like a small child at times.
and to all those on Demo accounts that discount the psychological aspect… oh are you in for a treat! 
I think I now have my goal after this trade that is now in profit (will show chart in a minute). I used to be great at picking tops and bottoms. Still good but I am now pulling the trigger to soon. I have reviewed my last few trades and some I have been a little late on some but thats fine risk was sound. The rest I fail to account for a accumulation phase. Once this happens I second guess myself and that price will not get to my level so I look to enter. The same as I preach to everyone not to do. It was a slap in the face to read this and look at my trades. I would rather miss a trade by 3 pips than lose one by 3 pips any day of the week being a one shot one kill shooter. This is my goal to work on. For an example I will post a chart of my trade on the daily since that is what I based it on. For those of you that did see it and seen how ict picks s/r levels, just take a look at where my stop is. Not only that look at the last few I have taken its the same. My stop is where I would normally put my entry. In fact price after benstankie did his deal today hit OTE to the exact pip. My stop was just a few pip above the price I have been waiting for for weeks. What the hell am I doing. Wow here the chart look at my stop for those that seen the webinar last night
Look at where my stop is and where my entry should be. I think my big issue here is lack of discipline. Being part time I seen that down move I drew my fib off in other charts I posted happen and could not short it. I dont chase price OK cudos I didnt. What did I do last week break every rule I had. Do you call that discipline? Sure its now BE but I said the price I was looking for almost a month ago on this thread and it hit it. I again should have lost. Sure I said what I wanted a long time ago but what does that mean if you dont stick to your guns when the time comes? Luck? you bet
yeah, this self-discipline thing is one hard nut to crack. I even feel like I have a lot of self-control in other areas of my life, but dangle some $$$ in front of my eyes and I turn into a ravenous dog.
You’re not alone, but don’t stop beating yourself up for mistakes like this, it’s good for you (i think)
just don’t put all your energy into making yourself feel bad, it does start to have diminishing returns if nothing goes towards fixing the problem
Hmm, i agree - or at least thats what the charts show…
Cable - Left
USDx - Middle
Fiber - Right
Cable posting higher highs with is failed to being reflected in the fiber (no higher highs) and the USDx (no lower lows)
Dow Jownes - Left
Nasdaq - Middle
S&P - Right
Nasdaq showed a higher high during the news release yesterday, failure to be shown in the Dow Jones or S&P…
I think we could see some possible sell off, short term or long term… who knows!
If we are changing tides, ill be sitting on my hands till we get confirmation in a bearish MF change and bearish market structure - as per my new rules!
:57:
Hey guys I’m not sure how this post is gonna go over but…piparush took down his video he said the CFTC contacted him to take it down…he said he was gonna give it to Michael…I wasn’t around last time this stuff went down so don’t beat me up if I’m not supposed to talk about it lol…I’ve read the thread but no one really talks about what happened…
didn’t know cftc has powers in Romania, lol?!!
…to me is down to posting it on PirateBay… everyone should know that this site is being blocked by ISP in most parts of the world (they couldnt find legal reasons to shut it down), due to US initiative of course (the ‘‘free country’’ n that)…
I only can open it via proxy
my 2 cents
Just to echo the emotional side of things with trading as that’s what I hope to improve on too over the course of time, I just hate being wrong and will question entries as they get closer to a good setup. At least I’m anticipating rather than reacting to trades now and it’s becoming more natural.
The Mark Douglas book is good, basically being aware of the intensity of your emotion when placing a trade as you can measure that as what you need to work on and overcome.
what is sometimes very hard to remember… if you can just do the same thing over and over, given the ADR or higher being printed commonly, you WILL get wins. Let’s assume that’s the easy part, and the real work is on eliminating those losers. So we put all of our energy into consistency and risk control, then we are pretty much in control of the risk (plus a required level of discipline), and free to let the wins come as they do.
that’s what makes it easy. problem though… doing the same thing over and over is actually really hard LOL
Very good posts from you and matty44, pretty much covers all emotions I’m going through as well
Couldn’t agree more on this statement! these superstars with the awesome demo results, dont know in the slightest how far they are from the cold reality… :46:
let me go through my recent demo trades… about 140 pips combined on shorting the gap on fiber and aussie this Sunday, then another 190 pips on tuesday (see the ‘‘Fib Projections’’ post)… wow! thats 330 pips in 48 hrs, I’m killing it, wowzers! oh, hang on, let me check my Real Account… hm, -3.6 pips for the week so far… not that awesome… why is that?! :33:
To ICT, I know these ‘‘Top Shot’’ honours are purely with entertaining purposes, but is somehow not fair putting demo trades on that list. to me it is equal to giving medals to Call of Duty top ranks alongside real war veterans… not comparable in the slightest… I know is encouraging for the new guys, but has the opposite effect to those putting the hard work for long time… because 5 pips in the live account worth whole lot more than 500 pips of monopoly money, imo.
cheers
Ah, consistency nirvana is the ultimate place to be and hopefully with time and practice…just maybe
Practice meaning I’m always involved in the market at key times, even without a trade setup as I anticipate where price might go being open to any possibility. The post-it note “What would Smart Money do.?” remains fixed on the monitor.
I couldn’t open it because it was in pirate bay, that site is blocked here in the UK, there probably is a way round it nut i’m not that clever lol
A question to the folks also analyzing bonds frequently:
Do you look only for the major divergences on a longer time period or also the shorter ones?
I use the following website for my analysis:
http://www.stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.html?$UST2Y,$UST5Y,$UST10Y,$UST30Y
If anyone knows a site with better charting (for free), I would appreciate it.
i’m looking at a possible buy on the fiber, OTE lines up with 1.2620, if you pull a fib from the low on tuesday up to the high on wednesday. its a key level and we are below central pivot on both fiber and cable. Waiting to see if there will be smt divergence between them… i’m scoped in and ready to pull the trigger…
in the works… expect link in 10-15 mins…
