The Inner Circle Trader's Millionaire Traders Guild

Trading Systems
1054

hahah trust me I don’t really have that patience either;)
I actually set limit orders several times this month and they either were never triggered or I forced myself to cancel them before price went near them (As I was trying to do One Shot One kill… but it seems the harder Im trying to catch the big moves, the more likely I watch that express leave without me… I need to find something between one shot one kill and 20 pips a day approach to fit my personality…)

If you look at the chart Ive posted you can see that I marked several areas with blue boxes and price actually really came to those areas shorty after (not every time but still not bad;))
If I had more confidence in my own analysis and would have entered in those 3 blue boxes where price moved into it… I could have easily bagged more than my monthly goal in the past 3 days… I’m happy to see my analysis improving, but my confidence in it needs to improve as well;)
“Should have”, “could have”, “would have”, doesn’t buy me that 5-10 hectare lot I wish to buy someday;)
the sooner I can tame those demons, the quicker I can work towards my (financial) goals…

I think I’ll stop for this week and do some self reflection… next week will be more opportunities to grab some pips;)

happy hunting y’all and have a great weekend!

cheers

1056

That unfolded perfectly. Did you close your entire/remaining position at 6210 manually?

I’ve found it often times advantageous to move your SL a pip or two away from your final TP (once price has moved slightly past it) instead of actually closing out your full position at your final TP. Unless, of course, you’re taking profits via limit orders because you won’t be around the charts. That way, if your SL gets hit, no worries - you had intended to take final TP at that level anyway. If it doesn’t get hit, the remaining position just carries on bringing in profits, and you can really stretch your gains without risking getting stopped out prior to your intended final TP level. Might be worth trying on a demo.

Nice catch.

1057

I think my month is pretty much over. Time for the results:

  • 3rd month live
  • 5 trades (3 wins, 2 losses)
  • +3.8%

My 6% to 8% target was not reached but I’m ok with that. The account now gets funded higher as planned. I believe this next month trading will put me to the test psychologically more than anything else. I will stick like crazy glue to my plan and do my best to focus on pips and not $ values.

1058

As a person who posts seldom on this thread just because I think you learn more from listening than u do from talking, today i am going to make an exception. I want to tell akeakamai and piphanger that they are not alone in there trading endeavers, i too am struggling with my trading I am down 40% on my account that i just started 3 months ago and yes i also have been working at this for a cupple of years. I know it can be discuraging it is for me as well, but i am far from giving up, however i am taking a little breake from trading and going back to the drawing board. If its not working then there must be something i am not getting so we start over and do it again untill it works. If it still dont work keep doing it again untill it does. As a person who has been around and have lost numerus bank accounts due to endeavers i have tried ,I am going to stay with this one because of all the things I have tried so far this is one that makes the most since. I think that for a person to keep putting them selfs through the stress it takes to make this work, a person has to have a good enough reason to want to do it. The way things are going there will be no retirement including SS for us in about 20 years not that old folks can live on the social security that they get now but if you think its bad now there will be non in 20 years. That in and of itsself is enough to make me want to secure a feuter for my self so that i wont be a burdon on my children in my older adge. My owne mother and father live in a broke down trailer that is falling apart because they cant aford to fix it and are to old to do anything with it and i am unable to help much because i also am broke most of the time and do not live close enough to help much. . My girlfriends father died and her mother had to move in with her sister because she couldnt aford to make the house payments on her ss alone and also because they lost all there money when the econamy went to crap in the 90’s. These are just some of the reasons i keep trying , I dont need to be a millioaire i just need to be able to be confortable when i get to old to work, so that i dont have to live in a broke down trailer, I already live in one of those I dont want to have to do it when im old. So if you fellas need a reason to keep trying then if for no other reason remember you too will get old one day and and although you might love them dearly you may not want to spend you dieing days living with your children or worse yet living in a broke down trailer.
John Patton.

1059

As I would not be available for trading today after 8 till 16 GMT, I had a market order of long the cable at 1.61764 at 7:42 GMT with my live account, bearing in mind that the market structure/flow is up trend, and set the TP at 1.6205, just under yesterday’s high, with SL at 1.61250 (I knew the RR was bad. I did realize when it breaks the previous day high, it normally reaches at least 127% in a trend and can normally reaches 200% in a strong trend. As I was away I made a very conserved bid). When I came back, I found I got 29 pips, perfect to end this week. :slight_smile:

The price nearly reached 200% so far (less than 2 pips), another example of the power of ICT’s projection. Lets see if it reaches 200% in a Friday afternoon eventually . :slight_smile:

update It maybe my lack of confidence other than a strategy of convervation that made me trade like this. :slight_smile:

1060

I don’t post very often as you can see by my post count. However, I really think that your focus is on the dream and not the process. You need to focus on climbing each step of the mountain and not focus on the reward of reaching the top. If you do that, you won’t be looking at that crumbling step and you’ll fall off the mountain, get my drift? Each step of the Forex journey must be taken very carefully and thoroughly. Emotions are the worst thing that can get in the way of a successful journey. Your dreams are big and you just want to hit that Forex jackpot. ICT has explained how this is poisonous thinking and you end up in the graveyard of the quick and the dead. Survive. Have capital that will just survive. Who cares about the profits? I know we’re in this to make money but it has to be about surviving first. Then, the profits can come.

These are just my two cents. I am taking the extremely patient approach. I’m learning and absorbing everything I can first. Knowledge is power. I haven’t even begun scratching the surface of how much the world of Forex has to offer but ICT is shaving YEARS off of mine and everyone’s learning curve. ICT can NOT teach you how to deal with your emotions. No one can. We can say “what” to do but, ultimately, it’s up to you to control your impulses and emotions.

1061

Trying to keep my trading relatively simple I am looking for divergence between USDX and E/U on a 1 hour chart.

Entry in the LO kill zone off of an OTE on the 5 minute chart.

Went long at 1.3165 with a stop at 1.3150 (10 pips under the swing low divergence)

TP1 (50% off) was 1.3180 (same 15 pips as my stop)
TP2 (25% off) was 1.3210 (top range of an earlier congestion area)
TP3 (Close Trade) was 1.3255 (Just under the previous days highs)

I have really cut down on the number of trades I am taking. My main strategy has been to note significant swing highs or lows on the 1H chart on both the USDX and E/U. Once a swing is penetrated by both pairs I simply delete the line and wait for another opportunity. However if I see divergence, I drill down to a 5M chart and try to nail a tight entry. I am trading only a few times a month at most now, but it is the first time I have been profitable trading.

Of ALL the ICT tools, the most beneficial has been his money management strategy. This really allows me to push the envelope with 2% trades and not feel the need to watch every tick on the chart.

Although I am not 100% up to date with this thread, I am catching up, and am maybe 10 pages back. I am seeing frustration from a few people. My advice would be to find one strategy that really suits you, and only trade that strategy. ICT has presented a lot of tools and strategies to us, to me it got overwhelming and although I am still studying and learning them, the divergence trading is suiting me really well right now until I do master the other teachings.

If you’re frustrated at the charts, step back and take some time away. Trading without a clear mind is only going to piss your equity away. Trust me, I know.

GLGT!

1062

That is an awesome first post bro! Truly sound advice :slight_smile: I would like the post if I was on my pc :wink:

1063

I don’t doubt at all you have the ability to crank out consistently steady work. If you haven’t chucked in the towel after 5 years of the kind of emotional obstacles you’ve obviously had to clear then you’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for.

If you think public accountability is the right way to go then that’s your call. But even after this amount of time it can still be an enormous amount of unecessary emotional pressure to place on yourself every week. That kind of exposure isn’t always a productive route to take.

The important thing to bear in mind is the only person you can’t kid is you, & you don’t need to hold up a public mirror on your activity to keep yourself honest.

It’s a pretty intense spotlight.

1064

This is my first ever post, but I’ve been lurking the forums for a while. First of all, wanted to thank ICT for all of his hard work - the material is absolute gold!

I was unfortunately one of those people who jumped right in with a large account and proceeded to get quickly decimated. Ugh. Glad I stumbled upon ICT’s material - I’m slowly starting to right the ship. Its tough though when you dig yourself a large hole ~ its always in the back of the mind that you need to make it up so the temptation is always there to take on more risk than you should. Controlling the emotions is definitely the key - I’m usually my own worst enemy. I’ll start getting the hang of things and make some profitable smart trades, and then I’ll undo it all with a stupid boneheaded over-leveraged trade that I’m to slow to exit for fear of loss. That is exactly what I did this week when I shorted cable on the negative GDP and double dip recession and didn’t exit when price turned immediately against me. It just has to reverse! dumb dumb dumb. Forex is definitely humbling - builds character :56:

So just wanted to give a shout out to ICT and all of the other posters here, it helps to know I’m not the only one going through the ups and downs.

While we’re on the topic ~ does anyone have any good strategies for controlling your impulses to overtrade and overleverage. I’m thinking I might do what others have and chronicle every trade. Even if know one but ever reads it, I’ll feel more accountable if everything is out there in the open rather than in some private trade journal I only half maintain.

Cheers and good luck!

1065

Hey Mooman,

What works for me in terms of not overtrading or diverting from the plan is pure and simple punishment :slight_smile:
Pick something that you want or have a target to achieve … could be anything … and this will basically be denied from you if you cannot complete a full month without screwing up. If you’re month is completed as expected … you get want you wanted … rewarded for doing well … and rinse repeat for the next month. Keep in mind that whatever target or reward you are aiming for has to mean quite a lot to you.

1067

I think I am in the same boat as you. 2nd Month Live +3.41%. I know I am trading more than 5 trades in 3 months and look at 5 or 6 pairs for major support and resistance. No clear favorites yet. I just let the market tell me what it’s going to do. Like the idea of increased funding, but I think I will get more support from the family if I wait until I hit 100% return. This by no means is discounting the fact that some guys here who have been blowing up their accounts. I have never done this unless you count a 50% drawn-down at a brokerage account before it started going the other direction. The same thing almost happened when I tried out a demo in Forex. I hope everyone can stick with it long enough to make it into profits. If not, maybe they should reconsidered how that approach trading. To me it’s just a big game of tug-of-war. There is always a loser and someone usually gets dragged into the mug pit. What really matters is you going “Rocky” on “Ivan” in a battle of will. Adrian!!

In all seriousness I try to listen more than I speak. So I hope everyone enjoyed the post… because really don’t have much to backup what I am saying other than showing the tools actually work. Therefore, I will keep the comments to minimum for now.

Cheers.

1068

I had a sizable drawdown in Feb & March. One thing that is helping me out a lot is cutting my risk % way down. I have been trading with 1/2% or less lately. The big returns won’t be there, but neither will the big losses. Fear of losing is a large enemy. Until you can get over your fear of losing, you won’t have the winning trades either. By risking a small amount I have been able to better keep my emotions in check, because it’s only a few bucks. Someone on this thread said a few months ago that as soon as you click that mouse, that money is no longer yours, consider it gone. Only put as much at risk as you are willing to lose. That has helped me out quite a bit. Set your SL and NEVER EVER EVER move it back or terminate it. You can move it towards BE, but never make your loss larger. With a SL, you can only lose so much, and with a small % at risk, it’s only a few bucks. Never think if you move your SL back, it will give it room to turn around. What will actually happen is you will lose more. How do I know this? Experience has shown me. If you lose a trade, shut your computer down, walk away, do anything you need to do to not enter a revenge trade, it never works. Again, experience has shown me this. Once you cool down, start over with your top down analysis. This time, because of your loss, you will see exactly where and why your analysis was off. Don’t trade the news, trade the price, the price has the news built into it. If Bernanke is about to speak, stay out of the market, he always makes people lose money!

That’s about as much as I can help because I am not quite out of the hole I have dug myself into, but this is what I’m doing to climb out

1069

[B]MT4 add text[/B]

Does anyone know if it’s possible to add a title to a chart.
I’m doing my weekly prep and have a few different charts with the same pair and time frame, but with Lines derived from different things (1 is old SR another come from fibs and so on).

Ideally I’d like to rename the tab to “GBPUSD SR”, failing that at least have a non moving title in the top left with the same text. At the moment I add text to the charts and have to move it every week as it scrolls away as the time passes.

I’ve searched but cannot find an answer, if anyone has an idea please let me know.

Thanks

1070

>>> Symbol Watermark With Timeframe, any good ???..

:41:

1072

I’d just thought i’d offer my two cents into how I trade ICT’s methods, I’m able to trade full time at any timezone so have the luxury and freedom to trade whenever, but in the past this lead to over-trading which caused a serious impact on my account. My breakthrough with ICT’s teachings wasnt really his excellent entries and exits he teaches, but his core concepts he talks about at the start of his video series. For any of you having trouble trading ICT’s methods I strongly advise you to watch the videos on risk management and trader psychology. Alot of us take this for granted as we rush to look for the holy grail of trading, forsaking the most important parts as a trader… consistency, it doesn’t matter if you make 100 pips one day only to lose 30 pips for the next 5 days, you still lose overall.

Anyways how I trade:
Goals: Look for 2 trades per day, one at london open, one at london close (these are the kill zones i’m most comfortable with)

Conditions: I only watch and analyze Cable and Fiber, I feel these two are more than sufficient to be a successful trader, as they are highly correlated and provided plentiful setups throughout the week. Any more that 2 pairs seems to distract me and this is counter productive for me. I only risk 1% of my account on every trade (once I get more confident in trading I will increase to 2% but never more than that)

Analysis: I spend about 1 hour thoroughly checking Fiber and Cable prior to london open, checking the asian range, adding new levels of support of resistances onto my chart (this is critical) then trying to anticipate what the market will do (based on higher time frames), I like to see where possible OTEs may arise for different times of the day, for example before london open I will look for a OTE at a support/resistance if there was a judas swing first (so I can get in sync with overall trend), and at london close I will once again look for a OTE support/resistance for a counter trend trade (london close strat).

How I enter: Once I have determined possible entry levels I setup an automatic entry point, i’m sure many of you are thinking that this is a newbie mistake, but I feel for me it helps my discipline. I can’t tell you how many times in the past I have accurately predicted a swing point to within a few pips and set a price entry point, only to have entered manually 10-15 pips before this price was hit. For now I will continue to ONLY use automatic entries until my discipline improves and I am able to enter manually without being so emotionally driven to enter early. If no automatic entry point is triggered then I do not enter any trade, there is no need to trade setups that are not optimal and this is a important lesson I have learned - even if you spend the whole day analyzing and you aren’t able to enter a trade, this doesn’t make you a bad trader it just makes you a disciplined one.

How I exit: I ALWAYS double tap, at 20-30 pips (depending on support/resistance levels) I will remove 50% of my position and set the remaining to break even. Right now I’m having trouble with leaving the remaining position on as long as possible (actually I am never able to leave a position open longer than 1 day, probably because in essence I am a day trader at heart) I would love to fix this if possible because I believe one day I’m going to miss out on a 300 pips winner :slight_smile: but for now closing athe majority of the position around london close (if I opened it at london open) has worked well for me.

Results:
In the past 2 weeks I’ve had 18wins and 5 losses coming to approx 350pips. It’s given me a huge confidence boost, and I must say there is nothing more satisfying than nailing a swing point to within several pips.

Just like to say a big Thank You to ICT, hopefully I’ll be able to catch you in chat soon :slight_smile: I’ve still got so many questions and so eager to learn!

I hope how I trade will be useful to some of you, I’m always open to suggestions on how I can improve my trading method.
And for those of you who haven’t had success with ICT’s methods don’t give up, he is the real deal! Try to catch him in chat if you’re having problems I’m sure he can give you some invaluable advise on how to improve your trading!

1073

Impress yourself with discipline… the rest of us will come in agreement as a result. There is your focus. :wink:

I know you can do it Aaron… focus on the process not the end result or weekly milemarkers in relationship to the larger picture.

[B]GLGT [/B]:57:

1074

You seen it… build on that victory. :slight_smile: Way to go!

1075

I think we need to examine are own learning style before we beat ourselves up when thing start going wrong in our trading. Its wasn’t until recently I discovered on a management course how many different learning styles there are and how it affects how we take in information and more importantly how we apply it.

The following link will give a better understanding of learning styles kolb’s learning styles, experiential learning theory, kolb’s learning styles inventory and diagram

My style is Converging /pragmatist

Also I am aware of the learning barriers in front of me as being mildly dyslexia and scoring high on the autism scale I can see why sometimes I miss interpret visual and verbal instructions.

That’s why this weekend I picked through a couple of ICT’s video’s and taken them apart bit by bit and examined what is being said and how the concepts are being applied. I have simulated this by going through my own charts and creating cheat sheets with screen shots from my own charts applying these concepts (Converging Style of learning).

I have also reset my charts to a mono chrome style avoiding all those garish colours that confuse and distract my eye during trading times (dyslexia). In making this simple adjustment patterns and now set-up’s jump out at me as before I had to take a second look.

I think some traders just hit the ground running totally getting most things they are being told and see but I feel a high percentage of us including myself have barriers in are learning process that lead to big draw downs and ultimately shredding our accounts. From now on rather than spending hours examining charts I am going to spend more time looking at myself.

1076

:35: So I feel rather foolish now. I’d been looking for that function for a while but ignored the T as the A was no use.

Changing the names of the tabs would be sweet, but this is a great improvement for now.