Watching...and watching

I am a new trader-couple of months and a student of Online Trading Academy. Feel compelled to write here for a reality check on my experience…I spend a lot of time watching and not trading.

Taught just price actions fresh tests only so I mark my zones but inevitably I am looking for a drop to demand when price momentum is up for day or a rise into supply when price is falling…and so I just watch…at this 10+hrs a day starting 6am EST.
Any insights would be very much appreciated

Yes I think that OTA offers the best trading education I have been able to find. Supply and demand zones are the core of my trading as well. It is surely a definable and repeatable edge. Definitely screen time is important. As I have been gone at looking at bolting things on to supply and demand such as Price action confirmations and traditional technical analysis as “odds enhancers” has really begun to sink in. I wish you well on your journey and supply demand is amazing. I hope to share your journey with you and see your progress. Cheers and good pippin!!

thank you for your response–you were the only one, sigh.

feeling a bit better after my emotional crash and burn early this week. going back to the basics and removing some of the contradictory indicators i bolted onto my charts that only confused me with contradictory signals. now concentrating on where the better S/D zones are and staying out of the ranges so less whipsawing. started looking at other markets too such as treasuries and commodities which is giving me good macro confirmation of the primary trend.

what has been your big struggle and how have you overcome it?
thanks again and happy pippin!

Can I make a suggestion? The only price that really matters is the closing price…this is what longer term traders (not scalpers) are willing to hold trades at (overnight, or overweekend)…most people use the New York close. Also, I think screen time is really important, but not watching the price move around. That is worthless, spend your time backcharting, or studying patterns, breakouts, and how price action is working around certain levels (if you are focused on zones). Learning to recognize patterns that repeat themselves is a worthwhile expenditure of your time. Good luck!

Stop watching the charts. Set it and forget it. The more you watch it, the more you’re likely to deviate from your intended system. The majority of this process is mindset.

I think that putting in screen time is essential for a novice trader. First off you need to get a ‘feel’ for the price or the action that is occuring as it happens. There is no other way to get used to it other than watch price. Also i personally use a majority of limit orders however, this removes any time of confirmation on your trades. Only people who are extremely confidant in their trades and their system will probably be confortable doing that. As a novice its probably better for them to get some kind of confirmation or put the trade in manually and see what happens.

Again closing price is the only important price. Well all price is fractal so you have to say what closing price on 1H chart? well that’s mid candle on a 4H. Daily close? well you don’t have a lot of data points to trade from unless your going long term position trading. I believe that all prices are important, yes some are more important than others but it is relative to your strategy how you are breaking it down so you can apply it to your method. As back charting and simulation is good but its the same thing, just watching price except you can fast forward. I don’t see the fundamental difference there execpt saving time (which is always nice i actually do a lot of it myself). I have no idea what time frames she uses in her system. While daily TF might work for your position trading it might not be suitable for her system.

I am glad your are coming back strong. But the emotional crash and burn is not good although its something that happens to everyone at the beginning. My biggest struggle thus far that i have conquered or hopefully conquered anyway is having confidence in my system. As you know everything in OTA is very rule based. So i have back tested over a decade of information and determined i would have been profitable. So it is much easier for me to continue to have confidence in myself and my rules. But i am still trying to be more consistent trader. This is my next big hurdle.