On the first page download the MT4 platform and under indicators "bill williams"you will see the fractals indicator…hope this helps.
Finally got caught up on the thread and the new videos. Thanks again ICT. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas. I will be posting my goals for 2012 soon, I am still planning some out but have quite a few things going on this new year and am very excited
You will see the smoothest silky Equity curves in your life! :13:
I don’t know if it’s coincidence or I’m becoming ICT by osmosis (I wish, lol) but I knocked the down to 1% then .5% in Oct after completely losing my way and head imploded but I was wondering how to get back to 2% in an orderly way and here’s the answer.
BTW taking risk down to .5% really does remove any stress or panic.
Exactley, I go back over those vids every now and again and then sudenly another little nugget will jump out at me.
I luv those vids especially the “Core Concepts”.
Wally
Any suggestions on how to handle risk on a $100 account? I know that will be one of my bigger challenges starting out with such a small amount of capital. I will already be maxed out with a lot size of .01 and a 20 pip SL.
Thanks
A lot-size of .01 is a micro-lot (1,000 units of currency). If that is your minimum trade size, you need to make a change.
Either ramp up the funding in your account dramatically (NOT the recommended course of action), or change to a nano-account (THIS is the way you should go).
With a nano-account, you can trade in increments of nano-lots (100 units of currency). Ten nano-lots = 1 micro-lot.
With a nano-account, you would not be limited to a 20-pip stop-loss. When appropriate, you could use a 25-pip, or 30-pip (or larger) stop-loss.
Also, with a nano-account, you would have flexibility in scaling out of your position (a highly recommended tactic).
Works like this:
• You enter a position with, say, 10 nano-lots, and a 20-pip stop-loss.
• Following ICT’s method, you scale out of 3 nano-lots (30% of your position) at +20 pips, and move your SL to break-even. At this point, you have taken profit on 30% of your position, and reduced your trade risk on the remaining 70% to zero. Your overall position cannot result in loss (barring some sort of catastrophic financial melt-down).
• Then you aim for a second TP level, where you scale out of an additional 4 nano-lots (40% of your position), and move your SL again, to somewhere between TP1 and TP2.
• Finally, you let the remaining 3 nano-lots (30%) run, hopefully to a third TP.
If I keep saying use Oanda everyone will think I’m on their payroll. LOL. But if you use that broker with $100 account you can size your trade so that you are not over leveraged. There may be other brokers that allow that but this is the one I use. An by the way I based my own 52 week projection based on a starting balance of $100
Thanks Clint, I thought a micro account was the smallest. I have an account with Alpari I’ll have to take a look at how they have their accounts set up again. Possibly need to change brokers. This has been bothering me for awhile
As from the start the Master is The Master! The quality of the stuff remains as ever. The apprentices and journeymen here keep it alive and challenging. Thank you all, looking forward to the next chapter.
Regarding the Equity Management Model spreadsheet ICT posted: it is similar to several versions of my own Dream Sheet I have come up with, minus the polish (me being just a hacker…). What I’m really interested in though is an actual trade-by-trade daily sheet; I have one that is continually morphing over time as I tweak it. I wonder how you all do that.
I currently track all the basics: entry/exit date time and price, SL/TP, expected /actual R/R and etc. I have columns for daily, weekly, monthly pips dollars and account percent gain/loss. Little used lately is a section for after trade analysis for tracking Maximum Favorable/Adverse Excursion (MFE, MAE) and Move After Close (MAC) for help in determining SL/TP optimization. Also little used is the account selector; it’s difficult to keep separate sheets all in sync for separate accounts so I combined them into one… also difficult! I could go on, hopefully you get the point.
I really would rather just trade! Are there 3rd party solutions to this problem? Is it a problem? Maybe I’m trying to track too much stuff? How do you do it, if at all…
ICT, I see you highlight the use of MT4 with Forex, LTD. If you don’t mind me asking, who do you actually trade live with? I am currently weighing brokers to see which one best fits my needs.
A top notch explanation as usual Clint.
Much appreciated.
ICT, I just want you to know that I both hate and love you for releasing that Judas Swing video.
Every single loss I have taken has been during the London Open. Every. Single. One. Looking back on my trades, I am seeing Judas swings. Judas swings everywhere. I was a chronic victim of it.
So, I hate you for taking so long to release it. I would have significantly more equity in my account if I had known about it sooner. I also love you for releasing it, because you have just given me a one-way ticket to profit-town. I am no longer afraid to trade London Open. I can’t wait to see what other goodies you’ve got in store for us!
I just contacted my broker now and they say I can change to a nano account. But I am with Gomarkets, not sure about alplari.
So maybe you should call your broker first before you make a change, perhaps they do offer it.
Thanks Talon, others on BP in past posts have recommended them also. I’ll take a look.
So, just watched the risk management video…first off, thank you very much Michael, another great video and I look forward to the rest of the Christmas vids. Now, it totally makes sense to me to reduce risk after losing in order to shield yourself from losing streaks (not enough sense for me to have done it in the past : ) but it of course is the way to go). BUT, my first thought is that doing this would result in some problems as far as building your account goes. Hopefully I’m just thinking about this wrong and someone can correct me.
So, I would like to be 60% accurate with my trades…now, if I risked 30 pips per trade, and took profits at 30 pips per trade (not completely accurate, but just go with me). After 10 trades, I would have made 180 pips and lost 120 pips, for a net total of 60 pips, a fine total for the week.
BUT if I had cut my risk in half after every loss, and I’m gonna use pips and not dollars for this example, four of my wins could follow losses and therefore be only 15 pip winners. Therefore, my net at the end of the week would be 120 pips gained (2 x 30 + 4 x15) and 120 pips lost, for a total of 0 pips, despite winning 60% of trades.
SO, it seems to me that your winning percentage has to be very good 70% or greater lets say, OR, you just have to count on netting a much greater amount of pips per win than per loss in order to be profitable. It makes more sense to me to cut your risk in half after 2 losses in a row in order to stop a slide in the wrong direction, instead of dropping down after EVERY loss. Cause lets say you were netting 60 pips per win and 30 per loss, but every win came after a loss. You have just cancelled out all of your winnings because you cut your risk on every trade after the loss. Now obviously you probably aren’t going to alternate winning and losing trades every day, but do you see my point?
Obviously your the pro ICT and have already developed a consistently profitable formula that you’ve used long term, and I have not. So what am I missing? Thanks in advance.
Matty
There’s your mistake.
The pips [B]will not change.[/B] The dollars [B]will.[/B]
If a 30-pip SL and a 30-pip TP are appropriate for the way you trade the ICT method, then don’t change either one.
Instead [B]change your position size.[/B] If you are trading a very small account, and your typical trade is 8 nano-lots, then cut your risk in half by cutting your position size to 4 nano-lots. If your string of losses continues, cut your position size to 2 nano-lots.
Don’t touch the other parameters of your trading — your analysis methods, your trade selection, your 30 pip SL, your 30 pip TP, etc. — [B]unless[/B] you have lost confidence in the ICT methodology, or in your implementation of it.
[B]If you have lost confidence[/B] in the ICT methodology, or in the way you are trading it, [B]stop trading altogether.[/B]
Don’t scale back your trading — [B]stop trading.[/B] You have a lot of forensic analysis ahead of you, to figure out where you went off the rails. And trading is the last thing you should be doing in that circumstance.
did you not see whats in the brackets exactly next to the download link?!?:
[I do not trade through them]
in fact, ICT mentioned somewhere long time ago, that he had rather negative experience with this company…
ICT also keep saying that he can not recommend any broker, everyone should do their own research, but if you watch his videos close enough, might find out what broker he uses :54:
hope this helps
:41:
Just remember that the number one goal of account building is a continuous series of equity highs… in other words an uptrending equity curve
That means implicitly that every hole you dig into your account, you will eventually have to climb out of. Climbing out of drawdown is boring and tedious and relatively unrewarding. You aren’t accomplishing new highs on your equity, and that lack of positive reinforcement might undermine your commitment to the process. If you dig nice shallow holes, you will have the luxury of strolling out of nice shallow holes…
Personally, I don’t see any harm in changing the rules to allow a 2 loss buffer. I mean you will either be happy with the results or not. The big NO-NO being pointed out is to avoid risking MORE after losses. This is the strongest urge for a vengeful trader… double up and go for broke. Even risking a consistent amount is better than this.
But just to summarize, let me put it this way:
What you are doing is drastically mitigating your inevitable losing streaks.
but… What are you doing to your [B]inevitable[/B] winning streaks?
great gem
once u mentioned KELLY’s formula before, i new there is something souped up in yr MM.
i liked when u openly admitted u hate losses. to b emotionally detached of winners and looser, i guess only computer can do that.
//some top managers probably can,when they dont trade their own money :-)//
once all vids are out,it will b THE COMPLETE GUIDE , really, the whole package
Is there a set/specified time frame for ICT’s 25 days of forexmas video’s?