Sorry I didn’t look at your pic in detail and thought you were referring to the swing low at 10.30 UK. Your pic is a bit hard to see details on and I’m very wary of clicking through to image sites as I got a really nasty virus from one last month.
That was a good call though,and bang on LO.I wasn’t really watching EU as it had made it’s ADR between UK midnight and NY midnight and so didn’t offer much/any more movement higher.In retrospect it was very likely to retrace down…one for the memory bank.
ICT was asking if everyone knew how to get the USD Index while we were in the live session the other day. I thought it was strange when I was the only one that replied yes, but I now realize he was talking about getting it as an overlay on MT4. If you have it on MT4 then you can add the ADR, and that is necessary for USDCHF scalps at LC. Does anyone know how to do that because I just can’t figure it out?
Hope I’m not hijacking here but I installed the pivotdailymacro.mq4 in the metatrader4/experts/indicators folder. Why do my pivot lines look nothing like the ones in the ICT videos?
I was asleep for this one, but had my chart set up basically looking for this setup so I can check it after work today. I drew a box on my chart right in the kill zone where I figured the numbers would line up for OTE with fibs drawn from a previous swing low. Looks like price would have exceeded my fib entry but no higher high means the trade would have been a hit. I hope this one made money for a few of you!
the PP’s are drawn using the prior days opening price, closing, high and low of the day. I click on the opening candle to get the opening price, closing candle to get the closing, etc since I have not found a better way of retrieving the data
Friday’s in general are not bad, although they do tend to slow down to a crawl after London Close. Just avoid the 1st Friday of the month since it is non-farm payroll, unless you like throwing the dice. I like to watch it since there can be some wild swings.
ICT requested emotional and psychological feedback…well here it is: I’m feeling quite drained tonight after sitting through a Fiber set-up that took me 93% of the way to my 1R TP, then took me 93% of the way to my SL, and finally ended the London Close time zone at BE. I tried to remain neutral in my emotions, but I think the strain of the latest losing streak is taking its toll and I don’t know whether to think it is a phase the market is going through, or whether I have lost some of my objective edge.
So, since going live at the start of this month I have traded 8 times, had 2 winners, 4 losers, and 2 break even trades. Compare that with my demo trades: 20 trades, 16 winners, 3 losers, and 1 break even. My success rate was 80% during demo, and has now sunk to 64%. It was so easy at the start…so many set-ups, most of them falling straight away from OTE. These days the set-ups seem few and far between, and they are just not working like they used to. Is it me, or is it the market?
It is not a money thing because as I have stated the amounts are still small and that has little bearing on how I feel. Having said that, there is emotion now because it feels like the consistency is falling by the wayside, and without consistency the dreams will also start to fade.
That’s an easy one to fix, darth. Your pivots are only showing for today. If you want to see the previous day’s, and the days before that, you need to change ‘ShowOnlyToday’ to false, and then it will be like ICT’s. You should also move your chart to the left so that you have some empty space to the right of your last candle. It’s easy to do on MT4, but I don’t believe your platform is MT4.
Goodluck!
EDIT: Duh! It must be MT4 if you have already managed to load the pivots! I should refrain from posting at 3am in the morning after a long day. There should be an icon at the top of the screen that shows a red arrow pointing to the left? Try that.
I am still going through the forum, and have read up to page 90. Found this post by Hordane that I thought was worth bringing current. I hope the attachment comes through in the quote, but if not you can find it on post 891 on page 90.
Sorry to hear you are having issues with the trading, but you have to remember that drawdowns are a part of the game. The markets are constantly changing, and no tool can work 100% of the time. Check out my last post with the ICT summary list in the quote attachment, might freshen up a few things in your head and get you back on the right track.
A losing trade brings you that much closer to the next winner
don’t worry about it one bit. I feel the exact same way you do. This seemed to be an extremely tough week, maybe 2 weeks. When is the last time you saw 100 PIP runs during the Asian session? I saw 2 days like that this week and never saw them before. Today seemes especially difficult to read market direction. After flailing on the Z day, it looked like today was shaping up the exact same way, then it changed. The large PIP run on the Cable came during NY Open instead of the LO. I definitely was not expecting it. Let’s just chalk it up to a new learning experience and start next week fresh- and with the hope that the charts will return to what we are used to seeing. This is also a good reminder to make only the best possible trades that ICT has taught us (which is what I’m still struggling with).
I did not post my results for a while. There are several reasons for that:
I dont trade exactly ICT methods anymore. Simply I realized that this scalping for 40-60 pips a week is not for me and I like much more swing trading.
I think the ICT material is not complete yet, so I decided to wait for the rest and then make some decision what to use and what fits to my personality, trading style and knowledge.
I believe that to blindly follow some “guru” is just a highway to hell :16: I like rather to use my own common sense.
So, what I did is that I went through my older methods and applied some ICT techniques on them…and results? Just one big surprise…
Since I started to trade ICT methods at the end of march, my account is up around 90% (lol, I hoped it can reach 100% this week, but yen pairs go nowhere). It’s been about two weeks since I applied some of Michael’s ideas and techniques to my older methods, the account is just growing and growing (more than +60% now just in 2 weeks period).
So my conclusion after almost two 2 months is…Hey Michael, your work is awesome. Dont stop and keep going. It is much appreciated.
P.S.: If it goes like this, it is like draining central banks legally every week
Ali, just forget it. Focus on the future, not on the past results. I think (from my own experience) that it is always like this when you go from demo to live or when you start to trade bigger account than you are comfortable with. You can always expect some drawdowns at the beginning, until you get back on track. It is just normal and there is no reason to go crazy because of string of losses.
Throw one or two computer screens out of a window or drink one or two six packs of your favourite beer and you will laugh at it
I have read through page 105 now, so the majority of my catching up is done! Gotta say it’s pretty cool to see a few of the consistent contributors to this forum working their way up with the ICT tools, really shows how useful they are for so many different people.
I have a question about the market flow, just want to be sure I am clear on what price action needs to do to consider market flow up, or down. In the picture, I have the fractal high and lows market by white dots on the bars. I have marked off with 2 red lines on the last 2 fractals. I am wondering if market flow is considered up as soon as the bottom fractal is marked, or does price have to break through the previous top fractal before it is considered up?
(This image isn’t the best because the bar after the reversal actually broke above the old pivot, but I think it still illustrates what my question is)
Absolutely right! The material is not yet complete and I should remind myself of that fact. I think I was lucky the first few months, and it gave me unrealistic expectations…in short I was spoilt. I think I’ll take your advice regarding the beer, but I am not ready to toss my monitor out of the window!
Congratulations on your success. It is definitely encouraging to see your growth curve because I am going through the same controlled drawdown that you obviously went through between April 15th and May 15th. The fact that you changed a few things around and then your growth curve shot through the roof leads me to believe that there is a fine line between success and failure. I definitely need to allow myself more time to gain the knowledge that you have acquired, and then that will allow me to determine if I am in a natural drawdown period, or the tools need some tweaking.
As soon as price breaks the most recent swing high, the market flow becomes up.
Good and detailed description of market flow can be found at Invest FX. Since I’m new here I can’t post links so type “invest fx market flow” in Google and click on first link.
market flow is up when price breaks above the most Recent fractal High
market flow is down when price breaks below the most Recent fractal Low
it can break those fractals by a single pip, and it will still change the definition of market flow!
it’s all about breaking the fractals, and nothing to do with forming them. fractal formations are in the realm of “market structure”.
i think that’s more than what you asked for but might as well go for the full monty! it is friday, after all…
Actually majority of my trading is about 50% retracement (If you ever studied or read something about economics, then you must know, that almost everything in macroeconomics is about equilibrium or mean value). I use this idea a lot in my trading (50%, central pivot, etc.). I apply the same rule to my growth curve as well. If the drawdown is above 50% of the most recent growth I dont pay too much attention and take it as natural phenomena.
If you look at equity curve, it looks very often like price chart. The same swings, momentum periods and declines.
Yes, before I even read your mail this afternoon I had decided to plot my equity curve using the data from all the LC trades. It defintely puts things in perspective. The start of the curve looks exactly like your recent equity curve, but then there is a 33% drop off that has occurred this last month. To think of it as a price chart definitely helps.
Regarding 50%…yes I know it is a key figure. Bell-shaped curves, normal distribution and all that. Prices distribute around the pivot which is why the buy and sell zones work effectively because price always comes back to the mean. There is either equilibrium or disequilibrium between buyers and sellers. It is interesting that you also apply it to your equity curve.
Well, I have started on the beer so probably best not to get into economics right now! The six-pack might not be necessary now that I have some perspective, but it can’t do any harm (famous last words!)
