Malcik's Journal

[Malcik]

Hi all,

I've been a member of this forum for some time now. However, it's been long since I stopped visiting because (1) I figured that daytrading e-mini futures contracts suits me better than daytrading Forex and (2) because I finally understood that the way that 99% of people on this and similar forums take (and that I was trying to take over many months of active posting here) is all wrong.

As far as my experience in trading the e-mini futures. Since I left this forum about a year ago, I've been trying different approaches to trading the YM (mini-sized Dow Jones Industrial Average). After a few months (at the end of summer 2007) I figured that if there was anything that would EVER finally work for me, than it would be price action. After additional few months (in February 2008) I finally, for the first time in my life, arrived at a trading system that was profitable over the long run. The results are by no means spectacular, yet they are consistent and so far they've seemed to be robust and appliable to multiple markets (with slight changes, of course). And I have many ideas on further improvement. But I'm proceeding step by step. I'm not greedy. By spending many months on this forum, I figured that there are no shortcuts to learning how to find an edge in the markets.

Now why I'm writing this. Despite the fact that I have plenty to do with my daytrading of the YM (that is, practising the above mentioned improvements, adding more markets to my portfolio, and also practising self control, which is what really matters in trading), I figured that if I don't want to spend my life at the screen, I'm going to have to go to higher time frames some time in the future when I have built up enough of capital by daytrading the e-minis. This is going to take some time - two years, three years, maybe more - who knows. But since I know that learning how to trade anything (and higher time frames, too) takes time as well, I think it's good to start practising it on demo as soon as possible. And as soon as possible means now. I could stick with the e-minis and other futures even when trading the higher time frames but I picked Forex instead because of the incredible liquidity that I'm going to need when trading larger account in the future.

I will be posting all my trades in this journal. I have a good experience with journals because they help me be more consistent.

I want everyone to be aware of the following:

- I have never traded by price action on Forex. The strategy I will be using is something I just made up. It is very simple, I would say even stupid. I have no clue as to how it's going to work. Maybe I will lose all my demo capital. My goal for following weeks is just to try out a simple system as an experiment. As I said, I have up to few years of time, there's no need to rush. E-minis are giving me enough of excitement at this time.

- I will be using daily and hourly charts for most pairs. I look for Joe Ross's patterns, James16's pinbars, and bubble's turning points on daily charts and enter them using bubble's role reversal (usually). For this experiment, I'm just using 30-pip stop and 100-pip target.

- Because daytrading the e-minis and doing other important things in my life is time consuming, I sometimes miss trades. I will be posting them too. I have developed an ability to judge if I would have taken the signal or if I would have let it go. If I'm in doubt, I take the worse option. Please don't critisize these decisions in hindsight. I'm not trying to prove anything to you or sell anything to you. I'm doing all this for myself and I'm aware of any consequences.

- I will be glad if anyone wants to discuss my trades. However, PLEASE, DON'T MENTION SUCH THINGS AS INDICATORS OR EA'S. I DON'T USE INDICATORS, I DON'T USE EA'S. THEY ARE SOMETHING THAT CAN'T POSSIBLY BE USED TOGETHER WITH MY WAY OF VIEWING THE MARKETS. IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS THEM, DO IT ELSEWHERE OR START YOUR OWN THREAD. THANKS

Well, I hope that someone finds this interesting. Tonight I will post my first results.

[SIMBA]

Journal

Malcik,

Well done ,mate...

Glad to know that you found your niche with the ES and the YM...and,if this can help you,the Forex pair most similar to ES is GBPJPY.

I have a couple friendly suggestions,if you may want to ponder about them:

1-Explain what pattern you used for each trade you post,and what personal rules you think work better with the pattern,this way,besides posting a journal ,you will get more interesting feedback from forum members...If you already planned to do so,just discard this suggestion.

2-Try to limit the "hindsight" trades...they do not look well in hindsight ,if you lose an entry opportunity in a Forex pair because you were monitoring a live trade in the ES or YM..why not post your ES/YM trade?

Regards

Simba

[Malcik]

Hi Simba, my old friend, and thanks for posting It's great to hear from you again!

Thanks for the recommendations. I will explain everything and if I'm not in a hurry, I will post charts. But there's not going to be much of explaining because my point is to try out a simple, or even stupid, approach. I just see what the trend is, where the highs and lows are going and look for pin bars or simple pullbacks. I do this on daily charts, and then I try to enter on hourly chart on a S/R. With the exception of pin bars - those I play on breakout.

As far as the hindsight -- of course, I know that they should be as much limited as possible. There's a big difference in interpreting the past and the presence. However, over the months I've excercised the ability to interpret to what extent I'm able to see the patterns in real time. If the trade falls within this extent, I do it in hindsight. If not, I take the worse option.

Secondly, I'm not simulating my future trading, I'm just experimenting. I want to see how the system works, not how I work. I.e. I'm just gathering statistics. After some time, I will make improvements according to what I can see doesn't work and also according to better ability to perceive the Forex markets (that I haven't seen in a year) which esentially comes with time. This way I will arrive at a system. Next step is to learn how to trade it consistently. This way of separation between where the problem lies - whether it is in the system or in my head - has worked for me in the e-minis (so far).

If you want me to show some YM trades, I can certainly do it. But I will only show a few just as an example -- this is a Forex forum, not e-mini forum.

[Malcik]

OK, here are my today's trades.

EURUSD - role reversal. I wasn't present for this one, it would have been a break-even.

USDJPY - role reversal. Stop has been moved to break-even.

EURGBP - role reversal. I just entered it a few minutes ago. The stop and target are half the normal since EURGBP is extremely lazy pair.

EURAUD - role reversal. I wasn't present for this one, it would have been a 30-pip loss.

[BigJoe]

Smoking about PRICE ACTION :

And all of this, with alerts.

I read you don't want indis or expert on your thread, please forgive me, but i think it can helps.

INTRERPRETATION :

First, we have to wait the close of today, to see if we have effectively an IBS.

So what, we are at the 50 % retrace of the prior move, and we have an IBS, so the break of the IBS (UP or DOWN) will indicate us the next leg move.

IMHO (very noob on PA)

[AndreyOld]

VM Price Action

Big Joe, I have just one question to you. What means this indicator, how we can use it correctly. Pleas, explain me, if it isn't difficultly for you. Thanks.

Sorry for my English.