Finished for the week

I did 3 trades this week. 1 loss and 2 wins. I traded CF...bought 15 June Put contracts for 1.28 and sold them clearing $1,739.23 profit. I bought 90 (yes 90) WYNN $95 PUT contracts for .23 and sold them for $715.85 profit. I bought 5 MA June 415 CALLs and lost $380.16.

Total gain this week $2,074.92.

I did this using the 21 chart ONLY and the 5 for enterance. Oh and I was on the road as well. So it is there and we all can get there...every single one of us!

Darcy: how long has it taken you to get to this point? did you achieve choice completely on your own, or with some assistance from others who had achieved choice? i live in Colorado, and find that i am the only remaining individual still working at this, out of the small group that started several years ago. it would be nice to know firsthand what it takes to make this happen, from someone who appears to be making it happen.

Great Job, I'm struggling with it but hopefully will get there to do trades like that. Thanks for the encouraging trades.

I am hanging in there as well. This is by far the toughest, most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. I refuse to be defeated! Being defeated is simply not one of my options. I hit one brick wall after the other. When I think I have some things going in my direction, I get slammed down again. Unfortunately, I am near the end of my practice year. I started in August of last year. The Fall/Winter was a great time to learn and have some success, but this trading zone has beaten the guts out of me. If I have the same success as I had last year during the fall/winter, I will omit trading the summer and simply practice, until I figure it out.

I am not sure if I should be using the 55, 34, or 21 as decision chart. I am not sure if I should be using 5, 8, or 21 as the action. The Fall/Winter charts are obvious. I only buy call and puts. I am one of the broke ones, starting with $2500 in a few months. I am not as bad as I sound, but I do not know how to gain success in the summer. I study this hours each day. I practice as well. I pray that it "comes to me". Sorry to whine, but this zone has been kicking the living crapp out of me..... Thanks for being my sounding board.

rabbit, I have been trading/ investing since 2004 using strictly Garys rules. I have had retirement choice for roughly 2 years. Use of the charts in the summer trading zone is pretty simple, if the stock you are trading isn't giving you a entry on the 55min go to the 34 and see what that chart looks like if not there go to the next chart. Remember pay close attention to your indicators looking for overbougt and oversold conditions. I still like to use a 55 min chart whenever I can simply because it isn't as app to send out fake moves. I replied to your post simply because the beginning of your trading sounded alot like mine. I wish you the very best in your trading/ investing, sounds like with your no quit clause you are well on the road to success.

DSA,
Thank you very much. This is by far the toughest thing I have ever done, and I get so frustrated, but I love the challenges that are presented daily. I have settled down and and focused on 4 stocks that I watch consistently. Today was better than any day since I have been trading. I made excellent entries and exits. Well, my exits were based on being "Happy in Seattle". There were no indicators that signaled exiting, but I needed a few good trades. Ironically, I have focused on the 55 as decision and 233 as trend, and occasionally I have used the 34 for decision. This approach has gone very well for me.

I am really inspired by people like yourself. You have found a way to gain retirement choice through this business. My goal is to trade for a living and eventually have retirement choice. Mediocracy is simply not an option for me. I want to become a good trader who can provide support and guidance for others as you guys have done for me.

Thanks again,
Rabbit

I just noticed that one of my feeds is rookie and the other is rabbit. Well, both are me. I had issues logging in, so I thought it would work best to simply change my login information. I will just address myself as rookie-since that is the title I have chosen for the new login.

Sorry guys!!

I know it is early and market watching/trading is in full swing. I have had another day of good decision making. I have only focused on getting 1 to 3 bucks and out. I played CF this morning and got 3 buck very fast, so I was out. I also played CRM and got 3 bucks really fast. Apple headfaked me this morning, so I lost about $100 bucks of practice money on that play. I broke even with NVDA. I will only tolerate what i can stomach for now. If that means pinpointing good entries and if it moves in my direction, I stay until i am Happy I S. If it turns against me, I am out before I lose the farm. I gained about $450 dollar and lost $100 of it. Not a great day, but for me and this summer trading period, it was pretty good. I turned a profit. Again, I could have held onto my winners and profitted twice as much, but I need to continue getting gains, until my confidence rises. In a week or so, i will be ready to hold on for a few candles, but until then, I will be content with winners. As Gary would say, "I am going fishing". Well, I am going virtual fishing because I still have a job and a BOSS!!!! Good luck and I hope everyone trade well today.

Rookie/Rabbit

Mecave,

I started taking Gary’s class in July 2004. It took me 5 years to get to the point where I would break about even….HONEST! I lost my basket twice….all of it by not following the rules. In 2009 after being sick and tired of losing my entire basket I decided each time I lost money I could not trade live again until I made 10 trades in a row correct on the virtual end. I also laid the rule down on myself that whatever I lost I had to repay to my account before I could trade again. I found that this helped me get out of losing trades far more quickly and remain in the winners longer. It was when I actually SAW real money passing from my left hand to my right that I realized I couldn’t say I was going to PLAY the market. I had to realize that I was trading the market…TRADING…not keeping…T-R-A-D-I-N-G!!!

I have achieved this on my own. Only after I had reached this point has others in Gary’s 1-5 asked me questions about how I got to this point. Believe me it was through blood, sweat and tears and a few screams at myself…I call that DBS (Darcy being stupid)

I read every single one of Gary’s books on his book list. I put a check mark beside the books that I really got something out of and re-read them many times until they sunk in. Remember however not one book has all your answers.
I only do class 1-5 in trading and am practicing the widows and orphans/printing press.
I have not attended any of Gary’s new classes that I am notified of.

It takes patience, practice and study. I would get up early and go to bed late. I work as well but I am lucky because my jobs are home-based. Yes I said JOBS…I have 2 of them. One gives me a weekly income and the other is TRADING! TRADING is a JOB! I have CNBC on TV in my home office but most of the time it is on mute or so low I can’t hear it. I have found the talking heads simply mess my thinking up. Sometimes I do not finish my day until 10 or 11 PM. I start my day at 6:00 AM. Honestly there are some days I do not even look at my charts or listen to the market. I will take a total break and watch a movie. That happens when everything I look at... looks crazy (un-readable).

I NEVER trade unless I feel positive about my buy…NEVER.

I do not trade with others. I tried this once and found others knew no more than I did. They were simply taking pot-shots and hoping they were right. You learn this when you ask them WHY they traded WXYZ and they can’t answer. I do now have 2 others I talk to about once a week and 1 who is my spouse. We simply talk about what we traded and why. I do not talk with anyone who has not taken Gary’s 1-5. I made that my hard and fast rule. I figure if Gary spent his energy and time teaching all these classes he deserves the money he makes from teaching them and doesn’t need anyone under cutting his efforts. These folks I talk with are family and I know first hand they took 1-5 with me and they went no further than Advance Class.

My suggestions are:

Find 5 stocks that move well...and study those MOVES until you know them so well YOU COULD BE THE NEXT CEO! I am not saying study the stock I am saying study the stocks moves. When does it move best? Morning, noon, afternoon? Before earnings, after earnings? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? What zone is best for that stock? Does it move at least $2.00 a day? If not why are you looking at it in the first place?

Read books on trading. I liked "Technical Analysis for Dummies".

Go to sites that offer helpful information: Youtube helped me figure some things out, Investopedia.com has tons of information, of course you are in a good spot with RTT, and [www.inthemoneystocks.com] is another good info spot. DO NOT PAY FOR ANY THING AT ANY SITE. Use these in conjunction with Gary's 1-5 information.


Find out which zone you do the best in and do the bulk of your trading in that zone. I also have found I do best in the Transitional Zone than any of the other zones.

Keep the book on Gary's list "THE MARKET MAKERS'S EDGE" beside you all the time. I use it often and use the Chapter about candle signals a lot.

Listen to Gary's 1-5 CD's until you can't stand his voice any more.

And IF you can... get a computer with 2 large screens to run nothing but your charts on. I have done better when I got a computer for nothing but charts with 2 - 22" screens and another for my 2 jobs.

My final suggestion is NEVER GIVE UP!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2012 02:12PM by Darcy.

I agree DSA. I use the 21 chart for my trades the 55 for direction and the 5 sometimes 8 for entry. I still look at the Daily for the trend. But I am in and out almost daily with sort of market. Although I can see sometimes if I had remained in my trade I would have made more. I stopped the "buck up and out" last year.

I use Gary's charts but I also use my 21 chart with only 3 different moving averages (5, 10, and 20) and money flow. I have this set up on a separate chart next to Gary's 21 chart.

Congrats on the retirement choice. I will never retire although I have that choice. I love both my jobs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2012 09:33AM by Darcy.

As I have stated before, I am approaching my 1 year of trading. It is embarrassing for me to admit this, but I was one of those hard headed students. I did well in the fall, so I started trading real money in the winter. Well, as you can probably expect, I lost my entire basket when the transitional trading zone started. I started with $2500 in early December. I built my account to nearly $8000 by late February. By the beginning of April, I had lost it ALL. That was the most painful, embarrassing experience I have ever faced. I can not blame anyone but myself. Gary stated over and over again, practice for a year. I thought I was an exception to the rule because I was studying and practicing a ton. I saw the money slowly leave my account. I was making one bad trade after the other. I had gotten greedy and wanted more and more and more. This market will have a grown man "squealing like a pig", if you do not follow the rules. I almost quit, but unlike some others, I could not blame Gary, his teachings, charts, markets, or anyone or anything else. I have responded to every blog I can find that bash or demean Wall Street Basics. I really let them have it! Most of these folks are too lazy to work hard, so they blame everyone else for their short-comings. It was my fault that I lost my basket. My fault-ONLY! The rules are clear and precise-especially if you read the books as well. Most people are simply not willing to put the kind of work in to see the other side. After I had my pity party and my visit to the "Deep Woods". I was re-energized. I go to the woods for stress relief and solitude.

I have identified my 5 expert stocks. I have two that I trade often and do well with them. The other three are my stocks to study more before trading a lot. The two I really like are CF and CRM. I also have NVDA, SBUX, and AAPL.

As a new trader who has practiced for a year, I have learned:

Never trade against the market- unless it turns and is clearly coming my way. For an example: If the DOW opens and quickly goes down 80 points, but by 11:00 it has clearly turned and is only down 20 points. I will then consider buying calls (if everything lines up). I do not consider that as totally trading against the market.

If the DOW and NAS are going against each other, I generally do not trade.

When I close a trade, I am done for that day. I shut it down whether it was a gain or loss. I do not go back in- unless I am in the fall/winter zone, and it is only for the AM Pop (but not for a trade that day).

Once my loss tolerance amount is reached, I AM OUT!

One I am "HAPPY IN SEATTLE", I AM OUT!

I do not allow greed to control my emotions.

I never enter a trade, if I am afraid. I am confident and trust my reasearch and ability.

I do not want to ever lose my basket again. I will practice as long as I need too. Fall/Winter trading is a little more stabilized and easier to trade for me (if there is a such thing). I will enter the transitional/summer zone with extreme caution. I will practice those zones more before I start trading real money. Again, I appreciate the help and guidance from some of you veterans.

Rookie/Rabbit

rookie said:

"If the DOW and NAS are going against each other, I generally do not trade.”

I do not ever trade a mixed market. I do not care if every stock is down or up… I never trade a mixed market. I have lost more $'s trading a mixed market I think than there are stocks in the entire market.

I love to see a GAP. I hate to see multiple GAPS within days of each other. It makes figuring out the support and resistance difficult. I depend a lot on support and resistance and gaps are really great at assisting in finding those. I never trade the first candle on any gap. I almost always wait for the pull back. Sometimes I miss great trades that way. I have on occasion traded peaks and slams off gaps but every single signal has to be there or no trade for me. If you pull up CF for yesterday and look at the gap on the open you will see a Peak play off good news. Not a bad day...

Losing is part of trading.

Losing is part of the education.

Losing tiny is the goal.

Darcy,
It is good to hear that you never trade a mixed market. I am typically not as confident when placing a trade in a mixed market-although the market has clearly have turned in my direction.

I am replicating one of your practices that I think is really good. I am going for 10 consecutive winning trades. I think that is an excellent approach to learning to trade well. If I can not string 10 together, I will not use real money, until I can comfortably reach that goal. That is a little pressure, but it forces me to make certain that my entry is good and my exit is for a profit.

I had an excellent trade this morning on CF. Each evening/night, I study, but pull up my charts and draw resistance and support lines on my expert stocks. If my resistance or support line is broken, the stock is clearly going in the direction with the market, news supports my trade (up or down),and other technical indicators are signaling a trade, I enter. It was obvious that CF was going to run up today after the open. I entered during a period that was risky (amatuer hour), but I had done and extensive amount of study and research on this stock. I knew it was going to continue on the rise and probably pull back a little. I wanted the little pop after the open. It opened up about $3 up, so I knew jumped in and picked up about $2 by 9:45. I was very happy with that and got out. I shut down my laptop and took it to my car. I was not going to be tempted to go back in. I feel good about making that decision. The only reason I did not go back in was because I WANT MY 10 POSITIVE TRADES! If I can develop that level of discipline, I feel I should be a pretty good trader.

I am totally lost regarding GAPS. I hear Gary talking about GAPS on 2-5 and I hear about GAPS as I listen to the Denny's sessions, but I am still lost. I hope to run accross one of the books that will help me better understand their significance.

Darcy, thank you for all your excellent suggestions. I have been practicing a long time. This seems a rather stupid question but how do you figure out why trades aren't working. I will do a bunch of trades and try to compare the ones that work with the ones that don't work. I look at the indicators, the trend, the candle patterns/reversal signal, etc. I can look back on a few and say this one was completely stupid but in general I can't figure out why the trades didn't work. Obviously, I must be making the same mistakes over and over but I can't figure out what exactly I'm doing wrong--why some trades work and some don't. The smallest chart I can trade is the 233 so I also have to look at a lot of stocks to find practice plays. In the past, I've tried focusing on less stocks but am waiting around too long to find a play. Appreciate anyone's insight into this analysis process.

Lastly, Darcy if you were trading on the 233, would you still use the money flow index on the 21 chart? Thanks!

rookie,

Go to Investopedia.....they have one of the best information sites on Gaps I have yet to read or see. Today (June 27) if you look at CF on the 21 chart you will see an exhaustion gap. It is as clear to see as anything I have ever seen. An exhaustion gap closes the gap but then will return to the direction the stock had been traveling. Exactly what CF did today. As you look at those Gaps see how on each opening gap the candles and the volume grew smaller. That let you know the interest in CF was waning. CF popped on good news...an up grade to $200. Also check out youtube for information on Gaps. You would be surprised how much it helps…I was.

erica1016
First let me say I am by no means an expert. I do not claim to be. I am only sharing with fellow traders what I do.

Second let me say I don’t think ANY question is ever stupid. Let me tell you about my first practice trade! It is so funny…I still can’t believe I did such a thing. Anyway I was going to play a Call. I wanted to get my option cheap and I really did. I was so excited. I bought when the spread was only 5¢ apart. Problem was I bought at the ask which was a nickel and the bid was zero! Talk about uninformed!

Third about your question. If you are saying the 233 is the only chart you can use then I would suggest not trading until the Fall Winter Zone. Entry points are key to a great trade and those happen on the smaller charts. So in a slower market you would do better with larger charts...fast market fast charts.

This would be my thought if you can’t use a small chart to enter a trade then you are trading blind off the 233 with no idea if your stock is going to pull back before going in the direction of your trade. Smaller charts will tell you that. Because of my small charts I have held my finger back from pushing the button to buy. I could see the stock was overbought or oversold, or that my directional movement was totally diverted. I needed a pull back.

I use currently the 55 chart mostly for my trend because of this crazy market. Sometimes I peek at the Daily but not often. I buy and sell off my 21 using only a 5, 10 and 20 moving average. I do compare it to Gary’s 21 chart and at times because I did; I did not trade because I could see the resistance on Gary’s 21 rather than mine. I use a 5 and sometimes 8 for my entry point.

Now if you are saying you use the 233 for a trend and you can see the small charts then I would say you need to start including support and resistance on your small charts. Go back and look at your 20 moving average. It is a great support or resistance tool. If you do not have a 10 moving average on ALL your charts PUT ONE ON. This is the main average market makers look at…but then we should all know this because it is in one of Gary’s “Must read book lists”. Finally how lucrative are your stocks to news? And if you can’t hear the news perhaps these are stocks you should stay away from. When you are trading your stock are you far from earnings, close to earnings, has a warning been issued on that stock, is it in negotiations to be bought or is it buying another company?

Let me share with you that hind site is perfect…foresight is not.

As far as money flow on the 21 if I were using the 233…nope I would use money flow on the chart I trade on.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2012 03:50PM by Darcy.

Thank you for sharing so much, Darcy! You are very kind and giving.
In your own 21 minute chart, do you use all sessions or just the 21 minute chart??

tradergirl,

I only use all sessions on my futures. I do not use my 21 chart (I call it my moving average chart) on the futures.

I use the 1,5,or 8 for my entry. I look at the moving averages on these charts giving the 20 moving average as the strongest support or resistance.

If you need another way to find support and resistance other than gaps, which for me is equal to the moving averages, turn your candles to a line and take your extended line on your chart; click it somewhere on your chart away from the line graph. Then clone it and drag it under the majority of tips on a down move or on the majority of tips of an up move. Two matching tips is a support or resistance but a little weaker than 3 or more. Then change your chart back to candles. You will see the support or resistance. In other words when you change your chart to a line and if it looks like this WWWWWWW that bottom would be support and the top would be resistance,

The line chart is also the best way to find head and shoulders patterns. This technique was found in one of the books on Gary’s suggested reading list. I can't stress enough the advantage of reading his suggested reading list.

Darcy,

Awesome exampe of clearly seeing a Gap being filled and traveling back in the same direction. I will do more studying and research on Gaps. I am learning so much more as you not only share with me, but also others. I have been trading primarily from off my 55, but the runs are short, so pinpointing an exit point has been a little difficult. I will spend a little more time looking at smaller charts. A friend of mine who has been trading for 7 years (all under GW Program), trades off the 55 basically all year. He also uses the 34 as entry. I tried it, but simply did not work for me. The 34 does not give me enough precision. He feels the small charts are to busy and noisy for him. He also trades very, very large positions on stocks only-no options. He uses his stock purchases very similar to our use of option trades. Let me explain. He buys 1000 shares of Apple and sells it within a day, two, or maybe a week- depending on the trading zone. He trades Apple 90% of the time. He knows that stock as well as any one in the country. He does not miss often. It is not uncommon for him to make 20K in 24hrs. as he dips in and out of Apple several times a week (not Gary's teaching). He is my mentor, but he simply knows very, very little about options. This is why I wade through this process. He believes in and feels he practices Garys rules- all of them! Who am I too say anything to a man who studied GW for years and now makes about one-half a mil a year.

I am learning a lot from this Forum that he is not able to teach me. My point ot all of this is, I am finding that I must use bits and peices from people who are making this work, read and understand the the wealth of information in the books, and develop our unique style of doing this. For those of us who are fairly new, we will get there. We must continue to be sponges and never give up. Throwing in the towel is not an option!!