Success means doing the same thing over and over

I do not post my winnings as much as I had in the past because I am doing the same thing I always do over and over again. I am in my office today which has my two screens. It surprised me how much easier it was for me to see my moves than on my lap top.

I did a PEAK play on REGN with a profit of $399.16 and a call on NFLX with a profit of $998.34.

I want to encourage each of you who are still looking for than 1 thing for a trade to work. Esignals and FP's/ HRFP's has worked very well for me and S/O. I have used these over and over and over and I have not lost a single trade in over a year. I do not trade at all if I do not have these signals.

If I have a HRFP on my 21 I look at my 34 and 55 to see if I have any resistance to prevent those charts from becoming HRFP's as well. If so I DO NOT ENTER THE TRADE! Resistance for me is (a) strong moving averages and (b) gap lines or (c) earnings dates.

Most all of my stocks are tech. I have a very few that are not. Most of my stocks have large volume. Most of my entries are around 10AM (give or take 10 - 15 minutes) Most of my exits are before noon. Please notice I said MOST not ALL.

I want to highly recommend a book for any of you who want "the secret" to success. Buy "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson. It is about $3. It has been one of the I mean one of THE most revealing positive books other than the Bible I have ever read. In this book he suggests other books. Highlight those and read them.

I was asked on a private message how my AAPL stock is doing. I am up a little over $10,000.00 on the stock. I sell 7 contracts every week and average between $90 - $150 per week.

BTW you may want to look at AAPL contracts if you like a few pennies spread. Just a hint there.

Now I am able to handle 2 - 3 trades a day. I usually am done before noon.

Our goal was to be debt free. We were the first year of trading. Believe me if we can do it.......so can you!

Very encouraging words. Thanks Darcy for posting that. I've been in a slump the last week or so :-) That's the summer time for ya I suppose. I'll see if I can find the book, and give it a read.

Darcy - would you mind giving your entry and exit points on your NFLX trade? I'm curious to know if they're in the same place as I would have entered and exited.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Like RR - I needed that!

I've read The Slight Edge - I loved it when I read it, but like anything, if you don't consistently apply the concepts, you might as well not even read it. I think I need to read it again... and work on my discipline.

Which version of the book did you guys read? The original 2005 release, or the "revised" edition?

RR....I read the original version 2005. It is a positive read on doing small things first that build into larger things. So far this year trading between $2,000 - $5,000 per trade (most trades run aout $3,000) S/O and I together have made over $350,000. Again I am not bragging but showing that by doing small things anyone can build into larger things.

I probably was the most negative person you could ever meet. If I had been responsible for inventing the light bulb we would probably still be using candles. I was all over the map. One day I would tell myself I could do this and the next day I was telling myself I couldn't. It took 4 years to beat that out of me and 4 more years to beat "The Slight Edge" into me. Nothing changes over night and nothing will change until you do. "The Slight Edge" is not a trading book it is a mind changing book. I have read this book many times just to get it inside my head. If I can change my thinking on how to think anyone can.

Dash I entered NFLX @ 9:46 - 9:52 off the 21 chart. If you look at the 8 chart you can see the pull back happening at that time. I generally put my orders in .05 to .10 lower than the option asks.
I exited NFLX about 11:21. It took a little time before I was sold out so I do not know the exact exit but I was out before 11:30. I bought 4 contracts.

About applying the concepts of "The Slight Edge"...mastering "The Slight Edge" is merely putting your foot on the right path. It is starting with small tiny baby steps that build. Buying 10 shares of AAPL when it was $35.00 and 10 each time it went down $1.00... eventually you'll own 100 shares. That's "The Slight Edge".

As quoted in "The Slight Edge" Confucius says..."Knowledge without practice is useless. Practice without knowledge is dangerous." The best way to becoming successful at trading is find what works for you and repeat that same step over and over and over and over and over etc. That's what S/O and I have done. We do not trade real money every day but we do PRACTICE every single day.

Spot on!!!

PRACTICE makes permanent and GOOD practice makes perfect!

Darcy:

Like the others here I very much appreciate your willingness to share. I have learned a great deal from you, Robert and Rookie30.

May I ask you a quick question about practice? I have been practicing two different ways;

(1) with the first I simply run a random day OnDemand on TOS and scan 4 grids I have setup with 12 5-min Echarts each to try to get my eyeball to spot moves as they develop, then check a separate grid I have with 55, 34 and 21 min charts to look for HRFP/FP then go to 8, 21, 10E grid while checking the DOW/VIX and bid/ask spreads, then watch the 10E with MFI, etc to gauge the move, trading options with my paper money account.

(2) the second I watch specific trades OnDemand that I already know the outcome, performing the same scan as above and paper trading.

My question to you: are either of these the way you "practice" or do you practice live with the market with paper money, or in and entirely different way.

Thanks again for everything. I hope someday one of here can repay your kindness somehow!


joe

Hey Spang67 (aka joe)

I use Qcharts so I can't say anything about TOS. S/O uses SD and if SD is ever gone he will go to Qcharts too.



My brother likes to buy and sell stock. That works for him and he is good at it but it is slower IMHO than options... but then it is less costly than options can be if you are wrong. For some reason he just didn't do well with options.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2015 01:00PM by Darcy2.

Darcy,

I must be missing some magic somewhere. After a string of success, I have been plagued with losses. Here is the checklist I am running before I enter an intraday trade.


[X]FatPitch or better on at least two charts. 55m 24m 21m
[X]E signal on the 10m chart.
[X]Spread less than 20 cent
[X]Pullback to at least 5M EMA
[X]and then bouncing away from it
[X]No really close support/resistance


This morning, I got all my points on BIDU to go down. I entered as it started to pull down from the 5M 8EMA... And then it took off going higher. What keeps you out of this BIDU put today?

Thanks!

Funkho,

I, too, am trying to use Darcy's system on an intraday day setup and saw a 34 min hrfp on BIDU this a.m.. What keep me from taking that put trade was an absents of the E signal on the 34 ( I believe that you need an E on the bigger charts). I opted instead to play calls on CELG. It had a hrfp and E on both the 21 and 34 and MF was pointing up. I made a quick .50 on the option.

I look forward to Darcy's input. I am sure that we will glean something from it.

funkho Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Darcy,

> FatPitch or better on at least two charts. 55m
> 24m 21m
> E signal on the 10m chart.
> Spread less than 20 cent
> Pullback to at least 5M EMA
> and then bouncing away from it
> No really close support/resistance
>
>
> This morning, I got all my points on BIDU to go
> down. I entered as it started to pull down from
> the 5M 8EMA... And then it took off going higher.
> What keeps you out of this BIDU put today?




funkho,

I did not trade anything on Wednesday. In fact I did other things Wednesday.S/O watched the charts. The release of the Fed Notes was enough to tell me the market would be fairly flat at least for the stocks I trade.

I am thinking you must be talking about either the open or according to the 5 chart with a pull back around 10:AM? I am guessing the time frame.

When I look at BIDU on 8/20 on the 55 chart on the first candle I do not see a HRFP or a FP. I see a candle signal on the 55 on the open. That candle is called a HAMMER which tells me to look for an up...see "The Market Makers Edge" page 148. When you see a candle like that after a down move and whether that candle is red or white expect an up move. There is no E signal on the 55. Your MACD stinks on the 55 too. Look at those almost non-existant "comb" lines. It is telling me there is very little interest in this stock at that time.

Looking at the 34 I do not see an E signal there either. Look at the candles on the 34. (I am looking at the first 2 candles) you have a red and a white and both are telling me the directio hasn't been decided yet. Not a very good sign there. Look at the MACD. It is also slightly showing that the trade is turning up.

Looking at the 21 that candle open pierced the Bollinger Band but the second candle still did not produce any E signal.

Looking at the 10 E chart the Money Flow is over sold. You have E forming but the MF is rotten. There is no trade there.

When I get a chart that looks like that I look at the 233 - Daily and when you look at the 233 - Daily there is no reason to trade this stock. It is flat.

My trade today was MON. I had room to move, had my E signal, had my ADX telling me the trend was strong and even the Daily and 233 told me the move would be down.

I left this trade when the candle started to pull away from the BB on the 10 chart. I made 23% S/O stayed in the trade and made twice what I did but he rode that thing down sideways and then down all day long. For me I like to get mine and move on.

Hope this helps.

Got The Slight Edge and read the first 50 pages today. Funny that I could have written the book and firmly believe in the concepts Olson presents but somehow they seem more inspiring when I read them as he has written.

Needs to be "used" ie. read, in a daily devotional-manner to be most effective in my opinion. I ordered the original paperback version for this purpose but am reading the electronic version of the new edition until it arrives. The new edition has an appendix of further reading from other "motivational" authors like Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Not sure if the 2005 edition does.

If you Google "The Slight Edge Slideshare" you will find other motivational presentations which may be useful as well. (I have no connection to Slideshare.net)

Practice More!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2014 01:39PM by Spang67.

Darcy - you opened this post by saying that you don't post your trades as much anymore because you do the same thing over and over again.

I would love to see your trades - even though it seems redundant to you. I like to see them to be able to study how you do them. It helps!

Dash, I agree. I also like to see the posts of her trades to study them also. It is so helpful!

DASH and TCB...

I'll give you some

Aug 5 @ 9:40 bought 50 contracts of the 94.50 Aug Puts Q's for .80 and sold @ 10:04 for 1.13.

Aug 7 @ 9:57 bought 3 contracts of the 440 Aug Calls NFLX for 9.40 and sold @ 2:12 for 13.55.

most recent

Aug 25 9:40 bought 7 contracts of the 195 Sept Puts WYNN for 4.90 and sold @ 1:13 for 5.85.

August is a hard month to make much in the market. S/O and I keep records of our trades on the sheets GW provided for us.I have trades I have made on these dates Aug 4th, 6th, 8th, 11th,14th, 15th, 19th, 21st, 22nd, 26th, 28th, 29th that range from $600 profit to $280 but they were slow because of the volume in the market. The big guys were taking their last summer vacation time.

I'll post some from time to time. S/O is teaching me to stay in my trades a little longer...but I am still a bit shaky on that..I like quick in and out make my buck and go do something else. He promised me if I lost some of the profit I had he'd pay the difference to my account. Can't lose there!

I think S/O said we made about $24,000 for August. We generally average $38,000 to $60,000 + a month. Low volume really makes for hard trading. I think that's is why S/O has wanted me to stay longer in my trade but I am still in today out today.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2014 09:02AM by Darcy2.

I have been going over all your past trades trying to get a feel for the E and such and I am sooo appreciative that you have been posting them here. It has helped tremendously and I have gotten out my candlestick book and went over the top 12 signals as you suggested. Can't say it has made a difference yet as I am still learning some of these, but I have printed pictures of what the trades should look like and it has helped. It has given me confidence to not give up as I have been doing this 6 years with little to show for it. Granted I am at home with my kids all day, but it is still doable. So I am very thankful. Today I did a practice on Tsla as my real trading hasn't been great so I reverted back to practice and that was a sweet trade. 2 practice contracts and got in at 9:49--didn't really wait for a pullback, but charts looked good and got out at 11:51. Sometimes the business of our schedule keeps me from getting in at the best times, but I was happy with the trade as I got 4 pts....Now if I could just duplicate this with real money I would be extremely happy..

I am glad you are being assisted in what I and S/O have learned. We had a good friend stop by last weekend and wanted to know how we were doing in our trading. He had moved away for 5 years and just recently came back. He had given up since he lost consistantly. We shared our E with him, helped him reset his charts, set his charts up to match S/O's. S/O told him "Do not trade unless you have E and even better with a FP and BEST with a HRFP". He traded WYNN the same day we did and called to tell us he made $780 following S/O's directions. It was the most he had ever made in any trade. Hopefully he will continueto follow the directions.

I still get out when the E starts going aganist me...5 xing the 10 on a small chart (like a 5 or 8). If I make $200 or $1,000 I don't care. The thing is I didn't lose any $'s. I know a lot of folks who would love to make $200 - $300 in an hour or two and be done with work for the rest of the day.
S/O, my gunslinger stays often because he says he can see more movement. He is trying to get me to stay...so we'll see. I still like getting out early which leaves me the rest of the day to do other things.

Darcy,

I have a quick question... Do you incorporate pullbacks into your play at all? For example, you get the E Sig on the 21m chart. Do you wait for a pullback on the 5m chart? A number of the plays that you have listed don't seem to have you entering on a pullback or after a pullback. Just wondering if you could elaborate on how pullbacks factor into your trade.

I went back and re-read this post: [www.researchtrade.com]

And it looks like maybe you're looking for pullbacks on the 3m chart, but are you entering ONLY after a pullback... Do you REQUIRE a pullback before you enter?

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2014 09:04AM by funkho.

Here is an example of what I'm seeing. I have a few extra EMA's on my chart, sorry if it looks like a lot of clutter.

[www.evernote.com]

I have annotated with blue arrows for everything I am looking at. I have my chart set this way so I can cycle through my basket and find plays like this. I would like to have entered this pretty early on, but there was no pullback on it, so I stayed out.

Hmm,

I also see in this post: [www.researchtrade.com]

That you're saying you enter when the 10 x 20 on the smaller chart.

Would you say that pullback doesn't matter as long as the 10x20?

I don't wait for pull backs unless the stock is way out of the Bollinger band. A stock the is way out of the Bollinger band on all charts can actually be a peak or slam so you can say that is playng the pullback. If you want to wait for a pullback you can use the 1, 3 or 5 chart for entry. Usually the 8 chart takes too long.

Generally my pullbacks are small as far as effecting the option. I have waited for pullbacks before and missed the trade (when I used the 8 chart) because the pullback happened so fast that by the time it came to enter the stock using the E signal, the charts moved to where I would have gotten out. Remember some pullbacks can last for hours or even a day or more depending on the size chart you use. Most of my trades last an hour or so. By doing it the way I do within the next day or two I can get the same signal in the same stock and trade it again rather than wait for a pullback.

What is interesting is how much or how often I have noticed the ask will go up while the bid remains the same so waiting would have affected the cost of the ask. That does affect the spread which affects the profit. This corrects itself within minutes when I have HRFP/FP and E on all charts. Volume in the stock helps a lot. This is why you need a small spread on the option.

Practice this first and watch what happens. When MF is moving and the ADX is going your way pullbacks for me have meant little.

Could you please share your work space if you are using Thinkorswim program ?

I do not use TOS I use qcharts