Canaccord Share Discussion Threads

[henryatkin] 09/6/2008 21:47

X ... never say never. tema/dema very simmilar results on 32 period as 20x20+4 so no point in using both at the same time. I try to diversify the strategies as much as possible but in its simplist form that could be a long moving average to capture the longer trends with a shorter moving average to capture the shorter trends - they would both have good and bad days but the average day should be fair. I do keep dema and tema loaded all the time though and will probably investigate shorter periods. My priority now is looking for additional "when not to trade" indicators.

[fivesboy] 09/6/2008 21:42

Just what I was thinking XanBea! DEMA / TEMA is my favourite of your indicators.

Thanks for the post Henry. My sheet is very similar. I also try and keep notes about how the trade went also but it's hard if you're doing a lot of them. I like the strategy on emotional freedom. I guess you would have a reasonable inkling how you're doing even if you're not keeping a running tally. I must admit though that when I have a bad day, being aware of how bad it is does make pulling the trigger a lot harder.

[xanbea] 09/6/2008 20:41

Hi Henry

No mention of dema/tema there - are you not using this any more?

[henryatkin] 09/6/2008 14:39

Fives .... not the best of days for me but still very profitable , which is the main thing. I didn't have time to sort out an email over the weekend but I have designed a new trading book for entering my trades. I have six columns: 1.Strategy - ie trend lines from CCI chart and/or the SMI chart.
OR 20x20+4
OR breakouts/price action
OR CCI fast trend strategy
2. Entry Price
3. Time of entry
4. Closing price
5. Time of closing
6. Profit/loss ..... I do not fill this in until the end of the day so I never know how well I am doing untill the day is over. This is a big relief of emotional stress. Especially if you know from memory that you got off to a good early day start.

So early trading today reading from left to right:

Trends. 5895 long. 0801. 5914. 0811
Price action. 5895 long. 08.01. 5908. 0806
20/20. 5895 long. 0811. 5893. 0818
Price action. 5912 long. 0807. 5914. 0811
Trend. 5914 short. 0811. 5897. 0822
Price action. 5914 short. 0811. 5897. 0822.

I carry on like that not knowing the running totals. I keep adjusting my settings where I think it may make life easier of get better results but I always keep three strategies on the go in any trading session. So If I want to try something new I will keep two of my original strategies and try an alternative or modification as the third one. The latest thing I am looking at is adjusting the blue horizontal lines of the CCI and SMI to see if I can find a better indicator to tell me when not to trade. I think this fine tuning and finding out what works in what markets will go on forever - a continuous learning process. Even finding out what dosen't work is worth its weight in gold. The joy of this is that I can't remember my last loosing day so whatever happens in the markets it seems you can still make money on a daily basis so long as you diverify trading strategies.

[fivesboy] 09/6/2008 11:17

Hi Henry, Been celebrating my 40th. Things going nicely today. Quite clear signals and not many 20 period consolidations. How do you read breakouts when they are less than 10 periods, i.e potential false breakouts? Interested to note your reply to me last week and additional posts, it is clear you adapt your settings very quickly. How do you feel confident that the changes you make will work or is it very much trial and error / experience built up over the six month paper trading? Finally, the emotional banishment sounds intriguing. Did you send anything on this?

Sorry to ask so many questions but loving learning about all this. Absolutely fascinating.

[minky] 08/6/2008 06:17

Henry, will look forward to that as it will answer a post I placed earlier about how to trade setup with CCI but did not find a reply.

[henryatkin] 06/6/2008 20:13

Smarm .... doing very well thanx. Refinements progressing to attempt best spread of diversification in order to catch all types of market conditions. Latest thinking is one MA position (combined 20/20 with CCI), one CCI/SMI/Price charts trends position and one price action position. I have also refined an effort free way to make emotions a thing of the past. Will reveal all.

[smarm] 06/6/2008 13:39

henry - your setup looks great on crude oil using 60 min chart. In last night around 17:00 and firmly still in the trade. Not that I took it but the trade is there.

How's things?

S

[henryatkin] 05/6/2008 20:56

As for leeway I rely on 3+1 and/or 8MA to tell me. After that the trend line and finally price breakout above/below the high?low of the previous two candles. Depends how many strategies I am running but any combination of two from three of the above keeps me fairly tight from serious losses. My biggest loss today was 7 points on a 20/20 trade which is always the biggest risk/reward. At the same time the other two strategies made 32 points so no emotional issues with the loss. I seldom loose that much on a trade.

[henryatkin] 05/6/2008 20:44

Fives .... I did as I always trade the first trends between 08.00 and 09.00. Times a bit flexible but for the first hour I use trend lines, low moving average such as 3+1 or 8 and the first SMI reversal. So this morning I went long 08.01 and lost a few points before reversing the trades by closing and going short. The short was closed at the MA & trend line break. I reverse traded back long 08.20/21. Another good entry on a trend reversal is a break of the high or low of the previous two candles. I traded three strategies today and best results were fron trend lines taken from CCI and SMI indicators.

[fivesboy] 05/6/2008 10:08

Henry, Volatility and hence trends seems to have returned again. Would you have played the breakout up at 8:22 this morning given it was on the 9th period of consolidation? I didn't and regretted it as it wasn't close to a 20 period consolidation breakout.

How much leeway do you give your open orders in the initial period if they go start to go against you?

[xanbea] 05/6/2008 10:07

H

Thanks. I understand not automated stops, but mentally, do you have in mind how far you will let a trade go against you before killing it?

[henryatkin] 05/6/2008 09:50

X ..... using a one minute chart with three open positions most of the time I find stoploss orders to difficult to manage. I let the charts act as my stops and trust myself to hit the order ticket whenever it is required. However I never leave my PC with open orders running.

I have had more luck on early morning trading lately. This is not always the case. I adopt a slightly different approach to the first hour on the ftse. The reason is that there is no trading history for the indicators to derive their data. So CCI and SMI are completely useless for first half hour or so. I will put an email together sometime with a chart to explain.

[xanbea] 05/6/2008 09:27

Henry

What's your stoploss approach? Do you give yourself a certain number of points leeway? If so, is that rigid, or depend on the day?

[henryatkin] 03/6/2008 21:32

You did better than me. I made 21 points on the open up trend then from 09.00 to 10.30 -4, break even and -2 ....all a bit trigger happy so I packed up. I would like to think I would have made a few more if I stayed for the other two trends - the signals were all there. It seems the easy moves are so often just after you pack up. In the winter it is much easier to stay for the whole of the session but this time of year I am a bit to keen to get out and about or do some gardening.

[fivesboy] 03/6/2008 12:36

Henry, Would you be able to give clues as to how you've got on since about 9:45. Did you catch the breakout at 11:16 as I missed it. Been very dull really this morning. Am up about 20 points.

[henryatkin] 03/6/2008 07:35

X.... bear in mind that I paper traded every day for six months before I considered that I felt comfortably confident (I had no one to offer advise). Intraday trading is most definately not "easy life" that some would have you believe. Its pure technical trading and far more complex than most end of day traders would imagine. The upside of it is that everything learnt can be used on end of day technical trading as per yesterdays 20 period breakout on the ftse.

[xanbea] 02/6/2008 22:34

Yes, thanks Henry for your insight and the latest mail, which I need to work through in detail - been away from the screen for a couple of days, but will watching with interest tomorrow...

5s, I also find more than 1 position confusing at the moment - guess it will come together with time and practice though.

[fivesboy] 02/6/2008 21:15

Thanks Henry. I thought it would be that way but wanted to make sure. I am finding trading more than one position quite confusing so am concentrating on just the one for now.

[henryatkin] 02/6/2008 20:34

Fives, I gave up with market orders and stop orders. It was OK with trading one position but got to confusing trading three positions - especially remembering cancelling stop orders after closing a trade/trades. I rely on my trading notes and "orders executed" window. I look for breakouts in the direction of the trend or if there is no trend could be up or down after a long consolidation.

[fivesboy] 02/6/2008 16:06

I also just want to check when you're looking at breakouts, you're only looking at them in terms of the direction of the current indicators?

[fivesboy] 02/6/2008 16:02

Thanks Henry. All your little nuances help provide insight. I was wondering whether you do all your orders as market or put limit / stop orders in for entry and exit. I'm thinking it's ok to put them in to enter the trade but much more risky to put them in as exits as they get stopped out so easily and you need to gauge what is going on in terms of the direction of the price and cutting any trend-lines etc.

[henryatkin] 02/6/2008 14:15

Fives ..... I had a simmilar experience to you. I did very well on the early down trend but got very little out of the drift up after the trend line broke at 09.55. I traded three positions, 2 MA's and 1 on breakouts & retracements etc. Unfortunately I took an SMI and CCI signal to go short at 10.47 and lost 12 points in one rapid movement so I ended up out of pocket on the price action trades but made an overall profit with the MA's - thats why I like to diversify. I did better on the next leg down but packed up at 13.00 when things went flat.

What I often find usefull when the market swings up and down is to try altering one of the MA's to see how it fits the down and up trends - generally it continues to be usefull for the rest of the day. Today 30 period SMA works good but will probably be hopeless tomorrow. Thats what gave me a good result on the last leg down - I closed all three positions on the trend line break at 12.16 but I could have done better following the indicator trend line breaks at about 12.09. Overall today I've no complaints.

Another point worth mentioning is that when the CCI is over/under 120 ish, price bars tend to become volatile. Best to avoid entering trades when this is happening. Very often it is a sign of a trend end.

[fivesboy] 02/6/2008 11:42

I have my answer: No. Drift up being matched by drift down at the moment.

[fivesboy] 02/6/2008 10:56

Interesting morning so far Henry. Nice down trend and now very slow moving up. SMI looks interesting to me as since about 9:45 it has been trending up nicely along with the price though price has only been edging up and yet now SMI has come down quite a bit without a severe price correction though still turning to make a higher low from the most recent low. Is that very bullish?