Comprehensive Trading ProcessBefore Entering
Start the by writing down predictions for what I expect to happen before the end of the day.
1 day | 1 week | 1 month predictions: Make projections for what is expected to happen during the listed time frames
Previous analysis/position: Review yesterday’s analysis to remember what your thought process was
Patterns: Established patterns outweigh other indications
Horizontal support and resistance: Horizontals are most important when no pattern or trend is present. Remember that prices range 70% - 80% of the time
BTCUSDSHORTS: Analyze the trading view chart with patterns, support/resistance, trendlines and indicators. Do not short when short sellers are at or near ATH’ levels. This is when you are very likely to get squeezed out of the position. Then check the long:short ratio. 60% long:40% short indicates a good balance for a move to the upside. If it gets to 65%+ on either side then a squeeze is expected
Funding Rates: If it gets too expensive to fund a long or short then the price is likely to react accordingly
12 & 26 EMA’s (calculate % difference): Check for crossovers and know how far away the price can get, historically speaking, from the EMA’s. This will help identify oversold/overbought conditions
50 & 128 MA’s: Same as above
FIB’s: Very important for identifying major levels of support and resistance
Candlestick analysis: Learn more here
Ichimoku Cloud: Here is a great resource' if you would like to learn more
TD’ Sequential: Here and here are great resources
Visible Range: Volume = resistance or support. This indicates where the major volume has occurred and is very useful in identifying major s/r
BTC’ Price Spreadsheet: Calculate price change over the following periods: 12h, 24h, 1w, 2w, 1m. This will help to identify being overbought or oversold
Bollinger Bands: Very useful in ranging markets. Super squeezes indicate upcoming volatility
Trendline: Very useful in identifying support and resistance as well as reversal when the trend breaks
Daily Trend: Not necessary, but I like to know what the market is doing right now
Fractals: Very useful in setting stop losses. Up fractals should not be broken in a bear market and down fractals should not be broken in a bull market
On Balance Volume: Helps identify what the ‘big money’ is doing. Pay close attention to divergences
ADX: Helps to identify if there is a trend and how strong it is. If -DI > +DI then bearish. If -DI < + DI then bullish. If ADX < 20 then ranging market. If ADX > 25 then trending market
Chaikin Money Flow: Use it the same as the OBV
RSI (30 setting): Used to identify tops in parabolic markets, according to parabolic burst theory
Stoch: Can provide good signals, although I find it rare. Nevertheless the Stoch on the 3d has predicted price movements very well in the 2018 BTC' bear market
End with reviewing predictions and making a summary.
After entering
Managing stop losses and avoided greed is all that remains.
Stop Losses
Are set slightly under the prior low (if long) and slightly above the prior high (if short). This will usually be illustrated by William's Fractals. For each open position go through the following process on a daily basis.
SPX: New low established with down fractals at $2,800. Just broke up fractal and established new high. Adjust stop to $2,794
BTC: Has not established a new lower high or up fractal. Stop remains above prior high
Process
Case Study for Mismanaging a Disciplined Trade StrategyIn the most recent BTCUSD dip I made a series of mistakes that put me in a slightly nervous position overall, but still generally favorable.
Over a series of trades I managed to find myself in a position with an average buy price of $7486.13. Trading profitably on the dips I reduced this average buy price to $7348.21.
Throughout this series of trades I had multiple opportunities to take profit and this discussion will focus on trading psychology and process failure.
Early in my trading session I had managed to identify successfully entry levels that were reasonably close to where I could make a "dip" profit. Generally my target is around 2%.
Given the big dip from $9.2k to below $8k and given the duration and recovery of that dip from $10k I felt confident that the market was oversold and all of the order book charts indicated an overall strong buying to selling ratio.
My price target was just below $8.5k and on the first move up it hit $8.4k and I felt like there would be an orderly move over time.
What I learned with this recent price action was that trading bots and whales/funds that control them have disproportionate leverage over price action. Not being fully aware of their techniques, I decided against adjusting my price target and I was "too greedy" and completely missed my profit opportunity after being presented double my normal target over two periods.
Now having missed that opportunity I was forced to double down knowing that the next price move would likely be much bigger and deeper.
Trading for profit on the way down I was able to recoup some of poor positioning but again, I did not quite understand the techniques of these algo bots until near the end when I was able to make an adjustment to how I choose price targets to better compensate for whale/shark algo bots.
Setting price targets for exiting my position and reducing my risk came down to three possible outcomes:
1) Sell ALL at a higher price that would make profit but also leave me no room for error if I missed at $7800. This price level would have still been poor risk/reward overall so this exit strategy seemed like a mistake.
2) Sell ~half (47%) of my position at a profit at $7400 and then sell the other half at $8000 for "break even" on that part of the trade. This seemed like a prudent risk management strategy as I would have funds to take additional profit if the market moved back down while leaving in place a position that could become profitable over a longer duration.
3) Sell ALL at the higher price target that would give me a much bigger target but leave me open to poor risk management again. This was definitely the worst option.
So I chose 2) which worked ok in that the first trade target was hit as expected.
Then, while watching the order book I started to worry because there were big sell walls below $7500. I thought about how stressful it would be to ride that position back through another big dip and because of fatigue also overly focused on this possibility rather than going back to my pre-defined strategy of hodling for $8k on half and trading with the other half.
Clearly, stress causes one to adopt a risk averse mental state. And this kind of risk aversion usually leads to the panic selling and "weak hands" phenomenon of selling at exactly the WRONG time, i.e. when you should be thinking about buying.
So when I saw the price being challenged at $7k to $7.1k with very clear algo bot action pushing the price in both directions with very light buy order positioning I became a pawn in this algo bot action and decided to exit early and go take a nap rather than have to sit through another big dip with half of my fund at risk.
Rather than see any huge sell wall the sell-side volume relented and the price nearly hit my price target of $7.9k. If I had been more disciplined I could have set a contingency (less greedy) target below $8k but I changed my plan using no particular reasoning whatsoever other than fear of these algo bots.
USDJPY / 4HR / TCT + BAT PATTERN (Please Read...)Hello Traders, hope you're having a great day today.
Looking at the USDJPY today, I've recently closed my long position
I took yesterday. I had a couple of things lining up that made the
current Trade invalid.
Yes, you are absolutely right in the way that you're thinking. This
Trade could potentially explode to the upside and hit, what could
have been, Target 1 and Target 2. But I do not want to get caught
in the bind of woulda coulda shoulda in my Trading.
I have closed my current Trade because my analysis has become invalid.
What the market does from here on out is none of my concern with
the previous Trade that I took.
Let's keep it simple to follow with the IF = THEN Syntax.
IF = CLOSED TRADE
THEN = LOOK FOR ONE GOOD TRADE
Meaning that, once the Trade has been closed, we wipe that from our
Hard drive we like to call, the mind.
Now I'm looking for my next opportunity on this pair with a long position
to the upside with a TCT, or a short position with a sell @ 113.450 Bat.
Thank you for your time in reading my thought process on this pair.
Be safe, enjoy life,
Phil
PAIR: USD/JPY
TTF: 4HR
TRADE: TCT + BAT PATTERN
NOTE: These are potential Trade opportunities based
on my own personal Analysis.
Thank you,
Star Prosper
Philip Stewart